Tag Archives: trainer

Taking a Chance With the T-38 Landing

The T-38 chase planes that Boeing operates from Boeing Field did not fly as often as I would have liked. I’m sure they got plenty of use out of them, but it seemed to be a lucky break if one was up – particularly if I was in any place to see them. Consequently, I was always wondering whether I should make sure to get a sharp shot or take a chance on getting a more interesting look to the image. On this occasion, I decided to go with the latter. I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/100th of a second and hoped. A few came out okay. The cluttered background at Boeing Field is always a problem so a bit of blur helps put the focus on the plane.

A Hawk With Many Guises

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In the days when the old Hawker plant at Kingston/Dunsfold was still around, products like the Harrier and Hawk were generating plenty of revenue and opportunities. The company would build its own demonstrators for use outside the scope of the core client – the RAF. A Hawk airframe was company funded and it was registered G-HAWK. It was originally built as a 60 Series jet before having modifications to reflect the airframe shape of the 100 Series. It also had a COMA serial of ZA101 added at some point.

This aircraft moved to Warton when Dunsfold closed and continued to be used for all sorts of development work. I was long gone from Warton by the time its use ended. I was, therefore, pretty pleased to see it again at the Brooklands Museum. It is in the BAe house colours, but the nose is not a shape I recognise. I guess it did something interesting that needed another nose to be grafted on. I photographed this jet at various times over the years (although very little when I worked at Warton and could have seen it frequently!).

Kemble’s Other Residents

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My visit to the TBAG event at Kemble was quite a while ago now. However, still more to share from that day out. The airfield is home to the Buccaneers and the Phantoms that I have posted about but there are some other aircraft that are parked there. This includes one of the Ex-British Airways 747-400s that were painted in retro liveries. There is a Gnat painted in Red Arrows colours, and a Canberra PR9 in a silver scheme. Both look good.

A Hunter is also in a silver scheme which is a nice addition and there is a Bristol Britannia that I have posted about previously. These are all by or close to the café so any visitors to the airfield will have a few cool planes to check out during their visit.

Return of the Reds

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One of my days at RIAT was spent down towards the threshold of the runway. This meant I was able to get shots of the approaching planes and, hopefully, their touchdown. I say hopefully because a couple of things were working against me. First, there were some distance to go boards that could be in just the wrong spot depending on where the plane touched down. Second, because I was close in and there was a lot of distracting stuff in the background, I was going with a lower shutter speed to give the sense of motion and blur out some of the distractions.

I didn’t have a high success rate with some of these shots which was expected. When going through them, I can be pretty aggressive at culling anything that is not super sharp (at least on a part of the airframe that will be the first point of interest for a viewer) but I do have to bear in mind that I am looking at a high resolution version of the image zoomed in to 100%. When it is a 1600 pixel image on a screen, it will forgive a lot of the detail problems.

Anyway, I got some shots of the jets on approach and then as they touched down. Some of them came out pretty well. I did also use the location for take off shots where, since the planes were just beginning their take off rolls, they weren’t going that fast and getting the blur required was a bit trickier. Some of those will, at some point, show up on here too.

Sun Greets the Talon’s Return from California

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For a while, I saw a lot of the Boeing T-38 chase jets but, it had been quite a while since I last saw one. Then I saw one had been in use for a couple of flights. I wondered what had been the cause of this but didn’t follow up on it. Then I saw that one was coming back to Boeing Field from California. I don’t know what the test activities were down there but, with it heading back and the weather being pretty decent, I figured I would try and catch its return. Since it was coming up late in the day, I was going to be able to be there.

I wondered whether the good weather would give up before the jet made it back but things held together nicely and the sun was out when it touched down. Since the T-33s went into retirement, the Talons have been the only chase jets to see and they have, as I mentioned, been a bit rare. I don’t know how long they will have. Maybe Boeing will ultimately replace them with T-7s – perhaps the early jets that will not be to a production standard and can take over chase duties. Since I am now gone, I won’t get to see either one so this was a nice catch before I departed.

