Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA - 26/01/2009

After finishing at Pima we grabbed a mid-afternoon snack before heading down to the DM approach.

In addition to the resident 355th Wg A-10s, the base was also hosting the 162nd FS, 178th FW Vipers - comprising F-16AM and BMs from the KLu part of the unit, as well as the C and D variants operated by the US part. The Vipers were present on Operation Snowbird, where units that suffer from harsher winters deploy to take advantage of the Arizonan conditions.

I'll be honest, the base was much quieter than we'd expected, maybe in part to the continued grounding of a number of A-10s due to cracks in their wings.

The Vipers were quite busy but it soon became apparent that we weren't going to get much of interest from the Dutch contingent who flew a much tighter circuit than their American brothers, seldom offering little more than an ugly underside.

With the sun set to disappear behind cloud for the remainder of the daylight hours we elected to tour some of the Tucson Scrapyards on the other side of the road.