Upde Designs

One of my very favorite segments of the airshow was watching the F/A 18 Super Hornet go through its routine.  I do not watch much television unless it’s the Discovery Channel or the Military Channel.  I’ve always been fascinated by military aircraft and the F/A 18 Super Hornet is one of my favorites.

The Military Channel had a series on the evolution of the F/A 18 Super Hornet.  Its predecessor the F/A 18 proved to be such a worthy aircraft the Navy decided to beef up the plane and what came out was the Super Hornet.  Better, bigger, faster, more lethal.

The image above shows the Super Hornet in a full power (after burners) turn.  The F/A Super Hornet replaces at least 3 different aircraft in the Navy’s fleet.

It is also the only aircraft that carries both the F (fighter) designation and the A (attack) designation because it is equally at home delivering ordnance in a strike configuration or as an air superiority fighter.

Above the Hornet flies by at 700 plus miles per hour, just under the sound barrier.  Obviously in a metropolitan area he couldn’t break the sound barrier.  He covered a lot of ground in a very short time.  Imagine that he can double that speed and still have power left.  Amazing!

The F/A 18 Super Hornet flies by in a landing configuration with the tail hook down.  Navy pilots are called aviators because of their extraordinary ability to land on a carrier at sea.  The neat thing about the Hornet is that it can be set up to make that landing by itself.

The Hornet can also level itself out of a spin if the pilot blacks out.  If there are no inputs from the pilot the plane will correct for a spin.  I watched this on the Military Channel and it was amazing.  The test pilot would put the plane in a flat spin and then just held on, (simulating blackout) after an undisclosed amount of time the plane would correct its flight path and level out.

Tomorrow I’ll finish up the airshow with some images of the Thunderbirds  (even though I have hundreds of additional images.)  I received an e-mail from my Mother-in-law yesterday.  She loves the barns and wants more pictures of Josh.  Got to please my audience.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Thursday and look forward to Friday.  Be careful.

The airshow wasn’t just about aircraft.  This jet car was also pretty exciting.  He raced the Red Bull helicopter and the Red Bull Stunt plane.  They both beat him but he raced them none the less.

When he first came out he did a lot of shooting flames out the rear of the car and a lot of smoke.  He didn’t push the car too hard going down the runway but coming back (the image above) he had the after burner kicked in and was covering some serious distance in a short amount of time.    Then he would pull on the rip cord and the parachute would slow him down.  It was a neat part of the show.

Next they had these two high performance bi-wing stunt planes.  They started their show by taking off at opposite ends of the same runway and then lifting off and banking to their right as they met.  With the smoke on it was a pretty dramatic beginning.

They put on a good show and did things that were very impressive.  Trouble is, they are low and slow.  Your anticipation is for the jets and the Thunderbirds so it’s hard to get excited by these planes.  That’s just me but I’m sure there are other people who feel the same way.

I mean if you’re talking pure precision flying they were absolutely excellent.  Minimum separation and some pretty risky maneuvers.  I was impressed with their piloting skills but again they are just slow.  🙂

Now if you want to talk about slow.  These guys wrote the book on slow.  You could watch them set up for a maneuver, go to the restroom and still be back in time to see them complete the maneuver.   I’m talking slow.

However, it was touching when this group did the missing man formation.  They also played taps while they circled the field.  Anticipation was starting to grow though because the F/A 18 Super Hornet was on the tarmac warming up its engines so it was like okay, get these guys down so the Super Hornet can fly.  More on that tomorrow.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Wednesday.  Hump Day already with only three more days till the weekend.  🙂  Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Good Day.  Some more images from the Airshow on Sunday.  Above is a Russian Mi17 helicopter.  This helicopter saw a lot of action when Russia (then the Soviet Union) invaded Afghanistan.

This particular helicopter worked with the University of Iowa Jets, and simulated putting technicians on the ground to mark targets.  I believe its main purpose was for the transportation of personnel.

This is the Red Bull helicopter.  flown by Chuck Aron.  The helicopter is a Messerschmitt-Bölkow Blohm BO-105.  It has special composite rotor blades that will allow it to preform unbelievable maneuvers.

“Malibu” Chuck Aaron is the first – and only – civilian pilot ever to be licensed to perform helicopter aerobatics in the United States. In fact, he’s one of only three pilots permitted to execute the dangerous maneuvers internationally.

Chuck is also the first helicopter pilot to be presented with the Art Scholl Showmanship Award, an honor bestowed by the International Council of Air Shows to recognize the world’s most outstanding air show performers, and was inducted in 2011 to the prestigious Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

Here Chuck puts the Red Bull helicopter through its routine.  Helicopters are not suppose to be able to fly upside down.  He did 15 minutes of maneuvers that literally defied the laws of helicopter flight dynamics.  It was amazing to see.

