The selection of Magisters at California City was the subject of a previous post.  The day continued to improve, though, as a bunch of people showed up to take one of the planes flying.  They had come from France and had a crew of people both helping launch and also filming them in the process.  We were allowed to hang out close by to watch them go.  This did mean having to deal with the intense noise from the tiny turbojets that power the plane.

I shot both stills and video and we were able to get out close by the runway.  The video of the launch preparations was fun, but I wanted stills of the jet airborne, so I focused on getting those instead.  The Magister is a great looking little jet and, I imagine it is a bunch of fun to have some that are airworthy.  I imagine that, as warbirds go, it is probably one of the more affordable ones!