Category Archives: military

Ye Olde Pub Gets Closer to Home

I had been able to photograph the B-17, Ye Olde Pub, when it appeared at the show down at Klamath Falls in Oregon. That was a bit of a hike to get to. In 2024 it put in an appearance at a show a lot nearer to our then home – the Olympic Air Show at Olympia. That made for a far shorter trip to see it – its home in Madras OR is also a fair trek. Olympia is only about 1:45 away if the roads are good.

The put on a good flying display for the show. The light was surprisingly good for Olympia! It is held on a weekend in June that has a remarkable track record of delivering substandard weather. The local photographers constantly wish for it to be moved to a different time of year without any success. The plane was operating from the main ramp area which meant it was very close to you when it taxied in and out.

I wasn’t the first to spot this so I can’t claim to be the inspired person, but there is a taxiway marker board at Olympia that says B17. That made it quite easy to get a shot of the plane taxiing out with the B17 board in frame. A bit cutesy but I don’t think anyone was objecting. It seems like a lot of the airworthy B-17s are having major maintenance undertaken at the moment so having Ye Olde Pub active is great. I won’t even get upset about the use of the words “ye olde”!

The Backyard at Pima is Interesting

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The museum at Pima is well stocked with interesting aircraft. However, the backyard beyond the fence for the museum area also provides some interesting stuff. Some of these things are going to be museum exhibits before too long but I am not sure all of them are. During my last visit, there were a few things of note when peering over the fence.

Probably the one that will get most attention is an F-117 Nighthawk. It was sitting alongside a SEPECAT Jaguar (big fave of mine) and an F/A-18C Hornet. There was a Royal Norwegian Air Force P-3 Orion and I think that was in for some work rather than ready to be displayed. Another P-3 was there in AWACS configuration as previously used by the Coast Guard. The fuselage of a Tunnan was close to the fence while a pair of Dash 7s were sitting without engines. An old United 727 was further off as well. What an amazing collection of stuff to get as a bonus during a visit.

Getting the Shutter Speed Wrong Makes Editing Quicker

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I have made this mistake before and, no doubt, I shall make this mistake again. Setting up the camera for one shot and then not changing the settings before shooting something else. I had the 200-800 lens on the camera, and I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/100^th of a second for some take off shots. This is where I left it while shooting the flying display of a couple of aircraft. A long focal length and moving target with a slow shutter speed means that there are a ton of shots that are totally unusable. That really does help in the process of deleting shots. Most of them are toast. A few did survive and that was quite a relief!

Finally, a Little Sun on a Cyclone

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My first encounter with a Canadian Cyclone was in the middle of a storm when it was incredibly gloomy. The next time I got to see one flying, the conditions might not have been so bad, but they were definitely dull! I figured I would just not get to see one in good light and, given that it has a dark and dull grey paint finish, it really sucks in whatever light there is. However, I did finally get lucky when I saw one on the ground at Abbotsford. A bit of sun at last. Sure, not flying and might not be the greatest but it was definitely a step up.

Video of TBAG’s Event

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I blew parts of this one. This video doesn’t have the best bit of what I saw but, if I hadn’t told you that, you’d probably not know. When the Buccaneer was being run up, they undertook a bunch of tests on various systems. The wings were folded and unfolded. The speedbrake was extended and retracted. The bomb bay was rotated. The bit I didn’t get for some reason was the blown flaps. To get the chunky Bucc on to the small decks of the UK carriers, they utilised flap blowing. Air was ducted from the compressors of the engines to the flaps and this improved the low speed lift. It had been raining when the demo was undertaken and the blowing of the flaps was really visible with the moisture getting blown around. Sadly, that is not in this video. Everything else is though.

A Pair of MC-12s But Only One Moves

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I don’t know why two MC-12s might be showing up in Seattle. Maybe they have training requirements that involve deploying to random places or maybe they were intently listening in to the people of Seattle. I suspect that might not have been super interesting but you never know. Whatever the reason, there were two of them parked on the Modern ramp at BFI a while back. Normally a King Air would not get me terribly excited but stick lots of lumps and bumps on it and now I will show some interest. I was hoping that they both might fly while I was there but only one was fired up. It as a warm day and heat haze was not on my side so the ramp shots were a bit ropey. At least the one that flew came closer when it headed to the runway so I could get a slightly less hazy shot!

