The day after I went to the Edwards show, I was hanging around the area and headed up to Mojave to see whether Stratolaunch was going to move.  It didn’t, which was disappointing but the time up there was not wasted.  I got to shoot some stuff around the airport that I hadn’t previously and I went to the north end to look down the runway in case anything was moving.  I saw that a Western Global 747 was coming in and decided to head to the south end to get it arriving.  As I left, an L39 took off to the north.  I should have paid more attention to it.

I short while later – once I was well away, it was followed by a more interesting plane that it was acting as chase for.  A Scaled Composite 401 known by a variety of names including Son of Ares.  To miss that climbing out past me was bad.  It got worse when I realized the 747 had approached from the north so I missed it anyway.  I wasn’t going to make the same mistake when the 401 returned.

I did have to wait for quite a while.  They were undertaking flights at altitude and running racetrack patterns.  I could get the occasional distant shot as they went overhead.  Eventually the L39 returned and I figured it wound’s be too long before the 401 was back.  I had picked a spot on Google Maps that looked promising for the approach.  As I waited, I realized some other photographers were on the other side of the road and closer to the centerline.  I wondered about moving but also didn’t want to miss it while I did so.  I stayed where I was.  A bit distant but still worth it for an unusual type.  It has been seen at Boeing Field but not by me!