Angel Encounter

[SBitz]

Today as we got in the car for the short drive to SBA for a flight, I heard an unusual jet plane noise. A former top Air Force pilot friend once told me that's the sound of fighter jets. Needless to say I stood scanning the sky, but never did spot anything. Out at the airport after pre-flight checks we started up, turned on the aviation radios and chanced to hear an unusual radio call. Approach Control said, "Blue Angel One contact Tower."

Instantly I tuned to that frequency to hear, "Tower, Blue Angel One flight of seven request transition offshore at 1,000 feet." Not knowing their speed or location, with some lucky guesswork on when they'd pass by we were just taking off when we saw them just above our altitude and snapped a pic. The second pic is after they passed and we turned toward town to watch them approaching the Mesa.

Back home now I was very surprised not to see anything about them on Edhat. They must have been loud and easy to spot from most of Santa Barbara! Interestingly, we'd just this morning been talking about flying up to the Bay Area to see their Fleet Week show. Hopefully someone will share pix of them flying over, either here or on Edhat.