Typhoon at Nellis AFB during Red Flag 25-2
My wife and I had some free time so we decided to drive down to Las Vegas for the Red Flag exercise in mid-March 2025. The weather forecast was good and there seemed to be a decent line-up of participating aircraft. Unfortunately both items fell short. The sky conditions were excellent but the weather sucked. Very high winds affected some of the fighters. The first afternoon we were there all F-16s and F-35s were grounded due to crosswinds. Also unfortunate was that Flex departures were cancelled at the last minute so the planes had to do a straight out departure - this sucked for photographers. In the late afternoon the recovery shifted to landings over Cheyenne Avenue. This was our first visit there in about a year and we couldn't believe the change. It was a mix of a homeless camp, scrap yard, bombed out Gaza, and just a totally trashy area. Burned out cars and car parts were everywhere. We didn't feel safe there despite being among other plane spotters. Wow. I took these photos in mid-March 2025.
Re aircraft activity - it seemed a lot lower than at prior Red Flags. There were a lot of Nellis resident aircraft but not too many visitors. It was a decent trip but not a great one.
Typhoon at Nellis AFB during Red Flag 25-2
My wife and I had some free time so we decided to drive down to Las Vegas for the Red Flag exercise in mid-March 2025. The weather forecast was good and there seemed to be a decent line-up of participating aircraft. Unfortunately both items fell short. The sky conditions were excellent but the weather sucked. Very high winds affected some of the fighters. The first afternoon we were there all F-16s and F-35s were grounded due to crosswinds. Also unfortunate was that Flex departures were cancelled at the last minute so the planes had to do a straight out departure - this sucked for photographers. In the late afternoon the recovery shifted to landings over Cheyenne Avenue. This was our first visit there in about a year and we couldn't believe the change. It was a mix of a homeless camp, scrap yard, bombed out Gaza, and just a totally trashy area. Burned out cars and car parts were everywhere. We didn't feel safe there despite being among other plane spotters. Wow. I took these photos in mid-March 2025.
Re aircraft activity - it seemed a lot lower than at prior Red Flags. There were a lot of Nellis resident aircraft but not too many visitors. It was a decent trip but not a great one.