Air National Guard Tour!

On Friday, December 1, 2006 I took my friend Erhard Eidner on a tour that I had arranged. It was at Fresno's Air National Guard base at the airport. Shelley Yasui, the public affairs technician was kind enough to set it all up. We went on a tour of the base which included several "static" aircraft (parked), the armory, and the headquarters. We also got to shoot M-16's in the indoor weapons simulator and training range. These modified weapons do not shoot bullets, but are interfaced with the computer instead. When you pull the trigger, you hear a BANG, and compressed air makes the rifle kick in a very realistic manner. I was able to hit my target out to 300 meters (about 985 feet) - or so the man at the console told me.

In the pictures of my friend Erhard (a fighter pilot in WWII), the first one shows him standing behind the beautiful F-16 Fighting Falcon on the boarding ladder. Using my "trick photography" skills and Adobe Photoshop, I copied and pasted him into the cockpit, then erased the original image of him with a color identical to the sky. I then drew in a cockpit around him to make it appear as though he was actually in the cockpit and behind the instrument panel. It was fun, and Erhard got a kick out of it. It was a nice substitute for actually getting inside the aircraft.

We had a great day, and I want to thank Shelley for her graciousness in not only setting up the tour, but serving as our "tour guide" as well. I'd love to go back and just go to the weapons training simulator sometime.



UH-OH! I'd better go. My martial arts instructor just drove up to give me a ride to class, and he looks a little miffed! Better not keep him waiting.