Monthly Archives: July 2016

Squaw Valley Aerial Tram

AE7I4462.jpgIf you want to go the top of the mountains, you might as well travel in style.  An aerial tram (cable car for the Brits out there) runs from the center of the resort to the top of High Peak.  We went in to buy our tickets only to find out that they were running a special for the last weekend of the ski season and both of us could go up for less than I was expecting to pay for one of us!  Nice result.

AE7I4384.jpgWhenever I see these contraptions, I can’t help but think of them in the context of so many movies I saw as a kid.  Invariably, someone would end up on the roof in a perilous situation.  The real thing is of course a lot less dramatic.  The larger these things are the smoother the run seems to be.  The only disturbance is when you pass over the towers but this one was large enough that the transition was very gentle.  The swing was nicely damped too so it was really a non-event.

AE7I4392.jpgThe thing I find quite amusing is how the cables sag under the load of the car.  As you get towards the steepest part of the climb, the car seems to head straight for the cliff face before it pulls up to the next tower.  It is all very simple really but it still looks cool.  Our trip up was pretty quiet because we were early.  By the time we came down, things were quite a bit busier.  I liked the display screen in the car that had all of the key parameters for the service so you could see that the loads and wind speeds were well inside limits.  Just as well!

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Dutch Training

AE7I6448.jpgThe Dutch F-16 training unit has been at Tucson for a while now.  It moved from Springfield IL to join the Arizona ANG unit at the International Airport.  I have seen their jets before but it was nice to see them again.  The Dutch F-16s have been through an extensive upgrade program but the airframes are knocking on a bit.  Built by Fokker as F-16A/Bs in the early days of the program, they have soldiered on while the USAF retired their F-16As a long time ago.  I didn’t get a lot of chance to shoot the Dutch jets but managed to catch a few during my time there.

This Harpoon is Not the One We Flew In!

B11I7318.jpgOne of our party on the trip to Eagle Field commented on whether it was a rule that all airfields have a derelict Harpoon parked on them.  While we had traveled down in a pristine example, parked a short distance away from us was a Harpoon that was not in the greatest of shape.  Most of it seemed to be there but some bits had gone.  The effect was to expose the aircraft and make it look more like a skeleton of a plane.  When the light angles were nice and low, the texture on the plane was really nicely picked out too.  I have no idea what the future holds for this plane but I doubt it is going anywhere in a hurry.

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New Zoomify Trial

I previously added a Zoomify image to a blog post.  It was pointed out that, as a Flash based format, it didn’t work on some mobile devices.  That was using the default Photoshop installation.  I have now found a way of generating an HTML5 version of the Zoomify output.  This is a trial to see whether it works.  Let me know in the comments.  Click here to see the file.

Lunge Feeding Humpbacks

B11I8352.jpgThis seems to be a really good year for sea life.  Having had a really successful trip out watching whales from Monterey Bay, the whales have decided to come closer.  There have been sightings of humpbacks inside San Francisco Bay this year.  More recently, my friend Roger has seen them feeding on the coast just south of the city.  I joined him for a while.  We could see a number of the humpbacks lunge feeding just off the beach.  They were a little far from us but we still had a good view.

B11I8389.jpgThe whales start below the surface and surge upwards with their mouths open grabbing a mouth full of water and fish.  They then spot out the water and eat the remnants.  We found that the seagulls were the guide to where the whales would be next.  They would mill around, awaiting the next feeding, hoping to get a spare fish in the process.  As they spotted the whale coming to the surface, they would all converge and this would be the guide to where the whale would be next.  Sometimes, the whale was just coming up for breath so you never knew which it would be.  When there is only one whale, it tends to alternate although not always.  With more than one, it is a guess.

AE7I0750.jpgA few days later, I was out with Nancy and we decided to see if there was any activity.  The previous spot was not showing any sign of whales inshore.   A couple of spouts further out but nothing feeding in the shallows.  Instead we tried Pacifica where they sometimes come in near the pier.  Again, nothing.  We were just starting to drive off when I saw what appeared to be a spout inshore.  I parked up and wandered over to see if there was anything.  Nancy stayed in the car but knew something was up when she saw me turn and run back to the car.  A whale was in the surf feeding.

AE7I0588.jpgWe moved along the beach watching the whale burst to the surface and grab mouthfuls of water and fish.  A lot of people quickly gathered to watch the feeding.  The birds were still the clue but now we were down on the level of the waves so sometimes things got obscured by the water.  Even so, we were right there to see what was going on.  Soon the whale appeared to be full and moved offshore.  It was still swimming around near the pier when we headed off.  I don’t know whether this was a regular feature or we got lucky but it was very cool to watch.

Hawgsmoke on the Ramp

B11I4043.jpgEvery two years the A-10 community gets together for the Hawgsmoke competition.  I covered it again for GAR and you can see the piece I wrote here.  The first day we were there was the arrival day.  The plan had been to watch some landings and then to move to the parking ramp area.  As it happened, we couldn’t get too close to the runway and some of the arrivals were delayed so we headed to the ramp instead which proved to be a good choice.  The A-10s were coming in from the various units.

AE7I5421.jpgInitially he team were a little concerned about how we could access the area while the jets were on the move but we gradually got more access as they got more confident in us staying in the right places.  The jets were taxiing along the outsides and then parking facing inwards.  Consequently, we could be in between the rows and out of the way of the aircraft on the move.  As more jets were parked up, we could move further out towards to the taxiway and closer to the arriving aircraft.  It all worked pretty well.

B11I3922.jpgOnce the jets were on the ground the ground crews were straight into action taking off he baggage pods and starting to load up with practice bombs ready for the range slots that were to come as the exercise got underway.  Most of the jets were parked outside the sun shelters so the crews were getting pretty hot as they worked.  Plenty of coolers of water were on hand to keep them in good shape.  This was a good start to the coverage of the exercise from my perspective.

An Exotic Collection of Cars

B11I7246.jpgThe dinner at Eagle Field was held in the large hangar.  Not only does this accommodate planes but it also seems to be the home to a lot of cars.  Jaguars of a variety of vintages were kept there in various states of repair.  Out the back were even more cars.  These were not usually looking too healthy but there were some things I have not seen before.  Whether it was an old Renault or and Armstrong Siddeley, they were there gathering valley dust and withering slowly under the harsh sunlight that this area has a lot of!

Eagle Field Fly-In

AE7I7531.jpgMy trip in the Harpoon was to get to the fly-in at Eagle Field.  This is an event that I previously didn’t know anything about so I went with few preconceptions.  As it turned out, this year was not the most well attended that they have had.  A selection of aircraft showed up for the event but not as many as hoped for.  A few T-6s were there along with a C-54, some Navions, an Interstate Kadet and us.  Some less exotic types were also there such as Pipers and Cessnas.  There was also quite a gathering of military vehicles.  These are not something that I know a lot about.  During the day some reenactors also carried out some firefight demonstrations.

B11I7095.jpgThe following morning, the visitors headed back out.  We were one of the last to go so got to watch the other aircraft start up, taxi out and take off.  Most put in at least one pass before they headed home.

My Time With Seth Myers

AE7I8620.jpgI decided to hang out with Seth Myers for a while.  Admittedly, I did this at the same time as a few thousand other people.  He was the commencement speaker at Northwestern University for 2016 and my niece, Sara, was graduating.  While it might appear that there was no connection between Seth and me, I assure you that we were just playing it low key.  Consequently, I took these pictures from a reasonable distance across the stadium.  Maybe I have some more personal shots taken at another time?  Maybe?

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