Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 9

Here's a little piece of advice. Always look at the pictures you're shooting. Somehow, the strap on my camera twisted the little mode dial from aperture priority to full manual, and I didn't notice for almost 100 pictures. So I've got a whole series of shots that came out like this. Twice, actually. It happened later in the afternoon, but only for a few seconds because I was paying more attention.

What you're not seeing here is an acrobatic performance by John Black and his Super Decathlon. Nothing too exciting if you've seen this sort of thing before. I'm not too torn up that I didn't get any pictures of it, actually, but I hate the thought that I might have missed something important.

I'm thinking it's a design flaw in my 7D that allows the camera strap to accidentally rotate the mode dial. I don't remember that ever happening on my XSi or the old XT. It's something I'm certainly going to have to watch more closely. I wonder if there's a different way to attach the strap...

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 8

When I saw this B-25 bomber take to the skies at Airfest, I thought we were certain to get some pyro. You know, charges set off on the ground to make it look as if it were doing a bombing run. But they didn't do anything like that this year. Shame, because I always get a kick out of it.

Anyhow, this is the B-25 bomber, one of the workhorses of WWII and later conflicts. I believe this one is named Killer B. All these planes have names. Oh, note that the bomb bay doors are open on this pass.

Nothing too special about this picture, except that you can see the top of the plane a bit. I think they said something about this paint scheme being for North Africa. And there was something special about the stripes around the stars, but I don't remember exactly what it was. Sorry.

I always think it's cool when you can get two planes in the same shot. That's an F-15 on the ground, awaiting it's turn to put on a show in the air.

Ah, here's a shot of this same plane on the ground where you can see the name and the nose art.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 7

The next plane I want to show you is this T-6 Texan. Built as a training airplane during and after WWII, these planes are found pretty frequently on the airshow circuit. I've seen this same plane several times through the years.

Plane goes up, plane comes down...

Plane flies really fast close to the ground.

Plane even flies sideways through the air. Let's see you do this on your next commercial flight.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 6

Here's another of the planes from Airfest 2010 that I saw this past Saturday. This is a C-54 that was used by the US during the Berlin Airlift. After the Communists clamped down on transportation between free Germany and the Western controlled parts of Berlin, the United States had to provide the city with everything it needed from food to fuel for over a year. One of the bits of trivia they mentioned during the presentation was the fact that the runway in Berlin was seeing so much use, a plane was landing every three minutes. If a pilot missed his first approach, he didn't get a chance to come around and try again. He was sent back to his home airfield.

Another little bit of trivia mentioned was the story of the chocolate bars. One of the pilots dropped a chocolate bar from the window of his plane one day when he saw a few youngsters waving at the end of the runway. He tied his handkerchief to it to act as a makeshift parachute. On his next flight, he saw more youngsters and tried to drop more candy. Eventually, it turned into a regular flight dropping hundreds of candy bars at a time. Look close at the pictures above and below, and you'll see a small white parachute as they recreate this little bit of history.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 5

Would you like to get up close and personal with the 30mm Avenger cannon in the nose of an A-10 Thunderbolt II, popularly known as the Warthog?

Closer, closer...

Whoa, too close, back up a little...

OK, that's better. This is the business end of the Gatling-gun style cannon, which shoots depleted uranium armor-piercing shells at the rate of 3900 per minute. No wonder people were fascinated by this thing. I saw one guy stick his finger in the barrel. It wasn't long after that happened that they put up a barricade to keep people back from the plane.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 4

The primary funtion of Macdill Air Force Base (besides running the war in Afghanistan) is refueling. They run an entire fleet of these big refueling tankers and fly them around the world to provide support to the rest of the Air Force. There is a certain tactical advantage to being able to fly your planes around the world without having to stop for fuel.

What you're looking at is a KC-135. It's cargo consists almost entirely of fuel that it can deliver to other aircraft equipped with a special receptacle for the refueling boom, seen in the lowered position below. I wish I didn't have to stop my car to get gas.

You needn't make the sexual jokes I'm sure have popped into your head by now. I've heard them all.

Have you seen the episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike is in one of these planes? He climbs into a little room at the back of the plane and looks out the window over the boom down to the plane getting refueled. Where do I sign up for that ride? No, not with the recruiter, I only want to do it once. OK, maybe twice, but not for a six year hitch. Oh, wait, there I am, in that same window. Well, at least my reflection is in that window.

In order for the boom to remain stable while extended, it's got it's own wings. This is the view of those wings from underneath the tail of the plane. I thought it made a neat picture. 6 AMW stands for the 6th Air Mobility Wing, which is stationed at Macdill. 927 ARW, that's the 927th Air Refueling Wing, which as I understand it, is part of the reserves, but shares the same planes and equipment as the 6th AMW.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 3

I think I've shown you the hurricane hunter aircraft before in previous years, one of which features Kermit the Frog as a mascot. They've always got one or two of these big, tough planes on display at Airfest.

They get a new sticker with every hurricane they fly through. Each and every year, one of the senior meteorologists on each of the local news channels films a sort of ride-along with these guys, showing that they have the best hurricane coverage around. But trust me, it's the guys from NOAA outfitting and flying these planes who do all the work. Something I didn't remember was that they've flown these planes in cyclones as well as hurricanes. Cyclones are the same as hurricanes, they just form in the Southern hemisphere, and rotate the opposite direction. I like how they show up on stickers indicating the opposite spin.

