Tag Archives: aircraft

First Flight – for a while at least

My friends at the Warbird Heritage Foundation in Waukegan have been working for a long time on adding another aircraft to their already excellent collection. The newest aircraft is a P-51 Mustang called Baby Duck. It is many years since Baby Duck last flew and she has gone through an extensive restoration since being recovered from a storage location near Philadelphia.

The work has been undertaken at Tap-Air in East Troy WI. They have been putting her back together after a thorough restoration of the whole airframe and engine and the whole process has been coming to a climax with the approach of the first flight post restoration.

After some engine runs and taxiing tests, the date for the first flight was set. Paul Wood, the owner of the foundation, kindly invited me up to see the flight and I headed up to East Troy on a gorgeous day. Pilot for the first flight was Vlado Lenoch. Vlado is a highly experienced pilot of Mustangs. He has his own aircraft, Moonbeam McSwine which he displays all around the country. However, he has flown many other aircraft. I think he said that this was his 25th!

After some final checks on the airframe, Vlado fired her up and taxied off for departure. I headed to a spot up the field to be ready for the first wheels up moment. While it was a lovely day, it was warm and sunny so heat haze was a big deal. However, you don’t get to choose when these things are happening so you go with it and get what you can.

The first flight went very well. Vlado took her up to altitude, cycled the systems, undertook some handling checks and basically made sure things were good. Then he brought her back for a flyby – a good sign that he was pleased with the aircraft. There then followed a debrief about e issues that he had found. The Tap-Air guys then took the opportunity to try and fix a few of the issues that could be dealt with immediately while we had a bite to eat before Vlado took her up again.

This time he had a longer sortie and pushed her a little harder with some basic aeros. All went well and again he showed his comfort with everything with another flyby. After landing, another debrief with the guys and a list of tasks to be worked on. There is still some work to do but, hopefully she should be making her way to her new home pretty soon. Probably not soon enough to make it to Oshkosh this year but there is always another year!

As a finish, I animated some of the shots together to make a pseudo-video. Here is the result.

Bye Bye JAL 747s

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When I was a small kid, I had a book called Pictorial History of Aircraft. This was the 1970s and so the Boeing 747 was still a relatively new kid on the block. It certainly wasn’t the times of the 400 series being knocked out at the rate of one a week. The pictures in this book showed Japan Air Lines (JAL) as an operator of both passenger and freighter versions of the jet.

As time passed by, JAL grew its fleet substantially and was for a long time the largest operator of 747s in the world. Therefore, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that the poor financial state of JAL combined with the introduction of more efficient big twins has meant the 747 has gone from JAL’s passenger operations. It is odd to know I won’t see one again (except perhaps at a storage yard). Every once in a while the airline industry has a big change – the end of Pan Am is one that springs to mind. For me, this is one of those moments.

Anyway, they are gone but I have a few shots of them to remember them by. I wonder what will be next to go?!

ISAP Field Trip – Part 3

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Back in the bus and it seemed to be running okay now – that is if you didn’t count the clunking that was coming from the suspension almost directly under my seat! Of course, there was still a question as to whether our driver knew where he was going. However, after a few wrong turns, we did arrive at our last destination of the day.

This was Gillespie Field and, more specifically, Bill Allen’s collection. Bill has developed a series of properties on the field that are combination homes and hangars. They are designed to have a really vintage look though and create a mini village at one end of the field.

Bill was an excellent host. Aside from making his place open to us and providing very welcome refreshments and food, he had some great aircraft on display including Stearmans and a Bucker Jungmeister. This was the day preceding the field’s airshow so a variety of interesting aircraft were arriving while we were there.

As I walked in, a familiar dace wandered up. Paul Dunn if Global Aviation Resource was there. Work had brought him to LA and he had taken the chance to come down and spend time with the subject of one of his articles, Captain Eddie, owner of an immaculate Fairey Firefly. Paul suggested I head around the corner to see it before too many people spotted it. Indeed it was a beautifully restored example and I grabbed a few shots.

We all then retreated to the grass near the Jungmeister. As the evening drew in, the light was just getting better and better. There was no urgency to shoot so we relaxed on the grass, occasionally hopping up if something new appeared. A beautiful evening in great surroundings with friends was pretty idyllic.

As the light finally faded we had a couple more treats. A pair if the Stearmans fired up for some dusk passes across the field. Meanwhile, another aircraft was staged for a lighting demonstration by Joe McNally. He put together the shot and built up a selection of flashes to light it, showing us the whole process as he went. Very interesting, even if I did feel a touch guilty running off occasionally when the Stearmans made another pass.

Finally it was dark and time to bid farewell to Bill and Gillespie and head back to the hotel. What a day!

USS Midway

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I got to San Diego a day early for ISAP. There is often a chance to get out and about on the day before and some of the other attendees will do the same. Consequently, it is possible to hook up with a few folks and go exploring. I managed to get together with Bonnie and Gary (see the previous post about their visit to Chicago) as well as Larry.

