Category Archives: aircraft

First Flight – for a while at least

My friends at the Warbird Heritage Foundation in Waukegan have been working for a long time on adding another aircraft to their already excellent collection. The newest aircraft is a P-51 Mustang called Baby Duck. It is many years since Baby Duck last flew and she has gone through an extensive restoration since being recovered from a storage location near Philadelphia.

The work has been undertaken at Tap-Air in East Troy WI. They have been putting her back together after a thorough restoration of the whole airframe and engine and the whole process has been coming to a climax with the approach of the first flight post restoration.

After some engine runs and taxiing tests, the date for the first flight was set. Paul Wood, the owner of the foundation, kindly invited me up to see the flight and I headed up to East Troy on a gorgeous day. Pilot for the first flight was Vlado Lenoch. Vlado is a highly experienced pilot of Mustangs. He has his own aircraft, Moonbeam McSwine which he displays all around the country. However, he has flown many other aircraft. I think he said that this was his 25th!

After some final checks on the airframe, Vlado fired her up and taxied off for departure. I headed to a spot up the field to be ready for the first wheels up moment. While it was a lovely day, it was warm and sunny so heat haze was a big deal. However, you don’t get to choose when these things are happening so you go with it and get what you can.

The first flight went very well. Vlado took her up to altitude, cycled the systems, undertook some handling checks and basically made sure things were good. Then he brought her back for a flyby – a good sign that he was pleased with the aircraft. There then followed a debrief about e issues that he had found. The Tap-Air guys then took the opportunity to try and fix a few of the issues that could be dealt with immediately while we had a bite to eat before Vlado took her up again.

This time he had a longer sortie and pushed her a little harder with some basic aeros. All went well and again he showed his comfort with everything with another flyby. After landing, another debrief with the guys and a list of tasks to be worked on. There is still some work to do but, hopefully she should be making her way to her new home pretty soon. Probably not soon enough to make it to Oshkosh this year but there is always another year!

As a finish, I animated some of the shots together to make a pseudo-video. Here is the result.

Victorville Flyby

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A while back, I found myself in Southern California with my buddy Pete. Pete is a pilot with about 15,000 hours on multiple types but he always wants to try out something new. He was renting a Cessna 172 for the day and getting checked out at a couple of interesting fields – Catalina Island and Big Bear. I was along for the ride.

He asked if there was anything I wanted to do while we were out and I wanted to take a look at Victorville. Victorville is the old George AFB and is now a place where a lot of airliners come for storage and often to be broken for spares. I had seen a few pictures of the place and wanted to see what was there to be seen. Pete had an added interest as there were some British Airways 747s parked up there – the type he currently flies for his day job!

I had been in the back for the first two legs of our trip a we had an instructor along checking Pete out. For this leg, I took the right seat to be well positioned for the photos and also to get a bit of time in myself. I had no idea how enthusiastic Victorville would be about passing light aircraft coming to take a look. However, when we called up the tower, they were very happy for us to make a pass. When we told them what we wanted, they even allowed us to break off from a low approach and turn north to pass the collection of stored airliners.

There was quite a selection of aircraft on the ground. Some of them were obviously temporary residents but a few looked like they were only going to be leaving in bits some day. Rather sad but it happens to us all eventually. Anyway, a fun distraction on our route (a great trip as a whole by the way but maybe I will save that for another time) and some interesting things to see.

As an aside, Pete was back here before too long to pick up one of the BA jets to return it to service.

Bye Bye JAL 747s

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When I was a small kid, I had a book called Pictorial History of Aircraft. This was the 1970s and so the Boeing 747 was still a relatively new kid on the block. It certainly wasn’t the times of the 400 series being knocked out at the rate of one a week. The pictures in this book showed Japan Air Lines (JAL) as an operator of both passenger and freighter versions of the jet.

As time passed by, JAL grew its fleet substantially and was for a long time the largest operator of 747s in the world. Therefore, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that the poor financial state of JAL combined with the introduction of more efficient big twins has meant the 747 has gone from JAL’s passenger operations. It is odd to know I won’t see one again (except perhaps at a storage yard). Every once in a while the airline industry has a big change – the end of Pan Am is one that springs to mind. For me, this is one of those moments.

Anyway, they are gone but I have a few shots of them to remember them by. I wonder what will be next to go?!