One thing I do not think I've seen before is the hurricane hunter featuring Miss Piggy, or at least I'd never seen her all made up inside the hanger. It's rare to see a government agency with a sense of humor.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 2

The second demo of the day at Airfest 2010 was a display of less elite paratroopers. These guys didn't do tricks or use fancy parachutes with airfoils and logos. They got pushed out the side of a big cargo plane over what represented enemy territory, en masse. They made two passes, dropping almost twenty guys at a time. I was able to reposition after the first pass to get better pictures, so these are all from that that pass. (You can't stand in one spot and be a good photographer, you have to go where the action is!) This shot shows the first guy has exited the plane, but his rig is still attached inside the plane. His weight will jerk that loose in a second, and he'll be on his way down.

Here's the first guy with his chute beginning to open, and the next two guys are out. I suspect they should have been jumping two by two, and that first guy got off a little early, or maybe the first guy on the left missed his cue. These things are never perfect.

I think this is all of them. I thought twenty guys jumped, but I only count 18. Perhaps I was mistaken. All of my shots show eighteen chutes is the air.

Here you can clearly see the differences between these guys chutes and the ones used by the SOCOM team. These are just big floppy jellyfish designed to drop safely, not to be flown.

I can see where a sight like this, but perhaps with a few hundred more chutes in the air, would scare an enemy on the ground. Trouble is coming, boys, better go hide in your spider hole.

As they neared the ground, they dropped the bag that help the parachute to the end of a tether. I guess this gets it out of the way when it's time to land. You can see it's a pretty big and bulky item that might make it awkward when they hit the ground.

Until I looked close at this shot of the drop plane, I assumed they went out the back, but I was wrong. You can see the small door in the side of the plane just rear of the wing. That's where they exited on this side of the plane. I'm sure there's a similar door on the opposite side, but you're going to have to trust me on that, as I don't have a picture of it. This shot is actually from the first jump. I concentrated on the parachutists on the second jump, so missed the plane as it exited the drop zone.

After the two drops, the plane made a pass over the crowd, then exited the area before landing. This shot showing the topside of the plane was made as it banked for the turn. Look close and you'll see that they've closed the door you saw open in the previous picture. Oh, I believe this plane is a C17 Globemaster. I didn't know that until I looked it up, but it's the same plane you'll see more of later. It's a big mother.

Up In The Airfest 2010-Part 1

I guess it's time to start sharing some of my pictures from Macdill Airfest 2010 with you. As some of you may remember, Airfest is an open house & airshow at Macdill Air Force Base here in Tampa, Florida. Almost every year, they throw open the normally secure gates of this base and let in 100,000 curious folks per day for a weekend of airplane fun. Since I've been going to this, they've always opened the show with a jump from some paratroopers, usually the SOCOM Parachute Team. The playing of the National Anthem is accompanied by the first jumper and the American flag.

After the flag, seven guys jump out of a perfectly good aircraft. They spend a few seconds doing a neat little ring trick, then they spread out and slowly drift to the ground.

I think it's pretty col how the trail smoke and spin through the air, taking their time and no doubt enjoying the view.

This was the first member of the group to make it to the ground.

Two of the seven you saw making the ring earlier formed an arrangement where they linked together in tandem, making a sort of bi-wing configuration.

I only got good pictures of the guys close to the ground who happened to land at the end of the airfield where were standing. They stretched their landing zone all up and down the flight line so that everyone was close to someone.

I like the shots where I can catch more than one thing going on at the same time. :)

The tandem team come down on our end, so I got a good series of shots of them separating.


These guys make it look easy. If I were to do this, I'd get tangled up and die.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, but landing where you literally land on your feet and walk away is an especially good one. And look, the Blue Angels are there behind him. I wonder if we'll see more of them later?

Airfest Over

Whew, Airfest 2010 at Macdill Air Force Base took a lot out of me yesterday. 4000+ pictures will do that to you. It's still going on today, so if you really want to, head on out there and see the show. Me? I'm going to take it easy today, and maybe later I'll start throwing up some of the great pictures.

The New Bald Eagle

Here's a new bald eagle I discovered this weekend. Well, he's new to me at least. I thought I'd spotted a bald eagle out at Robinson Preserve a few weeks ago, but he was far away and the pictures were a little inconclusive. (From a distance, an osprey looks an awful lot like a bald eagle.) But I made it a point to get a little closer on this trip, and sure enough, there he was. But only for a couple of minutes. Not long after I got close enough to squeeze off a few shots, he decided to take to the air and flew off in the opposite direction. Oh, well. You can see the nest in the shot above. I think this is the only eagle nest I've ever seen that was completely out in the open. All the others I know of are in a living tree, tucked in among other trees. I suspect this one may have been like that at one time, but nowadays, this is all that's left.

AirFest 2010!

I normally forget to mention this until the day before, but I'm giving you almost a week's notice this year. Airfest 2010 is at Macdill Air Force base in Tampa, Florida, this weekend, March 20th & 21st! It's free, what more can you ask for? This year's headliner is the Blue Angels, a group I've seen a couple of times now. First time I saw them was in 2004, when they not only flew the spectacular aerial displays you expect out of such a team, they also trotted out the team cargo plane for a few passes, as shown above. So be there or be square!