Samsung 500 Fly By

One of the great things about Spring is the Samsung 500 held every April at Texas Motor Speedway. For the NASCAR fan there is great racing but for the aviation enthusiast, it is a great time to photograph visiting aircraft that are with the teams but in this case, the military jets participating in the fly for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Races.

This year the Navy and USAF ANG were well represented. Sunday's fly by was performed by a four ship F-1 flight from the 159th Wing of the Louisiana ANG. Sporting some new jets retired from the 1st FW, the F-15c's were nice and shiny as opposed to the A models which the 159th recently retired.

Of special note was the commander's bird which was a former 33FW and 1st FW Wing bird. The 3 MIG kills on the starboard side represent air to air victories in Desert Storm.

The aircraft left in the usual F-15 fashion...loud and with a lot of thrust.

The aircraft made their fly by right on time as usual and recovered back at Alliance. What was pretty nice was their recovery as they both landed on the twin runways Nellis style. Always good to see the F-15. She still looks awesome.