Category Archives: aircraft

DM A-10s Are Gradually Going Away

For the longest time, there have been efforts by the USAF to drawn down the A-10 force. Various things have held them back from doing this but now there is a pretty concerted effort to retire them. Units are closing down, and it does seem that the aircraft might no longer have a role in the order of battle. There are many fans of the A-10 including me and some will never accept it can be replaced while others will think its time has come. They were produced from the late 70s to the early 80s, so they are definitely old, even if parts of them are a lot newer like the wings.

What we like or think doesn’t matter. They seem to be going away. Consequently, when we were at Davis-Monthan during the Arizona trip, I was pleased to get to shoot a few of the jets working around the pattern there. I know my Harrier experiences this year have shown how wrong you can be about when you will ever see things again, but I figure the number of encounters I shall have with these jets will be limited. Even so, they are continuing to make new developments as Mark found on a follow up visit when he saw a new store mounted on one of the evaluation jets. The A-10 was a favorite of mine in my teens, and it will be a shame when they are all gone.

Boeing’s Contribution to Sunday at Seafair

The fast jet displays were the stars of the Seafair performances but the home manufacturer, Boeing, also provided a contribution on each day.  On Sunday, that contribution was in the form of the 777X development aircraft, a 777-9.  I was at Boeing Field on this day so got to see the aircraft launch and recover.  An elevated view of an aircraft as large as the 777-9 is most impressive.

Since the plane is so large, I wasn’t going to use a longer lens to shoot it because I would have had way too much lens for the jet as it came by.  Consequently, I was a bit short of lens when the aircraft was on the take off roll and rotating.  Not enough time to change bodies so the compromise was okay.  I still had a decent view of the jet even at 105mm.

The display was a long way away from where we were, but we did get to see the jet as it periodically popped up above the hills.  It looked like they were really throwing the jet around.  I imagine it looked pretty impressive for the crowd down on Lake Washington.  I did stick with a longer lens for the recovery of the aircraft to get a good look at approach and touchdown.  There is something really fun about getting to photograph a large jet like this from close proximity.

Let’s Experiment with Silly Shutter Speeds

I have mentioned this in previous posts but the frame rate capabilities of my R3s have encouraged me to play around with some more aggressive settings.  When something is a more important subject and not something I want to risk failing to get, I will be more cautious but there are plenty of other planes that I wouldn’t otherwise care about that provide a good subject to be a bit more ridiculous with.  I was going down to 1/50th of a second shutter speed.  With this, I would go to the 30fps setting on the frame rate or even, occasionally, the 194fps setting just to see what might yield a sharp shot.  The parallax issues are going to be an issue at this shutter speed but when you are directly abeam, you can get a good outcome.  Here are some of the results from experimenting.

Heavy Departures from SEA

I have had plenty of chances to shoot the departures from SEA when they are on a northerly flow and the afternoon light provides a good option for the jets.  Previously, I have used the 500mm since it gives good reach but, for the larger jets, as you get the jet abeam your position, it will be too large for 500mm.  The arrival of my 200-800 provided a great new option.  800mm provided a tighter view on the jets after rotation (provided the heat haze is not negating any focal length benefit) and the ability to zoom out means that you can keep the aircraft fully framed throughout the climb out.  I took the lens down when I first had an open afternoon and the right conditions and here are some of the results.  As fall moves towards winter and the heat haze and high sun become less of an issue, this combo should get even better.

The Dolphin is Nice and Close

The location I choose to go to for watching Seafair is very close to where the Coast Guard keeps their MH-65 Dolphin.  They participate in the display, but I guess they can also be used if any emergencies occur.  They park the helicopter on an area that juts out into the lake.  It is normally a sparking lot but is closed off for their use during the show.  There is fencing around the area to keep us out of the way.  During the show I was slightly further north but had a good view of them as they crewed up and departed and then returned after their display.

One everything was over, I moved close to the location because I knew that they would be heading off for the overnight before returning for the following day’s display.  This was a good opportunity to get a closer view of them as they crewed in, started up and took off.  The fencing was a bit of a nuisance, but the uneven ground meant it was possible to find some gaps where the fence elements were not tight together.

It was nice that, unlike during the display itself, when they departed away from us towards the south end of Lake Washington, this time they turned around and head north along the lake shoreline.  This gave us a great view of the helicopter as it climbed away.

Conair Q400 Water Drop Testing

I went to Abbotsford for the day to see the arrivals of the planes for an event on the airport that weekend.  Abbotsford is also home to Conair with them undertaking conversion of aircraft for firefighting duties as well as maintaining their in service fleet.  They have a fleet of de Havilland Canada DHC8-400s that have been converted to waterbombing duties for fighting wildfires.  One of them was undertaking some test flying while I was there.

