Off-Season

I have it on good authority that in the off-season, Santa enjoys hanging out at air shows.  No word on whether he's trading those reindeer in on a Blue Angel-powered sleigh, but perhaps.

Gas Girl

I don't often shoot people pictures, especially of folks I don't know, but I recently came across this shot of a girl I saw at Sun-N-Fun in Lakeland earlier this year.  Clearly, she was worthy of a picture and didn't seem to mind.  Her job was to fuel the airplanes on the flightline, and she stayed busy since for the week of Sun-N-Fun, Lakeland Linder Regional airport is the busiest in the world.  And she wasn't just for show, either, her and her associate were driving around in the big Shell Oil truck, pulling hoses, hopping on wings, doing whatever it took to get those pilots their fuel.  Look close at the shot above and you'll see that she's assisting the pilot as he puts fresh fuel into his historic Corsair.  She wasn't just smiling for me, either, there were easily a dozen people shooting her like she was a pinup girl posing with the classic warbird.  I but she gets really nice tips from those happy pilots!
 

The Circle Complete

This week, the USAF Thunderbirds.

Blue, Then Thunder

Saw the Blue Angels yesterday, and I'll see the Thunderbirds next weekend.  What a lucky boy am I!

5 & 6

I went to the big airshow in Lakeland this weekend, Sun-N-Fun, second largest in America, and maybe the world. Five different visits over three days may be a bit too much for any one human, but I did it. I'll post pictures as I get time, but this shot of the Blue Angels in a perfectly angled dirty pass may be my favorite of all that I took. Enjoy!

Hmmm, the picture isn't showing up.  Stupid Picassa/Blogger issues again.  I think I've got it posted via another link, but let me know if you can't see the picture.

N2 & N3

All civilian aircraft in the US are assigned a unique number by the FAA. I don't know the whole deal, but it has something to do with airworthiness, etc. Most planes have a four or five digit number. In the middle of all the action at Sun-N-Fun Saturday, they put everything on hold for a few minutes while these two private jets took off. Well, I say private. Look close and you'll see where they say United States of America on the side. Look closer and you'll see they have N numbers of 2 and 3. Care to guess who these planes might be carrying?

Would it help if I told you my boss had golfed with the head of the FAA two days earlier?

Pirates In The Sky

I know I've been slacking on the airplane pictures, instead showing you lots and lots and lots of pictures from DC, but here are some good ones from Saturday at Sun-N-Fun. As you can tell, it was totally clouded over, so there wasn't much color or sunlight to make for good pictures. Because of this, I wandered away from the flightline when I should have been paying more attention. Look at the top of that biplane and you'll see a woman on there!

I've always heard of wing walkers, but I'd never seen one. Just imagine the guts it must take to climb out on that wing and hold on for dear life.

Now imagine doing it upside down.

The whole show they put on had a pirate theme, so that explains the swords and the skull and crossbones. There was all sorts of sound effects, music and backstory that got played over the PA system during the show, too, but it was so over the top I just tuned it out and tried to enjoy the show in the air. As you can see, my pictures got a little better as I wandered back to the flightline once I realized what I was missing.

Rings Of Smoke

Check it out. I got to Sun-N-Fun on Friday just in time to see some of the pyro going off for the warbirds show. Some of the simulated bomb bursts made giant smoke rings in the sky. I'd heard about such things, but never seen it happened. I guess the charges were just right, and the weather was just right.

Isn't that just the coolest thing? I don't know if you could make something like this happen if you tried, but there it was.

I kept hoping one of the warbirds would try to fly through these rings, but I guess they have to fly a pretty tight flight plan since there are so many planes in the sky during this show.

Thunderbirds On Thursday

OK, you guys have been really good, putting up with all my Washington pictures when I know what you really want to see are the Thunderbirds from Sun-N-Fun. Well, here are a few pictures from the Thursday rehearsal. Well, they called it a rehearsal, but for those of us on the ground, it sure seemed like a full show.

I always try to get a shot of the planes with a flag in the foreground. I don't think I've gotten a good one yet, but I keep trying. They're just too fast, and the flags are always too close.


I always try to get pictures of the planes seeming to intersect in midair. The 8 frame-per-second capability of my 7D should make that easier, but I miss them just as often as I get them. Maybe I should try to get them when I'm not at maximum zoom, I think that might help. Always a neat shot when I get it, though.




Ah, the dirty pass. An airshow standard. Some of these jets are so fast that the only way to slow them down is to lower the flaps and drop the landing gear. Maybe it's the truth and maybe it's just a story, but it makes for an interesting picture.




I love it when the two solo pilots (Thunderbirds 5 & 6) join back up with the diamond. It's pretty cool to see four planes flying in formation, but it's at least 50% cooler when there are six planes in formation!






Look real close at the pictures above and below. See the number 5 is on the plane upside down? His is the only plane marked that way. All the rest are right side up. I read on the internet that he's the lead solo pilot, and usually if there's an upside down maneuver to do, he's the one doing, thus the upside down number. I don't think you can see that sort of detail from the ground, or at least I can't. That's what I have a 400mm lens for.














And a shot of one plane on the ground, just so you know I'm at the end. I hope I didn't overload your senses with all these great shots. And this is only from one day, I've got two more shows to share. Unfortunately, this was the day with the best weather, so these probably are the best shots I got. It's hard to get a good picture of a white plane against a dark gray sky. But I'll share the best of them, though maybe not quite as many.

Hot!

Watch the heat waves coming out of the engines on this F/A-18 as the pilot prepares to taxi out onto the runway.

Watch as that tree on the left goes from fairly sharp to mushy.

I think it was right after this one that he actually began to roll and move away from me. Thank goodness I had a long lens so I didn't have to burn my face off to get these shots.