Henry:  Someone should tell them they can get their croissants delivered.

Me:  Or they should be reminded they have a long military tradition of great armies to live up to…

Henry:  Wait, did you say “great armies”?

Me:  Well…there was Napoleon…

Henry:  He lost.

Me:  Sure, eventually…

Henry:  They have that farcical structure in the middle of the country; they should call it the “Arc de Defeat”!

Moi:  What about the French Foreign Legion?

Henry:  Overrated.  They were kicked out of Vietnam.

Me:  Well, not because they couldn’t get their breakfasts.

Henry:  I’m not so sure about that…

It wasn’t a long trip; the other two along for the ride kept silent.  I was a little surprised at the passion of his anti-French stance, not really captured here.  I guess hundreds of years of wars with each other will do that.

Hmmm...a tough choice.

As you can see it wasn’t as crowded as a normal airshow, and since we’re all military we were allowed to climb on the aircraft more than is usually allowed.

All the planes, lined up and waiting in the heat. Yes, Patriot batteries too.

Take this C-130J.  The crew was in the cargo area, or outside trying to start the ground air conditioner.  We were free to go up to the cockpit and hang out by ourselves.

Flying an RAAF C-130J...by instruments, obviously.

I’d never been in a C-17 before.  Jeremy is a C-17 pilot so he was able to give me all the details on the aircraft.

Now I'm flying a C-17!

The avionics were on, including the HUD.  It doesn’t photograph well but it looks great in person, just suspended out there focused at infinity.  It didn’t look like it was right in front of me but hanging around the Tornado.

The view through the C-17 HUD.

We got to climb up into a B-1…I haven’t done that before either.

B-1, with bombs. Note the ladder up into the flight deck.

Since the ejection seats were armed we could only go to the top of the stairs, but that was far enough to see into the cramped cockpit.

The cockpit of a B-1.

Another aircraft putting the hurt on the bad guys is the A-10.  I’ve seen the targeting pod footage; it’s pretty impressive.

The business end of an A-10.

Want to climb up and take a look?  No problem…the ground crew was hanging out in the shade under the wing.

Trying not to touch the side of the A-10...it's really hot!

The last tour of the British Tornados is coming to an end in a few days.

A Tornado, just days from leaving here for the final time.

The squadrons get creative and some paint barricades to commemorate their tours.  These are probably the only pictures I have where I’m not standing in front of the subject (I was taking the photos for my family, not for an aircraft documentary).

Squadron artwork

More squadron artwork

Even more squadron artwork.