Luke Days

Our Boy! The epitome of a pilot!

My  attempt at a weblog (blog?). Hello, my name is Jake. I would like to show you the fun Waylon, myself, and my Dad had at Luke Days 2011. Don't expect me to tweet your face (or something along those lines) because I do not blog or do anything remotely similiar to that in today's information age. The following are pictures compiled from our 19 March 2011 trip to Luke AFB for the biannual public (civilian)  open house and airshow, also known to folks that were born here as Luke Days. Luke AFB was named after Lieutenant Frank Luke, a somewhat notorious and hard edged pilot that shot down both planes and observation balloons in WW1 (observation balloons were very heavily defended by AAA guns so they were very hard targets) (had he lived through the war, he may have very well been the wars' highest scoring American ace.) But I digress, my dad, son and I made our way to Luke as it as known to see the airshow. As some of you may know, my father and I are both pilots and I thought this event would help impart my father's and I love of aviation to our son.

Waylon in the cockpit trainer of an F-16C. Brings tears to my eyes as I have a picture of me in the real cockpit of of a F-16B getting ready to taxi out to the ordnance pits as a young man.  But looking at this picture, I see alot of me in him. Confident, and Ready, again,... the epitome of a pilot.

Waylon was all kinds of excited to get there and when we arrived, my Dad and him went out to look at the aircraft on static display while I found our seats for the show. (The airshow is free, but reserved seating is available for a fee) When I found our seating area I went back and showed them to our seats. (they were great). My Dad wisely wanted to watch the aerial demonstrations and so did I, but Waylon had a different agenda. "Daddy, I need to see the planes!" Dude, there's planes flying above us now! "No, I need to see the planes over there" Okay, make our way back to the static displays. Waylon had a great time. We met a young Lt. who was patiently showing the civvies an F-16C and its' cockpit. Waylon and I climbed up for our turn and our little man turned on the charm. "Is this the seat?" "Do you fight other planes?" and a boatload of other questions. The Lt. was impressed and said to him, "do you want to be a pilot?" Waylon's deadpan response "I am a pilot". Needless to say, I was not going to contradict him. The Lt. then called out to a MSGT. at the cockpit trainer next to the real deal, "Hey Master Sarge, can you get this guy suited up for a picture down below?"...."Sure Lt." Waylon and I went over to the cockpit trainer where the MSGT. pulled out a smaller flight suit and parachute harness and we went over the motions of putting the gear on Waylon. Waylon was stoked and stood proudly for his picture (see above).