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Huey at Hayward

Given the number of times that I have been specifically trying to catch something out in the wild, it is a little funny when I get completely lucky and come across something cool without ever trying. I was out walking along the shore in Hayward through the parkland that includes the marshes out there. The weather was not particularly nice but I was checking out the area as a place to walk on another occasion. While I was walking along, I heard the unmistakable sound of a Huey in the distance. I scanned the horizon for a sign of the helicopter and picked it up low and coming towards me. Could I be so lucky as to get it coming right by me?

No, as it got closer, it turned away. I was a bit disappointed but not too surprised. It dropped out of sight and I figured it had landed at Hayward airport. I went on with my walk and didn’t think much more about it. Before too long, it popped up again and a similar situation occurred. As I headed back to the car, the same thing happened again. I was a bit closer at this point and got some shots but it was still some way off and the sky was a bit grey so still nothing worthwhile.

As I got to the car, some rain started to fall so I figured I was heading home. As I drove away, the rain stopped again and I figured I was going to be coming right by the airport so I might look and see if I could see the Huey or not. When I got to the fence, the sound returned and right behind me was the ubiquitous shape on its downwind leg. It turned in to the field and ended up hovering a short distance from me. Not only that, but the sun came out! A dark background with sun on the foreground is always a great combination. They were flying a bunch off circuits so I stayed around for a while to catch a couple of them before the light went away and my desire for lunch started to take over.

The aircraft is a restored airframe run by a volunteer group to commemorate the emergency medical service provided in Vietnam. They are called EMU Inc. and are based around here. I hope to spend more time finding out about what they do so watch out for more in the future.

Dog Sled Demonstration

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Unless you live in the mountains, California winters are not a time for much thought about snow. However, I did find myself thinking back to an event we went to a couple of time when we lived in Chicago. Morton Arboretum is located in Lisle, west of the city, and was a favorite place for us to visit. In any season it was a pretty place to walk. During the winter, they would put on a demonstration of dog sledding and this could be fun to watch.

A course would be set up through the trees so there were plenty of places in which you could set yourself up to watch the action. The runs would take place at various times throughout the day and between them you could go and talk to the people and meet the dogs. They were certainly energetic creatures and, I imagine, they would be a real handful to have in a house. Let the buyer beware!

The snow was not too deep on this occasion so it was relatively straightforward to head out around the course and get set for the teams when they came through. Most of them had things well under control but sometimes a single dog sled would appear and the dog might get a little distracted by all of the cool smelling stuff around them. At this point, the person would appear to be doing more of the pushing and the dog less of the pulling.

Shooting in the snow is always a little interesting. The brightness of the snow itself contrasts a lot with the shadows in the surrounding trees. This is when shooting RAW really helps as you can get a lot more out of the shots.

ASRAAM Self Portrait

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While waking along the ramp occupied by the RAAF Hornets, one of the ASRAAM missiles on the wingtip launch rail of an A-model Hornet had its seeker cover removed. It was dangling by a strap and I was going to ask one of the ground crew if we should replace it. Then I got distracted by the seeker itself. It looked pretty cool and was reflecting light in an interesting way. Naturally, when you are near something reflective, the idea of a self-portrait jumps to mind if you are a little self-obsessed so I couldn’t help myself. Many years ago I worked on an ASRAAM seeker development related task using the company Jetstream testbed so I can pretend all of this is a technical interest and not narcissism at all.

New Apple Campus

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The bottom of the peninsula runs in to the San Jose area and it is full of the tech businesses that are dominating the news these days. The departure from Oakland if you are heading south takes you out to the coast and then back over this part of the world. If you are sitting on the left side of the plane, you get a good view of the area. One of the most high profile companies is Apple and they are in the process of building a huge new campus. This is like a giant spaceship shaped as a circle that has landed in Sunnyvale. Given how big it is, it isn’t hard to spot from the air. We might have been high but it was still conspicuous. Here is the view I got.

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.

Any Expensive Jets Here?

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Airliners were not the only thing we got to see above LAX. On the south side of the field are some FBOs and they had an interesting selection of planes parked up on their ramps. As we passed overhead, it was a good time to see what was around. There were plenty of Gulfstreams on show. The view from above shows just how large the wing is on the largest of Savannah’s products. We also had some BBJs, a 757 that appeared to belong to a casino and some Cessnas, Challengers, Falcons and Hawkers. I am not sure I would be able to choose which one to use today. Maybe I will rotate them?

Shoveler Ducks

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Nothing too dramatic or unusual today. San Francisco Bay has a lot of birds that live on its shores and one species that I have seen a lot of recently is Shoveler Ducks. I thought that they deserved their own post so here are a few of the residents.

Ano Nuevo Island

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I have shot Ano Nuevo Island a few times on previous visits. It is out of bounds to visitors and very popular with the wildlife. In the past, it has been a bit gray or misty and not so easy to get a good shot of. On this visit, the conditions were very nice and I got some of the better shots I have managed there. It certainly looks like a place that it would be pretty cool to explore.

The Blimp is in Town

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The Super Bowl was taking place in Santa Clara and I guess Goodyear had some sort of sponsorship activities underway. Consequently, one of their blimps came to the Bay Area. It was based out at Livermore. I didn’t get a chance to see it on the ground although Nancy drove past it a few times. However, it did fly over us on a few occasions so I stepped outside to get some pictures. These were taken with Nancy’s new camera. It is a Nikon P900 and it seems to do a pretty impressive job. It has a very long zoom range and good stabilization. So far I am impressed.

Sunol Wilderness Park

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Head south along I-680 from us for a short distance and you came to an area that includes Sunol Wilderness Park. A large expanse of land with many trails across it, this is a fun place to go hiking, particularly early in the year. The recent rains meant the hills were quite green and the temperatures have not got too high yet. The sun is always strong but the conditions were great for a hike.

The area is distinctly lacking in flatness. Every trail we took seemed to be a climb or a descent but that was part of the fun. Our initial route took us up a lot. We seemed to always be going up – sometimes rather steeply. Even as we were getting in the homeward stretch, we still seemed to be going up. I guess with hindsight, a hill called Flag Hill was always likely to be one of the highest points!

The downside to all of this is that the last section is a steep descent. I actually prefer climbing to descending. The knees have to work a lot harder on the way down and it seems harder to have a steady footing than when hauling yourself upwards but, with the end in sight and our food back at the car, we were motivated to get finished. A lot of the time we were away from any other walkers so it was a very relaxing place to be. No doubt we will be back there again before it gets too warm.