Tag Archives: nevada

McCarran Morning

I have never actually shot at McCarran International Airport at Las Vegas. My only time shooting nearby was the hunt for the Janet jet last time I went to Red Flag but I had never tried the many spots the airport has to offer. With a quiet morning and Chris Wood as my guide, we went to the airport to shoot the morning arrivals and departures.

There are, apparently, many good places to shoot at McCarran. As the day progresses, the useful locations change but there is always somewhere that can work and Chris has checked them all out at various times. This time we were at the parking garage watching the traffic on the 01 runways. This gives the classic Las Vegas shots with the casinos in the background.

Nothing special to talk about for this shoot. Just a chance to try out a new place for me. I was surprised that, despite the strong sun and reasonable distance to the aircraft, the heat haze was really not a problem. The traffic was pretty predictable stuff but a new place always means it is a bit more interesting. Then something more special did show up but that will get its own post.

Night Launches

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When the daylight flying activities are over, there is still the night and Red Flag has a night mission that is flown on most days. Therefore, after dinner, you can head up to a spot north of the speedway where there is a great view over the base with Las Vegas in the background. It is dark up there so there are not many good chances for shooting the jets but you can sometimes get some shots of stuff flying over if it lights itself up.

However, you can get some shots of the base with the launching jets showing up either from their afterburners or from the heat distortion they leave behind.

The other thing is to run a time lapse and see the jets moving around on the base and then streaking off into the sky. I ran a couple of them over two nights. Below is the result of one of them. Two things to note. First, the launch was very spread out. The main jet launch was actually quite late and I was tired and cold so cut short the sequence while they were still heading out. The second is that a weird optical effect shows up in the video. It is a movement of the image a bit like heat haze. However, since the shots are taken over such a long period of time, you would think that would not be an issue. Something is going on though so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment with your thoughts.

B-2 Quest

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The B-2 has been around for a long time now. However, with only 20 of them around, they are still a rarity and good to try and catch. We were having mixed luck with them during Red Flag. We were late to the runways and so missed the launch. I got an iPhone shot and that was it. They were almost the last aircraft to recover so, again, we were on the bus when they landed. This was more frustrating since the sun was low and right down the runway making them look amazing. I was on the wrong side of the bus so just watched what I could see through the opposite windows. My colleague, Chris, was on that side so did get some shots for the feature.

The following day I saw them launch. Early shots at Nellis from the speedway are not the best. They are quite heavily backlit so getting a good shot is not really practical. They also launch the B-2 from the far runway so it is a bit further away as well. When they were coming back, I had an idea. There is a location a lot further out which is quite good at night for looking over the field. You are in line with the runways so I thought it might be a good spot as the B-2 recovered. They would be relatively low since they were landing and the great evening light would be right on the nose.

As the recoveries wound up, I packed my gear and left the rest of the guys on the speedway and drove off. I was getting quite close to the time I needed to leave for the airport so I was ready to get going as soon as they came in. First I got the tankers coming back. They did a bit of pattern work which was a bit disappointing but not the end of the world. I could see the crews de-rigging the cables since the B-2 and Sentinel cannot trample the wires. Then the Sentinel came into view. The runway still wasn’t clear so I wasn’t surprised when it broke off the approach and flew a pattern. Again, a bit disappointing but not too bad.

Finally the B-2s came into view. Time was now passed when I really should be gone but I had waited this long so I wasn’t going to quit now. The jet came down the approach and right over me as planned. It looked great. It was being followed by the other which then broke off its approach. I figured I had tried my luck enough and started to pack up. Then the first jet flew a go around and went into the pattern. I can only imagine how good the shots were that the guys at the speedway got as it flew around in the lovely evening light. I hope they were good. I was pleased with what I got so all was well. A dash to the airport went well and I made the flight without too much trouble.

Typhoon Time

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One of the reasons I was keen to cover Red Flag this time was the presence of the RAF Typhoons. I worked on Typhoon many years ago and, while they are a common sight in Europe these days, I don’t get to see them very often. These aircraft had also been upgraded with the latest capabilities which they were testing during the exercise.

Getting close to them during the launch, recovery and from outside the base as they were in the pattern gave some good chances to get some shots and to enjoy something I had a tiny hand in many years ago.

Red Flag Launches

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I was back at Nellis AFB recently for another Red Flag exercise for Global Aviation Resource. Chris Wood and I were there to cover it and the piece we put together can be found at this link. After the last visit to Red Flag when a security issue resulted in all of the media being escorted off base just before the launch, I was hoping for better luck this time. Fortunately, we did pretty well. The launch went well and, while the light was a bit poor for the departures, it got better as the day went on.

