Tag Archives: airplane

Waukegan Show

The Saturday of the Waukegan show turned out to be a great one with excellent weather, some great flying and a lot of good people to hang out with. What more could you ask for? While Waukegan is not a big airport, the quality of the show has steadily grown and the ability to attract the Canadian display team, The Snowbirds, is a sign of how well they have done.

This year had a great line up for the show as well as plenty of great aircraft on static display. With some great light but the temperatures not being at all uncomfortable, it was a photographer’s dream. Just as well since there were a bunch of photographers there! The show was a mix of displays with sky divers, piston aerobatics, fast jets, vintage piston displays, wing walking, a jet bus, Heritage and Legacy flights from the Air Force and Navy and the Snowbirds to wrap it up.

I mentioned previously that the weather had been less impressive for practice day. In past years, I have had good weather for the practice but not for the show. This year it did it right for the visitors – and there were lots of them! The quality of the flying was excellent and, while some of the acts were familiar, some were new or at least not seen for a while. Seeing the Hornets instead of the Super Bug was a nice change and the display is quite different given the differing natures of the two aircraft.

The Snowbirds proved to be a great conclusion to the show. They flew a tight and polished display (with one minor exception) and did a good job of using the number of aircraft to keep something going on in front of the crowd. They mixed it up with some pairs and four ship crossing to keep everyone on their toes. I think they made a lot of fans. I hadn’t seen them for a while so it was good to see them again. (They were also a lot of fun at the party later!)

Congratulations to Jim and the team at Waukegan. A great show and I hope to see one again some time.

Waukegan Arrivals and Practice

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One of my favorite airshows is held at Waukegan. This show has a lot to offer. It has a good selection of performers, it is not so large that you feel exhausted even getting there, the display is not vast but it does flow well and a lot of people I know are involved. Also, it is close to home so covering several days is not a problem.

I actually had three days up at the show. I shall deal with the show itself in an upcoming post. Before that I headed up for the arrivals and for the practice. These were on the Thursday and Friday and the weather could not have been more different. Thursday was a lovely day. I got there just after the A-10s arrived which was a disappointment but I was there for the F/A-18s showing up as well as the Snowbirds, some of whom flew around for a considerable time before landing.

The practice show on Friday had a solid cloud layer all day. It wasn’t so bad that the practice could not go ahead but it certainly did not make for great photographic conditions. The practice was just for the main acts with the Snowbirds performing, both Hornets doing the demonstration and the USAF Heritage Flight involving an A-10. The rest of the performers were not involved. Since these displays required closing a local street, the aim was to keep the practice relatively short.

The results were not my best photos ever. With the forecast for better things on the Saturday during the show itself, there was a good chance that most of these would be consigned to the trash if Saturday worked out. However, there were some that weren’t too bad. As for Saturday, you will have to wait and see…

Historic Flight Foundation

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Two down and one to go. A trip across to the other side of Paine Field and you arrive at the Historic Flight Foundation – John Sessions collection of vintage aircraft. Combined with my previous two visits, you really have to think of Everett as a goldmine for the aviation enthusiast. Much like the Flying Heritage Collection, the focus here is on airworthy vintage aircraft. However, they are all allied aircraft and are not all military planes.

The hangar is a lovely spot that is spotless. The aircraft are arrayed around the place and they all look spotless too. One was undergoing its annual so was pulled apart a bit more. There is also a B-25 that was outside when I was visiting. I was welcomed to take a look inside. Flights are available too if you want although my schedule and budget were not going to fit in with that and the weather was rather crappy to be honest.

One of the volunteers was an ex-pat Brit and he showed me around the whole collection. He knew a great deal about the planes having been involved with them for a long time and we had a great time. others were passing by and would join the discussion as well. It was a very friendly environment. John Sessions was also about and said hello but he had a group visiting so was making sure they were having a good time.

As with the other places at Paine Field, I can certainly recommend a visit. It is an interesting collection and if you can time it to coincide with some flying activity, you will have done even better.

Museum of Flight Restoration Facility

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The Museum of Flight has its main building down at Boeing Field in Seattle. However, they have a separate restoration facility located up at Paine Field. I had visited this many years ago. At the time, it was a case of showing up and wandering around. They welcomed any visitors but it was all very informal. Since I was nearby, I thought I would pop by and see how their Cutlass restoration was going.

Things have changed a bit. They have an additional part of the building where they now have a proper entrance and a small store. They have also introduced a small entrance fee. This seems perfectly reasonable to me. Anything that helps with the preservation work the museum does is a good thing. I talked with one of the volunteers about the changes since I had last been there and asked about the Cutlass. Apparently it is a basket case and hasn’t moved on much since I was last there. At least it is being protected, even if it isn’t likely to be in much better shape for a long time.

