By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford

Where to begin: If you didn't know you were on the outer banks of North Carolina, you could be in the Florida Panhandle, driving down Highway 98. Or heading towards Mesa from downtown Phoenix. Looks the same. Food Lions, Outback Steakhouse, Shell gas stations, normal stuff.  And  then, you drive north along Highway 158, through Nags Head, and into Kitty Hawk, and on the left, on the bay side of the barrier island, there is the monument. Atop Kill Devil Hill, now covered with grass, the sixty-foot marker reaches to the sky. Just the names there, Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright.

This is it. This is where it all started, 100 years ago.

Monday's weather couldn't have been better, CAVU, winds 15-20 knots. The procession of flight was awesome.  This is how the US Military chooses to honor the men who gave us wings. A steady stream of Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aviation. I didn't see everything, but I heard most of it, and savored some of it. The four-ship Legacy flight, with 2 P-51's, flanked by an F-15 and F-16. They did a half dozen passes, making sure everyone could get a picture.

The Marines from Cherry Point, the 2ndMAW, with a KC-130 dragging an F-18 and EA-6B along with an AV-8B making the diamond formation (nothing like a formation refueling!).
 
The KC-135 and KC-10, low and slow and the booms hanging down. The two-ship E-2C Hawkeye flight. 

The 10 minute display of the V-22 Osprey. It was breathtaking. Nothing fancy. Simple fly-by and then a hover, some pedal turns, and a transition to forward flight. Wow.

A few minutes later, Marine helos, CH-53, Ch-46, AH-1W Cobra, UH-1 Huey. The guys from Seymour-Johnson blew through twice with F-15E Strike Eagles. Low and Loud…the ground shook. People loved it. There were thousands all over the park, the hill looking at times, like ants were all over it.

Someone know the F-14 pilot who came through around 2:30 or so… ?? That would be the ONLY aviator who cut in burners as they came onto the show area. People who knew what they were looking at saw the concentric circles made by the afterburners as the aircraft was accelerating, and to my knowledge, that's the only pilot who did that…(high five!).

I didn't get a chance to listen to all the narration from announcer Dale Michael Brisson, but it seemed like most of the fly-overs started right here in North Carolina, or maybe Virginia and South Carolina.

One of the morning highlights was a candy run in the C-54 flown by the Berlin Airlift Association. That was a crowd favorite to see hundreds of small parachutes blossom from below and behind that thundering Douglas aircraft.

The fly-overs continue Tuesday and Wednesday, with the Thunderbirds here on Tuesday. John Travolta (pictured right) will not only Emcee the morning event on Wednesday, but will leave the podium, and participate in the parade of flight in his 707. That will happen twice. The first time after the re-enactment of the first flight at 10:35, and then again at 3PM.

Some of the other Monday fly-bys: (not in any particular order), C-130, C-5B, C-17, 2 Hueys, 2 S-3Vikings, KC-135, KC-10, 4 ship A-10 Warthogs, 4 ship F-15E, 2 ship E2C Hawkeyes, 4 ship diamond formation, Marine F/A-18's. 3 ship F-16 from Shaw AFB, Single ship F-117 (the black one, not the gray one we wrote about last week).

I sent postcards late on Monday afternoon. To my other airplane buddies. "Wish you were here (so you could buy the beer)." We'll have one for you, 'cause I know you wanted to be here too! [ANN Thanks Jim & Susan Tury for the great Heritage Flight photo].

FMI: www.firstflightcentennial.org, www.outerbanks.org, www.ncdot.org/news/centennialceleb11_03.