Tag Archives: airplane

Airshow

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

Leave a Reply

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

Leave a Reply

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.

Warbirds

Leave a Reply

One group that always gets a lot of attention at Oshkosh is the warbirds. A separate area is set aside for them where the aircraft can park but also where their people can camp. It seems to be a well developed operation with its own marshaling and security arrangements. I guess when the aircraft are valuable and in demand, they need a little extra attention.

Despite that, it is still a very relaxed area to visit. The aircraft are parked up and you can walk freely in amongst them. Often people are working on the planes and they fly quite frequently during the days (and more often the evenings when photo flights are common). As they taxi in and out, the volunteers keep you just safely out of harms way but they are aware that everyone wants to get a picture. A good balance exists.

The best time to visit is either early in the morning or late in the evening. Not only is the light better then, the number of visitors is much lower so you can have a lot of time to yourself and people are not in your shots most of the time. It is worth making repeated visits. My first trip across had a few aircraft around but it was noticeable how many spaces there were. however, a couple of days later, the ranks of vintage aircraft had swelled and there was much to see that was new.

Campground Options

Leave a Reply

One of the great things about exploring at Oshkosh is seeing how people are staying there. There are plenty of organized camping options for people. However, that is not very unusual. What is interesting and something that is very symbolic of Oshkosh is the camping in the aircraft parking. Many people set up camp right under the wing of their aircraft.

As part of the piece, I wanted to make sure that I had covered this aspect to some level. I spent a good bit of time wandering through the parked aircraft. It was fascinating to see just how diverse the approaches taken were. I met one guy who was sitting under the wing of his Cessna 172 with a one man tent pinned to the ground next to him. He symbolized the simplest version of things. Sadly, he didn’t want me to take his picture but it was a great thing to see.

At the other end of the scale, some pretty significant camping enclosures had erupted! Large tents, canopies with cooking arrangements, seating for many people plus transportation options to get around the site were also on display. Sometimes these were next to a more substantial aircraft but other times it just looked like friends had brought all they needed between them.

The facilities for people are pretty well developed too. Large shower and toilet blocks are available which seem pretty obvious. I was taken by the charging stations that seemed pretty substantial. Whether you are charging battery packs, phones, laptops or avionics, this seems to be a big deal and I guess this has all evolved over the years as the needs of Oshkosh visitors have grown. Quite something to see in itself.

Oshkosh

Leave a Reply

Here we go with a short post for today. EAA’s annual extravaganza that is Airventure (or Oshkosh to pretty much everyone else) has recently concluded. I was there for GAR for a few of the days. Oshkosh is a great experience and one that any aviation nut should try and do at least once.

There is way too much going on at Oshkosh to make a single blog posting out of it. Instead, you will be getting bits and pieces drip fed over the coming posts. My coverage of it for GAR also has to go out so I won’t be duplicating anything from there (well, not much anyway). However, hopefully this will give you a few views of Airventure from my perspective.

Up front, I must say thanks to all of the friends I already have that I met there as well as the new ones I made. Oshkosh is certainly something at which you can wander off for hours at a time to experience what is happening. However, it is nice to be able to know you can expect someone to be around when you come back so you can share what you have been up to and talk rubbish about planes for ages. Thanks everyone.

Experimenting with Multiple Exposures

Leave a Reply

Right away I must admit that this is not my idea. I know that is true of many photographic tools but I once saw someone do something just like this and I wanted to try it out myself. The question was how to go about it. I improvised a bit and trusted the camera to do what I wanted which it didn’t always do so I have learned some lessons already.

The idea is to take multiple exposures of aircraft on the approach and then combine them into one image in which the aircraft appear multiple times. I would set myself up in a position and then take a sequence of shots as the aircraft moved through the frame. My first mistake was that, because I was taking the same shot each time, I thought the exposure would not change. Not true! The camera will make some minor tweaks and this will make the whole thing less easy. White balance may also vary but I shoot in raw so syncing that afterwards is no problem.

Since I was not using a tripod, the shots are not all perfectly aligned. I took all the images in Lightroom and used the Open as Layers option to Photoshop. Then I used the auto align layers option to get everything perfectly in place. It is surprising just how much you move doing something like this! I originally thought I could just set every layer above the base one to Difference blending mode and everything would pop right out. However, that didn’t work as I had hoped. The aircraft all had an odd color cast.

Instead, I put a layer mask on each upper layer and then painted in the aircraft one layer at a time. This is more time consuming but it did the trick. Of course, if the exposures are perfectly matched, you don’t have to paint too accurately. if not, the sky color is different so a far more accurate painting on the layer mask is required.

This was a fun thing to experiment with. SFO is a great spot since you can get parallel approaches in one direction and parallel departures on the cross runway. This puts lots of aircraft in a single shot which makes it more interesting. Another time, I will take the lessons from this time and try and get them a bit better.

SFO

Leave a Reply

My work recently took me out the the Bay Area for a number of meetings. When they were all finished, I needed to write up some notes. Tapping on the laptop is something that can be achieved wherever you are. Also, SFO has a nice diverse selection of aircraft that visit. Therefore, my decision was made to take the laptop and the camera and head to Coyote Point. During the week there are less people there so it is quite a peaceful place to get some work done.

