I have seen a lot of Thunderstorms doing this job; in the south where daily afternoon storms kick up quickly, In Texas, where storms are both extremely deadly and dramatically beautiful and finally in the North East. ...]]> The blackness of the night can be deceiving when you’re over the Great Plains at 37,000 feet. With a full moon and high clouds obscuring the horizon, it can be difficult to determine what clouds are Thunderstorms and which ones is innocent cirrus. It’s easy to spot the lighting that comes with all Thunderstorms from hundreds of miles away, especially this high. It’s the the isolated storms that are hiding off in the distance, behind a thicker obscuration that pose the greatest challenge to say the least at night. Thank God for RADAR, making the ominous and elusive line of storms easier to spot.

I have seen a lot of Thunderstorms doing this job; in the south where daily afternoon storms kick up quickly, In Texas, where storms are both extremely deadly and dramatically beautiful and finally in the North East. The weather there always seems to last longer and move through the area slower than in other parts of the country.

From the ground Thunderstorms can be very striking (sorry for the pun) towering monstrosities that have their own natural beauty. But of all the views that I have seen, the airborne show at night is the best. It feels like you’re witnessing something unique, god-like almost, every cloud crevasse is illuminate with each burst of light.

The most important instrument onboard is the RADAR, so important in fact that commercial aircraft are forbidden from flying at night without it. These storms are beautiful to witness, from a distance. But up-close, deadly and catastrophic for there airplane.

As summer approaches so does the nightly show of Thunder and Lightning moving eastward.

This Thunderstorm was heading toward Lincoln,  Nebraska in the middle of the night last night.  As always we were deviating around by 50 miles or so to avoid any of the adverse effects from the storm.

The state of the airline industry is not what it once was, the pay has not kept pace with inflation, making disposable income smaller than it once was.  My non-flying friends ask me “why do you do it, you can make more applying your experience somewhere else”   My answer;  ”because the view from my office is always changing and its the best one in the ...]]> Most of my friends who don’t fly airplanes for a living ask me about the job a lot; what’s it like, is it hard, do you have to be smart?.  My usual answer to that is, “I’m doing, so how hard could it be”.  Honestly, I don’t think you have to be book smart, you just have to be dedicated, tenacious, resilient and intuitive;  being able to read, write and do basic math helps too.

The state of the airline industry is not what it once was, the pay has not kept pace with inflation, making disposable income smaller than it once was.  My non-flying friends ask me “why do you do it, you can make more applying your experience somewhere else”   My answer;  ”because the view from my office is always changing and its the best one in the world”.

Pilots say looking through NVG’s is like looking through ...]]> Military flight operations in the modern era require the ability to takeoff and land and operate in some of the most austere places on the planet.  They don’t have  proper lighting to make the operation safe.  They are heavy, can be fatiguing after a while, especially if your wearing them all night long, but the consolation is, the enemy can’t hit what it can’t see.  I have stood at the end of a runway, waiting for traffic to land in the middle of the night on a covertly lit runway and I haven’t seen the the airplane  until it was literally right in front of me.  Without the aircraft position lights, landing lights, or a red rotating beacon on, seeing an aircraft on a moon-less night is difficult, to say the least.

Pilots say looking through NVG’s is like looking through a toilet paper roll.  They take some getting used to, but after a while, landing without them is much more difficult than unaided.

More later  BW

In this photo I was standing in the overrun, at the end of RWY 26 (with the permission of the airport manager) with my Nikon D700 using my Nikon 200-400MM lens, hanging off a tripod for stability.  John rotated the airplane into the air, retracted the gear (which takes almost the full 19 seconds) staying low in ground effect to accelerate so as ...]]> Yesterday, I was out at Camarillo Airport here in Southern California taking my son and my good friend Dave’s boys to see some airplanes. Since they are all “about” the same age and seem to love everything involving airplanes I thought it would be a good day to see one of the best. The B-25, Executive Suite is based in Camarillo, CA and is flown by a couple of good friends who make maneuvering the old WWII bomber easy.

