I was sitting at my computer when the F/A-18 Hornets started taking off from Naval Air Station Oceana. It sounded very much as if they were taking off from runway 32, the shorter cross runways. I could tell this because when they do that, their exhausts are pointed roughly in the direction of our house and, as a result, a lot louder.
There is a different viewing spot for take offs and landings for runway 14/32 so I headed out there since they don't often use them. I managed to get this shot of three returning Hornets.
The one in the foreground is just about to turn off the runway onto a taxiway. The one whose landing light is visible under the closest one's wing is probably about 1 mile / 1,500 meters behind the first. The one still in the air on final approach is likely 3/4 mile / 1,200 meters from the runway threshold.*
The one thing that was surprising when I processed this picture is that the standard dull gray chainlink fence I was shooting through actually appears as a lighter overlay. I'm sure there's an easy-to-understand, refraction-based reason for this, but it's still interesting.
*I am guesstimating this based on the known length of runway 14/32 (8,000 feet / 2,430 meters) and the standard daylight carrier landing approach, because the Navy always lands like that.
