Just a quick picture today. This Strikemaster is operated by Blue Air and was parked on the ramp at Davis Monthan when we were watching the arrival of the visiting jets. It looked to be in great condition. Shame it didn’t fly but it was a nice surprise.
While watching the arrivals for Hawgsmoke was a lot of fun, the main focus was the range work on the first day of exercise. The Air Force put us on a bus for the drive out to the Barry M Goldwater Range south of Gila Bend. This is about a two hour drive. The temperatures were above 100F and the bus was a bit lacking in air conditioning terms. We were toasty as we traveled out. Standing on the range is another thing. It is rather warm standing out in the sun. However, you soon forget how hot it is when the jets arrive.
The four ships for each unit have a range slot. They start with the various bomb missions so they are quite a way off while this is underway. You can just see the little practice bombs as they are released if you look closely and then the impact on the target out on the range. They try a few different profiles. Then they move on to the strafe work.
Long range strafe is first with the jets firing from quite a way out from the target. They then move on to low angle strafe where they are firing from very close to our location on the range tower often firing until alongside us. The first experience of the A-10 firing is quite something and it is good to see someone react to their first shoot. After the firing pass, the jets turn overhead our location so you get a great topside view of the jets.
With the different units taking their turns on the range, you can get shots from different perspectives. Close in shots, wider shots, a bit of video – all of this can be done in the available time. Sadly, we have to head off again before too long and it is back on the bus for the return journey. I spent the day drinking a ton of water. The bus was hot, the range was hot and the bus was hot again so I needed every drop I drank. The shower when I got back to the hotel was definitely welcome. I wouldn’t hold this against the visit though. It is a ton of fun and the time is spent with some good people too so you can’t go wrong.
While we were out on the ramp at D-M, an F-16 taxied out for departure. I was curious about the paint finish at first as it didn’t look like a normal F-16. It was also short of markings. Then it became apparent it was an ex-Italian Air Force jet. I was advised that it was on a check flight prior to being sent off for the conversion to target aircraft. I guess it has been on storage at AMARG and now is going off to modification followed by an uncertain future. I wonder how long it will survive.
Every two years the A-10 community gets together for the Hawgsmoke competition. I covered it again for GAR and you can see the piece I wrote here. The first day we were there was the arrival day. The plan had been to watch some landings and then to move to the parking ramp area. As it happened, we couldn’t get too close to the runway and some of the arrivals were delayed so we headed to the ramp instead which proved to be a good choice. The A-10s were coming in from the various units.
Initially he team were a little concerned about how we could access the area while the jets were on the move but we gradually got more access as they got more confident in us staying in the right places. The jets were taxiing along the outsides and then parking facing inwards. Consequently, we could be in between the rows and out of the way of the aircraft on the move. As more jets were parked up, we could move further out towards to the taxiway and closer to the arriving aircraft. It all worked pretty well.
Once the jets were on the ground the ground crews were straight into action taking off he baggage pods and starting to load up with practice bombs ready for the range slots that were to come as the exercise got underway. Most of the jets were parked outside the sun shelters so the crews were getting pretty hot as they worked. Plenty of coolers of water were on hand to keep them in good shape. This was a good start to the coverage of the exercise from my perspective.
All of the A-10s coming in for Hawgsmoke need some support. There were C-17s and C-5s on the ramp during the exercise. While we were out watching the jets arrive, a C-130J came in as well. It landed and then turned to taxi right back passed us. I don’t know for sure whether it was supporting the A-10s from a unit or it was just a coincidence that it arrived at that time on another mission but I figure that it is a strong chance that is why it was there.
Many airbases have a selection of historic aircraft on display to show something of what has gone before on the base. Sadly, they are often unavailable to shoot when you visit. Davis Monthan AFB has quite a few different planes on display and, fortunately, the location of the Fallen Hawg ceremony during Hawgsmoke was in front of the display A-10. While everything was being set up, we had some time to kill and I was allowed to wander around the other planes.
The selection included some obvious DM aircraft like the A-10 and A-7 (even if it was actually a Navy A-7E that they had repainted). A U-2 was a slightly more surprising one to see. I’m not sure how that qualifies but I wasn’t complaining. The F-105, F-100 and F-4 all looked good too. Not only was it nice to be able to shoot them but it gave us something to do since we had got in place pretty early!
Tucson International is a place I was expecting to shoot F-16s of various nations. I had not expected to see any Super Hornets. However, the Navy had other plans. A couple of VX-9 Vampires jets were detached and carrying out missions with some of the based test aircraft. One of them was the color jet too! This was a very pleasant surprise. They took off in the morning for a mission and we got to see them head off. They returned ahead of my expectations and I wasn’t in the right place to get them on approach. Even so, a great addition to the day. I was flying home later that day and, while looking out of the window at the gate, they taxied by again so I guess they were getting a lot of flying in.
A couple of years ago I was in Tucson for an exercise I was covering for GAR. There was some time when I was shooting the arrival of the A-10s on the base. In between the Hawg movements a few other aircraft came in, most of which were what you might expect. One unusual arrival was a C-130. I was trying to work out what unit it might belong to as it came in because it was a pale color. As it got closer, the markings were clearly those of the Japanese Self Defence Force. This was something I hadn’t seen before.
The storage facility at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson AZ is very famous. The storage of so many airframes that are either gradually being broken down for parts or that have the potential to make it back into service is well known and has been the subject of many books and articles. Getting access to the facility is a bit harder than it used to be but there is a tour that is run each day from the Pima Air and Space Museum across the road from the base.
The tour is on a bus that doesn’t allow anyone off so it is not ideal either from a photography perspective or from the point of view of exploring the more unusual aircraft. However, it is a simple thing to do so making the trip on the bus was the option I went with when I was there a few years ago. The bus had tinted windows which affect the photos quite a bit and you are stuck on one side of the bus so anything on the opposite side is a case of seeing what luck you have shooting across the bus. Reflections are a constant problem of course.
The storage facility is exactly as you imagine it would be. The lines of aircraft of the same type are very cool. It really doesn’t matter what the type is. Seeing so many of one type together, often with a wide variety of unit markings, is impressive. The big types like the C-5, the C-141 and the B-1B dominate their areas. The smaller types can be scattered in amongst them. Some look rather forlorn, often without the gear any more, mounted on wooden frames. Other locations have parts stacked up. A selection of wings from A-10s were stacked in a row. At some point I need to make the plan to visit and investigate the facility in a lot more detail.
I was heading back to the airport in Tucson to catch my flight when I came upon a Bell 407 doing some long line work with a person on the end of the line. Normally this sort of thing happens when you are nowhere close to a convenient place to stop. However, this time I was in luck. A turning was coming up and it had a great place off the road to stop. Consequently, I got to spend a bit of time watching the team training.
They were from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. I have no idea what that is and as a dodgy foreigner, I wasn’t going to ask. They were lifting a guy from the ground, holding him for a while and then depositing him back on the ground. They also landed briefly during the time I was there. I did have a flight to catch so I couldn’t hang around for too long but I was able to get a few shots of them at work before it was time to take the car back.
Since they weren’t too far away, I was able to use the 70-200mm. That also gave me some flexibility for playing with low shutter speeds. As I do in these cases when I have the time, I ramp the speed lower and lower. That way I figure I will get some sharp ones and then gradually increase the failure rate until nothing comes out sharp or, as is the case on a sunny day in the Arizona summer, I run out of apertures to slow the shutter speed any further. In this case, I had good luck throughout the range and was able to get some really nice discs for the rotors.
