Today I wrap up the airshow images with the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. Like I mentioned earlier in the week they were unable to perform several of their routines because of the low cloud cover. It was still a nice presentation but I did miss some of the formations they normally present.
The answer is, No I did not mess with this image. They actually flew that close together. Although it is starting to get some real age on it the F16 is a great aircraft. It saw a lot of action in both Gulf Wars and is a real work horse for the Air Force.
This image shows the pilot putting the F16 through a high-speed turn. Because of the condensation around the wings and the speed of the air craft I had some difficulty getting a really sharp focus on the plane.
It was a fun afternoon. We enjoyed sharing the experience with Steve and Becki and My friend Dave who gave me the tickets stopped by for a quick visit with his Son. I will certainly keep this on my radar for next year. The only thing I would do differently is get there sooner so I could see some of the static displays. In particular they had a beautiful F86 Saber Jet on display.
This is the Thunderbirds’ classic fly by for photographers. They do this fly by and then later in the show they do a big slow sweeping turn so that you can have a good look at top of the plane and then they do the say maneuver for the dirty side of the aircraft.
Finally this image of a mirror image. Compare this one with the first image I showed you. I would think they would have to have a spotter telling them what their distance apart was because obviously they cannot see each other.
When you stop and think about this formation it would have to be one of the most difficult. I didn’t pay all that much attention to it when they did it because it just didn’t register. It wasn’t until I was processing the image that level of difficulty was significant.
That’s it for the airshow. It’s been a busy week and a couple of nights I had to really scramble (Jeanne calls it lame) to get my 365 picture of the day. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your Friday and be careful.
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