Official Aviation Thread...

[henryki]

I did some work for a guy I met at my local airport, I'm currently in IFR training and he's always offering me odd jobs here and there to help me pay for fuel so i can get out there and fly more! Anyway, I had never seen this before and I thought it was pretty legit. After doing some research though turns out it is a lot more common than I realized! But this aircraft he is building for himself has a LS3 with LS7 heads on a constant speed prop. I took a couple of quick pictures, hope you enjoy this as much as I did.






lastly, some general aviation humor (much funnier when you fly 172's 12 hours a week!)

[M-technik-3]

Should of had a Nerf gun

[M-technik-3]

Was over in Norway and Scotland, there were spotters everywhere.

[gkurey]

Nice picture man - such a massive bird! BTW - clear out your PMs...been trying to respond to you for a few weeks, haha!

[gkurey]

For the blackbird nuts out there - now cutting a limited number of TITANIUM SR71 and A-10 openers.

[LateFan]

Thought I'd post this here -
One of the last two Doolittle Raid veterans, Dave Thatcher, died yesterday at 94. He was the gunner / engineer on the "Ruptured Duck" B-25, and saved the survivors of his plane after if crashed in the surf on the coast of China. His pilot, Ted Lawson, had a leg amputated in a jungle clinic, and wrote the book "30 Seconds over Tokyo" which then became a movie.

The nickname of the plane was because it hit its tail on take-off during a training flight. My son met him twice and built a very nice replica scale model of Dave's B-25.

Dave was a mailman here in Missoula MT.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-s-doolittle-raider-dead-at/article_02082abc-d078-5936-9111-3d6dc21192c0.html

Museum replica


Dave Thatcher far right

[FLYNAVY]

Apparently Gen. Doolittle and my grandfather were pretty good friends back in the day, and he was a frequent dinner guest at the grandparents house. Gramps died long before I was born, but so go the family stories anyway. I have really nothing else of use to add, but those guys had some giant brass ones to conceive of, and execute that strike.

[LateFan]

Dave Thatcher service -

http://missoulian.com/news/local/hometown-hero-laid-to-rest/article_d2e69aff-8a28-5aaf-bad0-bd9984814db8.html

EDIT - the man in the white hat and cane third from the right is Dick Cole, Doolittle's co-pilot and now the last survivor at 100 years old.

.

[BlackbirdM3]

A photographer friend and I have been thinking of heading out to Las Vegas to try and shoot either a Red or Green Flag exercise being flown out of Nellis AFB. We aren't talking just shooting from the end of the runway, but actually trying to find a location out in the desert where they are doing the exercise. Has anyone here tried to do this before, or flown one of the exercises?

At this point we are doing a feasibility study to even see if its possible to get some good shots or if it would be a waste of time and $ to try. It looks like Coyote Summit near Rachel could be a good spot to watch, and perhaps Tikaboo Valley, but its really hard to track down the locations of where the exercises take place.

Any ideas?

Will

[FLYNAVY]

A photographer friend and I have been thinking of heading out to Las Vegas to try and shoot either a Red or Green Flag exercise being flown out of Nellis AFB. We aren't talking just shooting from the end of the runway, but actually trying to find a location out in the desert where they are doing the exercise. Has anyone here tried to do this before, or flown one of the exercises?

At this point we are doing a feasibility study to even see if its possible to get some good shots or if it would be a waste of time and $ to try. It looks like Coyote Summit near Rachel could be a good spot to watch, and perhaps Tikaboo Valley, but its really hard to track down the locations of where the exercises take place.

Any ideas?

Will

Generally speaking, Nellis exercises take place within the confines of the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). Unlike most other similarly large training ranges, about half the airspace is a restricted area. Due to the sensitive nature of the place, as well as surface hazards from legacy nuclear testing, ground access is also quite restrictive in a lot of areas. I think the reason you don't see a lot of this is 1) it isn't easy to find a place where you aren't going to be rolled up by security folks, and 2) the quality of what you might get……..ie you are going to have maybe a super zoomed in pixely photo of a single aircraft, or perhaps a couple contrails with no extra detail if the environmentals are correct. People who look at aviation pics want to see the airplanes, and the best place to do that is probably watching jets launch out of Nellis, or if you can get in, jets marshaling on the ramp. Just my .02. I wouldn't expect to get the cool in flight shots that guys in rural UK do amongst the low level routes out there.

[flyboyx]

^that was a very well thought out response that i generally agree with.

it is difficult as hell to get any sort of decent close up pictures of military training exercises here in the usa. low level maneuvers are pretty much only done in areas civilians don't have access to unless its at an airshow.

[BlackbirdM3]

Generally speaking, Nellis exercises take place within the confines of the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). Unlike most other similarly large training ranges, about half the airspace is a restricted area. Due to the sensitive nature of the place, as well as surface hazards from legacy nuclear testing, ground access is also quite restrictive in a lot of areas. I think the reason you don't see a lot of this is 1) it isn't easy to find a place where you aren't going to be rolled up by security folks, and 2) the quality of what you might get……..ie you are going to have maybe a super zoomed in pixely photo of a single aircraft, or perhaps a couple contrails with no extra detail if the environmentals are correct. People who look at aviation pics want to see the airplanes, and the best place to do that is probably watching jets launch out of Nellis, or if you can get in, jets marshaling on the ramp. Just my .02. I wouldn't expect to get the cool in flight shots that guys in rural UK do amongst the low level routes out there.

Yes I do realize this. However, when pics like this pop up, (From Coyote Summit shot at 300mm)


and this


clearly they are using the corridor. I've also heard people say they have seen f15s dropping flares so low they were hitting the ground before igniting. Clearly they are closer to civilization than it would seem. I'm just interested in the flight corridors since Area 51 is off limits to all, Creech Afb is likely a restricted airspace, and there is another drone base off to the south west of A51 that is most likely off limits, the actual combat area must be closer than it would seem.

Will

[FLYNAVY]

You are correct that the western range, to include R4808A are restricted. If I were you, I'd contact the folks that took those pictures, and see where they shot them from (or in the first case, looks like you have your answer). That is probably your best bet at getting good info. FWIW, Coyote Summit is underneath the eastern MOA's, well outside the places the government doesn't want you wandering around.

[BlackbirdM3]

I've been doing a bit of digging and I've found another place for epic shots. Rainbow Canyon, aka Jedi Transition or Star Wars Canyon. It runs between the Owens Valley and Death Valley along highway 190.

This says alot about the location...


This thread is pretty epic, I'm going to explore the forum more later.

http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27246

Will

[tttoon]

Yep, I can vouch for that spot. Spent about 15 minutes there at Father Crowley Point and saw two F-18s below me diving into the canyon, really cool.