Chicago by Blimp (Apologies to Thomas Dolby)

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Hardly an earth-shattering post this time. Often, photographing aviation themes can be a case of frustration as you try and aim to be somewhere when something is happening. This situation is a little different. I was happily sitting in my living room when I looked out of the window and saw a blimp briefly pass between two buildings in the distance. Blimps do occasionally show up in the city, usually providing aerial coverage of some sporting event or other.

I decided to grab the camera and see if it came any closer. I got my gear and waited for the blimp to come up the shoreline towards us. Sure enough, it appeared between some more buildings heading in just the right direction. Then, it turned around and headed back the way it had just come. Crap! Where was it going next? I started watching the gap I had first seen it in. Nothing for a while. I got distracted by a shot of an Aston Martin parked in the front of the Trump and looked up to see it just passing out of sight in the gap I was supposed to be watching.

Now, can I be patient and wait for it to come back again? Sure I can. I waited – and waited – and waited. Nothing. I was beginning to think it had gone when I spotted its reflection in the IBM building. It was right behind us! This guy is sneaky!

Now I had to wait again. Would he continue on that course and come out the other side of us or reverse again? This time he continued in a predictable fashion and popped out amongst the buildings north and east of us. I grabbed a few shots as he headed south again and then returned to what I was doing. Hardly great shots and probably not worth the effort (unless DirecTV decide to give me something for publicizing their own publicity machine) but I guess I am a bit of a victim of anything flying. Also, I was surprised to see just how quick that blimp could be when he wanted to get moving!

ISAP Field Trip – Part 3

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Back in the bus and it seemed to be running okay now – that is if you didn’t count the clunking that was coming from the suspension almost directly under my seat! Of course, there was still a question as to whether our driver knew where he was going. However, after a few wrong turns, we did arrive at our last destination of the day.

This was Gillespie Field and, more specifically, Bill Allen’s collection. Bill has developed a series of properties on the field that are combination homes and hangars. They are designed to have a really vintage look though and create a mini village at one end of the field.

Bill was an excellent host. Aside from making his place open to us and providing very welcome refreshments and food, he had some great aircraft on display including Stearmans and a Bucker Jungmeister. This was the day preceding the field’s airshow so a variety of interesting aircraft were arriving while we were there.

As I walked in, a familiar dace wandered up. Paul Dunn if Global Aviation Resource was there. Work had brought him to LA and he had taken the chance to come down and spend time with the subject of one of his articles, Captain Eddie, owner of an immaculate Fairey Firefly. Paul suggested I head around the corner to see it before too many people spotted it. Indeed it was a beautifully restored example and I grabbed a few shots.

We all then retreated to the grass near the Jungmeister. As the evening drew in, the light was just getting better and better. There was no urgency to shoot so we relaxed on the grass, occasionally hopping up if something new appeared. A beautiful evening in great surroundings with friends was pretty idyllic.

As the light finally faded we had a couple more treats. A pair if the Stearmans fired up for some dusk passes across the field. Meanwhile, another aircraft was staged for a lighting demonstration by Joe McNally. He put together the shot and built up a selection of flashes to light it, showing us the whole process as he went. Very interesting, even if I did feel a touch guilty running off occasionally when the Stearmans made another pass.

Finally it was dark and time to bid farewell to Bill and Gillespie and head back to the hotel. What a day!

The ISAP Cometh

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Okay, you have to forgive the theatrical title but it made me smile! It is not long now until the annual symposium of the International Society of Aviation Photographers or ISAP. This year it is being held in San Diego and I have to admit, I can’t wait. I have been a member of ISAP for a number of years now and find the annual symposium to be an excellent event. My first symposium was in Pensacola and I turned up knowing absolutely nobody. I couldn’t believe the friendly welcome I received from so many people and that is a continuing theme throughout ISAP for me.

The symposium is a very well organized event. We have two full days of presentations on different aspects of the business with a field trip day in the middle that takes us to some location that would not normally be available with access to great aircraft to shoot – all with a really great bunch of people. What more could you ask for?

The levels of the attendees vary greatly. Some are enthusiasts while others are long established professionals. Everyone is open to discuss the topics on offer and there are a willingness to share knowledge that is very refreshing. I have learned a ton of good stuff at these events. It is also an opportunity to share your work. Putting together whatever I want to take with me is something that I start thinking about long in advance. Having some prints put together for display along with any other presentational forms is both fun and a little intimidating. These are the best in the world that you are showing your stuff to!

