A trip to Whidbey Island at the end of last year resulted in some encounters with the local P-8 Poseidons. The disappointment was that they weren’t exactly showing off loads of unit markings. With one exception, they were rather anonymous. I’m not sure whether they had been recently received and were later to get squadron emblems or not. I hope so. Fortunately, the light was nice at that time of year so I got some images I was pleased with.
Luke AFB is not just home to a load of USAF F-35s. It is also the training base for many of the export operators. They also allocate some of their jets to the unit, so you do have the opportunity to catch a bunch of jets that are not from the USAF. This includes Italian, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch jets. Aside from the Danish ones that actually have a tiny bit of color in their national markings, all the jets are low viz. At least they are slightly different, even if not very conspicuous.
During the trip with Mark, we made the excursion to El Centro to catch the Harriers. As I wrote in the post about those airframes, I thought it might be the last time I got to photograph Harriers. Turns out, I was a bit premature. With an exercise planned up in Alaska, the Marines were planning on taking ten jets to participate. Their routing staged through Boeing Field. The plan was for two sets of five jets to come across.
The moves were not entirely smooth. Bad weather in our area was not ideal, tanker support was not working to plan and then you get the occasional jet that breaks. However, we did get most of the jets showing up. The first bunch showed up at Boeing Field from the north. They were strung out on the approach but, from certain angles, you could see all of them stretched out over Seattle. One by one they came in and reminded us how loud a Harrier is in STOVL mode.
There was due to be the second wave later in the day, but they ended up showing up on another day. We had departures of the initial jets as well. When they called up for departure, they asked the tower to line up on both runways. This would have put them up at the north and away from where I was. This was a bad development. Fortunately, the tower informed them that they were too heavy for the short runway’s surface rating.
Instead, they lined up on the main runway spread out in a line. They powered up simultaneously and released brakes at the same time. The northern jet had no problem getting airborne in such a short space because of the STOVL capabilities of the Harrier. The jets further back were also airborne quickly and accelerating rapidly while still over the field. They climbed out in a loose line which meant assembling the formation would be a simple process. What a great thing to see one more time. Is that it for me and Harriers????
One of the special parts of the trip to Arizona was that Mark and I got invited along by our friend Joe to a night shoot at the Pima Air and Space Museum. I had seen some images from previous night shoots and the idea of photographing the many interesting airframes there in the dark intrigued me. The museum is excellent and well worth a visit, but it can be hotter than hell there and the light can be quite harsh, so this was a great alternative to try.
When I was a student, I used to do quite a lot of night photography. In the days of film, you played a lot more of a guessing game as to how things were working out. Also, film suffered from what was known as reciprocity failure so you could really extend the exposure in low light without necessarily ruining things. Digital is a lot more linear and also gives you the chance to see how things are coming out and have another go.
A lot of the attendees had done this more than once and had come equipped with a variety of tools to play with. Lights on stands, wands of different LEDs, huge flashlights etc. Plenty of things to work with. I had brought some tools along but was definitely keeping it simpler. Joe offered us some lights to work with but, since this was a new effort for me, I decided to keep it simple and try to get one approach worked out.
I had a tripod so I could leave the camera in place and then a couple of strobes to play around with. I had to make some set up adjustments first. Take off IS from the camera since it can wander over long exposures and make things blurry. Second, put the strobes on manual power and experiment with how well they do illuminating things. What I didn’t do but should have with hindsight was to go to bulb mode rather than 30 seconds on the shutter. At some points with the larger airframes, I was very frantic in trying to get everything lit in the 30 seconds. It proved to be rather energetic, and I was pretty pooped by the end of it.
I would open the shutter and then move around the airframe illuminating it with pops of the strobe. I quickly learned to shield the strobe, so it didn’t illuminate me and add me in to the shot. I also came to realize how the larger areas when I stood back a bit needed more light to compensate. All of this is logical but not something I thought of before trying it. More research/planning would have been a good idea. I was also surprised how my shadow could show up in some shots when I have no idea how it would have got there.
I did photograph some of the more famous assets in the collection – how can you ignore a B-58 or a B-36 – but I did also take time for others that were just of more interest to me. The size of the place meant you could easily not come across one of the other photographers for a while. They were helpful in pointing out the hazards of guy wires. Some of the larger planes have wires to stabilize them and these are basically invisible in the dark. If you are running around popping off flashes, you could easily collide with something unyielding. Fortunately, nothing like this for me but maybe some luck in that?
