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Playing catch up here. Charlotte went to a stay-at-home condition in mid-March, and we took one last spotting trip to CLT the weekend before it went into effect.
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ABX 762 Freighter hauling a load for Amazo
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jetBlue E-190 flight from Houston to JFK dropped in to CLT when New York Approach was closed due to coronavirus.
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Not CLT directly, but CLT-adjacent if you will...
NASCAR resumed their season - with no spectators - about a month ago with two races in Darlington, SC followed by two in Charlotte. On Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend, they ran the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, just two miles up the road from my place. Since it was a race already on the schedule (the two Darlington races were rescheduled from postponed events) and since it was Memorial Day weekend, they had a pre-race flyover scheduled.
We were supposed to get a USAF Heritage Flight group, with 2 P-51s, an F-16, and an F-22. Thunderstorms in the area threw a wrench into those plans, and we ended up with two F-16s and two F-22s. The F-16s were out of Shaw AFB, not too far away in South Carolina, and the F-22s were out of Langley, although one had Tyndall AFB markings, possibly one of the Raptors that evacuated ahead Hurricane Michael in late 2018.
The track was not open to the public, but we hung out in a parking lot across the street to shoot the flyover, then headed home to watch the race on TV.
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Bell 206, owned by Helivision and based out of nearby Concord, provides aerial TV coverage of NASCAR races and other events. They were flying over the track as part of the race broadcast.
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jetBlue had suspended service to CLT in early May, and it looks like they restarted it Thursday. We were getting a couple of E-190s a day to Boston (they switched JFK service to BOS last year) and yesterday they flew an A320 trip BOS-CLT. Today, they used N615JB, the FDNY special scheme, and I took a run down at lunchtime to catch it departing.
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Looks like jetBlue has changed their twice a day BOS-CLT E-190 flights into a single A320, and we've gotten a couple of specials already. In addition to the FDNY jet I caught last week, I think their "I Love NY" jet was in one day. Today was the second time "Bear Force One", the Boston Bruins scheme, dropped in, and I was able to get out to catch it.
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If they are going to park it here, they need to do a San Jose Sharks jet. :smile:
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A few from Concord Regional Airport (JQF) just up the road from Charlotte.
N411DE, a Department of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Nuclear Emergency Support Team Bell 412 at Concord Regional Airport. It's in town to survey radiation levels prior to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte.
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N1RJ, HondaJet HA-120 owned by Jackson Executive Transport based in Jackson, Michigan
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Nice!!!! Those HondaJet's are pretty sleek....
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Thanks, Mark!
The Las Vegas Raiders made their first road trip to Charlotte to start the NFL season this weekend for a game against the Panthers. They are flying Hawaiian this year - I've caught a few Hawaiian flights in prior years when the Seattle Seahawks used them. We were up on the hourly deck waiting, since CLT was on the 36s, and we knew they were going off 36R. It was great light, but after they joined the departure line, clouds moved in...
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