16-3484 —

Kudos to the pilots and also to all the emergency personnel on the ground. The incident was handled so smoothly that a television camera crew right there at the airport never even realized anything unusual had occurred. The leadoff story on their evening news hour was about a drone race at the RAR, and one brief comment that the Blue Angels had arrived "a short time ago" was the only mention at all of the Navy demo team.

awesome shot
ill be there sunday gary

A great photo capture, Gary... your dedication certainly was rewarded with this one! Perhaps you ought to be buying some lottery tickets too!!

wow!

Gary there were two number 7s on the ramp today. Never heard of them doing that

Nice catch Gary!

Gary, you sure this is 163484?
I read 163484, which was shot down over iraq when with VFA-81 as AA-403 on 17 January 1991. Pilot Capt. Michael Speicher.

163464 I think your looking at. 484 was a C model.

Gary, all of your newest uploads are great shots, especially this one! One thing I noticed too is the ailerons, full right deflection to keep the weight off the left side as long as possible. Again, very well done :)

Was this a PR flight? Looks like PAX in the back seat.

Hi to all, and please accept my apology for the very late reply to each of you. I'm just now getting caught up with a bunch of things here on FA after a long (ten weeks) period of travelling to many locations for photo spotting activities.
First, to Sam, Cliff, Roy, Dave, Mark, and Scott ... many Thanx for commenting. I appreciate it.
Sam, you are spot-on correct about the reg number. The one I've got is incorrect. The problem is that I cannot try to change it now because, if I do, the "F18" model identifier will default to "Incorrect" and after that I won't be able to reinsert "F18." (I suspect this because I've had it happen to me previously.) So I'm going to leave the wrong reg number in the heading; however, you are right; it is 464. Thanks for catching it, Sam.
Scott, the person in the back is a female Navy Captain. They were the advance-arrival PR spokesperson team. I was back again the next morning when a civilian TV reporter was taken up for the traditional Press Flight. Incidentally, there were two "7's" on the ramp the next morning and the reporter was taken up in the "second" "7."

Excellent stuff Gman!

Stead /RNO gets a second number 7 that actually flies slot position as number 4. They need the bigger engine from the twin seater to accommodate all the throttle changes at a high field elevation as opposed to sea level flying.
Gary you have a lot of favorites pics here so congrats !