Of course, whenever something interesting made its way in to the approach, I could look up and grab a couple of shots before returning to my tasks at hand. SFO is like many hub airports in that it has a lot of the same things coming in and out. However, it has a lot of long haul traffic as well which provides an opportunity to see something a little different. This can include newer aircraft as well as those that are on their way out.

Lufthansa is now operating A380s in to SFO so catching that on the approach was a nice new thing to see. Meanwhile, the number of 747s arriving is gradually going down as they get phased out. Cathay brought one in as I was arriving. I imagine they won’t be around for much longer.

The sun was bright but the air temperature was relatively low. This meant that the heat haze was not too much of a problem. I could even get reasonable shots of the airport itself as the aircraft landed (nothing that would be publishable but not bad). A buddy was coming in with a BA 747 later in the day so I decided to move to the area on the shore near the Marriott to get some different shots. Unfortunately, this was not a good move. The heat haze to the runway at low tide was quite bad and most shots do not survive too detailed scrutiny. One to remember if I find myself back there at any time.

Gary South Shore Show

Leave a Reply

Only a short distance south of Chicago across the state line to Indiana is Gary. They hold an air show there every year that is over the lake along one of the beaches. For one reason or another, I have never been to this show. This year was expected to be no different originally. I had decided against going since the attendees list – while good – was a little shorter than in previous years. It was also supposed to be unbelievably hot!

My buddy, Joel, was going and he offered me a ride down if I wanted to go to the twilight show they hold on the Friday evening. I figured I would go since the opportunity was there so we headed down. Although not part of the twilight show, the USAF Thunderbirds were performing on the Saturday and Sunday and were scheduled to practice on the Friday afternoon, not long before the twilight show started. Therefore, we got a full show plus whatever else they planned to check out as part of their practice efforts.

Then we got the displays for real. The heat was pretty intense but the performers did not allow this to affect their displays. Unfortunately from a photography point of view, there was quite a lot of haze which hurt the visibility and the wind had died down which meant that smoke from the displays did not disperse quickly and could obscure the following passes in places. This meant that the photo opportunities had to be grabbed when they could.

The hope was that, as the sun dropped down, the golden light would arrive and it would be possible to get some more unusual shots than would be the case at a normal day show. Unfortunately, while this worked a bit, it wasn’t as successful as I had hoped. The sun sets a long way north at this time of year so, as it got lower, it got further behind the performers. Not back lighting but certainly not illuminating the front of the aircraft. Also, the haze I mentioned before meant that the dropping sun became more obscured so the strong evening light never really came along and we got something more diffused and weak.

This was a shame but not the end of the world. The show was still enjoyable and the people I was there with made it all the more fun. Thanks to the team at South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority for hosting us. I hear that the two main show days at the weekend were very popular and went well.

Rockford

Leave a Reply

Only a week after Janesville’s show (discussed here) came Rockford’s show. Given that Rockford is about 20-30 miles south of Janesville, this must be a bit of feast or famine for the local aviation enthusiasts. Rockford is a larger show and has a substantial static display but it does have some of the same performers as Janesville. It also adds some other bits and pieces too. The only difficulty is that you are facing south so the lighting for photography is a little tricky.

The Thunderbirds were the headline act but the Black Diamond team was also on the bill. Fortunately, they turned up with the full complement of aircraft this time. This made for a far more interesting display and I did enjoy what they did. It was just as well I saw them is this turned out to be one of the last times the full team appeared anywhere. Apparently they have picked up a lot of work supporting military training and can no longer bring so many aircraft to a given show. They will have a reduced number of L-39s at future events. Given my experience at Janesville with their reduced show, this will be a disappointment to many who were looking forward to their appearances.

Art was also present with the SHAR and the L-39. Yet again my weather curse struck. Bright sunlight was present right up until he launched. It was still there as he headed out for his opening pass. Then the cloud came in just in time for his benefit pass so flat light again for me! Arghh! One day I will get the shots I want of that lovely aircraft.

The flying display was a good mix but one of the high points for me was an unexpected extra. A Boeing Dreamlifter was apparently in the area and performed a low approach a go around. The crew brought the jet down to a very low height with gear and flaps down and then maintained that height along a substantial portion of the runway before powering off again. Not something that will be seen at too many shows I am sure and I am glad to have caught it. I have seen the jet on the ground a couple of times but this was the first time I saw it in flight.

The team at Rockford really work hard at getting a diverse selection of aircraft into the static display and this year was no exception. The ramp was full of jets from many operators and locations. Since I was in before the gates opened to the public, I got a good chance to see what was on display and catch up with the some of the crews. It also helped to be able to get some shots before the sun got too high and made the light so harsh. This is an issue during the show since heat haze becomes a problem quite quickly so getting shots of anything to far away becomes impractical. However, there is nothing anyone can do about that so you have to do what you can. It was an enjoyable show and a credit to the organizing team. I know some people had issues with parking and getting away but I didn’t have any unusual in that regard so maybe I was just lucky.