Category Archives: military

Italian F-16 Not Long For This World

While we were out on the ramp at D-M, an F-16 taxied out for departure. I was curious about the paint finish at first as it didn’t look like a normal F-16. It was also short of markings. Then it became apparent it was an ex-Italian Air Force jet. I was advised that it was on a check flight prior to being sent off for the conversion to target aircraft. I guess it has been on storage at AMARG and now is going off to modification followed by an uncertain future. I wonder how long it will survive.

Some Nice Evening Light on the Planes

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During the evening of the Eagle Field fly-in, there was a dinner held in the hangar. I took the time to wander around outside as it had become a lot quieter and the chances to shoot the aircraft had improved. As the sun went down, things got considerably better and the evening light was lovely. Not all aircraft were well oriented to take advantage of it but there was still plenty of scope.

RO-6A Lurking Around

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A while back a friend of mine told me about a modified Dash 8 that the Army was using that had been flying out of his airport. It ended up coming to Livermore – a short drive from home. I went to see it but it was parked in a hangar on the other side of the field and I couldn’t see much. It flew a few times but never when I could see it. I figured that there was nothing much to do since I wouldn’t see it. Imagine my surprise when I came across its siblings.

I was driving around Tucson International when I saw two Dash 8s parked up. Sure enough, they were in the same configuration as the previous one. This time they had their civilian markings obscured. A little check with Google and they are apparently RO-6A airframes. The Air Force operates Dash 8s to monitor ranges for traffic under the -7 designation but these are different. Spooky stuff no doubt. Sadly, they didn’t move while I was there but they had been active. I was just glad to catch them out in the wild.

Coolest Landing Light

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While walking along the ramp at Davis Monthan I was looking for different shots of the A-10s that were arriving for Hawgsmoke. The lights on the nosewheel of the A-10s have been replaced with an LED based solution. This is clearly not the original light. It actually looked to me like it was a circuit board rather than a cluster of LEDs. I didn’t see it lit up but I don’t doubt that it’s bright. I just think it looks rather cool.

National Guard Chinook

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San Carlos Airport is home to the Hiller Aviation Museum. In times past they used to have an event called Vertical Challenge. It was a big gathering of all things rotary winged. Sadly, the challenge ended but the current team is trying to reestablish something similar. They have a smaller gathering called Heli Fest and I went along to shoot with the team for this year’s event. It was a normal day for admissions to the museum but the arrival of a lot of different airframes provided a lot more to see so the visitor numbers were significantly up.

The biggest visitor was a Boeing CH-47F Chinook for the National Guard unit at Stockton. They carried out a few passes before landing. Since the airframe is a little large and has quite a rotor diameter, they shut down on the ramp and were towed in to their parking spot. Once in place, they were open t visitors to come and look through the helicopter and talk to the crew.

No surprise that there was a steady stream of people checking out the Chinook during the course of the day. It is a great looking machine and the crew was busy answering questions throughout the day. When things were wrapping up, they taxied out and took off. A flyby was a necessity prior to going home. The Chinook is a very fast helicopter to the pass was pretty zippy!

: A US Army Boeing CH-47F Chinook taxis out for departure at San Carlos CA.

Dutch Training

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The Dutch F-16 training unit has been at Tucson for a while now. It moved from Springfield IL to join the Arizona ANG unit at the International Airport. I have seen their jets before but it was nice to see them again. The Dutch F-16s have been through an extensive upgrade program but the airframes are knocking on a bit. Built by Fokker as F-16A/Bs in the early days of the program, they have soldiered on while the USAF retired their F-16As a long time ago. I didn’t get a lot of chance to shoot the Dutch jets but managed to catch a few during my time there.

This Harpoon is Not the One We Flew In!

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One of our party on the trip to Eagle Field commented on whether it was a rule that all airfields have a derelict Harpoon parked on them. While we had traveled down in a pristine example, parked a short distance away from us was a Harpoon that was not in the greatest of shape. Most of it seemed to be there but some bits had gone. The effect was to expose the aircraft and make it look more like a skeleton of a plane. When the light angles were nice and low, the texture on the plane was really nicely picked out too. I have no idea what the future holds for this plane but I doubt it is going anywhere in a hurry.

Hawgsmoke on the Ramp

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Every two years the A-10 community gets together for the Hawgsmoke competition. I covered it again for GAR and you can see the piece I wrote here. The first day we were there was the arrival day. The plan had been to watch some landings and then to move to the parking ramp area. As it happened, we couldn’t get too close to the runway and some of the arrivals were delayed so we headed to the ramp instead which proved to be a good choice. The A-10s were coming in from the various units.

Initially he team were a little concerned about how we could access the area while the jets were on the move but we gradually got more access as they got more confident in us staying in the right places. The jets were taxiing along the outsides and then parking facing inwards. Consequently, we could be in between the rows and out of the way of the aircraft on the move. As more jets were parked up, we could move further out towards to the taxiway and closer to the arriving aircraft. It all worked pretty well.

Once the jets were on the ground the ground crews were straight into action taking off he baggage pods and starting to load up with practice bombs ready for the range slots that were to come as the exercise got underway. Most of the jets were parked outside the sun shelters so the crews were getting pretty hot as they worked. Plenty of coolers of water were on hand to keep them in good shape. This was a good start to the coverage of the exercise from my perspective.

: USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft on the ramp at Davis Monthan AFZ in Tucson Arizona taking part in the Hawgsmoke exercise.

: A USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II parked on the ramp at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson Arizona preparing for Hawgsmoke 2016.

Eagle Field Fly-In

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My trip in the Harpoon was to get to the fly-in at Eagle Field. This is an event that I previously didn’t know anything about so I went with few preconceptions. As it turned out, this year was not the most well attended that they have had. A selection of aircraft showed up for the event but not as many as hoped for. A few T-6s were there along with a C-54, some Navions, an Interstate Kadet and us. Some less exotic types were also there such as Pipers and Cessnas. There was also quite a gathering of military vehicles. These are not something that I know a lot about. During the day some reenactors also carried out some firefight demonstrations.

The following morning, the visitors headed back out. We were one of the last to go so got to watch the other aircraft start up, taxi out and take off. Most put in at least one pass before they headed home.

Flying in the Harpoon

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I had a really fun experience recently. I was given the chance to head down to a fly-in in one of the participating aircraft. The aircraft was a Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon. Beautifully restored, this aircraft was piloted by Taigh Raimey. Taigh works with a variety of aircraft including a lot of Beech 18s but the Harpoon is a great aircraft to fly in. Inside it is extensively restored so a lot of the original equipment is included. Consequently, it is a little cramped in there and you have to be careful as you move through the airframe.

There are two places inside that are worth spending some time. In the middle of the fuselage is an astrodome. This is certainly a great place to watch what is going on. You can look freely in any direction. I was up there when we arrived at Eagle Field and got a good view of our flyby. However, my favorite spot was the rear of the fuselage. It is extensively glazed and you can lie on your stomach and watch the world pass behind and below you. That will get a post of its own.