Official Aviation Thread...

[BlackbirdM3]

I think we need another Reno photo dump... Hopefully you haven't had enough of the A model Mustang.



L139 Prototype.

Since the area was on fire the past two weeks, I had a chance to shoot some heavy helicopters in action.







Will

[LateFan]

"...get on that 7 0 7"

[BlackbirdM3]

A few shots from the Fenceline (western boundary of the race course) and show area Wednesday night (Witness the gathering storm)









Will

[BlackbirdM3]

The Reno unlimited race...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=YvRmZZZEzF8

(The youtube embedded feature isn't working.)

Will

[flyboyx]

i like that pic i bw. it looks timeless that way as if it could have been taken during the war. also, with the tweaking you have done, it looks a little like it was shot with infrared.

[mrsleeve]

You know my take. On shots like that B&W all the way

[BlackbirdM3]

Or, in color...


Will

[BlackbirdM3]

Engine bits were found in Greenland...
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41515516

Not the first time a jet has landed at Goose Bay. One of the 4 Vulcan bombers that are in North America is there. It landed with an electrical fire, was deemed to much work to patch up and fly home, so, it never left. Its now on static display there.


Will

[LateFan]

looks like the first stage fan exploded judging by the photo.

Engine bits were found in Greenland...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41515516

[BlackbirdM3]

A few shots from 4. Pylon 4 is a special place where only 9 people per day get to shoot from. You enter your name in a lottery and see if you get picked. This was my first time shooting from there, and I have to be honest, its really hard to shoot there. You can't see the planes until they are going over your head. Its an amazing place to watch from however.






Will

[flyboyx]

i started to watch the video. didn't finish it.

looks like the first stage fan exploded judging by the photo. whatever happened, it appears that it was bad enough to take out the containment ring. most of it is missing. its the ragged yellow stuff on the leading edge of the engine. this is the kind of thing that kills people

[LateFan]

"Well, the front fell off....."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

[BlackbirdM3]

A few more shots from Pylon 2, Sunday






These were reworked, I think I posted them before, but these look far better.




Will

[BlackbirdM3]

We had P2Vs from Neptune Aviation flying around the valley all day - such good noise. Do those auxiliary engines kick in whenever they need more thrust, or are they just for take-off? One of them made a really steep bank right over our yard, and suddenly got really loud, with jet roar. Then it just quit, back to radial hum. Just curious how that works. Can the guy flip a switch?

At one point there was a formation of 4 of them, roaring over the house several times. Laps of the valley. Pretty great. (We're up against a mountain, so they pretty much have to turn here) Then they all peeled off in different directions and randomly flew around. Some went clockwise, some anti-, all at the same (very low) altitude. I could see the numbers on the bottom.

One of them I'm pretty sure didn't have the auxiliary engines hanging off the wings - it was just clean wing and the two radials. He went ripping around at full throttle (at what, 2500, 3000 rpm?) and was really moving. There was a really loud, small, single-engine chase plane with him, taking pics I assume. It was the retirement party of the P2V from service as a retardant bomber. Sad they're going, glad I got to see them.

Yesterday was Neptune Aviation's retirement ceremony for the the P2Vs. The Federal contracts ran out on them and will not be renewed so a few are going to museums, a couple will be on the airshow circuit, and the last ones I think will go into storage. I will miss hearing the unique sound of two engines turning and two burning. (To answer your question, the jets run at the same time as the R3350s. They are not takeoff only, but full time.)

Will, i was noticing that you seem to be getting much better telephoto results than last year. are you still using the same lens? what do your attribute your success?

I'm using the same lens and same camera body (Nikon D600) for some, was using a D810 for others. Its a combination of having a year to work with the lens and set the camera up, whereas last year I had only had the lens for less than a month. Still, the D810 was what I used for most of the pylon shots and since it was a loaner body, it wasn't set up perfectly, the lens wasn't fine tuned. There was more I could get out of the camera. Still, I had a good idea of how I needed to set things up to get good shots and for the most part, I got them. I still shot a lot of good stuff with the D600 last year, but it was a combo of learning the lens and learning how to shoot from the pylons that made shooting from the pylons easier this year. Don't get me wrong, I shot a ton of crap, and often it was when I'd push the shutter speed up to where most people shoot (like 1/320 or so. I pushed the jets up to 1/500 and a large percentage appear to be blurry. ) My solution oddly enough to shooting crap was to slow the shutter speed down and 3/4s of the time that got me shooting good stuff. As a friend put it, you don't need 1000 epic shots, but 20 will do, and I'm already over my twenty for the year. I mean seriously, shooting a mustang closing at 350 mph at 1/60 of a second seems like insanity, but I was able to make it happen. Not once, but also with the Wildcat (a little slower, but shooting anything at 1/60 handheld at 410+mm would seem like a blown shot waiting to happen.)

This year has really been a revelation in terms of photography for me. Getting two pics in the program was amazing, setting up the photoshoot with the A Model Mustang (All the well known photographers were trying to make it happen all week but they couldn't do it.) was pretty awesome, and then actually having people ask if they can buy some of my stuff has been a new experience. (PM me if anyone wants a copy of anything I post here. I've printed two shots out, one in 20x30 the other 16x20 and both are stunning) I think a lot of factors have played into my take at Reno this year. Hopefully next year I'll be able to one up this year.

Will

[FLYNAVY]

My dad was a long time P2V pilot while on active duty. I'll have to ask him the specifics, but one of his favorite stories was about when they lost one of the recips due to some sort of failure, they would fire up the turbojets to compensate, normally during cruise flight. One of the FARs talks about updating your true airspeed if it increases/decreases by 50 knots or more, when flying in a non-radar environment. Anyway, they would report that they had lost an engine, and that their TAS was increasing by 100 knots. Apparently that confused more than a few air traffic controllers :)