The cool cars were not just restricted to the main gathering area. As I wandered through the lot, a guy found himself a parking spot and pulled in with his McLaren. He hopped out, gave it a quick wipe down and then wandered into the crowds after chatting to a few of us. I only asked him one thing. Had it proved to be all he had hoped it was. “Oh yes!”
The Cars and Coffee meet in a previous post came with a whole bunch of Aston Martins. Obviously, there are a few people in our neck of the woods who like their Astons and I was happy to see what they had brought along. There were lots of late model cars looking particularly lovely on a sunny morning. The two lines of cars were great to see. It was hard to get a wide shot of them though. Plenty of people were all around them at any one time.
There were a couple of interesting old Astons too. One was a DB5 that appeared to be in spectacular condition. The owner was close by and chatting with anyone who stopped by. The one I was most taken by was an old Vantage. It turned out to be the car driven by George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A far later model of the Vantage showed up in a Timothy Dalton Bond movie which shows how long the basic design lasted. Seeing this earlier version with an interesting pedigree was great.
While hanging out at Livermore Airport to see the Collings Foundation, I ended up in conversation with another photographer and we started talking about cars as you do. We got onto the topic of the Blackhawk Automotive Museum and he asked if I had been to Cars and Coffee. I knew nothing about it so he explained a little. I was intrigued and decided I needed to go.
On the first Sunday of every month from 8am until 10am, the parking lot of the museum is a gathering spot for owners of cool cars and those who want to see cool cars. It is a case of whatever turns up so you never know what you will see. I got there a little after 8 and realized my error immediately. I did get a parking space but only by being on the opposite side of the lot. There were tons of cars there and plenty of interesting looking motors were just mixed in with the rest of the spectator cars.
I decided to head to the core of things to see what was around before starting to work my way back in the general direction of my car. This ended up working well. The mixture of cars was outstanding. There were more cars than you can probably imagine and the variety and quality was incredible. Some exotic machines from the latest product ranges were in with vintage cars that head been beautifully restored. If you have a ‘Vette, Mustang or Camaro, you were given space but we’re on the edge of things because of the more exotic types thrown in there. If you wanted to see a Ferrari, for example, you were going to be spoilt for choice. They were everywhere!
I was happy to see some Lotus models too. The more modern ones were nice but I was particularly happy to come across an old Esprit Turbo SE. This was a dream car for me when I was a teenager. Seeing one in such great condition was great. As with these type of gatherings, there was nothing between you and the cars and often the owner was around to show you their pride and joy. There were a few special things to add about the event so there will be a few other posts on specific things I saw coming up. Stay tuned!
The Dream Machines show included the opportunity to take a step back in time and experience open cockpit flying the way it was a long time ago. Two vintage bi-planes were offering rides and were doing a roaring trade. The two planes in question were a New Standard and a Travel Air (that lives at Skypark and can be seen up there on a regular basis). The opportunity to sit in the front of these lovely looking machines resulted in a long line throughout the day and frequent opportunities to see them in the air.
The wind speed was actually quite high so, while their downwind legs were quite zippy, any movement upwind seemed considerably more labored. The approach and landing could be made from quite a high initial point with dropping down not needing much in the way of side slipping.
I have seen both these aircraft before but they are still a nice looking pair and, with the hills overlooking the airport providing a nice backdrop, we could get some nice shots.
EAA take their Ford Trimotor on tour around the country giving pleasure flights to people at many stops en route. I have seen the plane quite a few times including at Oshkosh and Clow. When Hayman told me it was stopping at San Carlos, it seemed like a good idea to take a trip along to see. It was operating from the ramp at the Hiller Aviation Museum so that is where I started out. Actually, breakfast at the great airport café is where we started!
The early weather was a bit overcast. Gray skies and flat light are not ideal for a metal finish aircraft but we could still enjoy the flying and the start up and shut down as they turned the plane around. It gets off the ground with a very short roll so, given the length of the field and the runway in use, it was well up by the time it came past us. We did experiment shooting down the runway head on. This coincided with the sun coming out so the heat haze suddenly became an issue. Win some, lose some!
