sbrobert
Photos by Fritz Olenberger
By Robert Bernstein
At 9:30 AM on Wednesday I received an email from the City of Goleta that there would be a Jet Fighter Flyover to honor front line workers. Here is what the message said: “As part of a nationwide salute to health care workers, first responders and essential personnel, four F-15C Eagle fighter jets will fly over the Central Coast on Wednesday.”
The F-15C Eagle fighter jets will take off from California Air National Guard Base in Fresno at 10 a.m. then flyover medical facilities before returning to Fresno.
Residents can watch from their homes. The flyover will reach Santa Barbara at approximately 11:36 this morning.
My first thought was to go watch it from the bluffs near Isla Vista. But then I realized they probably would want to fly further inland so more people would see them. In particular, they would want to fly over Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. Also, the Santa Barbara Airport would provide a flight path that is already reserved for aircraft.
So, we just walked across the street to Girsh Park. The flyover was scheduled for 11:36 AM in Santa Barbara, so I expected it would be here a minute or so before that. It actually came about ten minutes late.
Here is my video along with several extracted frames.
What surprised me most was how quiet the four fighter jets were. And how long they were visible. My video runs about 45 seconds. Here is the video:
Below are a few extracted frames. There were about ten people scattered around Girsh Park waiting for the flyover. As they approached, a boy with his mother spotted the planes and excitedly pointed them out. This was very helpful! Here is what they looked like at that poiint:
They were soon almost directly over our heads, giving us a very clear view.
Just as quickly as they arrived, they continued parallel to the mountains and coast until they dropped below the trees as small specks.
You can find the complete flight map on the Facebook page of the 144th Fighter Wing here.
Update by edhat staff
Edhat readers share photos of the fighter jet fly over on Wednesday morning.
The F-15 Eagles made quite the show and our readers snapped some amazing photos.
Steve Bissell captured photos of the F15’s with local mountains as a background.
Patti Gutshall captured these images.
Subscriber Chuck Cagara sent us these two photos from this morning’s fly-over to honor our frontline workers.
John Rettie grabbed a single shot as the fighters flew low along the 101 to fly over Cottage Hospital.
Source: City of Santa Barbara
As part of a nationwide salute to health care workers, first responders, and essential personnel, four F-15C Eagle fighter jets will fly over the Central Coast on Wednesday.
The F-15C Eagle fighter jets will take off from California Air National Guard Base in Fresno at 10 a.m. then flyover medical facilities before returning to Fresno.
Residents can watch from their homes. The flyover will reach Santa Barbara at approximately 11:36 this morning.
Here we come!!! Operation America Strong flyover starts now for the California Air National Guard!
Posted by 144th Fighter Wing on Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Photo: 144th Fighter Wing / Facebook
That was awesome!!
I don’t see how an expensive display of military might honors health care and other frontline workers.
Who cares? It was awesome to see and my kids have a new interest now after seeing fighter planes fly over our house!
They need to fly a certain number of hours each month for training, so why not serve a dual purpose?
Wow, Chuck Cagara’s photos are great! Thanks Chuck!
4 FIew right over my house 1O1 @ 154. AWSOME !
The money would be better spent on PPE, testing kits, and food for foodbanks. Maybe we should use Trump’s hurricane response plan and drop a nuke on the virus. Merica.
For those of you who find stimulation and awesomeness in this stuff, please remember that the seduction of military power displays has always been the way to capture the youth of a nation. Military displays, brass bands, massed men marching shoulder to shoulder with banners furled. These things bring a rush of adrenalin and an intoxicating sense of power. Then comes the brutal and devastating conflict which never shows the “promise” of the grand parades. After each of these wars the nation promises to never forget and never to do it again. Then a new generation comes along, forgets the blood and anguish and runs toward the shiny object. We need to stop this exaltation of military force and its accoutrements. These are tools. They should be kept and maintained until needed. They should not be adored.
That was a lot of money spent to make that happen. While I do appreciate our front line workers – and I do love military aircraft – the money would probably have been better spent supplying them with proper masks and face shields and testing kits.
What a waste of taxpayer money. An absolutely moronic, empty gesture.
The only saving grace. Wish I’d known about it yesterday.
Hey look at that Mac, we agree on something!
Are there any live sources for this flyover so we can be outside without having to wait forever outside? TIA
Not true, according to the 144th Facebook page, Santa Barbara is still on the agenda. https://www.facebook.com/144thFighterWing
Find some less polluting way to show appreciation.
Yeah, somebody call the fun police!
The pilots have to fly a certain number of hours. Why not do it while honoring those on the front lines of this pandemic?
I think I heard it going overhead. Most exciting 3 seconds of the day so far.
11:44 p.m. To answer your rhetorical question–It is no “honor” per se. It is a publicity stunt. If I decide to go to Las Vegas and blow a lot of money and then say I did it in honor of my deceased husband most of us could see through this pretense. Same here.
Flagrant waste of public funds. To assert that this “honors” anyone is a joke. If the feds want to honor frontline workers, how about spending dollars on PPE gear to actually protect them instead of this PR stunt? This smells like a campaign tactic and election year gimmick.
The healthcare workers LOVE it and that is what matters the most to me. They work hard all year and right now they are really working extra hard and being so careful to not spread germs and when these flyovers happen it lets them have a chance to go outside, as a group, to take a break, to see people there to watch with them, to get a thank you. I work for the hospitals here and know that these flybys are something that the medical staff really enjoy. So to the rest of you naysayers I say NAY right back.
What a wonderful tribute, and I am glad to hear that this helps brighten up our health care workers’ and first responders’ day. They work so hard for us every day and deserve to be honored. I missed the flyover yesterday, so I am very grateful for the photos!
I love the engineering and technology behind aviation and aerospace. I think its fascinating. The fact that the military is pretty much the only real world application where we get to see it in use doesn’t mean that people are jocking to go drop bombs on people. I’m sure many scientists and engineers have turned this fascination into meaningful careers in a variety of industried.
What health care workers have you talked to about this?
Same question asked above: What healthcare workers have you spoken to about this?
11:44 p.m. The pilots training is a necessity. But there is no correlation between flying military aircraft and “honoring” health care workers. It seems in fact more of a stunt created to entertain the pilots. This is the kind of emotional wall paper that keeps us from dealing with real issues.
Where were all you complainers when the fire and police departments made a big show in front of Cottage?
I care how our taxpayer dollars are spent. I want to see my taxpayer dollars benefitting people directly. While this is a nice gesture, and I’m sure many people felt good about it, I feel that our current government is a failure and is wasting HUGE amounts of money on stuff like this while people are suffering. Nothing to say that takes away from the pilots or the planes or how cool they are… but we ARE in a serious crisis. Let’s focus on that. How about spending that money for new shoes for every single hospital worker under doctors… how about spending that money for all the people who are out of a job (going on two months now) because restaurants and bars closed down. How about spending that money for new ventilators and PPE for all hospital staff?
Dog: Fire and police departments work glove in glove with these folks. The two should appreciate each other. Still, the purpose and waste of such efforts is questionable. I would prefer, for example, that the cost of the fuel used to move those vehicles was used to purchase a few more masks to be donated to the hospital staff.
For those carping about wasted tax dollars, these flights count towards training. Pilots are required to log a certain amount of flying time. Instead of flying over the deserts, out of sight & out of mind of the public, they fly over cities in clear view for us to enjoy. It’s quite a thrill to have a fighter jet fly over you when they are low off the ground in the high deserts.