Tag Archives: vintage

Waukegan Part 2 – The Military Stuff

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As mentioned in the previous post, the Collings Foundation were at Waukegan with  their B-17, B-24 and P-51.  Pete and I had headed up there to take a look at what was going on.  This was the last day of the tour at Waukegan before they moved on to Palwauckee.  They were supposed to be flying during the day and then departing in the early afternoon.  Things were looking promising with the B-24 taking off while we were over at the Warbird Heritage Foundation hangar.

The P-51 was apparently being a little troublesome but was also scheduled to take someone on a ride while we were there.  A friend of mine, Chris, volunteers for Collings and he was working with them that day so i took the chance to catch up with him.  I give him regular abuse as he got a ride in P-51 Baby Duck once before when I was shooting it.  I must be a lucky omen for him!

We needed to head back to Chicago for Pete to be ready for the return flight but the warbirds hadn’t yet departed.  We decided to give them a few extra minutes.  The B-17 had headed out first but the B-24 was obviously waiting to make sure the P-51 was away.  Unfortunately, the engine was not looking too willing when it came to starting.  Fortunately, a bit of ground power did the trick and they were away.  As it turned out, Chris had made it in to the back of the P-51 so I got him in another one.  I hope he recognizes my role in all of this!

WACO Reunion

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I have previously mentioned that I am more interested in getting to events that are slightly more individual than the bigger airshows these days.  That also includes when I am trying to get material for the magazine together.  One such event was the WACO Reunion in Mount Vernon OH.  This was being covered for a piece that I was writing for Global Aviation Resource and will appear in an upcoming edition of the magazine.  Consequently, I am not going to preempt the magazine piece here.

Instead, this is more about the time I had while I was there rather than a description of the event and the organization.  I had been in contact with Andy Heins, president of the national WACO Club earlier in the year to make sure I could cover the event.  Andy told me what I needed to do to be there and then made himself available to tell me all about what was going on.  The event is a gathering of club members and their aircraft and is a very social event.  There is no flying display.  However, the members like to fly their aircraft and that is what they do.  The middle of the day is quite quiet but early in the morning and later in the day when the weather is a lot more calm is the time when people get in their planes and fly.

Fortunately, that also included me getting to fly too.  My first trip of the day was in a Citabria with Tim Ponds.  This was to get some aerial shots of the aircraft parked to illustrate the article.  Time was very accommodating and we got some video footage as well as stills of the site.  While we were up, Steve Thomas was flying his WACO and we arranged an impromptu shoot.  Normally I am not inclined to shoot air to air without a prior brief.  However, we kept it simple and straight and level and I was able to grab some good shots.  We also flew past the airfield and got a couple of shots with the aircraft parked in the background.

Then I got my first flight in a WACO when Susan Theodorelos took me up in her beautiful model RNF.  This is an open cockpit model with the pilot in the rear seat and a two seat space up front for the passengers.  I was on my own in this case so had some space to move.  A couple of other aircraft joined up for some formations and I was able to grab some shots of them at the same time.  Vibration was not too bad but keeping myself isolated from the airframe was tricky so getting good shots was a bit tricky.  However, I got some I was pleased with.

One technique thing I learned from these flights was focus activation.  I normally focus with the rear button on the camera rather than the shutter button.  This is fine in almost all circumstances.  However, when you are trying to shoot backwards at an odd angle, this is a lot harder to do and the shutter button becomes the best solution.  Swapping the configuration in flight (I hadn’t expected to shoot another aircraft when we first took off) wasn’t practical so some odd contortions were necessary.  Now I have added this config setting to my quick menu so I can make the change quickly if the situation should arise again.

Everyone at the flyin was very friendly.  Aviation never fails to amaze me with the way in which you can show up somewhere for the first time with nothing but a shared interest and be welcomed so quickly by people you have never met before.  The WACO people were a perfect example of this and I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality.  I hope to be back again for future reunions.  In the mean time, here is a little video that I got while there. Enjoy and don’t forget to buy the magazine when it comes out at www.globalaviationresource.com!

Pungo

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Continuing my theme of items related to the ISAP symposium, we took a trip to the Museum of Military Aviation at Pungo south of Virginia Beach.  Actually, we took two trips to be accurate.  The first was part of the symposium field trip and the second was after the symposium had concluded and was for the air show at the museum.  Since they were preparing for the air show on the Friday of the field trip, I think it is fair to combine the two events into one posting.