After a while, Hayman and I decided we were done for a while. He had other things to do and I wanted to try a couple of other things. However, it did decide to come back later on to get some shots from a different location as the plane was landing which also had the nicest light of the day. Good job to EAA for a great program that was very popular. They had a lot of customers, all of whom seemed to have had a good time.
Vintage aircraft are not my specialty. I know my P-51 from my P-47 but I am not too knowledgeable of the different types of the more famous aircraft and I am certainly on shaky ground when it comes to the less numerous types. Consequently, when I was preparing to go to Chino for the Planes of Fame airshow, the GAR team told me to get shots of the Curtiss P-36 Hawk that was going to be on display for the first time. I agreed while secretly wondering what a P-36 was. Fortunately, the internet is a wonderful source of information and I was able to get an idea of what it was I was looking for before it got there!
This P-36 has been restored at Chino and will shortly be heading to the UK to join a collection there. Not only was it on display in the static area but it also participated in the flying program. Therefore, I got many opportunities to get some shots of it for the GAR piece. It is an interesting looking aircraft, even if it didn’t end up being a huge seller. It looked great coming from restoration and was flown together with the AT-12 (which is apparently a two seat P-35 – so I am told). On a sunny spring day in California they looked very nice together. I hope everyone in the UK enjoys them when they arrive.
Half Moon Bay might not have been an air show in the strict sense but it did bring in a nice mix of warbirds. A good selection of P-51 Mustangs launched together to carry out some flypasts. We ended up being well placed for them taxiing out. Having a group of Mustangs rumbling past you is pretty cool. Having them lined up on the taxiway for their power checks before taking off was even better. What a great looking group of aircraft.
I have occasionally stumbled on to events that I really should have known about. One such time was a gathering of DC-3s that took place at Rock Falls in Illinois. About 90 minutes from Chicago, this was something I should have known about but didn’t. My friend Paul Filmer apparently knew because he was there. I only found out about it when I heard he had arrived. I already had plans so figured I wouldn’t go. I had arranged to shoot some motorbike riders off-roading in an area not so far away. As it happened, one of the riders was also an autogyro pilot. When we wrapped up the bike shoot, he asked if I wanted to go for a flight. Guess what my answer was.
While we were airborne, we came across one of the DC-3s flying in the local area. He asked if we wanted to follow it so we did. We had talked about heading to Rock Falls before we got airborne anyway. I had texted Paul to watch out for me arriving in a gyro and he thought I was kidding. Once we arrived in the pattern, he realized it was for real.
I got a chance to get some shots of the arrayed Douglas planes as we made our approach. Then, once on the ground, we were able to wander through the ranks of planes. They were in varying conditions with some in pristine shape and others looking like they were after someone with some time and money to bring them back. A couple of the planes were for sale.
It was a fine collection of planes and, since Rock Falls is not terribly close to a major town, it wasn’t over crowded with visitors. There were plenty of people there but you were not fighting for space. I met up with Paul for a chat and took in all there was to see before my pilot decided it was a good time to head home. A pretty fortuitous turn of events since I had not thought I was going to see any of this when I got up that morning.
After a period of relative inactivity, I have been a bit busier recently on getting material together for GAR. After a piece on the tenth anniversary of the first flight of the A380 and a review of Dream Machines at Half Moon Bay, I had my first real show of the year. I took a trip down to Chino for the Planes of Fame show. This was the first time I had been to this show, despite the fact it is one of the highlights of the airshow calendar.
The piece went live on GAR recently and can be found at this link. http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2015/05/12/airshow-review…e-airshow-2015/. Meanwhile, here are a few shots that I liked from the event. I will say how much I enjoyed the access you had at this place and it was a very pleasant change not to be herded out as soon as the flying stopped. It was also a lot of fun to hang with Mark, Kev and Jim. Their company made a good weekend great and also meant I didn’t miss the sunset show! Cheers guys.
There weren’t just sailing ships along the harbor front. A couple of submarines were also there. One was an old Russian sub while the other was far smaller but was a research submarine. The Russian sub is a Foxtrot class diesel-electric sub and it is moored a further out on a pier away from the shore. The USS Dolphin was a test and research sub for the US Navy and was involved in much deep diving research and test programs to support the fleet subs. She has a very simple hull shape compared to operational subs. She was only retired in the last ten years and was the longest serving sub in the Navy.
