Author Archives: Rob

Baby Bison

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Regular readers know that I am always keen to catch some photography opportunities with wildlife.  Baby wildlife is even cuter so that is something that will get me to visit a place.  One good wildlife spot but maybe one that is not so obvious unless you know the area is Fermilab.  This is a research facility located west of Chicago.  It does a lot of research in particle physics and it is home to the tevatron, a particle accelerator that was the most powerful in the world until the Large Hadron Collider was built at CERN.  The tevatron has now been shut down.

All of this leads to the fact the facility has a lot of land, most of which is not used for research.  This makes it quite a haven for wildlife and visiting to take a look around is very easy – as long as you stay in the public access areas of course.  Plenty of creatures make their home in the facility.  One extra thing is a farm that raises bison.  I have no idea why this is part of what goes on there but it does.  Breeding season has come and the herd had a few new additions.  We popped along to see them.

Baby bison are very cute whether they are roaming Yellowstone or in a field in Illinois.  We found the herd quite close to the road and so we could get a good view of the youngsters roaming around.  Some were staying close to mum but others were exploring a bit more on their own.  They will be big very quickly so it was nice to catch them at this age.

Travis

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This is a plug for the magazine.  For those averse to gratuitous advertising, look away now.  Global Aviation Resource’s digital magazine was running a feature on the Air Force Reserve.  Paul Dunn was leading the article but wanted some help on the piece so I joined him at Travis AFB located between the Bay Area and Sacramento in California.  This is an area I am spending a lot of time in at the moment but it was fun to do something a little different!

Since the magazine will be the outlet for a lot of the work from the day, I can’t put too much in here at the moment.  The Reserve article is live in the current issue but there will be some follow up material in later issues.  However, here are a couple of shots from the day.  The team at Travis were as helpful as you could possibly want and many thanks to everyone there for taking such good care of us.  My only complaint is that Paul broke the sim but that is another story…

Waukegan Part 2 – The Military Stuff

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As mentioned in the previous post, the Collings Foundation were at Waukegan with  their B-17, B-24 and P-51.  Pete and I had headed up there to take a look at what was going on.  This was the last day of the tour at Waukegan before they moved on to Palwauckee.  They were supposed to be flying during the day and then departing in the early afternoon.  Things were looking promising with the B-24 taking off while we were over at the Warbird Heritage Foundation hangar.

The P-51 was apparently being a little troublesome but was also scheduled to take someone on a ride while we were there.  A friend of mine, Chris, volunteers for Collings and he was working with them that day so i took the chance to catch up with him.  I give him regular abuse as he got a ride in P-51 Baby Duck once before when I was shooting it.  I must be a lucky omen for him!

We needed to head back to Chicago for Pete to be ready for the return flight but the warbirds hadn’t yet departed.  We decided to give them a few extra minutes.  The B-17 had headed out first but the B-24 was obviously waiting to make sure the P-51 was away.  Unfortunately, the engine was not looking too willing when it came to starting.  Fortunately, a bit of ground power did the trick and they were away.  As it turned out, Chris had made it in to the back of the P-51 so I got him in another one.  I hope he recognizes my role in all of this!

Civil Day Out at Waukegan

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Having a visitor is always a great reason to do something that would be fun anyway.  My relative Pete was visiting Chicago for a day.  He flies 747s for a large airline and Chicago was his destination for a change.  Normally he is on longer sectors so we don’t get to see him as often as we might so this was a nice opportunity.  Pete has appeared on this blog before when we went flying together in southern California a while back as recounted here.

Pete likes any aviation outings so wanted to know what I could show him while he was here.  With Oshkosh still underway, a few of the interesting things that we might have tried were not going on.  However, the Collings Foundation were bringing their tour through the area and were stopping at Waukegan so I thought that would be a good base for taking a look around.

We headed up to Waukegan to see what was going on.  We actually started out by dropping in at the Warbird Heritage Foundation to see if anyone was around.  I thought everyone would be up at Oshkosh but Herwig was there getting ready to take the T-2 up to AirVenture.  Pete got a look at some of the aircraft and then Herwig departed in the Buckeye and we headed to the other side of the field.

The Collings aircraft were laid out and I shall tell more about them in another post.  However, the airfield was not short of operations of a more civil nature.  Plenty of business jet activity was underway so we had a lot to watch.  Gulfstreams, Falcons, Challengers and a BBJ all made their way past us.  With the sun shining plus warbirds ahead of us too, not a bad way to kill some hours.