In this photo I was standing in the overrun, at the end of RWY 26 (with the permission of the airport manager) with my Nikon D700 using my Nikon 200-400MM lens, hanging off a tripod for stability.  John rotated the airplane into the air, retracted the gear (which takes almost the full 19 seconds) staying low in ground effect to accelerate so as to reach VMCA (minimum control speed with an engine inoperative) as quickly as possible.  Here, in this picture this seemingly low pass is a standard maneuver, nothing special for the photographer.

More later BW…

Back In Febuary I posted a series of pictures that I shot while climbing out from Pt. Mugu on a night TAC mission.  The sunset was as stunning as I have ever seen, so I shot some video as well, I hope you enjoy.

BW

Today was the last day of Photoshop World, like the name says it’s a convention dedicated to all things photography and Phtotoshop.  For years now I have been wanting to go, but without fail there was always something that seemed to get in the way, but this year I carved out some time and made it happen.  While I was there the Cherry blossoms were peaking, so I got up one morning nice and early, predawn, as some would say, more like middle of the friken night in my opinion, and drove into the city.  The rain from the two previous days had done a number on the trees at the tidal basin so I didn’t exactly get what I had initally imagined.  Instead, I got some thing I thought was better; a morning HDR of the Jefferson Memorial as ...]]>  

Today was the last day of Photoshop World, like the name says it’s a convention dedicated to all things photography and Phtotoshop.  For years now I have been wanting to go, but without fail there was always something that seemed to get in the way, but this year I carved out some time and made it happen.  While I was there the Cherry blossoms were peaking, so I got up one morning nice and early, predawn, as some would say, more like middle of the friken night in my opinion, and drove into the city.  The rain from the two previous days had done a number on the trees at the tidal basin so I didn’t exactly get what I had initally imagined.  Instead, I got some thing I thought was better; a morning HDR of the Jefferson Memorial as the sun was coming up.  Now, when I got to the west side of the tidal basin there were about 10 other Photographers there, all with same idea, so much for originality on my part.

Later in the day I had a little time in-between chores and headed over to Reagan National, they have a small park off the departure end of Runway 1 I thought I would see if this was a good vantage point to shoot some departures.  Its not so great, be better from the top of one of the hanger buildings, but I didn’t have time to go off, find and ask permission.

More  to come

BW

I shot this at f16 to get the star effect.

It seems that I made it one day late, all the colors were on the ground

Best time of the day

Aerial Firefighting is a perishable skill and regular training is essential to maintain the aircrews capabilities.  Normally this type of training is accomplished in mountainous terrain, but when the weather doesn’t cooperate then you have to come up with an alternate plan.  In this case the turbulence was forecast to be occasional severe, well we don’t fly in forecast severe.  So we ...]]> During the spring in Southern California the weather can be unpredictable, compared to the rest of the year when you can almost set your watch by it.  Yesterday, the wind was hollowing, the temp was really, really cold.  I felt like I was in Chicago at times, in the middle of January, needing a much heavier jacket.  Every year MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System ) training occurs in the spring and this year So Cal was the location.

Aerial Firefighting is a perishable skill and regular training is essential to maintain the aircrews capabilities.  Normally this type of training is accomplished in mountainous terrain, but when the weather doesn’t cooperate then you have to come up with an alternate plan.  In this case the turbulence was forecast to be occasional severe, well we don’t fly in forecast severe.  So we dropped on flat terrain at the airfield.  The top picture shows the drift the airplane was experiencing due to the crosswind.  You’re looking at the airplanes ground track coming straight at me, but the nose is pointed distinctly to the right (camera left)  and you can see how the water drop is effected by the wind.

Afghanistan has some great sunsets, this one was  especially nice.  During a rare free moment, I fired off a few HDR 5 bracketteted exposures.  I didn’t know what I had until I got home and processed the shots.  A little crop to get rid of some of the distracting artifacts off to camera right and I came up with this.