San Diego, California Trip February 25th~28th, 2007

I attended a school in San Diego, California in February 2007 as part of my employment

I had free time the day I arrived the the day I departed and in the evenings after school

So I went to the Harbor area and went to the USS Midway an Aircraft Carrier which served from World War II through the first Gulf War.

I had never seen a ship of this size, and I was told the USS Ronald Regan measures 100 feet longer than this ship, unreal!

The ship is now a Museum complete with World War II through modern day Naval Aircraft

Then one night I photographed the Gas Lamp area of San Diego a part of the Downtown area with resturants and theaters, very beautiful

The last day there, I went to the San Diego Zoo before flying back home

I met three very nice people at the school, a gentleman from Arizona, another from Guam, and a lady from Canada. The four of us ate meals together, talked, laughed and engaged in interesting conversation.

The Gentleman from Guam a Police Officer went with me to the Gaslamp area and we ate dinner at a really nice Italian Resturant

Meaghan went with me one evening to another resturant on the coast, and the next day she went with me to the Zoo as well.

All three people were memorable, the gentleman from Guam gave me a department patch which was beautiful.

We all exchanged email addresses and I hope to keep in contact with all three people.

Hope you enjoy my photos of the Ship, the Aircraft, scenes around San Diego, the Ocean front, and the Gaslamp area

I will return to San Diego as it was so beautiful and there is so much to do. There are more things there I wish to visit when I have enough time to do so.

Arrival at Salt Lake City, Utah airport from Pocatello Idaho Airport on a turbo prop

Spirit of Saint Louis aircraft hanging in the San Diego Airport

Spirit of Saint Louis hagngin in the San Diego Airport

Uss Midway Aircraft Carrier docked at San Diego on Harbor Drive, now a Museum with aircraft

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

Pratt and Whitney R 2800 Double Wasp Engine up to 2,800 horsepower and used in many WWII aircraft including the Gull winged Corsair

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

Chains for anchors of the USS Midway

T2C Buckeye trainer Jet

Snj Texan trainer

Port side staircase from hanger deck to flight deck

F14 Tomcat Fighter

F14 Tomcat

C-1a

F14 Tomcat

F14 Tomcat

C-1A

F/A-18 Fighter

F/A-18 Fighter
This plane was flown by the Commander of Top Gun Training

F9F-5 Fighter

F/A-18 Fighter and F 14 Tomcat in background

F9F-5 Fighter

A-5 Vigilante
A guide on the USS Midway told me this aircraft was build orginally to carry a big Nuclear Bomb had a crew of three, Pilot, Co-Pilor and navigator at the small window behind the cockpit

S-3 Viking

F4 Phantom II Fighter

F4 Phantom II on left, and Grumman G-128 or the A-6 Intruder

A-5 Vigilante

F4 Phantom II Fighter

F-5 Vigilante

A3D Skywarrior nickname The Whale
The heaviest aircraft carrier aircraft deployed

F4 Phantom II Fighter on USS Midway deck where it would have caught the cable and landed, a cable was in place where it was during a landing with the tailhook of the aircraft hooked on the cable to simulate how the aircraft was caught and stopped

Sikorsky H34

Sikorsky H-34

The Flight deck crew, they looked realistic till I got to the side and they were painted on the side of the wall, their colors indicated their specific job on the flight deck

SH-3 Anti Sub Marine hunter/killer

H-2 Seasprite high performance multi-mission Helicopter

Call the Ball Light array
The horizontal blue lights indicate the correct height of the aircraft coming in for a landing, the corrosponding amber light in the middle was the correct positon, lower you could hit the end of the shit flight deck and higher overshoot the cable, either way you had to be in the center amber light to make a landing. Any indication of the red lights you had to abort and come around again for another attempt.
A pilot of the E-8 told us he made about 246 landings and aborted 12, 8 of which were during night time landings.
He stated incoming aircraft are low on fuel and it was very important to get everyone on the deck as quick as possible so a missed landing created delay and problems, also the Captain of the Ship wanted to change course as soon as everyone was recovered.
The pilot stated every landing was gone over and a rating was made to the pilot, a great landing got just an ok! Anything less you heard about it.

Huey guns, machine gun for soldier in rear, hydraulic cannon and rocket launcher on right side

Huey

Boeing H46 or 107 M twin rotor Helicopter primary mission rescue

Statue on starboard side of the USS Midway of Sailor kissing nurse
I'm guessing this is after the famous photograph in a newspaper at the end of World War II when a photographer caught the event on film and it was published. This statue I would estimate at about 30 feet tall, I photographed it up close a following day nearby it is included in this series of photographs

Sailor and Nurse kissing in San Diego near the USS Midway ship

Tail of A-7 Corsair, F4J upgraded Phantom II and the E2 Hawkeye radar aircraft onboard the USS Midway deck

Starboard front looking toward the front of the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier deck
A tour guide told me the USS Ronald Regan is 100 feet longer than the Midway, unreal, this is a big ship, but I guess when you live where I do in Idaho where we are land locked seeing any Aircraft Carrier would be huge.

A7-B Cosair positoned on one of the two Steam Catipults appearing ready for takeoff

A7-B Corsair on a Catapult ready for takeoff!

F-8 Crusader, note the entire wing area even above the Fuslage can move up and down. One theo the Captains of the Midway flew one of these before becoming Captain of the ship

F-8 Crusader

A-7 Corsair on catapult ready for takeoff

Midship Portside, looking toward the front of the USS Midway flight deck