Gentlemen, I just got home 5 minutes ago after driving 600 miles from Middle Creek. I saw it in my camera as it happened, just horrific. Feel so sorry for him and his family. Life can be lost like that in split second. I got several shots before and during it happened, I won’t post them out of respect to his family but due to the heat shimmering and smoke , the pictures are not sharp anyway, at least from my cameras view finder. I will put them in the computer tomorrow to take a look. He was racing with Rob Hollland.
Based on what I saw in my camera’s view finder, some thing must have come apart on the right side of the truck, which was facing away from the viewers, I saw debris flying up from the right side before the truck was engulfed in fire.
The truck’s left side was facing the viewers. So before the debris on the right side flew up high enough to be visible, it’s not clear what happened before that. I estimate from the where the trouble started to where the truck flipped and stopped, it’s about 100 yards. The truck was in huge fire before it flipped. Two fire trucks arrived about a minute later and put out the fire. They would have called a chopper if there were any sign of hope. A bunch of pyro techs were standing very close to the truck’ s path when It happened. It was just the 4th or 5th act after the show started. Just horrible.
Douglas
Update: I uploaded the pictures to my computer and counted 53 frames of pix immediately before trouble was visible to the viewers and after it started. At least from the pictures I have, the trouble started on the right side first like I mentioned above, before the two left rear tires busted, and before the parachutes were deployed. I sent a message to the organizer to offer the pictures to help the investigation if needed. But I am sure there are tons of videos and pictures there already.
Douglas L wrote:
Gentlemen, I just got home 5 minutes ago after driving 600 miles from Middle Creek. I saw it in my camera as it happened, just horrific. Feel so sorry for him and his family. Life can be lost like that in split second. I got several shots before and during it happened, I won’t post them out of respect to his family but due to the heat shimmering and smoke , the pictures are not sharp anyway, at least from my cameras view finder. I will put them in the computer tomorrow to take a look. He was racing with Rob Hollland.
Based on what I saw in my camera’s view finder, some thing must have come apart on the right side of the truck, which was facing away from the viewers, I saw debris flying up from the right side before the truck was engulfed in fire.
The truck’s left side was facing the viewers. So before the debris on the right side flew up high enough to be visible, it’s not clear what happened before that. I estimate from the where the trouble started to where the truck flipped and stopped, it’s about 100 yards. The truck was in huge fire before it flipped. Two fire trucks arrived about a minute later and put out the fire. They would have called a chopper if there were any sign of hope. A bunch of pyro techs were standing very close to the truck’ s path when It happened. It was just the 4th or 5th act after the show started. Just horrible.
Douglas
Update: I uploaded the pictures to my computer and counted 53 frames of pix immediately before trouble was visible to the viewers and after it started. At least from the pictures I have, the trouble started on the right side first like I mentioned above, before the two left rear tires busted, and before the parachutes were deployed. I sent a message to the organizer to offer the pictures to help the investigation if needed. But I am sure there are tons of videos and pictures there already....Show more →
I'm sure that there are some pictures, but they are not yours.
Some pictures from Friday evening from the Battle Creek twilight show and the night airshow with pyro, both a first time for me. Maybe 1 out of 50 is sharp enough to be salvageable due to the slow shutter speed I used and my sucky panning skill.
My gosh Douglas these are excellent! I think if you are panning at 1/250th @ 600mm you are much better than you think you are Crazy good skills buddy
I never knew they did a twilight show at any airshow?
Love the light and sensation of speed on the last one and the general warmth of light on all!
Karl
Good Morning Karl, evening air shows are rare, and wonderful. Most of the time we are relegated to shooting performances in less than flattering light. Evening shows offer wonderful lighting and dramatic opportunities, if one is up to the challenge. Oshkosh has one of the best evening air shows on the circuit.
Happy 4th to all Americans. Left, right or center we are all Americans first. Hero's don't just serve with or for the right America, left America or center America. They serve for all America. And there are hero's form all places and from many different religious and political beliefs. When the real $hit is going down one doesn't care if the person your are fighting with is left or right politically. All you care about is having each others backs. As it should be. We are all Americans. All brothers and sisters.
And we lost a great American hero recently
USMC Herschel "Woody" Williams the last living MoH recipient from WWII died last week.
Douglas L wrote:
To my fellow Americans, happy 4th of July!
Some pictures from Friday evening from the Battle Creek twilight show and the night airshow with pyro, both a first time for me. Maybe 1 out of 50 is sharp enough to be salvageable due to the slow shutter speed I used and my sucky panning skill.
Fantsastic compositions Douglas!
Talking about light, last Friday's sunset at Battle Creek was just gorgeous after the storm and I have pictures to prove it. I wish the jets were parked where I could get some shots of them under that beautiful sunset, something I haven't never done before. They were parked where the spectators couldn't even see.
I didn't even know the Navy has a F-35C demo team until two months ago. I was fortunate to see both the f-35 A team and the F-35 C team at the warmup Friday afternoon right after the storm. Unbelievable vapes and I have pictures to prove that too. I didn't get to see them on Saturday's real show due to the cancellation of the program because of the truck accident.
Here are some shots of the F-35A and F-35C, I couldn't tell which is which. Enjoy!
airfrogusmc wrote:
Happy 4th to all Americans. Left, right or center we are all Americans first. Hero's don't just serve with or for the right America, left America or center America. They serve for all America. And there are hero's form all places and from many different religious and political beliefs. When the real $hit is going down one doesn't care if the person your are fighting with is left or right politically. All you care about is having each others backs. As it should be. We are all Americans. All brothers and sisters.
And we lost a great American hero recently
USMC Herschel "Woody" Williams the last living MoH recipient from WWII died last week.
Douglas L wrote:
Here are some shots of the F-35A and F-35C, I couldn't tell which is which. Enjoy!
Douglas
I think 435 is the 'C' model. The C has a larger wing area and larger control surfaces for better low speed control. Other differences would be harder to tell since they involve the arresting gear, two nose wheels on the C and beefier landing gear.
Crazy good skills buddy 
. I wish the jets were parked where I could get some shots of them under that beautiful sunset, something I haven't never done before. They were parked where the spectators couldn't even see. 
