Tag Archives: night

Departure of Solar Impulse

Having been to Moffett Field for the arrival of Solar Impulse and then made another visit to the hangar while they were there, I wasn’t going to miss the departure. This might not seem like a difficult decision to make but if I tell you I had been away in Southern California for the weekend and having driven back on Sunday and then finding out that departure was scheduled for 5am on Monday and we would be required to get there at 2am and I would need to be up at 1am, you can see why this was a bit tougher to do.

However, I was committed at this point (or should have been) so I slept in the spare room so as to not disturb Nancy. Off for an early run. Traffic was no problem at that time as your might imagine. Once there it was back to the same issues as we had faced with the arrival. It was very dark. Hayman did the stills and I went for video but got some stills as well. Unfortunately, they chose not to back-track the aircraft as had been briefed so it took off from ahead of us and went away. We still got some good shots and, while it got airborne very quickly, it got to a certain distance when it seemed like it had stopped moving.

Then, it was time to go. We wrapped up and got on our way. I actually was back at home a little ahead of my normal time to get up so I did my normal routine and headed in to the office. It would be fair to say that I was not at my most perky that day!

Add an Ilyushin to the Recent Visitors

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There have been a bunch of AN124s popping in to Moffett Field recently, one of which I saw while at the Solar Impulse arrival event. When I went back for the departure (which I covered for Global Aviation Resource in this article), I was surprised to see another freighter from the old Eastern Bloc. At his one was a more recent version though. It was an Ilyushin IL-76 but one that is fitted with the PS90 engine. It had been brought in to transport the ground crew and their gear for Solar Impulse. They were heading to Phoenix next and, since it was a short flight, everything needed to move quickly.

I didn’t get a great chance to photograph the plane. It was a long way up the ramp and there were too many lights between us to make for a great shot. However, I got what I could. My friend Hayman works nearby and he was able to get the departure later in the morning. I’m not jealous…

Night Loading the Ruslan

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Waiting on the ramp at Moffett Field for Solar Impulse, over on the other side of the field we could see another visitor. An Antonov AN124 Ruslan was parked up with its nosed raised in the process of loading a payload. It looked a bit like a satellite container and, given the proximity of two satellite manufacturers, that wouldn’t be improbable. It was a long way off but I had some time to try and get a shot and this was what I got.

The Camera Might See But Autofocus Doesn’t

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And I could barely see much myself! We were on the ramp at Moffett Field for the arrival of Solar Impulse. There was some time to wait while we were out there. As I looked around, I thought I could see something parked further down the ramp. There was very little light but there appeared to be some aircraft. I figured it was worth a look given that I had a tripod.

In the days of film shooting, I couldn’t trust the camera metering for long exposures. Reciprocity failure was part of the issue but the cameras were a lot less advanced in those days. In this case I trusted the camera for the first shot and it worked out really well. Sadly, there was nothing to focus on so I made my best forts at focusing on what was visible and it was some background lights. Sadly, they were too far away to get focus on the aircraft. The sensor was able to gather the feeble light without any problem though.

It turns out that there was a pair of Navy E/A-18G Growlers sitting on the ramp. Leave the camera to it and you get a reasonable exposure. When I saw the shot appear on the screen, I was quite amazed. I was looking at the jets and I could barely make anything out. The camera was able to see the whole thing – just out of focus based on my inability to focus it properly.

Solar Impulse and Shooting at Midnight

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The round the world trip of Solar Impulse, the solar powered aircraft conceived of by Bertrand Piccard and built/flown by him and Andre Borschberg, resumed its journey after an enforced stay in Hawaii while they dealt with some overheating issues with the batteries. By the time the batteries were fixed, it was too late in the year to continue. The aircraft charges its batteries during the day and uses them at night. If the day is shorter and the night longer, the flight is not sustainable. The arrival of spring meant they could resume the trip.

Originally the leg from Hawaii to the continental US was supposed to go to Phoenix. The break meant they came up with a revised route which included a stop in the Bay Area at Moffett Field in Mountain View. This meant I could cover it for Global Aviation Resource. There are two articles I prepared which you can see here and here.

The arrival was scheduled for about midnight. Late landings and early departures are scheduled to provide the calmest conditions. The very high aspect ratio, lightweight airframe is sensitive to turbulence. It also is easier to schedule a very slow aircraft in to the air traffic patterns during the night. While the time moved around a bit, it ended up being pretty much as expected. This brought the issue of how to shoot an aircraft at midnight.

I took a second shooter with me in the person of Hayman Tam. I wanted stills and video for the story and can’t get both at once so we worked on it together. He would focus on stills and I would get video. I would also get some stills too. The plane is sufficiently slow that you can get both for most situations apart from the landing itself. It didn’t hurt that Hayman had just taken delivery of his D500 which should be a lot better in low light.

