NAS JRB Willow Grove, PA  5 May 2005

Today we had an appointment with Jack Beaver, an old navy veteran who is now working for the Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association Wings of Freedom Museum at NAS JRB Willow Grove, PA. Normally the museum was closed during the day we planned our visit at Willow Grove, but he opened the museum especially for us.

Jack also arranged a small tour around the airbase. Unfortunately he 'forgot' to ask permission to take pictures of the active aircraft. So it was sometimes very hard to see these nice A-10s taxing by without taking pictures of them. After our lunch with Jack we left the base and went looking for a nice spot to read the A-10s and the C-130s.

We found a nice spot behind some trees (we thought) but after 10 minutes four security cars arrived and they started to ask us some questions. We were lucky and were told to watch the aircraft somewhere else. After a small ID check we decided we leave Willow Grove and drove towards Baltimore.

Martin State IAP, MD  5 May 2005

Baltimore or also known as Martin State IAP is a very open field where it's very easy to read the A-10s and C-130s of the Maryland ANG from outside the fence. Again we asked permission to take some pictures of the A-10s but again it was denied. However, we did take some pictures of the aircraft from outside the fence.

After a nice meal at the Pizza Hut close to the airfield we left Baltimore and drove towards Andrews AFB where we already booked a room for the night. Unfortunately after a security check of more than 45 minutes we were not allowed to enter the base, so we had to spend the night in a Motel 6 near Andrews AFB. After a good night rest we tried again to get permission to go on base. This time it was very easy to enter the base, however there is also a second gate with a second security check. So again we were send away. (Later when we came home, we had an invitation in our mailbox to visit Andrews AFB, grrr..... if we only knew this 2 weeks earlier!!)

MCAS Quantico, VA  6 May 2005

We decided to leave Andrews AFB after this very disappointing experience and drove towards MCAS Quantico, VA. At this base the VIP helicopter fleet of the US Marine Corps is stationed. Without any problems we were able to gain access to the base. And we even were able to read some helicopters and take a picture of a VH-60 which was doing a practice flight. Unfortunately we were not able to read 5 CH-53's parked inside a hangar and we were not allowed to take pictures of the helicopters on the ramp.

Richmond IAP, VA  6 May 2005

From MCAS Quantico we drove towards Richmond IAP, VA. We were told that's it's possible to read most of the F-16's from the civil terminal on the other side of the base. We however, could only read two of these nice 'VA' coded F-16s. So we decided to find a nice spot close to the ANG area to read all the F-16s. We read about ten F-16s from here and a few miles further down the road we saw seven UH-60s of the Virginia ArNG. When we completed our tour around the airfield we visited the small Virginia Aviation Museum which even has it's own SR-71 Blackbird. From here we drove all the way to New Bern, NC to spend the night at the Days Inn. But first we couldn't resist having diner at the Hooters in Greenville, NC.