Would I do it again? Absolutely! It was very interesting and got some nice results. It also taught me a lot about what I wasn’t doing right and would set me up for a few ideas of how to do things differently in the future. I think a large flashlight would be an addition I would make, and I would definitely use the cable release and bulb mode. My thanks to Joe for taking us along and to the team for letting us join in.
Every once in a while, the Air Force moves airframes around between units. One may have exhausted the limits on their airframes and they need to be retired or it could just be a balancing exercise to spread the usage types across the larger fleet. The Arizona Air National Guard unit at Tucson has recently received a bunch of different (calling them new would be a stretch) jets that have come from various units around the country. They will be marked up with the AZ tail code in due course but, at the time of my visit, they were still carrying markings from a bunch of other bases. Getting a diverse range of tails before they all became the same was the challenge while there. Here are some of the results.
When making my first visit to FHCAM after it re-opened, one of the things I was interested to know was whether the Stuka had made any further progress from when I last saw it or whether it was paused for restoration. Things looked like they had moved on a bit since I was last there, but it didn’t look obvious that a huge amount had happened so that could have been after I was there and before they closed down. It would be very cool to have a Stuka back in the air so we shall see if this one progresses. If anyone knows, please comment below. In the meantime, here are some shots of how it looks most recently.
I have never photographed at Luke AFB before. Mark and I spent a few hours there as part of our trip. The base is home to the F-35A training unit and a variety of foreign F-35A training too. Plenty of USAF F-35s were in the pattern that day. I got loads of shots of the based jets but, with the current style of low observability finishes, the jets did look very alike. Yes, there were crew names and unit badges to be seen but, sadly, one Luke F-35 looks a lot like another Luke F-35.
The US military operates a bunch of Gulfstream jets for transportation of key individuals. One afternoon, I was at BFI and there was a C-37 from the USAF sitting on the ramp. It had the powder blue livery common across the USAF VIP fleet. I was hoping to see it takeoff, but it was not moving while I was there. A little while later, it was joined by a second example. This one was a lot less conspicuous. It had no livery and no obvious markings at all. The USAF has been toning down its planes recently and this was definitely in that style. The lack of a registration might have told you that it wasn’t a civilian Gulfstream but the bigger giveaway would be the array of antennae that were on the fuselage. This clearly could communicate with more than the average bizjet.
The designation of the F-16V is one that leaves me a bit confused. There are A model jets that are upgraded to this standard, but I thought some new build jets were also having the designation. Maybe I am mistaken about that. I also see two-seaters upgraded to the standard so an A or a B model can now be a V model? Anyway, enough about that. I got to see some.
Taiwan has been upgrading its fleet of A and B model F-16s to V models. The program is nearly complete from what I have read. They operate a number of the jets from the Guard base in Tucson at the international airport. While Mark and I were there, we got to see a bunch of them launch and recover. This included one with special markings in the fin. The markings are otherwise not too conspicuous but, because they are early model jets, the lack of the bulged fin root with its antenna is the thing that allowed me to identify them. Must be some life left in those airframes despite their age!
Last summer, Arlington Municipal Airport was the base of a multi-agency emergency preparedness exercise. Police, county, military and EMS helicopter operators all came together to practice how they would manage major incidents should they occur in the region. The prospect of a bunch of helicopter operators showing up in one place was too much to resist so I headed along to see what appeared.
Both King and Snohomish Counties participated, bringing their helicopters in to carry out multiple missions. The US Navy showed up early on with an MH-60 from Whidbey Island and launched off on a mission but sadly didn’t come back afterwards. A variety of other emergency medical operators were there with their airframes and there was a pretty regular trade in helicopters departing and returning.
The Snohomish County UH-1 undertook some work to practice lowering crews into remote spots (which I think might include rooftop insertions). They lifted a platform on which the teams could stand and be carried into position. They moved various groups of people around the airfield before lowering them to the ground and swapping out the individuals. I imagine the view from that platform would be pretty impressive.
I stayed well out of the way of operations, but the teams were very friendly and happy to chat when they weren’t engaged in training. However, with them operating multiple helicopters and having not been part of any briefing, it was clearly appropriate to keep some distance. This meant the shots weren’t quite what I would have preferred but they were still fun to get.
