DC-3 City of Tillamook

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The Erickson collection did not used to be based in Madras. For many years the aircraft were part of the museum at Tillamook. The old airship hangars at Tillamook were their home. While most of the planes have now moved, one of them still bears a name indicative of its past. This is the Douglas DC-3 named City of Tillamook.

The aircraft sat on the ramp outside the museum hangar for the duration of my visit. The first evening we were there we had time to stroll around the ramp as the sun set. This resulted in some lovely lighting conditions. It was fun to see the DC-3 in close proximity to some later Douglas products. They shall be the subject of a later post.

Fire in the Hills

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The reason for the Airtanker activity at Redmond was the fire that was raging in the hills west of Madras. During the day the most obvious sign of the fire was the smoke that was hanging in the air and obscuring the view of the hills in the distance. However, as night fell, thing became quite different. The hillside where the fire was raging was suddenly very obvious. The red glow from the flames was visible even at the distance we were away.

You could see the fire was alive. The intensity and shape of the glow was varying all of the time. The ridges that were between our location and the fire sometimes almost completely obscured things but the glow was soon visible again. I have no idea how intense things were in the ground but I imagine it was very tough for those fighting it. Their bravery was recognized by all of us watching from a distance.

Surf is Up Again

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If you have a nice Sunday morning with nothing planned, heading to Santa Cruz is worth it. The shore on the north side of the bay is a great place to hang out. Everything is so laid back. I guess people don’t go there if they are up tight. It always seems that everyone is having a nice time. That includes the regular contingent of surfers.

The conditions on our last visit were mixed for surfing. Occasionally a good swell would come ashore and everyone would jump on the opportunity. Most of the time things were calmer and the surfers would sit on their boards waiting patiently. There is a line close to the rocks that offers more but seems to be the territory of the more capable surfers.

To get pictures needs as much patience as the surfers have. Of course, it is Sunday morning so I am not in any hurry. I am happy to wait and see what happens. Every once in a while, someone comes in so close to the rocks that you don’t realize that they are there until they are past. In that case, you miss the shot and instead appreciate the skill.

Bonanza Camera Ship

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The camera ship for the majority of the photo missions at Madras A2AX (and all of the flights I undertook) was Scott Slocum’s Beech Bonanza. This is an aircraft which is certificates for flight with the doors removed. With the rearmost two seats removed, this provides a great location for two photographers to shoot back at the target aircraft. Both photographers wore harnesses that were strapped to the airframe.

Once airborne, one person would sit on the floor by the door and the other would stay on the seats and shoot over the head of the other photographer. This system worked really well. During the turbulent flights, the person by the door was probably a touch more aware of how close they were to the door as we bounced around but it was all safely planned and a lot of fun. Full credit to the work Scott did as the photo pilot coordinating the aircraft as well as guiding us students.

The London Eye

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I had in mind to make a post about the London Eye a while back. This was going to be based on some old pictures I had taken when we lived and worked in London. Since then, we made a trip to the UK and ended up staying very close to the attraction. I remember when they were initially building it. The whole structure was laid out flat on the river and, only when it was complete, did they winch it up into the vertical position.

It was a huge hit when it opened and it remains so today. The opening of The Shard has provided a new location for people to get an elevated view of London but this hasn’t stopped the visitors lining up. While we were visiting, England was preparing for the start of the Rugby World Cup and the pods on the Eye had the flags of the competing nations applied to the undersides. This added some color to the structure.

Shortly before we left London, I headed out early in the morning to get some shots of the Eye. It was interesting to see the different shapes it offers depending on where you view it from. It wasn’t in use at the time so things were being readied for the day with some of the mechanisms being tested and the pods were stationery. I didn’t get a chance to shoot it at night which was a shame but that wasn’t why I was there. However, it was nice to see it again and to see that it is going strong, long after its original out of service date has passed. I hope it will remain a feature for a long time to come.