Standing between the runways as the aircraft go off each side is pretty cool. We had a lot of USAF assets this time but also some Navy Growlers and RAF Typhoons. An RAF Sentinel was a nice addition – particularly as it was the aircraft with the squadron markings. One unfortunate element was that the launch was earlier than had been scheduled for our visit and the early aircraft off included the B-2s. We were still on the bus when they launched. I managed to get a shot with my phone out of the window but that was it. I do actually quite like the shot so all is not lost.

The feature has many more shots but here are a few to give you an idea of what was there.

Stead Field National Guard

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Quite a few years ago, I was on a visit to NAS Fallon with my friend Richard. (You can check out his work at http://www.aviationimaging.com/ and I recommend you do.) Another buddy, Paul, was also along and the day after we were at Fallon, Paul had arranged a visit to the National Guard facility at Stead Field, north of Reno. (Paul’s work can be found at http://skippyscage.com/) This base operated a variety of helicopters including Chinooks, Black Hawks and Kiowas. It was also once the home of CH-54 Tarhes. It was in looking for pictures of the CH-54 that is preserved there that I came across the rest of the shots from that day.

I took one Chinook shot that morning that I have used a number of times but the rest of them had kind of been forgotten. We had a great time wandering through the hangars seeing what was ready for use or undergoing maintenance. The high point of the day was that a Chinook was launching and we were allowed out onto the ramp outside the fence to be in place when the Chinook taxied out and took off.

As it happened, the Chinook pulled up into the hover and stayed there for quite some time. Since I had time, I progressively lowered my shutter speed to try and get more rotor blur on the famously slow turning Chinook rotor. I had just got as low as I could go when he suddenly transitioned to forward flight. I was at totally the wrong shutter speed and ended up with some parallax issues as he flew by but it was all good.

The Chinook obviously features here a bit but I wanted to share some of the other helicopters that were there that day. It was fun to see some shots that I had forgotten about long ago.

Red Bull Air Race

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The Red Bull Air Race series was restarted for 2014 after a three year break. I have to admit I thought it wouldn’t come back when they stopped previously but I was wrong and this year seems to have been a successful one for them. The neutralized engine approach has certainly made the competition a lot closer. I was covering the event for Global Aviation Resource and the link below will take you to the article I wrote.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/wp-admin/post.php?post=40015&action=edit

The Red Bull team provided a great facility for the media. We had three rooms with power and internet connectivity and food was provided throughout the day. Needless to say, if you wanted something to drink, there was plenty of Red Bull available! It had been a while since I had drunk it (and previously it might have been close to some vodka) but it was actually pretty good stuff. Doubt it shall be a regular feature for me though. These shots are some of the racers combined with a few of the other parts of the event that didn’t get so much attention in the feature.

Hawaiian Airbus and Friends

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While waiting to get the shot of the Janet flight I posted about previously, there were plenty of other departures from McCarran. The majority of flights were coming out on the westerly runway rather than the one the Janets use so we were not getting the nice topside view of them turning. However, the light was very nice and so a few of them provided interesting targets. The Hawaiian Airbus A330 looked particularly nice but most looked good on those conditions. We were a bit focused on finding out how the Janet was doing so didn’t give them our full attention but some looked too good to ignore.

Janets

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The shuttle of flights run out of McCarran Airport, Las Vegas by private contractors for various departments of the US Government are known as the Janets. Previously operated using Boeing 737-200s, the flights have now been upgraded to 737-600s, probably as a result of the low price of these jets given their lack of popularity with airlines. They operate a pretty busy schedule at certain times of day. The flights file a plan to a location and then cancel it en route as they divert to whatever secret installation that is their true destination. Paul, Chris and I decided to try and find a good location to catch one as it departs since they make a tight turn out and should have good light in the evening. Several arrived while we were there and we were too late for one of the departures but we did catch one of them heading out. The light ended up being very favorable.

Lone Bat

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My evening outside in Nevada with Paul and Chris included some down time while we waited to see what would happen next. While we were hanging around, we spotted a bat fluttering around. Needless to say, we had not come prepared for night wildlife photography. However, I had the ISO ramped up and a long lens in my hands so, while the shutter speeds might have been a bit low, I figured I would have a go. The little fella was not terribly close so these are cropped quite heavily and even then he is a bit small but a couple of the shots give you the distinctive outline of a bat, even if he was fluttering so fast that freezing him was not going to be on the cards.