Thunderbirds, part VI

More chicken. 4 going one way, 1 going the other. One of the planes might be a female pilot. One of the 6 that were up is a woman. She's the first female Thunderbird in 52 years of the team. I had no idea women were allowed in combat aircraft. Thats a discussion for another day.



Colors and shapes.




Ok, they do this bomb burst maneuver where 4 planes go straight up with smoke, then split and go 4 seperate directions and a 5th plane shoots up the middle. Cool enough. To cap it off, the 4 that split do a big loop and meet at the center of the runway, about 200 feet off the ground or so. Thats 3 of the 4 going on their merry way after having crossed right in front of the crowd. I missed the 4th that would have been coming towards us and opposite of the middle plane. I could do that, cuz I was an astronaut. 

Airshow part 11tymillion

This was just cool to see. Thats the T-6 Aerobatic team with people watching near the static displays. The Warbirds were right behind me.

This would make a cool desktop for your computer


Yeah... chicken at 450 mph, for both planes. And a break at the last second. I could do that any old day.


The pilot is walking along the runway here. The F-18 did it earlier at 73 mph down the runway, tilted up like that. Its called a high alpha maneuver. 

Warbirds

The Corsair and Mustang really got me. The others were cool, but not as shiny. I like shiny stuff. 

3 of ??? A P-40, a T-6 and Thunderbird with flames out the tail

 

Airshow 2 of ???

Having taken 1300 pics, I have a few to share! 

Some Cool Airshow Pics F-18 style

The base had an airshow today and yesterday. Yesterday was cloudy and cold, not great airshow weather. I enjoyed seeing the WWII warbirds and some other stuff, but the Thunderbirds were cancelled due to not having enough of a ceiling. Above are 3 shots of a Navy F-18 hornet approaching the speed of sound and causing condensation to form. The last shot is a flyby of a WWII Corsair worth over a million bucks and the F-18 flying together. 

4 of 4, all in Zion National Park

Colors and shapes. The sky is awesome out there! 

3 of 4

This is a night shot, by moon light, in Zion National Park. I set the shutter speed for 15 seconds, and was pleased with myself when I saw the rock face appear on the camera LCD. I didn't realize there were stars in the pic till I got home. Awesome!


Zion National Park. The cool thing about going to Zion and the Grand Canyon is comparing the 2 experiences. In Zion, you are down in the canyon, looking up. In the GC you're on top, looking down.


Some kind of yellow flower. I think it's a wild poppy. These were common on the road side.


Thats a golden eagle soaring in Zion. Awesome!

2 of 4 posts

The Vermillion Cliffs from an overlook about an hour before sunset. The views out west were breathtaking! We kept saying "oh my god", "wow", "awesome". "Holy Cows" were responded to with "we're not Hindus!". You had to be there....


The new Navajo Bridge, taken from on top of the old one. Both are 500 feet more or less above Lee's Ferry. Yes it was a tingly moment to be out there! The next bridge over the Colorado River is several hundred miles downstream. More Vermillion cliffs in the background here too.


A walkway near the Hoover Dam. That's Lake Meade in the background


A glass installation in the Bellagio. I love this artists glass work. There have been shows about it on TV and articles in magazines. 

Southwest pics

We went on a trip to the Southwest, including Vegas, Zion National Park, the Grand canyon, North and South rims, and the Vermillion Cliffs area of Arizona, between the North and South rims of the Grand Canyon. Here are some of the 1000 (!!!) pics I took. I'm going to do 4 posts tonight. Maybe more later. I don't want to turn into the Cliff Claven of the Grand Canyon!


The Canyon's stark beauty is evident in this pic from Guano Point on the Hualapi reservation.




Yavapi Point looking towards the north rim.


California Condor! One of 5 we saw at the south rim in a single group. Massive wingspans and white patches on the under side of the wings made it hard to misidentify them. I didn't notice the tags till I blew up the pics



This is on the North Rim along Bright Angel trail

On the way to a covered bridge,with Uncle Frank

While on our spur of the moment trip to see a covered bridge we pretty much had to stop and see the herd of buffalo. Massachusetts is well known as a natural area for bison.



Western Central Massachusetts seems to be made up of lots of small towns. Many of them have a statue in the center of town, dedicated to Civil War Veterans. This statue was dedicated to the men of the town by a Colonel from the town. It was interesting reading the names. The reported causes of death included dying, killed in battle, shot and finally died in a prison camp. I thinkI remember reading that most men that died in the War were from disease not .50 caliber lead poisoning.





The bridge dated back to 1886. It's closed to traffic now, but very scenic just the same.