The water in Crater Lake was very smooth when we were there which made for great reflections of the rim of the caldera. One the other side of the crater, there was a snow bank on the side of the bowl which looked like a parallelogram. With the reflection in the water, I thought it looked a bit like an arrowhead. I am not much of a visionary when it comes to abstract images but even I saw this and thought it looked promising.
Erickson currently flies a bunch of MD-87s are firefighting jets. However, these are a relatively recent addition to the service and they have replaced Douglas DC-7s. The DC-7s were still in service when I first made a visit to Madras in 2015 but they have now been retired. However, three of the airframes are stored on the ramp at Madras and we took a look around to see how they were fairing.
They looked in great condition. The dry atmosphere at Madras is good for storing aircraft. Some engines have been removed but the three jets are in the most recent paint finish and parked in a line. They make for an interesting subject. I have no idea how far from airworthy they are should anyone want to get any of them flying again (aside from the engines that have been removed) but they look like they have been taken care of. I would have loved to have seen one airborne but sadly, that time has passed.
In a previous post, I mentioned coming across a MiG 21 in Corvallis Oregon. When we saw this jet through the door of the hangar, we were surprised. However, we are polite types so I went in to the office attached the hangar to ask if we could take a look at the MiG. When I said this to the person on the desk, she asked if I wanted to see their Starfighter. I was confused but wasn’t going to argue about the type since I wanted them to let me in. She pointed me through the door to hangar and said I was welcome to look around.
I went through the door and looked to my right and immediately realized what she was talking about. Tucked in a corner to one side of the MiG was an TF-104G Starfighter. It was in bare metal but there was a hint of previous paint on it. I found a panel with markings on it which suggested the jet had seen service with Turkey. Mark advised that they had received jets from other countries so it might have served elsewhere before.
While it was tucked in the back of the hangar, the hangar doors had plenty of clear panels which meant there was some nice light illuminating the jet as it sat there doing very little. The Starfighter is such a fantastic looking jet. It is so dynamic looking and, when in bare metal, it looks even more cool. I have no idea the story that brought it to Corvallis but was so happy to have found it as part of a short diversion from the long drive home.
The Watchman Peak overlook at Crater Lake site beneath a peak. I don’t know the name of it but I am going to make a guess that it is Watchman Peak. Sitting on the top of it is a small stone hut. (It is possible that it isn’t small and that the distance just makes it look that way – Father Dougal, are you listening?). It was surrounded by snow so access looked pretty tricky but, if you want to go somewhere to avoid the masses for a while, I would think this place would do the trick – particularly in winter!
A little while back, I posted about some local herons. One of my friends (who shall remain unnamed) made a comment expressing disappointment that it wasn’t the de Havilland version of a heron. Imagine my surprise when, only a few weeks later, Mark and I were driving through Oregon en route to Klamath Falls when we passed through a small town called Chiloquin and, right by the highway, was a de Havilland Heron. This was a Royal Navy example that had found its way to the grounds outside a motel.
It wasn’t in the best of shape. One wing was completely gone and it was sitting on the ground rather than its gear. However, the paint finish was still pretty reasonable. No engines, of course. They will have been salvaged at some point when it became clear the airframe was not going to be a flier again. The grass had grown up quite a bit around it. Late June probably means it grows well and someone hadn’t cut it for a while. I wandered around to try and get different angles on it. The light was rather shady and I was using my phone rather than the main cameras but it was fine. There was even a large rock that could be used to gain some elevation. This trip was proving to be a lucky one for getting unplanned things and this added to that in a way we hadn’t anticipated.
While Mark and I were visiting Crater Lake, we saw a guy wandering down the hill to get a better shot. The only problem was that he was on the snow bank and there was no way of knowing whether the snow was on solid rock or even was stable. It didn’t seem like a good place to go and stand, even if the photo was better for it. A short while later, I was looking up at the side of a cliff and saw this snow build up on the cliff edge. This looked like just the sort of thing that could go at any time. I wondered whether the space the guy had been on was more reliable than this!
Driving down through Oregon, you have no shortage of mountains to see. There are plenty of volcanos in the state and other mountains which may or may not be volcanic. On a longer drive, you find yourself trying to work out which mountain is which. Normally they are far enough away to not make a picture worthwhile. However, as we came over a ridge and dropped down the other side, the view dead ahead was too good to ignore. I just pulled to the side of the road and grabbed a few shots. A car was pulling away as I approached so, clearly, this was not an original idea!
The first stop on our Oregon odyssey was Portland International Airport. Aside from being a commercial airport, PDX is also home to an Air Force Reserve unit of F-15 Eagles. I have visited the base before for their open house but I have loved the F-15 from my childhood so I was hoping to see their jets in action again. They were done for the day when we arrived but the following morning we were optimistic that we would get a launch before we headed off on our further travels.
The aircraft were parked up under the shelters when we arrived but they are quite regular with their launch schedules so we were listening out for the whine of low bypass turbofans kicking in to life. We were also joined by our friend, Bill, who works locally and is familiar with what to expect. As we scanned the flight line, we noticed one of the jets had a sharks mouth painted on the front fuselage.
The airliners and freighters were busy with their operations when we finally heard the noise we had been hoping for. Sure enough, first two jets and then a third taxied out. Even better news was that one of the jets was the shark mouth jet and another was the one with unit colors painted on it. They taxied to the last chance, got checked out and then went to the departure hold.
I decided to be safe with the first jet to make sure I got a shot so I kept the shutter speed high. It was not configured with external tanks so was airborne as it passed us and tucking the gear up as it accelerated. For the second jet, I dropped the shutter speed a little to try for a more dynamic image with a blurred background. For the third, I dropped it even further. I figured it was time to get brave. High frame rates are your friend in this case and I was happy to get some acceptable shots of all three jets as they departed. With them on their way, it was time for us to depart too. Plenty more to do on this trip.
Playing catch up with some older topics today. Our trip to Fort Rodd Hill made it on to the blog a long time ago but what I never got around to including was the lighthouse. We walked down the hill from the fort to see the lighthouse. We had been looking at it from the fort itself, but it was not a long walk to get down to the water and see where it was situated.
The entrance to the harbor will have been vital from the earliest days that the British established a navy base at Esquimalt. This lighthouse would have guided generations of ships into the port. I assume that it is now more symbolic than anything else. The modern navigation systems will provide accurate guidance, but it is still a landmark.
Chatting with Kev Perry, who we met in Klamath Falls, we got on to the topic of a Taiwanese F-5E Tiger II located at Corvallis Airport in Oregon. This was on our route home so we figured we would check it out. Corvallis is not a particularly busy airport and we drove around looking to see if we could find this jet. We got to the center of the airport and it involved driving past the open frontage of a large hangar. As we drove by, a look inside showed the nose of a MiG 21! This was a bonus that we hadn’t expected but it wasn’t alone! More to come.