As people who were heavily involved in the preparation for ISAP, there were some things that they were going to have to do to set up everything for the arrival of the majority of the attendees. That meant any trip we made would have to be back by mid-afternoon but that allowed us to make a trek down to the waterfront in San Diego to go around the USS Midway.

The Midway is a retired aircraft carrier that is moored in the harbor. It has a self guided tour that takes you around various parts of the ship to get an idea of what life aboard an aircraft carrier is. (Of course, wandering around a relatively empty ship in harbor is not the same as being at see with a few thousand of your closest friends for months at a time!)

There are a number of preserved aircraft through the hangar deck and up on the flight deck so there is plenty to see apart from the ship itself although that is fascinating in itself. Getting there shortly after it opened meant it wasn’t too crowded. Even as the time went by, it still didn’t seem that crowded to me and when I was on the lower decks, I was often the only person I could see.

The tour provided lots of interesting details about the way the ship operates along with a number of historical references to its time in service. Built shortly after the war, the ship has gone through a number of major updates to get to the point at which it was operating fast jets into the 1990s.

There are some nicely restored aircraft throughout the ship of varying vintages. The oddball for me was the F-14 since that was too large to operate from this class of carrier so it would never have been to sea on the Midway. However, that is really a minor issue. Besides, hanging out in San Diego Harbor on a sunny day is hardly a bad way to spend some time.

I had a lucky break which I nearly blew. Having grown up in the home of the hovercraft, one thing I like to see is hovercraft around the world. The Marines operate the LCAC hovercraft for landing ashore and have a base for the LCACs just up the coast from San Diego at Camp Pendleton. Given the opportunity, I would like to go up and photograph them at work. That wasn’t practical on this trip but, while up on deck, I heard a loud noise of a prop. At first I thought it was a sound effect from a display on the ship. It was only too late that I realized an LCAC was transiting the harbor.

If I had been quicker, I might have been able to move from the stern of the ship (closest to the shore) to something closer to the open water. Sadly, this was not to be. Instead, I ran to the LSO platform and managed to grab a quick couple of shots of the LCAC as it passed. Not what I would have hoped for but certainly better than nothing.

Once off the ship and getting ready to head back to the hotel, we bumped into a couple of other attendees for the symposium. Obviously, a sunny day by the water is considered a good idea by many!

Out of Practice

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A weekend day crops up with some good light, a relatively clear schedule and a feeling that it has been a while since I was shooting some aircraft. If it flies, I am interesting in taking its picture. If pressed, military and rotary are the favorites for me but I am not a snob and I am more than happy to take pictures of airliners if the opportunity presents itself.

O’Hare is not far away and Midway is even closer. Both are busy fields but they are not a source of much diversity when it comes to traffic. Midway is Southwest heaven but not a lot else (although there are a fair few business jets every once in a while). O’Hare is fine if you want a lot of United Express and American Eagle regional jets. However, there is a period in the middle of the afternoon when a lot of the European traffic comes in and that is what tempted me to venture up that way.

It was also an opportunity to make use of some technology. I have had times in the past when I finally gave up after a steady stream on the same old stuff, only to head down the road as something very interesting shows up. Now, with Flightaware on my phone and LiveATC’s app streaming, it is a lot easier to be aware of what is due in and when. Makes for a more relaxing time!

The afternoon arrivals also coincide with the sun coming round to the right location so all looked good, as long as the weather was prepared to hold. No tension being built here – the weather stayed great!

I showed up ahead of the main arrival times although I was just a little too late to catch and AeroUnion A300. It left while I was there but the perimeter fence means nothing useful to show of that. However, we did have a great selection of stuff to get my first big afternoon of shooting in. There is also the normal stream of the local stuff and I didn’t ignore that completely but usually only to try something I wouldn’t go for on a one off arrival.

We had KLM, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian amongst others. The Turkish jet had a large Manchester United logo on the side but I didn’t hold that against them. Royal Jordanian really do have a very attractive livery. Only Iberia let us down by arriving on the center runway rather than the southern where we were. Ho hum!

All in all a great day out and a nice way to spend some time in the sun – outdoors after the generally dull winter we have had so far. As if to round that point out, that evening it snowed a bit again! What is going on?

Fun with warbirds

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Since it is the beginning of the year from an air show perspective, it is time to get the aircraft up and ready for the new season. The winter is a great time for maintenance to be undertaken and the great team at Warbird Heritage Foundation is no exception. A couple of their aircraft were recently up and about being wrung out after winter maintenance tasks and I was lucky enough to spend some time with them while they were undertaking some test flying.

The WHF team is always very welcoming but they are not alone. Jim’s team at Waukegan airport is also really helpful when trying to get in position to get some good shots of the aircraft as they are being tested. The two aircraft at work this time were the A-4 Skyhawk and the A-1 Skyraider. Two great looking aircraft. The weather is not always going to be cooperative at this time of year – not only from a photography point of view but also from a flying perspective. However, you make the best of the chances that come along.

What better way to spend a day than hanging out with a great team of people and photographing some unusual aircraft. What more can I want? Thanks Paul and team and also thanks to Jim at the airport.