I’m back from the Hiller Aviation Museum’s 2008 Vertical Challenge Airshow today at San Carlos Airport. My photos from today’s event are available on Flickr.
I was shooting with two camera and lens combinations today. The cameras were a Canon 30D and a Canon 40D
The lenses (sometimes on one camera, sometimes on the other) were a Canon 24-105 MM f4.0 IS L lens
The Hiller Aviation Museum is having its unique annual helicopter airshow – Vertical Challenge – tomorrow at San Carlos Airport. I had a lot of fun at the show last year – and am really looking forward to trying out a couple of new camera lenses this year! Check back late tomorrow and see how well I do! And, if you see me wandering around, be sure to say hi!
Yesterday was the Hiller Aviation Museum‘s 8th annual Vertical Challenge airshow at San Carlos, Airport.
A very big crowd turned out for the show – but, in spite of all the people, the helicopters were right up close on the flight line, the big military choppers were all open for visiting, and the airshow – especially the Showchoppers and the Red Bull aerobatic helicopter display were really great fun. I took way too many photos – and got way too much sun – a day of extremes, I guess!
Click on the photo above – of the California Department of Forestry’s UH-1H Super Huey 106 from Alma Helitack closing in for a water bucket drop – for the link to my full set of Vertical Challenge 2007 airshow photos on Flickr.
I took a Sunday drive today over to Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California – just a few miles northwest of Merced on the old Castle Air Force Base property (photos here).
I especially enjoyed the layout of the museum – the airplanes are displayed in a park-like setting so that you’re not walking on a massive tarmac apron but, rather, strolling on paths through the park.
For aviation buffs, the museum has a delightful outdoor collection of World War II and later aircraft – including a B-36, a B-47 and a B-52. Highly recommended!
Jack Dorsey writes for the Virginian-Pilot about the last flight of the US Navy’s F-14’s as they departed the USS Theodore Roosevelt and flew into naval aviation history. The New York Times this Sunday carried the AP story:
Bruce Doyle, a 63-year-old retired radar intercept officer, was also sad to see the Tomcats go. He belonged to one of the first squadrons to fly F-14’s, which the Navy first received in 1972, and he said he flew in an F-14 during the evacuation of Saigon in the Vietnam War.
“I was there for the first ones and I wanted to come be here for the last ones,” Mr. Doyle said at Friday’s homecoming. “It’s an awesome airplane with capabilities that are mind-blowing.”
I’ll never forget the first time I saw an F-14 do a demonstration – sometime in the mid-70’s at Patuxent River Naval Air Station. This particular F-14 came in from the right at high speed, slowing and bringing its wings forward while rolling into a knife edge 360 degree turn to the right. The small radius in which he performed this maneuver was just amazing. As he rounded the 270 degree position on the circle, the wings started sliding back from full forward to full aft position, followed by lighting full afterburners just as he completed the circle. Up, and he was gone. Such a combination of finesse and power it was.
Still takes my breath away remembering that performance! The F-14 served us very well – very well, indeed. Kudos to all those Naval Aviators who had the opportunity to fly such an amazing airplane!
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