Oh you lucky son of a gun....

As I've mentioned - living right under their training airspace I get an airshow once a week or so. BUT.... that's certainly not the same as an actual airshow.

I've written before, several times I think, about living under the flight path for planes flying to and from airshows all over Calif. Lot of WWII aircraft, my favorite. But the rarest I've ever seen was the Goodyear Blimp. Once for sure and a second time unless I've just transferred a dream into false reality. It didn't fly "directly" overhead but not far off... I'd guess 3 or 4 miles west of my home. And of course I have to repeat this story:

Back in the 80's, maybe early 90''s, we were picking cotton in one of our fields that border a river. It was late... 10pm? Maybe midnight or later. We heard, did not see, a helicopter flying over.... no lights. That's common here because Lemoore Naval Air Station is nearby. It was low. Well - - -

I had one of those gajillion candle power spotlights I used to repair breakdowns in our cotton pickers that occurred at night. So taking aim I pointed at the 'sound' and hit the on switch -

They were so close, and low, I could see the buy in open door on the side of the helicopter. We laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and THEN -

It was daylight. No other way to describe it. Daylight. Blinding daylight. The guy in the helicopter returned the favor and hit us with his spotlight which made mine look like a Bic cigarette lighter. I swear that had he left it on for more than a minute I would have gotten a sunburn.

I can't swear to this.... but I'm pretty sure.... I could hear everyone in that helicopter laughing their asses off. - JamesJM