Friday was a great day from a weather perspective except that it was quite windy and, more importantly from an aviating perspective, the wind was directly across the runway.  This meant that not too much flying was going on.  With a great collection of vintage military aircraft available, this was a shame.  However, they were all laid out along the field to take a look at so we were able to get up close and personal with a bunch of cool aircraft.

One of the planned attendees for the show did appear but that is something I am going to save for another post.  The show also included a lot of reenactors who had set up encampments around the site.  For a lot of the group, this proved to be a good alternative to go and photograph.  Normally, I am more than willing to photograph anything interesting or unusual but, for some reason, I didn’t get into this topic at all.

It is not that they weren’t worthy of photographing.  If you look at the images that people got you can see some good work.  My friend Jo recently blogged about this very topic here so you can see some of what was there.  However, in this case it just did not seem to work for me so I spent my time wandering around other parts of the museum.

The Sunday of the show arrived with very unfavorable weather.  Apparently the Saturday had been pretty good but Sunday had low clouds and rain when we got there.  It appeared highly unlikely that it was going to improve but we waited it out for a while.  The reenactors were out again so there was much for people to see but, since I was more bothered about the aircraft, I focused on them.  A few extra aircraft had arrived since we had been there on Friday, my favorite being a Fairey Firefly that had come in from Canada.  They were supposed to depart late morning for their trip home but sadly the weather got too bad to allow even that departure.

I certainly enjoyed seeing the various aircraft at the museum and there for the show.  It was a shame they weren’t granted better weather as I’m sure their ticket sales will have suffered (although a surprising number of people continued to arrive while we were there) but hopefully they will have achieved enough to support the ongoing work of the museum.  They certainly need to be commended for their efforts putting together the event.

Poplar Grove – A Friendly Place!

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There are occasions when you have an idea for something that you want to do, get a bit of a start on it and then it falls by the wayside for a long time.  Such was the case with heading to Poplar Grove.  I had read something about this airfield not far from Rockford IL and thought I should check it out.  I made contact with the owner of the field and he said I was welcome to visit any time.  After that, somehow I got distracted from this and didn’t follow up.  Not only a failing on my part but also rather rude!  Not the impression I would normally expect to give someone I hope – other than my friends and family who know my true nature of course!

Despite all of this, Poplar Grove came back into my mind recently.  I am looking at the Oshkosh Ski plane fly in later this month and a group from Poplar Grove are regular attendees when the conditions allow.  I made contact with them about possibly working together if the weather allows the fly in to go ahead.  This reminded me of my previous failings to do anything after my previous contact.

This time, I decided to be a bit more cautious.  Rather than contact some people and then fail to follow through, I decided to take advantage of the continuing pleasant weather and make a trip up.  The Sunday weather forecast looked very promising and a weekend is more likely to have activity for light aircraft.  I got on the road early and headed up to the field.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t appear on my GPS.  However, a little check on Google Maps was enough to point me to where I needed to set the destination and I got there without any trouble.  A couple of aircraft departed as I pulled into the lot which always inspires a bit of confidence.  Initially I decided to just hang out in the lot and see what was going on.  Standing around with a 500mm lens tends to start a few conversations and this was no exception.

One guy stopped by to ask if I had got any pictures of his son who was learning to fly and had been up while I was stood there.  Another couple of people said Hi! as they passed by and another guy stopped for a longer chat.  He pointed out that the field was a friendly place and, if I knew how to stay out of trouble on an airfield, it would be fine to take a walk to some other spots.

I followed his advice and headed off.  The layout of the field is very cool.  There is one hard runway and two grass strips.  One of the grass strips and the hard runway were both in operation.  There were many hangars (apparently about 450 aircraft are based on the field) and there are also some houses with taxiway access.  I want to move!

Standing near one taxiway I got a good view of the aircraft movements.  As people taxied by I would get friendly waves which I reciprocated.  What a nice place.  The chap I had talked to previously drove up and we ended up talking for a while.  His name is Steve Langdon and he is involved with the EAA chapter that I had been talking to as mentioned earlier on!  He told me about the many different and interesting aircraft that people operate or are working on at the field.  This was reinforced by the arrival of one T-34 and the departure of another – one that obviously knew where I was!

By lunchtime, I really needed to be heading back to Chicago so started to walk back to the car.  I passed an open hangar with a beautiful Beech 18 sitting in it.  This belongs to the owners of the field and, having now been back in touch with them, I hope to get a chance to photograph this aircraft at some point.  I suspect there are plenty of other aircraft on the field that I will want to shoot as well.  This place is a treasure trove.

