Tag Archives: arizona

Pinal Jets

During the Arizona trip, Mark and I swung by Pinal Airpark in Marana to see what was stored on the airfield. There are aircraft that are operational here and some come in for maintenance but there are also a lot that are stored, either indefinitely or until the demand for them returns. Lots of the older types are ones that you know will not be going anywhere again. The 777s and A330s do have a good chance of finding another use. There were a ton of American Eagle EMB145s lined up near the fence. Not sure what will happen to them. The smaller regional jets are not so popular at this point, but they could find a role at some point.

All planes cease to be of use at some point. It is a bit sad to see them when that time comes but they may well contribute parts to those that remain so that is a plus. Additionally, it is interesting to see such a wide variety of different operators represented in the collection of planes stored. Some of them have replaced the jets with something newer and better while others failed as airlines and the planes became surplus. It is a change from seeing the same operators all the time.

Planes on Poles in Arizona

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Early 2024, during the trip to Arizona with Mark, we saw plenty of planes moving but also a few that won’t be flying again. Mark knew of a bunch of planes on display in the area and we were able to swing by a few of them during our trip. Some were in odd locations – a school would not be a place I expected an A-26 for example. A Veterans center was a more logical one. Old airframes show up in the oddest places. Here are some from our explorations.

Helos at the End of the Day at Gateway

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During the visit Mark and I made to Mesa Gateway Airport, we got a couple of rotary visitors to the field as the day was winding down. The first to show up was a Bell 412. The Huey is a very different beast when it is equipped with the modern rotor and this one also sported a nice paint scheme. It looked pretty slick. A bunch of guys were dropped off and then the 412 was back on its way. No idea what they were doing and probably shouldn’t know either.

A short while later, it was an Astar that came in. Maybe not as impressive a livery (although it did look nice) but the evening light was getting better and better, so it did make for a nice image. Looking through the images, one of the passengers seems to be super excited. If I was running around in an Astar all the time, I guess I would be pretty pleased too. A nice way to wrap up a fun day.

DM A-10s Are Gradually Going Away

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For the longest time, there have been efforts by the USAF to drawn down the A-10 force. Various things have held them back from doing this but now there is a pretty concerted effort to retire them. Units are closing down, and it does seem that the aircraft might no longer have a role in the order of battle. There are many fans of the A-10 including me and some will never accept it can be replaced while others will think its time has come. They were produced from the late 70s to the early 80s, so they are definitely old, even if parts of them are a lot newer like the wings.

What we like or think doesn’t matter. They seem to be going away. Consequently, when we were at Davis-Monthan during the Arizona trip, I was pleased to get to shoot a few of the jets working around the pattern there. I know my Harrier experiences this year have shown how wrong you can be about when you will ever see things again, but I figure the number of encounters I shall have with these jets will be limited. Even so, they are continuing to make new developments as Mark found on a follow up visit when he saw a new store mounted on one of the evaluation jets. The A-10 was a favorite of mine in my teens, and it will be a shame when they are all gone.

S-2 Airframes Lined Up in the Evening Light

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Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson is well known as the storage location for hundreds/thousands of airframes that may either return to service or may provide spare parts for airframes still in service. Just outside the perimeter of the base are some privately owned facilities that also have a lot of old airframes. Whether they will provide parts to support operations somewhere or will ultimately just become scrap metal, I don’t know. One of these facilities has an extensive collection of S-2 airframes. They are lined up in rows and, as the evening light came in, they looked particularly interesting. A longer lens allowed some compression of the perspective for these aircraft and their bare metal picked up the light nicely. I imagine none of these will ever be flying again but I hope they survive for a long time.

Top Aces F-16s

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Luke AFB has some contractor operated jets that we were hoping to get a chance to shoot. The ATAC Mirage F1s did launch while we were there but, despite waiting for quite some time, they never returned. However, Top Aces launched their F-16A aircraft and we were more lucky with these guys. They did do as requested and recovered before we left. Contractor operations are usually with old jets of previous generations so it is hard for me to accept that early model F-16s are now sufficiently old to fit that model. How can that be? These ex-Israeli aircraft are still in their desert colors and it was nice to get a chance to shoot them.

Singaporean F-16s

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While Luke AFB is now predominantly an F-35 base, there are still some F-16s based there. The Singaporean Air Force has its US based jets at Luke, and we were glad that they were active on the day we were there. Their two seat jets have the enlarged spine and so stand out compared to US aircraft. They also have some special paint jets on base, and we did get a look at these. One of the jets did a low approach followed by a go-around which resulted in it passing by low with the gear up, which was a welcome piece of action.

The light was bright and harsh, which isn’t ideal for photographing dark jets, but you go with what you have. Trying to get the most of the markings of the jets meant playing with the images in post quite a bit. If the high clouds make for a bad backdrop, nothing much you can do about that.

Crop Duster Conflicting Arrival

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The traffic at Eloy was mainly light aircraft on training flights or jump ships for the sky diving operation. As one of the Twin Otters was lining up to depart, we saw a crop-dusting aircraft approaching the field. He seemed intent on landing from the opposite direction to that which the Twotter was going to use. We wondered how this would play out but they clearly had done this before. The jump ship got swiftly airborne and then turned left and directly towards us. This gave it separation from the inbound plane which then landed quite happily on the now vacated runway. It also meant we got some different angles on the departing plane which was welcome.

T-38s Including Some Color

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Mesa Gateway Airport is a popular spot for cross country flights by various military aircraft. T-38 training jets are particularly common apparently so, while it was my first time visiting the airport, catching some arriving Talons was not a surprise. What was unusual was that one of them was in a retro paint scheme in a green camouflage design. It was looking very well finished as it taxied in and parked. The various student trainees parked their jets and walked into the FBO. Many of them appeared to be overseas students training in the US.

Twotter Jump Ship

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One of the sky diving airfields in Arizona is at Eloy. A small field in a very small town, Eloy has a lot of customers for the jump ships and the vertical wind tunnel. During our trip, I had seen some Skyvans operating as jump ships, and I was quite looking forward to the chance to shoot some Skyvan ops from close range. When we got to Eloy, it turned out that things were different on the day. The Skyvans were nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was Twin Otters providing the lift and, once we were there, only one of them. However, there were a couple of locations around the field that gave us options to photograph the Twotter with it taking off to the north and recovering in a southerly direction. There was even one departure when it turned right over us but the reason for that will show up in a future post.