Damp conditions are not uncommon in the Bay. Getting some vapor over the wing during a climb out would not be a surprise. Getting it on the approach can also happen but not so often. A FedEx MD-11 was on the approach to Oakland while I was walking along the shore. As it headed away, they were configured for the final approach as some flashes of vapor showed themselves above the wing. I happened to get them this time.
We were heading out of Hilo and starting back in the direction of where we were staying but our route took us almost directly past the Rainbow Falls. Having already seen some good falls on this day, we were curious but not determined to see these falls. Moreover, it was looking a bit overcast as we drove up. This was the beginning though. As we pulled into the parking lot, the heavens opened. It was hammering down. Having got there, I figured I would take a look anyway although Nancy was quite happy to wait in the dry. Your intrepid photographer had to bear witness though.
Rainbows require two ingredients. Water vapor and sunlight. Without the sunlight, there was not going to be a hint of a rainbow. The falls were pretty cool looking though. I bounced around the perimeter checking them out from various angles while getting progressively wetter. It wasn’t just wet, though. The wind was really picking up so combine and damp and cold guy in some low light with a lot of wind blowing and getting the shots was beginning to be tricky. Instead, I took a good look at the falls and then admitted defeat. Back to the car to peel off the wet jacket and try to dry off on the drive back across the island.
It has been a long time since I last saw some Spanish Air Force Hornets so I was glad to see them at Red Flag. They may not look very different to the Navy and Marine Hornets but still, some variety is worth it. It was the second week of the exercise so I would have expected everyone to be pretty familiar with the operations around the pattern. However, the Spanish guys seemed to have some different ideas.
They were certainly interested in keeping the patterns tight. I don’t know whether they convert to type with the Navy and are trained to fly tight or whether that is just their nature. However, on one occasion, the pilot came way inside the downwind line while another jet was flying that line and he was going to end up cutting them off. I guess he realized at the last moment because he turned left to get back out where he should have been. A bit strange to watch!
This time the shots I am sharing are not my own. I was there when they were taken but these were taken by Nancy. I was traveling light with one camera and a wide angle lens as we walked along the trails to the falls and Nancy was carrying her camera. It is a Nikon P900 and that thing has a phenomenal zoom range. When I saw the geckos on the leaves of the trees, there was no way I was going to be able to get a shot that showed anything of them given how small they were and the distance to them.
Nancy, on the other hand, had an ideal opportunity to get some shots of them. There were multiple geckos on the plants, some on their own, others together and some others chasing the first ones out of the way. They move very slowly for a while and then burst into action. You do end up with some shots of empty leaves as they spring away just before the shutter is pressed. However, she still got a number of them and their bright coloration really shows up well.
The F-15 came onto the scene in the 1970s and it has been a major force ever since. As a kid growing up fascinated with planes, the F-15 and F-14 were two of my favorites. They each had features I loved. One of the cool things about the F-15 for me was the inlets. Big ramp inlets were in vogue at that time. They combined an angled profile with complex ramps and doors to take flows from above Mach 2 down to subsonic speeds to feed the engines. (Interestingly the F-16 went with a simple pitot inlet and could still just about make Mach 2. It used the fuselage to redirect the air into the inlet rather than raking it.) The F-14 inlets were very sharply angled. The F-15 didn’t have such a sharp angle but instead took a different approach. The inlets rotated down towards the approaching air.
This always struck me as a cool feature and whenever I see F-15s now, I am always looking at the angle of the inlets. Since they are often at lower speeds when I get to shoot them, they are at higher angles of attack and this means the inlets are rotated down. McAir’s engineers did a great job of the joint so the top surface doesn’t look too discontinuous. I include a shot of a parked jet to show the difference. Even after all these years, I still get a kick out of this.
Rain forest conditions do tend to mean lots of moisture in the air. That much moisture means perfect conditions for the growth of lichen. The lichen do a great job of collecting the moisture from the air to keep them well watered. The way the water drops form on the surface of the plant can be really interesting. Just a small vibration would send them dropping to the plant life below but, for now, they were safe.
The beginning and end of an exercise has a common theme. Long before the fighter start launching, an E-3 AWACS will lumber off the runway and head out towards the exercise area. It gets on station and sets up to direct the fight as the fast movers enter the range. It will support the whole mission and will guide the small guys back home at the conclusion of their missions. It will deal with any of the jets that have to change plans or abort. With everyone else back on the ground, the AWACS can finally come home. They are often the last jet back on the ground. Hopefully everyone outside will stay around for their recovery. You wouldn’t want them to feel neglected!
One evening, while having dinner near the beach, we saw a flash of wings as a bird flew down to the water’s edge and landed. It was a heron. He was standing on the rocks as the waves washed in. Every once in a while, he would catch a fish and then walk away from the water before dealing with his meal. We talked to the staff about him and they told us he was a regular feature every evening. They had even named him Roger. Each night we came by to see if Roger was there and, sure enough, there he was. Same spot each time, just standing and waiting for dinner to come to him. On our first night he was joined by a manta ray that came in very close inshore but, sadly, he never showed up again while I was there with a camera. Roger was far more reliable though.
I wonder how long this plane will continue to show up at SFO. Air Berlin runs a service to San Francisco which is seasonal in nature. However, Air Berlin is currently in some difficulty and they are reorganizing the operations. Some of the services are moving in to Lufthansa control while the long haul stuff may be what remains. Consequently, they might still come to California but, for now, who knows. They aren’t a daily feature anyway so I haven’t seen the, very often. Here was a nice day when they did show up.
The biggest thing that made me want to go to Big Island was volcanoes. I have seen plenty of photos and video of volcanic activity but I have never seen it for real. I wanted to try and experience the awesome power welling up from the heart of the earth. Awesome is a word that gets pretty free use but I think when it comes to the violence that the layer of energy just below the crust of the earth can produce, awesome is a word that is entirely justified.
The south end of Big Island is the one that is most active volcanically. Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are both sitting quietly at the moment but neither of them is considered done. Mauna Loa has erupted relatively recently. However, the one that is playing at the moment is Kilauea. It has been busy erupting for a long time now. We checked it out by helicopter – the most easygoing way to see things. We took in two locations of activity.
The first was an open route to the inside of the planet. It has been active for a long time and has a visitor center. Apparently, you used to be able to walk close to the edge of the hole as a tourist. A parking lot is still visible. However, a violent outburst a few years ago suggested that this location was no longer safe. Now the visitor’s center is as far as you can go. There is a circular hole in the larger crater in which the lava bubbles. The level rises and falls daily and often will come over the lip into the larger crater. While we were over it things were a bit below the lip but you could still see the heat just below the surface of the lava. Because the air cools the lava quickly, you rarely see the molten lava is it is usually under a crust. Still very hot, but not liquid.
We then headed off to another area of activity. Here there was a rip in the surface from which gases were billowing. As you looked through the various holes, you could see into the heart of things and the glow from the lava was impressive. The color was intense and you could sense the heat within. As the lava emerged from various fissures in the surface, it would cool to make a new crust. A metallic looking surface would appear. Occasionally, the lava would bubble forward and, oh so briefly, there would be a red glow on the surface. Then it would cool and add a bit more to the metallic surface.
Big Island was a constant stream of references to the incredible forces that had formed the island. The lava fields covered much of the island. Even on the beaches, you had to be cautious of the lava chunks on the sand. My delicate feet did not like the lava. However, nothing could match the raw power that was on display at the volcanoes. I was certainly not disappointed having focused so much on them in planning the trip. Nature is amazingly powerful.