The Phantom Restoration Has Moved On

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A little over two years ago, I made a brief visit to Kemble prior to attending a family wedding! One of the things I was surprised to find was a pair of Phantoms that were sitting stored by the road. When I went back for the Buccaneer event, the Phantoms had moved to a new location along one of the airport roads. A structure has been erected and one of the Phantoms is inside along with a bunch of parts. Outside was the raspberry ripple aircraft that had been used at Boscombe Down. It has undergone a lot of work and is looking in far better shape than when I last saw it. Still plenty to do but great progress.

Messing Up the F-35B Departure

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Since I switched to my R3 bodies, I have been playing a lot more with low shutter speeds to emphasise speed in images. This has been a topic in multiple posts on the blog in recent years. However, it doesn’t always work out well. I know that the keeper rate will fall when shooting fast moving objects at low shutter speeds, but you hope/expect that you’ll get something worthwhile from the ones you take.

However, that doesn’t always happen. During Seafair last year, the US Marine Corps F-35B departed Boeing Field for its display. I decided to go low with the shutter speed from my location up on the tower with the aim of having the airfield background blurring out and leaving me with the plane as the dominant element in the shot with little distraction. However, when I came to go through the sequence of shots that I took, I had some sharp ones as it approached me and as it flew away but nothing that really pleased me as it was closest and alongside me.

Some of them weren’t terrible but it was a huge disappointment as I clicked through the images and came to the realisation that I had blown it. You can’t always get lucky, and I knew what I was doing so I can’t be totally surprised that it didn’t work out, but it was still a bit galling. Does this mean I won’t do it again? No. Getting the record shot is fine, but I am more bothered about having a shot I really like these days. Might as well give it a go!

An Unusual Pairing for “Formations”

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In the late 1980s, the RAF had just introduced the Tornado ADV to service. The squadron boss of the OCU displayed the jet with a Spitfire of the BBMF. This dissimilar formation caught my attention at the time. This was repeated in the 2000s when the RAF repeated the idea with a Typhoon and Spitfire display. However, I think I saw something that trumped both of those combinations at the Shuttleworth Military Air Show. The combination of a Great War SE5a and Spitfire was really something else. You might think that a fast jet and a Spitfire is a tough combination, but jets can fly slowly quite well, and Spitfires are no slouch.

However, an SE5a is not a speedy plane while a Spitfire is still no slouch! How to make this work then? Some very clever use of speed differentials and spacing is the answer. The SE5a would fly some curving passes closer to the crowd line while the Spitfire offset further out – slowing into the pass and then accelerating away. The result is a view from the crowd where both planes are quite well aligned.

The idea was very interesting. I won’t say it is innovative because I’m sure someone has done something like this before, but it was the first time I had seen it. The result was surprisingly effective, and they did it on a few passes. I don’t know just how precise the initial points have to be and how much scope the pilots have to adjust on the run in to make it work. I assume the SE5a pilot just flies the pass, and the Spitfire pilot has the power and control to make the adjustments. Whatever the approach, it worked well.

Canadian Hornets Are a Bit Elusive

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One of the tricky decisions you have to make when photographing planes in the Tucson area is which airfield to focus on. The international airport can have some interesting traffic but it isn’t far to Davis Monthan AFB. It can similarly have some stuff to photograph. However, both can have quiet periods. Where to be? Some Canadian Hornets were deployed to DM during our visit, and we were hoping to get some shots of them – putting aside the irony of a Canadian travelling to Arizona to photograph Canadian jets.

We were down at the International Airport when we saw in the distance that the Hornets were up. A rapid relocation ensued. It isn’t a long trip between the two but when planes are in motion, you don’t have much time to play with. Fortunately, Mark was the designated driver on this trip. As we pulled up to the right area, we got to a red light. The jets were turning on approach so I jumped out of the car and started getting shots. Mark had to find somewhere to safely pull off. I recall he still got some shots but I had it easier as a result of my rapid vehicle exit!