My Luck with the Snowbirds Continues to Go Downhill

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Last year, when I went to the Abbotsford Air Show, the Snowbirds were displaying with eight jets instead of nine. There had been an issue with one of the crew and they were completing the season down a jet. When I headed to Comox this year for the show, I was hoping to get a full display from the Snowbirds. That was not going to be the case. On arrival, my friend Mark advised me that one of the pilots had injured an arm in a non-aviation related accident. Oh well, I thought.

Then, when they started up for the display, one of the jets wouldn’t play ball. I thought they might run to a spare jet but, no, we were down another jet. This meant we would only have seven jets for the display. Surprisingly, this didn’t cause as many issues in my shots as I thought it might. The four ship cross was gone which was disappointing but, when shooting tightly on the formations, things actually seemed to look okay. In fact, sometimes it stopped me having to worry about getting the whole formation in shot since they had “cropped” for me.

It was a pretty good display and I enjoyed watching it. Here is a selection of shots from the day.

T-38s Including Some Color

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Mesa Gateway Airport is a popular spot for cross country flights by various military aircraft. T-38 training jets are particularly common apparently so, while it was my first time visiting the airport, catching some arriving Talons was not a surprise. What was unusual was that one of them was in a retro paint scheme in a green camouflage design. It was looking very well finished as it taxied in and parked. The various student trainees parked their jets and walked into the FBO. Many of them appeared to be overseas students training in the US.

T-45s at El Centro

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My involvement with the T-45 program was back when the aircraft were just coming into service. Now I am reading articles discussing the US Navy’s plan for the replacement of the Goshawk fleet. Another type I have been involved with that is going to disappear from service before too long. Since the jet was never exported, when the Navy gets rid of them, that will be it. Consequently, while I have shot T-45s at various places and times before, getting some more shots while on our trip was worthwhile.

We made a detour from our Arizona locations to El Centro to catch the Harriers. El Centro is a regular haunt of the T-45s with the training wings sending jets out to use the ranges just north of the base. Since it is not too far to travel, you can watch them launch and know it won’t be too long before they return. Getting the departing jets as they break towards the south with the last jet cutting the corner the most to catch up with the first ones is easy enough. The returns give you an option at both ends with either the overhead break with speedbrakes out at one end or the final turn at the other. Managed to catch both. I am sure I will see more T-45s in the coming years but here are some shots from the recent visit.

A Little RIAT Reds Editing

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Why, when my last visit to RIAT was in 2019, am I still working my way through some shots from that show? There are many potential reasons but none of them reflect too well on me so we shall move past that topic and on to what I shot at that show. Specifically, let’s look at the Red Arrows. When we used to live in the UK, we would see the Reds on a regular basis and would sometimes get a bit blasé about them. When you live elsewhere, they become a bit more fun to see.

Consequently, I did make the effort to get a few good shots of their displays. It would have been nice to have some slightly better light to shoot them in, but that show was not the best for weather. Take off is always nice since you are close to the formations, and they are potentially tightly grouped in the frame. There are always the crossing shots to go for and then the bigger formation breaks will be a target. All of these were part of my efforts that year. When I was young, the rollbacks were a favorite of mine. They do a variation on this now, but I am not quite so keen. It is a tough one to shoot anyway since you really want to be on the display axis to get the best effect. Even so, I was still pretty happy with what I got overall.

The Hawk 115 and I Are Aging Together

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Not a great shot, in this case, but one that means something to me. When I went to the Abbotsford Air Show, there was a Hawk 115 in the static display. It was in an interesting color scheme but the lighting was a bit tough and it was surrounded be people. The reason I liked it was that I was involved in the Hawk 115 program when it was first underway. I left the company before the first jets were completed so I never actually saw one. This might actually have been my first encounter with one. Since they have been in service for nearly 25 years, they are probably nearing the end of their time so I did leave it a little late. It looks in better shape than me!