Miramar Air Show

What would you do if you saw that flying over your house? Run for the storm cellar? Call the Pentagon? If you lived in San Diego, you would cheer because the Air Show is starting! (That first photo, by the way, is the Canadian Snowbirds - (Canada's Blue Angels) I spent a wonderful day hangin' around the Marine Base with my pal Lisa. Takin' in the sights And SOUNDS! (Yep - this is LOUD!) We watched planes and helicopters refueling in the air- while traveling hundreds of miles per hour! (sheesh, I can't even drink from a water bottle while WALKING!) This Harrier, or Jump Jet, can take off and land vertically! (Just like a helicopter! ) It also hovers, spins and changes direction in mid-air. VERY cool! They estimate that 2 Million Dollars of fuel will be used during the 3 day show. (But don't worry - that isn't paid for with tax dollars, this show pays for its expenses AND turns a profit!) Tomorrow I'm going to take you BEHIND the scenes of the air show for an UP CLOSE visit the Blue Angels! (Yep, stick with me and I'll take ya places!) The Harrier jet's special characteristics have led to them being featured in a number of films and flight simulator programs. The jet appears in the James Bond movie The Living Daylights, in the science fiction film Battlefield Earth, and in the film True Lies, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger flies an AV-8B. According to the Internet Movie Database, while making True Lies, the filmmakers paid the U.S. government $100,736 (or about $2,400 an hour) for the use of three US Marine Corps Harriers and their pilots. Pepsi ran an ad promising a Harrier jet to anyone who collected 7,000,000 Pepsi Points, a gag that backfired when a participant attempted to take advantage of the ability to buy additional points for 10 cents each to claim a jet for $700,000. When Pepsi turned them down, a lawsuit ensued (Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc.), in which the judge ruled that any reasonable person would conclude that the ad was a joke.