B2 Flyover

[rustysgurl]

We live in the KC area, and the planes from Whiteman AFB (including the B2 Stealth Bomber) apparently circled the city today, flying over all the hospitals to "honor" the health care workers. To me this display is eerily similar to the militaristic parades in North Korea, China and Russia, where they trot out the hardware to "lift spirits" and make the populace feel "proud." That'll take their minds off the fact that they're sick, can't pay rent, or are working long hours exposing themselves to sick people because they are "essential."

Look, I enjoy watching the Blue Angels, the Thunderbirds and the B2 fly over. But the money spent putting these planes in the air would be better allocated to finding PPE for our health care workers, or maybe putting a few extra people on the job developing a vaccine. We can do the damned flyover AFTER that.

[malaise]

1. Precisely

a complete waste of money

[jimfields33]

8. Good grief

This is needed training for flight hours. I’m grateful they are doing this. It’s wonderful and brings joy to many people during this time. Of course you always have one.

[Baked Potato]

10. Just...

[Baked Potato]

2. They have to fly anyway for training hours, so

this is wonderful, IMO. Many doctors, nurses, and other health care providers are ex-military, so I’m sure they, at least, would understand and connect with what a flyover is meant to accomplish.

[SeattleVet]

6. Exactly. The pilots need to fly a certain number of hours to maintain proficiency.

And the ground crews and maintenance people will also have some real work to do, instead of getting put on shit time-wating details like painting the fence (again) or edging the grass (again) or stripping and waxing the shop floors. I know how bad 'busy work' can be - when I was in the Air Force we actually had to go out and (after a warm dry spell that had turned it brown) PAINT THE GRASS green so that it would look nice when President Ford landed a mile away and went to see off the US Team for the Montreal Olympics.

There are a whole lot of people that need to actually perform their jobs to remain proficient.

[MuseRider]

3. Over here in NE Kansas we used to get them

all the time flying in and out of Forbes and they always went past my then house on the hill really close then over my farm. I kinda liked the big stealth when they would come around. Pretty awesome but it was always for training. They moved your way quite a number of years ago, we get the occasional but mostly it is training on military planes and AF1 now and again. Now it is drones. Great big drones.

[lastlib]

4. I'm on the east side of KC also....

it flew almost directly over my house on the back leg, and just a stone's throw away on the front leg. Impressive sight, yes, BUT--

I TOTALLY agree with you that they should've parked the d---planes (those things don't fly CHEAP!), and spent the money on PPEs for the med-workers, or (heaven forfend!) TESTING for victims!

[cbdo2007]

7. I'm up in Liberty so we didn't get to see it, but yeah we had that feeling also...

I mean yeah...it would have been kind of interesting for my kids to see (I've seen them before) but it must have cost like $250,000 for that flyover that lasted 30 minutes for the whole area.

[xmas74]

17. It was already scheduled training hours.

They were flying either way. (I think something is flying right now. Yep-little house shake.) This just gave the public advance knowledge.

[HarlanPepper]

5. The Italian Air Force did this in March

I don't think it's uniquely American. The single jet flying toward the formation represents the virus (hopefully) leaving Italy. And the Pavarotti i guess speaks for itself. They're doing some C-17 flyovers in my area Friday. I'm looking forward to it.

[Baked Potato]

9. Thanks for posting this. I love the inspirational message it provides.

[FoxNewsSucks]

11. I was that also, and that was my first thought as well, but then

I was reminded that they fly the planes regularly for maintenance, practice and training purposes anyway.

So today instead of flying formations over random fields, or going to the coast and back, they did flyovers of hospitals. I'm ok with that, I just hope the personnel it was intended for got to see it.

Remember, the PPE shortage is caused in part by tRump cronies intercepting and stealing shipments.

My only problem would be if MF45 somehow finds a way to take credit for it.

[rustysgurl]

12. You know he will n/t

[tblue37]

13. Maybe I am just jaded because as an Air Force brat I saw them at so many air shows

when I was a kid, but I don't get how watching planes fly over is exciting to people. They aren't doing stunts or any sort of fancy flying other than being in formation, so what's the big deal about watching them fly by?

[tclambert]

14. But that's a stealth bomber. How can you see it? Trump said stealth airplanes are invisible.

[dhol82]

15. I'm in NYC and we had the flyover yesterday.

When I heard about it all I could think of why?
We need supplies, PPE’s and support for our first responders. Money to keep us going.
It’s nice to have the air show but.......we need real stuff first.

[xmas74]

16. I live next to WAFB.

These were already scheduled training hours. The pilots are not allowed much time off. They are expected to be at the top of their game at all times. They just turned the training into a public display. In the end it was still training.

It would have happened either way. This way the public knew the course and could look up if they like. Watching them land is very impressive.