JWilsonphoto wrote:
On a fun note, we are beginning to plan our Lindbergh centennial commemorative trip to Paris next May. The field that Charles Lindberh departed from, Roosevelt Field on Long Island, is now a mall, so we will need to do what we did for the North Pole Expedition and fly over that point, like we did Spitsbergen Norway, then head for LeBourget Aerodrome in Paris. The plan is to do it in a new Gulfstream G800 and set a world speed record in the process. Lindbergh did it in 33 hours and 30 minutes, if I had to guess, our flight will be under five hours, and in considerably more comfort..........Show more →
33 hrs..Good Lord
Good luck with this commamortive trip
Thanks! Yes, 33:30 in The Spirit of St. Louis with no forward visibility to speak of. I surprised the guy wasn't rammy when he landed, incredible discipline!
Just got home from our quick trip to Belgium and the Netherlands. The Sanicole Airshow in Belgium was mostly a bust due to the cancellations of most of the announced headline performers and poor weather. I only attended the sunset show on Saturday, it was very cloudy, very poor lighting. I didn't go to the Sunday show due to the rainy weather and lackluster lineup.
Here is the first installment of the show, two Polish performers. The plane shooting fireworks started several fires in the grass area of the airfield. They had to call in firetrucks.
The only lens I brought with me for the show is the 300 f2.8 +2X TC. This combo is so compact and light. The newly announced Sony 600mm f6.3 is even smaller and much lighter at less than 1 kg. It would have been a perfect lens for this purpose but it wasn't shipping yet.
cs3is wrote:
Great set Doug, Pyro guy setting fields aflame is funny . 300 2.8 was a good choice given the horrendous conditions.
Thank you gentlemen!
Some shots of a German Luftwaffe Tornado. It wasn't the colorfully painted demo jet. This is my second time to see a Tornado. The first time I saw one was at a NATO exercise at a military base in northern Germany, when I went to Denmark to shoot air to air in 2024.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Outstanding Douglas! You made lemonade out of the lemons, as usual.
Thank you Jim!
This is a Canadair-built Sabre Mk.6 at Sanicole Airshow. The Eurofighter Thyphoon pulled out of the show 3 days before it started. They found this F-86 as a substitute, kind of.
The weather in Texas, while still pretty toasty, is beginning to change. I haven't done much, "good for the soul" photography since Spring, it's just been too brutal. Really, it's taken everything that I can muster just to get my assignment work done. I'm looking forward to Wings Over Houston in a month.
James and I are going to try to take a few days and go shoot Palo Duro Canyon together, probably in mid October. He has wanted to do an overnight photo shoot where we stay in a hotel. I've been wanting to take him to an airshow but his attention span would present a problem at any event longer than something local where we could pop in for some action and then head out when he has had enough. He has asked to go to Wings Over Houston but that would be a four day disaster and I'm looking forward to just doing my thing with no strings attached.
Last night was one of those times that you are well aware of how special and fleeting the opportunity is. Chandler and I took off and flew around the lake for a bit, then came back in and shot landings well into the dark. The air was cool, but a bit strange. The ATIS and tower called it "5" out of the east at the surface, but I knew something was up the minute we started our take off roll. We started to drift west of the centerline and I kept feeding in more and more rudder and aileron against the crosswind, much more of a crosswind than they were calling it. We flew around the lake at our usual cruising altitude, 500' agl, the wind pattern on the water showed a very stiff flow from east to west. We talked about and analyzed it, even asked the tower for a wind check, but they still weren't seeing it. I decided to go back and do battle with it on the runway. We shot a half dozen landings and each one was a challenge. Funny, when I had my 182 I'd never give the wind a second thought, but the 1,000# Cub with it's little wheel on the tail is a completely different animal. We went round and round, deep in aeronautical discussion, polishing our technique with every pass, we finally called it quits as dark blanketed the field.
After we put the Cub away we decided to hop on the golf cart and head to our spot at the hold short line and soak up the beautiful night. We've spent hundreds of hours in that spot solving all manner of problems, critiquing everyone's landing technique and just generally enjoying our time together. I guess it's my age and the fact that these precious grandchildren are young adults, but one can't help realize how precious and fleeting these opportunities are, and one day they'll be sitting in the very same spot and I won't. Not morbid thinking, just reality, and hoping that we made every memory possible and that those memories will help carry them through the good and bad that inevitably lies ahead. The airport is so peaceful at that time of night, the blue taxiway lights shimmering as the occasional aviator stops by to brush up on their night currency, it's just a great place to sit, think and share.
