Tag Archives: Sentry Eagle 2022

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.

Rippling The Wing Skin Of A 40 Year Old Jet

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The F-15 Eagle recently had the fiftieth anniversary of its first flight.  It is hard to come to terms with the fact that a jet that I still think as high up the pecking order is really over fifty years old.  Of course, the jets in service now are not the originals but the F-15Cs started production in fiscal year 78 which meant they were delivered from around 1980 onwards.  Therefore, they are over 40 years old which is quite something for a jet getting such heavy use today.

The 173FW put a four ship of F-15C/Ds up for the Sentry Eagle 2022 air show.  They tore up the field in an impressive way for the practice days and the main show itself. Having been a fan of the F-15 since my youth, this was a lot of fun to watch.  I got a series of shots of one of the jets as it pulled hard to the vertical in full burner and then turned towards the crowd direction.  Looking at the surface of the rear wing, there is definitely some deformation of the skins as the structure is loaded up.  This is not a problem.  It is quite common to get aircraft skin to ripple under varying load conditions but it is usually something that is more common on aging airframes.

Tactical Air F-5

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The provision of aggressor services continues to expand across air forces.  Some have come and gone and it is a developing situation with various old or retired military aircraft being picked up by the contractor market to provide services.  Some of these seem to have a short life span as the demands of the customers increase beyond the point that older jets can be effective.  One operator is called Tactical Air.  They are operating a bunch of F-5s and have some based ay Klamath Falls.

One of their aircraft was on display in a hangar at Sentry Eagle 2022.  It wasn’t the ideal conditions to try and get a shot of it but it was there and I was hardly going to pass it up.  Earlier in the day, one of their jets had been towed to the north end of the field.  I grabbed a shot as it passed, wrongly assuming it was a visiting T-38 and only realizing it wasn’t later.  They had other jets parked at the alert facility but it was the sort of place that showing up with a camera seemed like it might be counterproductive so I didn’t get any shots of them.