Redmond Airtanker Base

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My trip to Madras involved flying in to Redmond airport, about half an hour south of Madras. Hayman and I came in on the same flight and shared a ride to Madras. As we drove out of the airport, something interesting caught my eye on the other side of the field so we did a little exporting before heading off. Redmond has a base for Airtanker operations in support of firefighting. The aircraft that I had first seen was a DC-7 that had been converted for tanker operations and was painted up in Erickson colors. It looked immaculate and the activity suggested it might be preparing to depart. With fires in the surrounding hills, there was plenty of work.

While we waited for it to start up, a BAe146 tanker conversion landed and taxied in to the base. It was the first time I had seen one in person. Sadly the fencing around the base was rather touch to shoot through. Hayman made good use of the gap under the gates but my camera shape did not allow that. I had to make do with shooting through the fence where possible.

Shortly after the 146 came in, the DC-7 fired up and taxied out. With it gone, we figured it was time for us to continue on our way too.

A2AX Workshop

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About a year ago I saw a ton of cracking images showing up online from friends of mine that had attended the Madras A2AX workshop. At the time I figured I needed to start panning on being there for the next edition of the workshop. It is run by Scott Slocum and Lyle Jansma at the Erickson Air Museum’s facility and their aircraft provided the subjects for the photo flights. Scott and Lyle were joined by Paul Bowen. Paul was not instructing but he did provide his own perspective and guidance on what we were working on and also could be relied on to show up with his camera whenever you were looking at your goofiest and to tell some hilarious tales of his various exploits.

I met some familiar faces and made a whole bunch of new friends. Various hurdles were thrown in the way of the team due to weather and serviceability issues but they adapted well and the team were intent on having a good time whatever was going on. It was a fantastic weekend with some great learning opportunities and some beautiful aircraft to photograph. Here are a couple of samples of what we had to play with.

Rochelle Rail Park

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Rochelle IL is about half way between Chicago and the Mississippi River. For those with an interest in railroading, it is known as a location where the Union Pacific and the BNSF railroads cross. The town has taken this crossing to heart and created a park where the two lines intersect. There is a place to sit under cover and watch the trains come through while there are areas for kids to play. There is even a gift shop that stocks railroad related gifts.

I was in Rochelle for work and my colleagues were interested in seeing where the crossing was located so, during a lunch break, we headed to see it. It was a rather hot day so hanging around in the sun did not seem like a good idea to me. I went straight to the covered area to stay in the shade while they took a look around. Of course, I wasn’t going to go somewhere without taking my camera along.

We weren’t there terribly long but we did have a few trains come through. If I had thought about things, I might have come better prepared and had some hearing protection. The two tracks cross on the flat and then there are grade crossings for the local streets so they sound their horns as they come through. In such close proximity, this is a touch loud!

Kfirs

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Time for another post on a specific military aircraft. This time it is one with an interesting history. The Israeli Air Force was a customer of Dassault’s Mirage aircraft and had good experience with it. However, Dassault/France declined to sell further aircraft to Israel. Instead, the Israelis decided to make their own version. A combination of covert acquisition of design drawings and the introduction of a new engine resulted in the creation of the Kfir.

During the 1980s, a number of Kfirs were supplied to the US Navy to be operated as aggressor aircraft under the F-21 designation. Their use in service was not terribly long but, once they were withdrawn, they were acquired by private companies to use in support roles for training. I have come across them a couple of times. One was at Pt Mugu in California when an example was shooting approaches. The other time was during a visit to NAS Fallon in Nevada where they were launching on training missions.

The Kfir is quite a mean looking aircraft. The original delta wing design has many good attributes but approach speed is not one of them and they really do seem to be motoring when they come down the approach. I imagine they will remain in service for a number of years to come so I hope to see more in due course.

Get Ready for Some UK Stuff

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A short while ago, Nancy and I returned from a vacation in the UK. We had an excellent time and ended up seeing and doing a ton of interesting things. Consequently, the blog is going to have a stream of things from the UK showing up in the coming weeks. This is just the start.