Base aérienne 120 and Dessault : 2013-11

We took a trip to base aérienne 120 and Dessault which turned out to be a pretty cool trip. We even had our own rooms! We also visited Chateau de Lacquy which makes armagnac. I bought a bottle of their 1995 - which is when I graduated and the 200th anniversary of Jim Beam.

At the base aérienne 120 we visited a few squadrons which were focused on traffic control. I had to take a picture of this Mirage F-IV (on the left) hanging from the ceiling. I'm pretty sure it is a toy that makes noise and moves forward after you roll it backwards. On the right, is another squadron but I thought the building was pretty cool. One neat thing they had was a air control tower simulator with a 360 degree screen. When we were visiting there were lots of jets flying over the airfield - cool.

We also visited a Rafale squadron. It's a pretty cool jet. It finally has a side stick like the F-16. It's about time since the 16 came out in late 70s. How awesome is that?! It's still a delta wing design which is so French but with the canards up front, it makes it more like a normal jet. It's a reluctance in design. You can have a "normal" tail (like the F-16) or pretend that it's a better idea to essentially put the tail forward but still carry a delta wing. I don't get it. But, like I said, it's a pretty nice jet.

I took these pics of the Rafale mainly because I'm always amazed of how things work. The landing gear, for example, is always an impressive result of mechanical engineering. On the right, a cool shot of the canopy and the refueling probe.

 

The second evening, we visited Chateau de Lacquy which makes armagnac and no more than 2 minutes after we got of the bus a Mirage F-1 raged right over our heads. It was awesome. Then we went to a farm that makes foie gras. They showed us one of their ducks and actually cut it up to show us the liver. They are huge - I couldn't believe it. That's what you get for force-feeding a duck. The duck itself was about the size of a goose.

I thought this water tower looked pretty cool and on the right is a painting in the mess.

These are a couple shots of an F-1 on static display. It looks really awkward from above (right) but it's pretty cool from the belly. It looks much more like a jet should look. The right picture not only looks awkward, it also shows that an F-1 pilot can't check their six very well.

A big sponsor of the trip was the DGA and they gave us patches. I gave mine away but I took a picture to "save" it. On the right is one of the main Dessault buildings. I like it because it has Charles Lindbergh's name on it and pictures were not allowed. I missed that point.

There was a static display of a Dassault MD 315 Flamant which is a pretty nice looking airplane. I thought it was cool they had pilots in the static display. On the right, is a close up of the engine.

And to close out the day, I took a shot of the clock in Gare de Bordeaux-Saint-Jean right before we departed. It shows 17:26 which was when the train was supposed to arrive (it was late) but it was still a cool clock.