Right place...right time...right airport..Opa-Locka

This was definitely a case of being at the right airport at the right time and in the right place. My son and I had been down in Miami for something apart from aviation photography. It was a cloud day today but on the way back from Miami to West Palm Beach, there were breaks in the cloud, so we stopped off at Opa-Locka to see what was around. The one thing about Opa-Locka is always expect the unexpected. The first thing that struck me is the S7 Airlines A310 that I'd shot in various states of dismantling has now totally gone - they didn't take too long to break that ship up at all. We drove around to the top of the airport, and this little thing caught my eye.

It's nice to see rare aircraft like this - this a private L-39 that was parked on the ramp. While shooting this, I heard the sounds of powerful engines starting - not the normal sound you hear at Opa-Locka, so turning around and looking, on the main ramp were three US Navy Northrop F5-N Tiger II's. I quickly jumped into the car and headed over to the ramp and managed to get them departing the ramp and taxiing to the runway. We saw their powerful but low take-off's to the east. This was definitely being in the right place at the right time! I'm not sure why they were at Opa-Locka - my guess is a refuel in between training sessions, but if any of my readers happen to know, I'd be interested.

Always expect the unexpected.....at Opa-locka....