I was mounting my camera and the 100-400 on a gimbal mount to steady it for video. This was also helpful for getting stills. Not ideal but better than nothing. I was at the max ISO for my camera of 12,800 (excluding the extended ranges) with -1 to -2 in exposure compensation. Even so, it was still a very slow shutter speed. Some bursts of shooting were necessary to get a reasonable shot. Fortunately the aircraft has a lot of lights of its own otherwise there wouldn’t be much to see. It’s a shame my new bodies hadn’t arrived at the time as they might have been able to get better results. Even so, I was quite pleased with what I got considering that I was shooting in the darkest conditions I have ever tried for a plane.

Another Night Launch on a Cold and Windy Night

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The evening launch at Red Flag is something I have had a go at on a number of occasions. Consequently, regular readers that pay close attention may feel that this post is a bit repetitive and they would be correct. I was a bit better prepared for the night launch than on previous occasions. I had brought a cable release and a Gorillapod to allow me to have a bit better a set up for the time lapse video of the launch. Meanwhile, I was shooting handheld with the second body.

Sadly, a couple of things were not working in my favor. First, it was pretty windy and, while I had the camera set up on the hood of the car, it was a bit vulnerable to movement as the car moved in the wind and the camera vibrated on the pod. Consequently, some of the video is less than ideal. However, conditions did seem to settle down a bit and the later part of the video seems to steady up a bit.

Second was that there was no moon. It was very dark and cold out there. I managed to get some shots of the B-1B launches but the only illumination was from the burners. No ambient light at all so they didn’t look as good as on previous attempts. I did try to stay for the whole launch and not to get the time lapse showing things in full swing when it ends but there is a limit to how long you want to hang out in the cold when everyone else has gone. I got most of the launch but I did see a bunch of jets head out as I passed the speedway. I probably should have tried getting some shots from there as they were still in burner at that point.

Airshow of the Cascades

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The weekend I was in Madras was the weekend that the Airshow of the Cascades was scheduled. The show was supposed to be a two day affair. An evening show was planned for the Friday evening and the Saturday was supposed to be a day show. Friday went ahead as planned. There was a great crowd attending the flying with the aircraft using pyrotechnics to highlight themselves in the dark.

At the end of the evening, they wrapped up with a fireworks display which provided a nice conclusion for the evening. Sadly, Saturday dawned with nice skies but incredibly strong winds. The hope was that the winds would abate in the afternoon but, unfortunately, that did not work out and they canceled the show. These shots were a few that I took when there was something to watch. I am sorry for the organizers that so much effort goes into a show that doesn’t end up happening. I hope the lack of revenue will not have a negative impact on future shows.

Salisbury Cathedral

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We had a nice evening out with my nephew, Chris, while we were in the UK. He took us in to Salisbury for dinner. When we had eaten, he took us for a short walk through the center of the town and to the Cathedral. It was nicely lit up for the evening. I only had my cell phone with me but the camera on that seemed to do a reasonable job capturing the shot. I was pleasantly surprised. Just for comparison, I add a picture below of the cathedral I took a few years ago while flying over Salisbury with my friend Sean in his Europa.

Wall of Fire Take Two

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While I was walking around the display line of the Airshow of the Cascades during the evening show, the Erickson collection’s P-38 was carrying out its display. I was in amongst a lot of people when the announcer told everyone to be ready for a special pass. My location was not great but I got ready as the P-38 ran in for a topside pass expecting the detonation of some pyrotechnics behind it. Nothing happened. The P-38 flew by and no explosions.

A short while later, the announcer had a second crack at getting us ready for the pass. Obviously the first pass had not worked as planned. This time the P-38 was coming in from the opposite direction. I also had a few moments to try and reposition myself to get a better view. This shot was the result. Some of my friends were further up the display line and got a different angle on the shot which was cool. Even so, I am pretty happy with this.

Borough Market

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When we lived in the UK, Borough Market was a favorite destination. It is a covered market near London Bridge and not only did it have a lot of good suppliers of meats, fruits and vegetables, there were other providers of food ready to eat that meant a shopping trip there could result in coming home with a lot of good stuff. There were a number of good food shops in the surrounding area too including Neals Yard Dairy, a supplier of some great cheese. We could take the train direct to London Bridge so it was a relatively easy trip to make.

We had dinner near the market with my brother on our recent visit and our route back to the hotel took us through the market. At night, it is a very different place. The stalls are all closed up and there is no-on around. There is still lighting (I wouldn’t be walking through if there weren’t) but the place has a very quiet/spooky feel to it. It is quite the contrast to a normal day there. If we had more time, we would have been there when everything was open but there was only so much time in London so we had to skip it this time.