Return of the Racers

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The races at the rowing meet I covered in this post tend to overlap from what we saw.  The length of the course and the time to complete it is such that the next race was started before the last was finished.  Consequently, there is not a way for the crews to return up the cut as the next boats are heading towards them.  Apparently, they all wait in the next bay.  Then, when it is clear, they all row back up together.  The cut was full of crews rowing back to take their boats out of the water.  It made for an impressive sight!

Low and Sporty Lightning II Departure

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Speedway departures can be a mixed bag at Nellis.  Flex departures with a pull over the Speedway are the best but it does depend on how high planes have got.  Some climb out quite steeply and are way too high for a good shot by the time that they reach you.  On my most recent Nellis trip, though, we were treated to a few departures by the locals that broke the mold. They got airborne and kept it nice and low as they accelerated towards us before breaking in to the flex departure routing.

The evening light combined with the great angles made for some good shots.  It didn’t hurt that I had a lower shutter speed than usual so got some nice blur of the mountains behind the planes courtesy of them being nice and low.  The Strike Eagles also gave it a go which was nice.

Lewis Falls

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We stopped off at the Lewis Falls on the way out of Yellowstone.  The angle of the falls from the road meant I had not even noticed them when we drove into the park but, coming back south, they were easily seen ahead and off to the right of the road.  Temperatures were not so low that the falls were frozen up and they looked very pretty.  Given the number of vehicles in the area, everyone was stopping to take a look too.

Dornier 328Jet

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The FBO ramps at McCarran had a selection of Dornier 328Jets.  I noticed one at first and only later realized that there were more.  What did please me was seeing a bus pull up by one of them with the door open.  I figured we would have a flight before too long.  Indeed it did, in due course, power up, taxi down to the departure end and take off.  It was a bit far away but I’ll take a 328Jet when the opportunity arises.

ASUW Shell House

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A short walk from the campus of UW takes you down to Montlake Cut.  This is the home of the university rowing team.  Having read The Boys in the Boat, we had read a lot about this location.  The Shell House from the book is still there and is in great shape.  George Pocock is no longer building his shells there, but it obviously has a place in UW rowing lore and it looked interesting on a sunny weekend day.  It looked even better from one side but the giant cherry picker in front of it kind of ruined the chance of a photo from that direction.

Sunset Burner Departures

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Fighters departing Nellis are well out of burner by the time they get anywhere near you outside the base.  However, if you are shooting in low light, the burners can show up quite well even though you are a long way off.  The plane is a small part of the overall shot but the intensity of the burner plume can make it far more conspicuous in the shot than would otherwise be the case.

Golden and Bald Eagles

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Jackson Hole included some large birds in the selection of wildlife on offer for our visit.  We got to see some eagles at a distance.  Bald eagles were not a surprise but I was unaware that Golden Eagles live in the area too.  They are one big bird!  It would have been nice to get a bit closer but eagles do what they want and you have to be happy getting what you can.

My Convair Up Close

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The Convair CV580 has shown up in a couple of posts at least so far.  Getting to Everett early one morning prior to heading to Whidbey Island, it was a pleasant surprise to see it out on the ramp.  It was even nicer to see the door was open.  Before too long the giant square blades of the props started to turn and they were heading off.  They did turn the opposite way to what I was hoping for when they taxied but nothing to sniff at.  We decided to see whether we could get to the end of the field before they did but they must have taxied smartly and got a quick take off clearance because they were up and away as we drove towards to the runway.  Still, a nice start to the day.

Silhouettes on the Water

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My sunbathing cormorant got his own post here as a result of being easy to photograph in the evening light.  There were plenty of other cormorants around that evening but the rest were around the piles out in the water in into the sun.  That did make for some nice silhouette shots instead so here they are.  You won’t be able to identify individual cormorants, though.

E-8C JSTARS

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E-8 JSTARS are not a rare thing at Red Flag but they do often get involved in the night sorties.  Seeing one heading out to play for the daytime activities was a pleasant surprise.  On their return on the first day they were following in the KDC-10 that I mentioned in a previous post.  They also adopted some sporty approach techniques and were similarly unsuccessful in converting them in to a landing.  The go around ensued and was followed by a more conventional straight in approach and landing.