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WOH 2019 Airshow |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Posted: October/21/2019 at 18:14 |
I went to the annual Wings Over Houston airshow at Ellington Field on Saturday, and had a great time geeking out on vintage and modern military and civilian aircraft. I have a special interest in tactical military aircraft, so I was especially excited to see the variety of WWII and modern fighter aircraft flown at the show. Headlining this years show was the USAF Thunderbirds and the F-35 Demo Team. Also there was the US Navy Legacy Flight Team, featuring WWII navy fighters (F4U Corsairs, F6F Hellcats, etc) along with an EF-18G "Growler" (Electronic Warfare version of the F/A-18F Super Hornet). Both the Navy and Air Force did "Heritage" flight demos, flying WWII fighters in formation alongside current frontline fighters (Navy EF-18G Growler with F4U Corsair and Air Force F-35 Lightning II with P47 Thunderbolt). The Commemorative Air Force was there presenting "Tora, Tora, Tora," a reenactment of the Pearl Harbor attack with pyrotechnics and restored Japanese A6M "Zero" fighters.
Along with the military aircraft, there were several civilian aerobatic team demos. It was a beautiful day with lots of action in the air! Below are photos I took of some of the highlights. Enjoy! |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Something I found interesting...
Notice in the Thunderbirds photos that the Slot pilot (T-Bird #4) was flying an F-16D (2 seater version), rather than the F-16C (single seat) model they normally fly. They typically use the D model only for "media flights," pilot training, etc. They must have had a maintenance problem with the normal #4 bird before this show. Notice also that #4 was carrying a centerline drop tank. Wonder why?
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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sucker76
Optics Journeyman Joined: June/13/2013 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 392 |
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Great shots! I got interested in the details of jet engines and found this YouTube site AgentJayZ. Check him out. His explanation of exhaust nozzles alone was world class. The outer turkey feathers aren't the primary flame/thrust shapers. The inner ones are. You showed them in the great F-16 upskirt shot. It looks like all planes landed in one piece so great day.
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Stamp collecting since 2015
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Kickboxer
MODERATOR Moderator Joined: February/13/2008 Status: Offline Points: 23679 |
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Ted, they probably did have a maintenance issue with the "normal" aircraft. In order to construct the F-16 dual-cockpitted aircraft, they had to reduce the size of the internal forward fuel cell of the aircraft, reducing its range. Due to airshow length and high-g, high speed maneuvers at low altitudes' fuel burn rates, they probably had to carry the centerline tank in order to meet onboard fuel safety requirements. Great pictures.
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Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.
There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living |
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Sgt. D
Optics Master Extraordinaire Joined: February/20/2008 Location: North Carolina Status: Offline Points: 4525 |
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WOW! Most of those I had models I built as a kid. Good memories.
Salute!
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Take care of Soldiers, Show em how its done and do it with em, Run to the Fight & and hold your ground! I die my men go home! If you're a NCO and this ain't you. GET OUT! GOD BLESS AMERICA!
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Ah, yes, I bet you’re right, Dan. Makes sense. The 2-seat birds definitely have to sacrifice some fuel capacity.
The funny thing is, everything was moving fast and the centerline tank was painted the same dark blue as the “bird” on the bottom of the plane (so it blended in well) that I didn’t notice the tank until I got home and downloaded the photos.
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Yeah, the outer turkey feathers support and move the inners. Depending on the engine, the inner turkey feathers are either ceramic plates or have a ceramic coating.
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13181 |
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Awesome photography, Ted. I am far from an airplane enthusiast, but even I am impressed.
ILya
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coyote95
Optics Master Joined: January/24/2009 Location: michigan Status: Offline Points: 1196 |
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Great photos, Ted ! Thanks for sharing.
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"Life is like riding a bicycle . To keep balance you must keep moving" Albert Einstein
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BeltFed
Optics Retard Joined: February/12/2008 Location: Ky Status: Offline Points: 22284 |
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Great pictures Ted! I never realized it before, Tarheel Hal is a P47N and not a D.
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Life's concerns should be about the 120lb pack your trying to get to the top of the mountain, and not the rock in your boot.
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magshooter1
Optics Professional Joined: August/27/2008 Location: El Dorado, AR Status: Offline Points: 827 |
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Awesome pics. Thanks for posting.
