If any of you guys are interested in shooting military aircraft for a change, this coming Friday will be your best opportunity to do. Saturday is the traditional Army/Navy football game being held at the Link in Philadelphia, and weather permitting, there is usually a good turnout of transient military traffic that comes into Willow Grove the day before the game. From JFK, it should take about 2½ hours to reach Willow Grove, which is off of Exit 343 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Based at Willow Grove are A-10s from the 111th Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania ANG, tailcode PA), C-130 Hercules (from the 913th Airlift Wing and from VR-64 which is a Navy unit---tailcode BD), and C-9B Skytrains (VR-52, tailcode JT). All of our P-3C Orions are gone... :( but we should be able to catch some base flight ops.
Now, from what I caught last year, included (over a period of six hours) two KC-135R Stratotankers from Pittsburgh, a C-130H Hercules from Pope AFB, four F-14B Tomcats (in formation!) from VF-143 "Pukin' Dogs", an F/A-18 Hornet from VFA-201 "Hunters", and closing out the day was a massive formation of EIGHT Apaches and one Blackhawk! We were expecting a total of seven Hornets, but only three showed up.
This year, I have no idea what to expect to come in. I'm hoping for Hornets and Super Hornets, but that might be a bit of a stretch. Oh wait, it's Army/Navy, so there has to be aircraft representing both branches coming in! Remember that military aircraft spotting is totally different than spotting airliners, because military operations usually aren't as frequent as civillian operations!
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