It took off while I was waiting for some other arrivals and then started undertaking a series of water drops at the far end of the field.  I did try getting some shots of it, but it was far away, and the heat haze was brutal, so this was not going to be a good result.  After eight drops, they landed and taxied back to the ramp.  Fortunately, later in the afternoon, they came back out for some more runs.  This time, since I was about to leave anyway, I headed to the other end of the field to get some shots of the test drops. 

Unfortunately, the weather became rather damp, and I was standing out trying to get some shots without getting drenched.  Seeing something like this without being in a dangerous spot where real fires are raging was a nice bonus.  I did also try a little video while I was at it so that is lower down too.

S-2 Airframes Lined Up in the Evening Light

Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson is well known as the storage location for hundreds/thousands of airframes that may either return to service or may provide spare parts for airframes still in service.  Just outside the perimeter of the base are some privately owned facilities that also have a lot of old airframes.  Whether they will provide parts to support operations somewhere or will ultimately just become scrap metal, I don’t know. One of these facilities has an extensive collection of S-2 airframes.  They are lined up in rows and, as the evening light came in, they looked particularly interesting.  A longer lens allowed some compression of the perspective for these aircraft and their bare metal picked up the light nicely.  I imagine none of these will ever be flying again but I hope they survive for a long time.

My Luck with the Snowbirds Continues to Go Downhill

Last year, when I went to the Abbotsford Air Show, the Snowbirds were displaying with eight jets instead of nine.  There had been an issue with one of the crew and they were completing the season down a jet.  When I headed to Comox this year for the show, I was hoping to get a full display from the Snowbirds.  That was not going to be the case.  On arrival, my friend Mark advised me that one of the pilots had injured an arm in a non-aviation related accident.  Oh well, I thought.

Then, when they started up for the display, one of the jets wouldn’t play ball.  I thought they might run to a spare jet but, no, we were down another jet.  This meant we would only have seven jets for the display.  Surprisingly, this didn’t cause as many issues in my shots as I thought it might.  The four ship cross was gone which was disappointing but, when shooting tightly on the formations, things actually seemed to look okay.  In fact, sometimes it stopped me having to worry about getting the whole formation in shot since they had “cropped” for me.

It was a pretty good display and I enjoyed watching it.  Here is a selection of shots from the day.

Great Access for the Takeoff and Recovery

I didn’t get to see the F-15s when they did the flyover for the Huskies game, but the Sunday gave me a chance to head out and see what might be possible to shoot.  I bumped into my friend, Jeff, at the spot I was hoping to try, and it was immediately clear it would not work because a bunch of spare 737s had been parked in the line of sight.  With the weather being overcast, we both decided to head across to the terminal to see what our options were.

Then Jeff found out his friend, Clint, was working on the field that day and was happy to give us a ride.  The F-15s had already fired up so we were a bit concerned whether we could meet up with him in time or not.  However, it is always a long time between engine start and taxiing and Clint came and got us with plenty of time to spare.  We stopped at one location to photograph the jets taxiing towards us but a bizjet pulled out in front of them, so we made tracks to the other side of the field.

We picked a spot which we thought would be good for them having already rotated and then waited.  They were lined up behind the bizjet and it was waiting for its airways release so, eventually the tower had them taxi across the runway to make space for the F-15s to launch.  They then lined up and were blasting past us.  I hadn’t brought any hearing protection and things were a touch loud, but it was brief.  I was a little foolish playing with some low shutter speeds but a few of the shots worked out well.  The second jet kept things nice and low so the photographers further down the field would have been very happy.

Before they would return, Clint had some tasks to perform so he took us along while he sorted out what needed to be done.  We kept the football commentary on the radio so we would know when the flyover had taken place.  Then the jets came back into sight stopping across the lower end of the city before they lined up for landing.  We picked a spot close to where we expected touchdown and, again, got lucky.  The second jet even obliged with the speedbrake – a bit like their original arrival.

What a fantastic bit of luck and thanks to Clint and Jeff for allowing me to tag along.  There is nothing quite like seeing these jets at close quarter.

An Aurora Is a Bit of a Rarity These Days

For many years, the majority of maritime patrol operators have been using P-3 aircraft.  However, with the advent of the P-8 Poseidon, the number of P-3s is rapidly reducing.  Canada operates its own version of the family called the CP-140 Aurora.  With their continued operation, that are now becoming a bit of a treat to see.  I had hardly ever seen one in action before so, when they were displaying at the show at Comox, I was really pleased to get a chance to get some photos of one.

As with all military jets these days (or so it seems), grey is the order of the day.  Not the most exciting paint job but a different version of grey is definitely good.  They threw the plane around with plenty of energy in the display so the photo opportunities were good including a pass with the weapons bay open.  The replacement of the Aurora is currently being pursued so they won’t be around for much longer so good to get them now while the opportunity presents itself.  Funny how little I was interested in P-3s when I was younger and now I am hunting them down!