The facility also has the Comet 4 that they have been making progress on along with the prototype Boeing 727. It also had the prototype JetStar which is configured with twin engines instead of the four of later models. Those who know my fascination with this plane as described here and here will know that was a good one for me to see.

This was a brief visit but a good one all the same. Check them out and help support the work they do. If you ask any questions, you will be warmly welcomed and given lots of freedom to see their work.

Flying Heritage Collection

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The Flying Heritage Collection has a museum facility at Paine Field that was the first thing to trigger in my mind when I was thinking about things to see up there. The collection is owned by Paul Allen and they have got a great collection of vintage warbirds. They also have some newer jets but they aren’t in the museum at the moment. I have been tracking the collection on Facebook so wanted to drop in and see what they had.

The museum was easy enough to find and if you can’t spot it, listen out for the noise of construction. They are building a new facility next door and the crews were hard at work making quite a racket as a result. The current building is an old hangar but it does the trick for the time-being. Since nearly all of the aircraft are flown periodically, the hangar is a working hangar. Work is done on the aircraft where they stand and the barriers are moveable so the planes can be taken outside when it is their turn to fly.

The place is not huge and you are close to the planes which is good from an interest point of view but makes photos a little more difficult. If going back, I would take a wider angle lens. However, it wasn’t too bad and the light was pretty reasonable too. The Axis and Allied aircraft were very interesting but I was particularly keen to see their recent addition, the Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik. It had not long been in the collection after delivery from restoration in Russia. I was a touch disappointed when one of the docents told me that, with the flying of the German aircraft they had planned for the coming weekend, Steve Hinton was coming in and was going to take the chance to get the IL-2 up in the air. Missing the flying at the weekend was one of those things but something even more rare in the air just after I left was rather unfortunate!

Putting that aside, it was good to take a look around the collection and I shall endeavor to get back there at some point soon – hopefully next time to see some of the collection up in the air!

Chicago Air and Water Show

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My reduced enthusiasm for air shows has cropped up in posts recently. I mentioned it here not so long ago. I also talked about it last year with regard to my “home” air show, the Chicago Air and Water Show. I have been a bit reluctant to go to the show because it is very busy/crowded and the content of the show has been a bit reduced due to the lack of available performers.

This year the show snuck up on me and suddenly it was here. I had kept my calendar clear on the Friday before the show because I like to go to the practice day. Not only do you get a full show (usually) but there are a lot less people there. You can even get bonuses with the headlining team (either the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds) tagging on a few extra practice moves at the end as they tighten up their performance. For some reason the Friday also seems to be more lucky with the weather. This year I figured I would follow the pattern and go then and avoid the busy weekend performances.

The plan turned out to be a really good one. The air temperature was about 70F but the skies were clear blue. There was even a hint of moisture in the air earlier in the day which would prove beneficial! They have moved the show an hour earlier compared to years gone by. I’m sure this has a number of benefits for the organizers and getting people in and out. However, the light is a little harsh earlier in the day until it comes around behind the crowds so starting earlier reduces the time for good light. However, you can still make that work if you plan your shooting.

I met up with a bunch of familiar faces down on North Avenue Beach and we settled in for the show. We had most of the main performers and a bonus with two Super Hornet displays. Two crews cover the show, one flying each day. However, they both get to practice on the Friday. It is safe to say the first crew got high marks from us for the style of the display and for having it close enough to see. The second crew seemed to be flying a very different display and were a lot further out. The first crew also benefited from the humidity levels by dragging some clouds around with them throughout the show. That helped their rating from us but they were clearly better on the day.

A lot of familiar acts were displaying but I got to see some I haven’t seen much of. Kirby Chambliss put on an excellent display I thought. All of the pilots are good but sometimes you see someone and just instantly recognize that they are a cut above the norm. Kirby fitted that description.

The Blues were the headlining act this year and they performed pretty well. Most of the display looked slick with the one glaring issue being the poor timing of the sneak passes. The four ship had been long gone by the time the solos arrived so people had plenty of time to see them coming. It was practice day so hopefully they fixed that on the real days. I didn’t see Saturday but was at home on Sunday to watch them come through the downtown as they repositioned. I did see that four was instead three on Sunday so I guess a jet or a pilot was sick – don’t know which.

With the combination of the great weather, the good friends and some excellent flying, I had one of my best air show experiences in a long time. This might be my last Air and Water Show so, if that proves to be the case, at least I will have gone out on a high.

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.