Tag Archives: Fighting Falcon

Thunderbirds Show Up (As Does Their Support)

While Mark and I were in Arizona, we heard about the potential of Harriers being at El Centro. We decided an additional leg to our trip was worth it and headed for California. As we came up to the base after a few hours of driving, we saw something rather unanticipated over the airfield. The USAF demonstration team, The Thunderbirds, were flying around over the field. It turns out that they had gone to El Centro to spend some time working with the Blue Angels that were still there for winter training.

This had us worried. If the teams were going to be flying, that would stop the other base operations, and our trip would have been futile. Fortunately, they landed and were going to spend the afternoon on the ground talking about whatever demonstration teams talk about. Operations would continue. We did get one flight with a Thunderbirds call sign, though. The C-17 that had come to support them headed off. It had a Thunderbird call sign and did try a sporty take off and climb out. I’m not sure whether everyone was really buying it though.

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.

Mix of F-16s in Tucson

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Every once in a while, the Air Force moves airframes around between units. One may have exhausted the limits on their airframes and they need to be retired or it could just be a balancing exercise to spread the usage types across the larger fleet. The Arizona Air National Guard unit at Tucson has recently received a bunch of different (calling them new would be a stretch) jets that have come from various units around the country. They will be marked up with the AZ tail code in due course but, at the time of my visit, they were still carrying markings from a bunch of other bases. Getting a diverse range of tails before they all became the same was the challenge while there. Here are some of the results.

My First Sighting of F-16Vs

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The designation of the F-16V is one that leaves me a bit confused. There are A model jets that are upgraded to this standard, but I thought some new build jets were also having the designation. Maybe I am mistaken about that. I also see two-seaters upgraded to the standard so an A or a B model can now be a V model? Anyway, enough about that. I got to see some.

Taiwan has been upgrading its fleet of A and B model F-16s to V models. The program is nearly complete from what I have read. They operate a number of the jets from the Guard base in Tucson at the international airport. While Mark and I were there, we got to see a bunch of them launch and recover. This included one with special markings in the fin. The markings are otherwise not too conspicuous but, because they are early model jets, the lack of the bulged fin root with its antenna is the thing that allowed me to identify them. Must be some life left in those airframes despite their age!

F-16s In Odd Colors

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Sentry Eagle 2022 had a couple of F-16s on static display that had been painted up in special color schemes. They were supposed to be throwback schemes but, according to those I know that know more about these sorts of things, there are some issues with the schemes that they chose. I have no idea about such things but I have to say, neither scheme seemed to look that great to me. They felt slightly cartoonish but I can’t come up with a better explanation what it was.

Getting shots of them both was not straightforward. First, there were a ton of people around as they were central to the static displays for the show. Also, the sun was very high and bright and they was a lot of contrast to deal with. One of them was also close to a shadow from a hangar which made for even more contrast issues. Since we weren’t staying on base for the full show, I only had a narrow window to work with. It did improve just before we left, thankfully.

Gate Guards At Klamath Falls

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The 173FW at Klamath Falls has flown a variety of types over the year. One of the advantages of the base being open for Sentry Eagle 2022 was the chance to check out the preserved examples that they have. There is a central avenue on base that is the location of an F-4, an F-15 and an F-16. They are mounted on poles and in the colors of the unit. The lighting can be a bit tricky depending on the time of day but there are ways of making the most of what you can get.

Each plane is set up in a dynamic pose as is appropriate for a fighter aircraft. They are well looked after and there aren’t too many items on them that you would want removed, like spikes to deter birds from landing. I was surprised how few of the visitors to the event actually came to check them out as they weren’t far from the main route to the ramp but it certainly made it easier trying to get some shots.

Shooting Under The Arrivals

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When the arrivals at Nellis on on the 03 runways, it means a trip to Cheyenne. This is not the greatest part of the world to visit but it is a feature of a Nellis trip. The sun angles were still quite low while I was there so I decided to try shooting from further around the road than I have done previously. For the planes coming in on the left runway, I had a reasonable sun angle on them. For planes on the right, they were coming right over my head.

I quite liked shooting like this. The planes have a surprising amount of variety in their line up angles when this far from the threshold so, while they are all coming close to you, it is not a repeat of the same shot every time. Each pilot takes a slightly different line and some variation in elevation too. You get something akin to head on shots and then it is a case of rapidly swiveling around to get a shot from behind.

There is a lot of fencing and trees along that part of the road so getting a clean shot of everything is hard to achieve. However, it is still possible to get something a little different. With the light angles being less than ideal, rather than worry about shots that aren’t going to be very usable due to either glare or shadow, why not get something a little different. It does require some quick adjustments and it can get a touch noisy but it is still fun to try something a little different.

The Light Comes Back At The End Of The Day

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The weather at Nellis was definitely not playing ball for the majority of my time at Red Flag 22-2. However, as the recoveries from the afternoon exercise were completing, some of the regular base traffic was getting ready to launch. Nellis is a bit like Seattle (hear me out) in that, even when the weather is a bit crappy in the afternoon, there is a good chance the light improves later on. This proved to be the case on my first full day there.

As the later jets were launching, the clouds had cleared up a bit and there was some nice low angle sun to be had on the aircraft as they headed out. I had gone up past Gate 6 at the Speedway to be in place for any Flex departures and this proved to be a good spot. Some of the jets turned a little beyond me but gave a better top side view while other turned a bit earlier and were almost heading overhead where I was. The light was better than anything I had got earlier in the day so it worked for me.

Honolulu Military Traffic

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While sitting at the terminal at Honolulu waiting for our flight home many moons ago, I was staring out of the window at the traffic arriving and departing. Being in a different area meant plenty of different airlines as well as the more familiar ones. I created a post a while back that included some of the more usual operators. However, the airport shares a runway with the Air Force base. When you are on final approach, you get to see some of the fighters in shelters. It also means that some military traffic might arrive.

A bunch of F-16s started appearing as they rolled out after landing. I don’t know whether Hawaii was their destination or just a good stopover as part of a Pacific crossing. They weren’t making the journey unsupervised though. A KC-10 was dragging them across the ocean and it soon showed up too. I guess the last refueling was the cue for the F-16s to put in a burst of speed to get in first with the “Gucci” following them home.

Fort Worth F-16s

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Ahead of an ISAP symposium many years ago, my friend Richard had arranged a visit to JRB Carswell at Fort Worth. As well as being the home of the Lockheed Martin assembly plant, it also hosts the 301^st FW of the USAF Reserve with their F-16s. They were great hosts and we got to spend a bunch of time around the base. On their ramp space, we had a lot of freedom to shoot them prepping for missions and heading out.

We also got to go to the EOR and see them come in after their missions and have the jets safed prior to taxiing back to the ramp. Being close to the jets while they are doing real work is such a different experience to seeing them at an air show when things are all a bit more contrived. This was a new experience for me at the time and so I was following the example of a few of the other guys when looking to see what sort of things to get shots of. It was a great learning experience and a bunch of fun too!