Category Archives: military

Scooters in the Overcast

Draken International has been acquiring some of the best of the retired A-4 Skyhawks to add to their fleet. Their goal is the provision of tactical training services to air forces. Their jets have come from Israel and New Zealand and they have won a number of contracts. I saw them at Nellis AFB where they were providing support services to the USAF. They had a number of jets there working on Red Flag and weapons school projects.

We didn’t get the best conditions to shoot them. They were departing in the morning in conditions when they were rather backlit. For the recoveries, we were struggling to be in the right place to get them. Overall, I was not too happy with the results. I will be back at some point though. Hopefully I will get a better chance to shoot them. Having missed the media day, I didn’t get to shoot them on base which would have been a lot better. Sadly, the twin seater was lost shortly after my visit. Fortunately, the pilot banged out okay.

: An A-4K of Draken International climbs out of Nellis AFB in support of a USAF training mission.

iPad Kneepad – Sudoku in an A-10?

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Getting up close with the jets gives you an opportunity to see right into the cockpit while the planes are flying. As the A-10s pull hard off the target on the range they come right towards you. Consequently you can find yourself looking right in through the top of the cockpit. Looking through my shots I could see this view of the pilots. They have a notepad of some sort strapped to one their legs. I assume it is for flight planning purposes but I can’t help but think about the slower transit speed of the A-10. They have a fair bit of time when making their way from DM to the range and back again. Maybe a game of Sudoku or a crossword is a good way to pass the time?

Are New Tires That Expensive?

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I was skimming through some shots from Tucson to thin out the shots that I got from that day. I looked at one of the shots because I thought that there was something wrong with the shot. When I checked a few of the surrounding shots, I realized that there was nothing wrong. The shot was real. The F-16 had a tire that was looking very sad. I know that budgets are tight but I think they need to change the tires on this jet.

Hello Surprise Hornets

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SFO might get the occasional military movement but it is primarily civil traffic you see there. Roger and I were chatting when we noticed something small on the approach. Initially I assumed a business jet but then the shape became clearer and it was a Super Hornet. In fact, there were two with the second close in trail. From our location they were a bit far out but still an interesting pair of visitors to photograph.

Apache over Pinal

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Have you ever been excited to have a lucky break and then felt disappointed by the same thing afterwards? If so, you are like me and you really need help. I was up at Pinal Air Park in the evening after our time on the range at Hawgsmoke. An Apache helicopter was flying around the pattern. I was impressed that it was flying while I was there and grabbed some shots. The Singaporean forces have some Apaches there that they train on. When I looked at the shots, I was hoping that was what I had got. Sadly, it was just a normal US Apache. Why was I so disappointed? No good reason. It was still cool to see one in the nice evening light but you often focus on what might have been. Not healthy!

P-26 Peashooter

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One of my favorites when visiting Chino for the Planes of Fame Airshow is the Boeing P-26 Peashooter. A pre-WWII aircraft, this is the end of a generation of aircraft. Once the war started, aircraft really advanced quickly. For those that had been involved in conflict before the US actually entered the war, the aircraft had already moved on. The P-26 is a bit of a stranger in a time warp. However, the shape and technology combined with the colors make it a curious aircraft for me. Seeing it fly during the twilight show at Chino was cool and the evening light was a lot more impressive than seeing it during the day.

Embedding a Zoomify File

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I have played with the Zoomify files a few times before. Then I found a way to get a Zoomify file output in HTML5 format rather than Flash. Since so many people are on mobile devices today and plenty of them don’t use Flash, having the new format was necessary to make the output usable widely. I didn’t like the idea of a new page opening up though. Taking people off your page can mean that they don’t come back. Fortunately, I found out how to embed this in an iFrame. Those of you that are web savvy will know all about this stuff but I didn’t. However, messing around with some page code and suddenly my stuff is embedded in the page above. Pretty cool. Feel free to zoom and pan around the Nellis flightline!

Can 700mm Reach Into the Cockpit?

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Since changing camera bodies to something that is full frame, one of the things I have been pondering is what I will notice about the reduced reach that I will get with my current lenses. Obviously there will be a change. So far it has only really resulted in me changing when I press the shutter since I still work based on what I see through the viewfinder. While we were out on the range at Hawgsmoke, the jets would carry out a strafing run and then pull towards the range tower where we were located. Sometimes they would be really close.

I had decided to try putting a 1.4x tele convertor on the 500mm to compensate for the larger sensor size. This worked well for a number of the shots but, when the jets pulled overhead, it was a touch too much! These shots are not cropped. They are really that close and you can see exactly what is in the cockpit.

Spooky Metroliner(ish)

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If I hadn’t been with Joe who is a bit more familiar with the regular movements at Tucson International, I would not have been too interested in this aircraft. It looked like a pretty standard C-26 to me. However, Joe was quick to see it and told me it is one that he had not seen move (I can’t recall whether this was ever or just for a long time). Apparently, the turret under the fuselage is for surveillance activities of a spooky nature. Why it was moving on this day (was it watching me?) I have no idea. I was just glad that, rather than dismissing it as I might have done, I found out it was a little different.

Mako F-16 is a Nice Surprise

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I have not seen Mako F-16s very often. Seeing one taking off from Tucson was quite a surprise and definitely a good one. It was accompanied by a jet in Texas Reserve markings to so maybe there has been a swap of some jets.