Thank you to everyone I met at poplar Grove.  it is a lovely field with a great attitude.   I hope to spend more time there soon!

More WHF Fun!

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Some days things are just looking like they will be good.  The Warbird Heritage Foundation have their newly restored P-51 Mustang, Baby Duck, ready for flight.  Before they can do too much with it, they need to get some hours on the engine.  Consequently, they have had Vlado Lenoch coming across to fly the aircraft when possible to build the hours.

I knew that they had intentions to fly in the week before Christmas but I didn’t know exactly when.  However, the weather was crap for the majority of the week.  When I saw a  good forecast for Friday and I had some free time, I decided to take a chance and head on up to see if anything was happening.  If not, it was still a nice day to be out and about!

As it was, not only did the guess prove to be accurate, I got a bit luckier than even I had expected.  Baby Duck was out on the ramp when I arrived which was a good sign.  Indeed she would be flying and Vlado was coming to fly her.  What is the easiest way for Vlado to get there?  In his P-51 of course.  Paul also was planning on flying one of the other aircraft that day as well.  Bonus!

Vlado showed up and got ready to fly the Duck.  I scooted across the field to be in a position for good light and angles and it wasn’t long before Vlado was taxiing out.  A few other aircraft movements kept me amused while he headed out to the departure end.  Before I had left the hangar, I had foolishly suggested to Vlado that he keep it low on departure.  That was a pretty redundant thing to say.  Vlado certainly kept the aircraft in a good position for me as he came past and he built up speed before turning it into height.

I headed back since we didn’t know how long they would be out.  They actually landed away so were gone for quite a while.  Chris Doud had been in the right place to bag the back seat so he was having a great time.

When they got back, Paul had a chat with Vlado about how the flight had gone and then got ready to take the T-2 up for a run.  Vlado was also heading home in Moonbeam McSwine so I made a second run across the field to get the departures again.  They ended up heading out close together.  Both provided sporty departures so I was considering the day a very productive one.

I headed back to the hangar to await the return of the T-2.  They broke back into the pattern and landed so some taxi in shots and then a few pictures of a very happy back seat passenger made for the end of the day.  Time to head back to Chicago and enjoy all the traffic could offer on the last day before Christmas!

Scooter Time Again

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For those of you that have hung around here for a while, hopefully there is more than one of you, you will know that I have spent a lot of time shooting with the Warbird Heritage Foundation up at Waukegan. If you saw my recent post on the T-6, you will know that I was up at Waukegan to see the A-4 fly again. The A-4 is a great little jet and one that I love to see in action.

The aircraft has some new stores fitted underwing. These are practice bomb carriers and they add to the options for displaying the aircraft. They certainly look good. The weather was great on the day I went up and Paul wanted to get up and flying as quickly as he could. He had other things to get to later in the day so getting the jet up and running was a priority. First it required an engine run and a leak check after the servicing and then it should be good to go.

The engine run went well and a couple of minor things were noted and fixed. Then it was time to fly. I decided it would be best to head across the field. The hangar is north of the runway and doesn’t have the best light angle for the aircraft taking off. Fortunately, the wind, while light, meant that the jet would be departing heading in to the light so, from a position by the other hangar (the maintenance hangar is called the Bunker) should provide a good view.

This worked out well, Paul certainly helped by keeping the jet relatively low as he transitioned the gear up. I got some nice close shots as he came by and then he pulled up into a steep climb out. Certainly great and worth the trip – the T-6 flight was a cherry on the top!

Fun with warbirds

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Since it is the beginning of the year from an air show perspective, it is time to get the aircraft up and ready for the new season. The winter is a great time for maintenance to be undertaken and the great team at Warbird Heritage Foundation is no exception. A couple of their aircraft were recently up and about being wrung out after winter maintenance tasks and I was lucky enough to spend some time with them while they were undertaking some test flying.

The WHF team is always very welcoming but they are not alone. Jim’s team at Waukegan airport is also really helpful when trying to get in position to get some good shots of the aircraft as they are being tested. The two aircraft at work this time were the A-4 Skyhawk and the A-1 Skyraider. Two great looking aircraft. The weather is not always going to be cooperative at this time of year – not only from a photography point of view but also from a flying perspective. However, you make the best of the chances that come along.

What better way to spend a day than hanging out with a great team of people and photographing some unusual aircraft. What more can I want? Thanks Paul and team and also thanks to Jim at the airport.