Soon I will be heading off. For those of you interested but who have never gone, give it some thought. For those of you that are members already, see you there!

To Shoot or Not to Shoot

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Harsh Sky

In a previous post I mentioned my trip to Indianapolis for the air show at Mount Comfort. A few things were going to make getting good shots tricky at this event. First, the crowd face south at the show so, through the majority of the display, there is a strong chance of back lighting. Also the forecast was not for great weather.

Dark Cloud Background

This forecast was one of the things that actually helped persuade me to go. With a lot of cloud, the backlighting might actually have been tempered. Also, with the possibility of rain, it might even work out that a lot of vapor could show up during the displays. It could also mean getting drenched with no flying, though, so a chance was taken. There is always the nice idea of a bit of sun on an aircraft with an evil looking sky behind it.

Harsh Sky

When I am at a show with a backlighting issue, I tend to try and go to one extreme of the crowd line. This can have two advantages. First you get some different angles from the normal shots that being near show center gives. Second, by picking the end carefully, you can get sections of the display that at least have the sun on a quarter position rather than head on.

Dark Cloud Background

Metering in these situations can be tricky. You can go with exposure compensation based on your view of the sky brightness with anything between +1 and +2 a possibility. Alternatively, you might try manual metering based on some pre-readings. That is a lot easier to go with when the lighting is more consistent – constantly changing skies make manual metering a lot more work. I have used both. Of course, with harsh backlight, there is only so much you can

Backlit

Top Light

do. Good exposure on the subject is not going to be matched with a great background. Therefore, there are only going to be certain angles that can get a reasonable chance of a good shot. Does that stop me shooting at the other angles? Of course not!! I have tons of images that are no-hopers but the fun of the shoot and the way things look better through the viewfinder are highly likely to stop the part of the brain that says no point shooting now. Of course, there is an upside to this. Tracking the aircraft throughout its pass does put you in a good position to get a better shot when the light is good.

Another thing to look for is exploiting the conditions to get a different look. Normally when shooting aircraft you are trying desperately to avoid a silhouette. An alternative is to go for that look deliberately and get something a little different from the normal shot. It isn’t always going to work but when your options are limited, why not try something else?

Silhouette

One last thought, panning with aircraft to get a good shot is something that is always worth practicing (if you want to shoot aircraft that is!). Even crummy conditions can be good panning practice and will set you up well for the time when the conditions are good and you need to be ready.

Indy Air Show

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The beginning of the air show season has already arrived but my plans for the year are rather sparse. Some things I had originally planned to go to have been overtaken by competing events so there are relatively few shows that are presently a firm fixture in my calendar. That is fine. If the other things weren’t things I wanted to do, they wouldn’t have taken precedence. Besides, when I am looking at a show, I am looking for something a little different since there are a bunch of acts, all good in their own right, that I can see any number of times through the year.

The show in Indianapolis caught me off guard therefore. I hadn’t really been thinking about heading down to it. I had read that the lighting is a bit harsh and had originally thought I had something else on. However, I ended up being free and they had some aircraft that piqued my interest. Besides, it is only three hours to drive down. The forecast was looking mixed but I decided to give it a go.

The drive down was not inspiring! Crappy conditions in Chicago as I left got worse as I drove down through Indiana. At some points, the fog was quite bad with the wind turbines looming out of the murk as I headed down I-65. However, as I reached Indy, the skies parted. We were pretty lucky for weather for the rest of the day to be honest. There were bursts of sun but mainly clouds. However, I watched a few heavy looking downpours approach and they all passed east of us – at least until I was back in the car!

The show had a nice mix of performers. I had never seen the PV-2 or C-1A fly before and that was nice. They organized some warbird combined flights which were pretty good and photogenic – well, if the light had been better they would have been. Overall, a good mix of things to keep me interested. The light was tricky all day and there are a lot of shots that will never be seen in public because they are just blah!

All in all, though, a good day out and it was nice to get back into practice of shooting things moving rather fast. Also nice to bump into some familiar faces during the show. Good to see you guys!

What a good excuse a visitor is!

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I got a message from a buddy of mine the other day that he was going to be in town. Paul Dunn is a pilot with British Airways and was scheduled to be doing the run to O’Hare. Paul has a second job as Editor (Rest of the World) for Global Aviation Resource, a website run out of the UK but covering aviation issues across the world. I highly recommend you check their website out at www.globalaviationresource.com as they produce weekly news updates that usually incorporate three or more articles. They have developed a well earned reputation for the diversity of their themes and the relationships they have developed with their subjects. (Full disclosure: I have written a couple of pieces for them too!)

