Having visited Nellis AFB and stood outside for a number of years observing Red Flag exercises, it was great to have the opportunity to step on base for their 2025 Air Show.
As usual, I was on the West Coast for a family visit, so hopping over to Las Vegas was no great hardship 🙂
As ever, large crowds are attracted to the Aviation Nation show and getting into the base involves parking at the Las Vegas Speedway and being bussed in.
On the Saturday I arrived at what I thought was a reasonable hour (about 8:30am), given that the gates opened at 10:00am and event activities started at 11:00am.
A long snaking queue greeted me and I stood patiently in line along with many others, still believing that although long, I should still be on base in time. Little did I know!!
Obviously, as has been the custom since 9/11, there are limitations as to what can be taken on bases and everyone is subject to passing thorugh metal detectors and potential bag searches.
However, for some reason, they didn’t start boarding the busses until 10:00am and the organisation was such that they only allowed basically one bus load through security at a time.
Thus I was still at the Speedway when flying started – in fact I got on base at around 11:30am!
I had already decided that I was going to spend the first morning covering the static, leaving the afternoon to determine the best position for capturing the flying display which I would focus on the next day.
Surprisingly, the static show was relatively small, with no larger aircraft on display – in fact probably the largest static item was a USMC Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey – there were no USAF bombers, tankers or transport aircraft in the static or in fact in the display at all, save for a Boeing KC-46 Pegasus which flew. It seemed odd to me, especially as B-1’s, B-2’s, KC-135’s and C-130’s are regular visitors to Nellis for Red Flag exercises.
There were 4 visiting F-35’s from Alabama Red tails on static, along with a good selection of based F-15, f-22 and F-35 aircraft. Also interesting was a brand new Air Tractor L3Harris OA-1K Skyraider II
On the Sunday I arrived earlier (about 7:00am) at the Speedway, determined to ensure I would be able to get a good spot for the flying display – I was about 15th in the queue!!
This time the organisation was much better, with security opening at around 9:00am and multiple lines for boarding the busses, so by 10:00am we are already on base.
I positioned myself on the left coner of the crowd line – pretty much a similar spot to whhere I had been last time I attended the show in 2007!! (Had it really been that long?)
Anyway, on with the images – beware, there are quite a few!!