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Some people are educated BEYOND their intelligence.
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mike650
Optics God Joined: May/14/2006 Location: West of Rockies Status: Offline Points: 14569 |
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WoW!!!
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“A hunt based only on trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be.” – Fred Bear
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budperm
Optics Retard show me your sheep!! Joined: January/01/2009 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31710 |
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Great pix!!! Reminds me of growing up in Jacksonville Beach Florida (Circa 1960s). The Blue Angels were still based in Mayport Naval Base and were always flying around. Back then they hadn't yet outlawed Sonic Booms and the pilots loved nothing more than rattling your windows with fly-overs...
Somewhere during that time the Blue Angels were relocated. I'm not sure how many times but they seemed to have ended up in Pensacola, Florida...
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"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading".
--Thomas Jefferson |
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BeltFed
Optics Retard Joined: February/12/2008 Location: Ky Status: Offline Points: 22284 |
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That's correct Bud, and the Thunder Birds (my favorite) are based out of Nellis AFB just out side of Lost Wages, NV. Ted, are those all the pictures you have of the air show?
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Life's concerns should be about the 120lb pack your trying to get to the top of the mountain, and not the rock in your boot.
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tahqua
MODERATOR Have You Driven A Ford Lately? Joined: March/27/2006 Location: Michigan, USA Status: Offline Points: 9042 |
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Love the pictures. I like the Mitchell, especially, as one flies over my home every weekend from the Yankee Air Museum.
Thanks Ted
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Doug
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SEMO Shooter
Optics Apprentice Joined: January/06/2013 Location: SE Missouri Status: Offline Points: 199 |
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Great photos. Thanks for posting them.
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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No, I took several hundred photos, then pared them down to about 130 "keepers." One thing I forgot to mention... I was shooting in burst mode with a super fast shutter (between 1/1600 - 1/2500 sec), with the intent of ensuring that the jets were sharp without motion blur. Turns out, I should have slowed down my shutter quite a bit for at least the prop planes because shutter speed was so fast, it "froze" the props on the piston engine planes, making them look like models just "hanging" in the sky. If I had it to do over again, I would've shot the prop planes in shutter priority mode rather than aperture priority, with a shutter speed of something like 1/125 to blur out the props, then, speed up my shutter again for the jets. Or, I could have used a neutral density filter to reduce light to slow down my shutter. As it was, it was a bright sunny day and I was pointing into the bright sky, keeping my aperture at between f/5.6 - f/8, with base ISO, and still, the shutter speed had to be super fast to prevent over-exposure. I didn't want to close down aperture too much more than f/8 out of concern it would reduce image quality... which again means I could use a ND filter, but I didn't bring one with me. I used center-weighted metering so that the camera would meter on and near the planes rather than matrix metering where it had to average out the whole sky.
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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One other thing... during the EF-18G "Growler"/ Super Hornet high speed pass, the rear of the plane erupted in a huge vapor "shock cone," and I missed getting a shot of it because I was having too hard a time following it within the narrow FOV of my telephoto lens at the speed it was traveling. This happened seconds after I got the shot of it above with the vapor coming off the wings. It's pretty hard to keep a jet flying at just under Mach 1 at low altitude inside the viewfinder with the FOV offered by a 300mm (600mm equivalent on the camera I was using) focal length lens!
That really ticked me off, as it would've been an epic shot! Same thing with the F-35 during its high speed passes. Lots of vapor!
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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BeltFed
Optics Retard Joined: February/12/2008 Location: Ky Status: Offline Points: 22284 |
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Quit it Ted. I was part of an air show in southern Ind.. We were part of a big WWII tank battle between the Gemans and Allies. It was a 2 day show and before our battle we would station off to the side and end of the runway. We got a great view of the planes taking off. On the second day, there was a freelance photographer that showed us some of the pictures he had taken the day before. He had a fast shudder speed too, because the props were frozen on his planes as well. some you could even read the Hartzel stickers on the blades. It took a minute for me to like it, but when you consider the detail he picked up, I thought it was cool. Oh, and Ted, he was using film.
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Life's concerns should be about the 120lb pack your trying to get to the top of the mountain, and not the rock in your boot.
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