When Paul told me he was going to be in town, I took a look at what we might be able to do in the brief time he was here. Chicago is a city with plenty to see but we are both rather into the aviation side of things so I wanted to see whether we could get anything sorted out more of that nature.

A call to my friends at the Warbird Heritage Foundation provided the solution. Paul Wood, the founder of WHF, confirmed that they would be busy that day at their base and if we wanted to pop in, we were welcome to see whatever they had underway. With Paul (Dunn, not Wood) having to be back at O’Hare by mid afternoon to head back to London, we went for an early start.

Leaving Chicago in the morning means you are going to have the delights of traffic to contend with. Sure enough, the Kennedy was pretty slow moving. However, two aviation nuts can always find things to discuss if time is available so we were fine and, despite how long we were in traffic, the run up to Waukegan was not much longer than I would normally plan. More importantly, it was turning out to be a rather lovely day from a weather perspective.

When we got to the hangar, Sean and Mike were already there at work and David had just popped in before heading back to his main job. The aircraft were all in the hangar with some final checks being made on the A-4 gear. The F-86 had flown several times in the previous days and everyone was pleased with the way it was running smoothly. We stayed out of the way of the guys and let them get on with their thing while Paul took a look at the collection.

Paul (Wood) showed up a short while later. He was off to check on his P-51 project and was taking the T-6 to get up there. This meant a few aircraft had to be pulled out of the hangar which meant some good photo opportunities to get these lovely vintage aircraft out in the sun. Some quick shots of the T-6 starting up and departing and then back in to watch the gear swing tests. All went well.

After lunch, the plan was to prepare the A-4 for some engine runs. Time was running short for getting back to O’Hare so we had to head out before the runs were done but it was still great to get to see the guys at work and the progress being made ready for the display season. Thanks again to every at WHF for welcoming us again!

Navy Pier Lift

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Regular followers of this blog will know that I do a lot of jobs with Midwest Helicopters. Earlier this week I got a call from Jim telling me that they were planning a job at Navy Pier later in the week. Given the location of the pier, the possibility of some nice city backdrops was very tempting. Where to shoot from would depend on where the actual lift was. For those who haven’t been there, Navy Pier is pretty long!

I went to the website to try and get a contact on the pier who might be able to get me into a location that would be good for shooting. They have a contact for people wishing to photograph (commercially) on the pier so I contacted the person and they got back to me a while later. Turns out, the pier is very focused on what is necessary to get a shoot arranged. They had a series of terms, most of which were not a problem with the exception of getting them named on my insurance overnight! They also had a fee which was quite substantial. Since the shoot was associated with some work for them, they were prepared to consider waiving the fee. However, the manager was out and by now the lift was the following morning.

Outstanding commitment on the part of my contact meant I got the all clear at 10:30 the night before. I am very grateful that they tried so hard and it was certainly nice to be totally legitimate. The morning dawned with some very promising conditions. We all rolled up to the site and got set. Unfortunately, the loads were not ready so the lift was postponed for half an hour while the rigging was set up.

Eventually we went ahead. A theater on the pier has a fabric cover that had been ripped in a storm. The new covers were going up and a damaged vent was being brought down. The guys receiving the loads were working on some temporary cable rigging under the main beams. They were not in much of a position to manhandle the loads as they came in so Jim was a busy guy making very fine adjustments from the helicopter to get everything in place. He did a great job and I was well positioned to get some good shots. I particularly liked the angle looking down the roof line at the heart of the Ferris wheel behind the theater.

I was with Brian on the parking deck. He had an idea for a shot that I hadn’t considered. He would be hooking on the lift line as the helicopter hovered at head height. He wanted a shot that was a city panorama with the hook up as part of the scene. I hadn’t considered doing a pano with action in it before but gave it a go. I actually tried several during the lift and they actually came out quite well.

Stitching the pano of Brian was harder than I thought. Photoshop did a great job of creating the pano and totally excluding the helicopter since it was only in one shot. However, the layer was still there so some delicate masking work could bring it back in. It was actually really cool to watch it appear on the monitor. The pano is not something that will always have a place on a shoot but it is an interesting idea to add to the shoot list.

For more pictures of the lift, you can go to this gallery.