More Airshow Pics

I'm in Florida to pick up a car from my sister. The Naval Air Station is doing an airshow this weekend, which I had no idea of when I set the trip plans. So, I lucked out, 2 air shows in less than a month!



If I was forced to say who flew tighter, the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds, I'd have to go with the Blue Angels, but it would be darn close! Get it???



They came across 4 abreast and the 2 outter pilots broke away, then the 2 inner pilots. Tight!



Cool propaganda pic! 

Jacksonville Air Show

I'm in Jacksonville Florida for the night picking up a car from my sister. The Navy is doing an Air Show here this weekend, which I had no idea of when we set the date to do the car thing. I got here today and my sister dumped tim and I off a the air show to be picked up later, after the Blue Angels show. They were awesome! I'd be hard pressed to say who had the better show, but if I had to, I'd say the Blue Angels might be flying a little closer than the Thunderbirds.... Either way, I'm sure I could do it too, being a former astronaut and all!


This one I got by accident, shooting the front one while he did his upside down thing on the main runway while his fellow airmen were looping around in the background.



Number 5 and 7 were both right side up as they approached the runway, 5 flipped over from slightly in front of 7, then 7 pulled up next to 5, all at ~250 mph or so, I guess, oh yeah, about 100 feet off the ground? Easy peasy!


Skyline shot



Thats looking pretty tight to me! 

Mary's a Freakin artist too

Here are some pics Mary took in the Grand Canyon with Tim's camera. The pic of all three of us was taken by the Chinese boat captain, while Driving us up the Colorado River. The Canyon is a multi-cultural experience. We met people from all over the globe there including at least Japan, China, India, the Netherlands, and Germany. A couple of the pics are of your's truly doing what he likes to do best, and of course there is Tim in the back seat of the van, as far away from the parents as possible, listening to his mp3 player.

 
 
 
  

Last 2 shots from Bombay Hook

These flowers were what I stopped to take a look at before I took all the bug pics. More than once I've stopped to look at one thing, and found something else that was at least as interesting as the original motivator.


These are the leafs (leaves???) I went all the way out to BH to take pics of. They're OK, and closer to what I was looking for yesterday.

More from the roadside

Roadside World

I went back out to Bombay Hook today to re-take some pics of the tree from yesterday that didn't work out the way I wanted. I'll post that picture next, but while I was out there I stopped beside the road and was looking at some flowers in the water. Anyways, I noticed some bugs, and got out my macro lens. I have always been fascinated by the secret worlds that surround us that we are barely aware of. Here are some of the inhabitants of one little non-descript roadside world, about 30 feet long.

Rejects

I saw something that I was trying to get in each of the following pictures. Some are closer than others.


This barn is close, but the ground wasn't level from where i was shooting, and the barn isn't as red as I thought it was the other day. I liked the contrast between the red and the green, but this isn't what i was looking for.



I missed on the focus. I should have used the tripod....yes, i know that's poison ivy.



Poison Ivy and some other vine. One is bright red the other a nice green. The picture is too cluttered with the rest of the trees though.




The red in this tree really stood out against the green. This pic just doesn't pop for me. Maybe if I'd have focused on the bottom right branch with the patterns of red against the green background... oh well. 

Bombay Hook

I've been antsy to get out and take some fall pictures for the last week. The weather hasn't been right or I haven't had the time. I finally got out today. I was trying for some pictures of a barn I found that was kind of glowing the other day, but, the pics today didn't meet my expectations. Another time...





This is an adult and 2 younger raccoons crossing over from an island in one of the ponds to an edge of the pond. At first all I saw was her(?) and the 2 babies. This was as the sun was slipping down behind the trees, so I was lucky to get this shot, and had to brighten it up quite a bit. Thus the washed out detail. But it's still a cool couple of pics.



Then 3 more immature raccoons followed up. They all crossed the litte mound. The egret and geese paid no attention to the goings on.




The sun slipping behind the phragmites gives them a nice glow. I can't quite get the pic I see in my head, but this is as close as I got today. 

Enough with the airshow, already

Another shiny plane


The T-6 aerobatic team, up from Louisiana and Alabama. What a cool sound these planes had. One of the pilots (~42 years old) had 20,000 hours as a pilot. Thats 10 full work years in airplanes.


A fuller view of the B-25 with the T-6 Team in the background.



This was a neat Demo. Those F-86s are privately owned. Both pilots are interesting. One is a retired navy pilot, a whiz with the F-14 and a former navy pilot of the year. The other is a retired executive with the moxie to learn how to do this stuff in his 40s. One of the planes used to belong to Frank Borman, the Apollo astronaut. 

Thunderbird landing, and my secret life

(S)He kept the nose up and ran down the runway for quite a bit. Nothing to it.


I coulda done all this stuff, see, I was an astronaut back in the 70s, I went on a lot of secret missions, see. They let me be an astronaut because I had the right stuff and flew jet aircraft all the time, yeah, thats the ticket. I was an astronaut... 

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.