Cubs

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You can’t cover Oshkosh this year without mentioning the Piper Cub.  This year was the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub and they came to the fly-in en masse.  There was a mass arrival the weekend before the show started but I didn’t get there in time to witness that.  However, the parking had been set up to give the aircraft prominence.  They also made an effort to give those aircraft painted in the original Piper yellow parking together to emphasize the effect.

I wandered down to the Cub parking in the evening.  I had been hoping that the late evening light would pop out nicely and illuminate the ranks with a warm glow.  Sadly,m the light never really cooperated.  It always lurked just behind a cloud.  However, the lines of Cubs were certainly something to see.  It was tricky finding an angle that really showed just how many there were.  Just trust me.  There were lots of them!

Seaplane Base

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If you are at Oshkosh for a few days and the huge numbers of people and the hot temperatures are getting to you, it is time to take a break.  There is no better place to do this than the seaplane base.  A short bus ride from the main bus location will take you down to the lake-shore.  Here the place of things is a little bit more relaxed.  There are plenty of people around still.  however, you can sit by the water and allow the pace to slow down quite a bit.

There are many planes already moored up but the traffic in and out always seems to be enough to keep you amused.  When the aircraft arrive they will head to the dock and then will be towed out to a mooring location.  When they head out it is anyone’s guess what they will consider to be the best departure route so they might power up close in and take off or taxi out a long way before aligning themselves for departure.

We did have a little extra interest with a Beaver that had a hard time getting airborne.  A very pretty looking aircraft, it taxied out and made its first effort at getting airborne without success.  it then tried several more times in differing directions but I never saw it actually get on to the step.  Eventually they taxied back in.  No idea what the problem was and how they fixed it but hopefully they did.

Airshow

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Up to now, I have barely mentioned the flying display.  Every afternoon, there is a combination of demonstrations by manufacturers and performances by airshow acts.  The elements of the show vary during the week with some days being more focused on jets or warbirds and others in lighter aircraft.  There is also a night show on the Saturday evening although I had headed home before then so didn’t get to see it.

I did get a pass to the ditch for the flying display on one day.  This is an area between the taxiway and the runway which puts you a lot closer to the performers and you obviously don’t have anyone between you and the show – unless Duggy the DC-3 gets parked in an awkward spot of course!

I took a bunch of shots during the display of course – that was why I was in the ditch.  I won’t even try to cover it all (and more of them will be included in the GAR coverage).  However, here are a few as a taste of what was flying.

Trade Stands

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A big part of the Airventure experience is the trade stands that are available.  There are a lot of plane owners visiting the event and these are people that are known for constantly tinkering with what they have.  They are also willing victims for the next thing in their aviation collection.

Consequently, every level of need is catered for.  There are stands selling everything you could possibly want from someone who will embroider your plane’s registration on to a baseball cap or shirt through to someone selling you a business jet.  Having a walk through the manufacturers’ stands is a good way to spend some time.  A really good time to do this is during the flying display.  This is a time when many people are off watching the flying and you can get a bit more space.

Cockpits are often powered up in the aircraft.  Having a look at the interiors is a also a good idea.  Some of the newer designs are vying for the attention of the visitors so might have stands that are more fancy.  The less well established manufacturers are also more likely to make an effort to show you their wares.  It is interesting to hear from them what their expectations are for the week.  Some will sell many aircraft.  Others won’t sell anything but may make that first contact with someone who will ultimately prove to be a customer.  One thing is for sure, it is a greater concentration of aircraft owners than you will find pretty much anywhere else!

Boomerang

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This piece is a shorter one but it summarizes a lot about what Oshkosh is like.  I was walking around the show site on my first day there when I came across the Rutan Boomerang.  This aircraft is now in private hands but was restored as part of the Rutan celebrations the year before.  It is an unusual asymmetric configuration aircraft that looks very interesting.  It had actually been in the race ahead of Airventure.

I wandered up and grabbed a couple of shots as the owner was chatting to a few people.  He immediately asked me if I would like to get some interior shots.  I was wearing a media badge but this was certainly not something I excepted and I was very grateful.  He then cleared out his stuff, tidied everything up and even asked how I wanted the hatches configured.  What a great guy.

This level of accommodation and willingness to share in the aviating experience is something that never fails to impress me about aviation in general.  Many thanks.