More stuff tomorrow.  That’s all I have time for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Tuesday and be careful.

Yesterday Jeanne and I met our good friends Steve and Becki in DeWitt and then drove to Davenport for the Quad Cities Air Show.  A friend of mine had given me VIP tickets to the show with VIP parking.

Now I’ve never had VIP anything so I didn’t really know what to expect.  He left them at “will call” so we couldn’t park in the VIP section.  That later turned out to be a very good thing.  We were right on the flight line (front row center stage.)

There was mostly cloud coverage and a nice breeze so it was really pleasant for half the show and then the sun came out.  Whew!  It got pretty uncomfortable after that but the show was fun and lots of action so the weather was not that much of a distraction.  The low cloud cover eliminated some of the Thunder Birds routines but they still put on a good show.

The Chalet we were in was courtesy of  Doug May owner of One Step Printing.   We had a table, chairs, beverages and a nice lunch all complimentary.   What a nice way to see the air show

Camera Stuff:

I shot with the Nikon D3S the entire show.  I started with ISO 200 but with the cloud cover I was only getting shutter speeds of 1/250 – 1/350 sec at f8.  So I pushed the ISO to 400 and that gave fast enough shutter speeds to freeze the action most of the time.  I had very little blown highlights so it was a good choice and I dialed in -7 EV.  I used the 28 – 300 mm lens, which is a great all-purpose lens.  Didn’t get me quite a close to the action as I would have liked but good enough.  Most of the time I shot at f8 but sometimes at f6.3

I shot 1,474 images.  That’s a new record for me.  Heck when the first two planes took off for the show I ran off 47 images of just the take off.  🙂  The D3S @ 11 fps and a huge buffer can spit out some serious numbers when you are trying to capture the action.   After culling them this morning I have 429 left.  Boy am I glad we have digital now.  Can you imagine trying to shoot an air show with rolls of 36 exposure film.    (Actually I did that when the Dubuque Airport had the Thunderbirds several years ago.)

Above is one of the planes from the group where a pilot was killed at the airshow on Saturday.  As a tribute to him, his two team mates took off at the beginning of the show and flew over the field and then departed.  It was a solemn moment.

I shot 47 images of those two airplanes taking off.  The L-39  was made by a company in the former Czechoslovakia in 1984, according to a Federal Aviation Administration registry.  (From one of the web sites – Glenn Smith left a lucrative job at a Dallas-area technology firm for an early retirement of restoring Soviet fighter jets and flying to exhibitions across the country.

He died Saturday when his nearly 30-year-old training plane nose-dived during an air show in eastern Iowa and crashed into a field, authorities said. Spectators watched the 59-year-old Smith’s plane erupt into flames, followed by a cloud of gray smoke. Nobody on the ground was hurt.

Smith had been flying in formation with other members of the HopperFlight team at the Quad-City Air Show in Davenport.)

Then some excitement as two planes from the University of Iowa.  The UI planes are part of an effort by the defense department to help in the training of pilots.  Pilots all over the world with the proper credentials can log into the flight instrumentation of these jets and see the inputs and controls of various combat situations.  (Click on the images to make them bigger and see all the detail.)

I believe that sometime in the near future many of the most hazardous missions will be flown by completely robotic fighter planes.  We are already seeing that with the drone surveillance and attack drones.  This is the evolutionary process that will help get there.

You may well imagine that for the coming week you’re going to be seeing lots of airplanes in flight.  If you’re not a big fan of that I ask you not leave me.  It will only take a week to get though some of the pictures (which are pretty good if I do say so myself) and there are some really interesting stories to tell.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Labor Day Holiday and be careful.

Yesterday morning one of the things I needed to do was get a haircut.  I have been a customer of the same barber for over 25 years.  He has always cut my hair the same way.  Always perfect and always the same way.  Today he cut it with the part on the other side.  I don’t know why and I didn’t ask him, truth is I liked it better. 🙂

After my new hair cut, Jeanne and I went to the Farmer’s Market to buy some bread.  It was 10:30 am.  Considering the Farmer’s Market opens at 7:00 am we were indeed fortunate to find one bag of bread left.

I don’t know why I don’t go to the Farmer’s Market every Saturday.  There are so many sights, sounds, smells and interesting people.  I always come home with a card full of interesting (to me anyway) images.

I met and visited with a very interesting Gentleman playing a Banjo.  I was taking some images of his group and he asked me if I was going to post those somewhere.  I told him I was and gave him one of my Upde.Net cards.  I had them printed because it saves a lot of time trying to explain why I’m taking pictures and where you may find them. 🙂

Turns out he is an avid photographer as well.  He said he shoots mainly wildlife and landscapes.  He gave me one of his cards.  I notice a violin sitting propped up against a case and I asked him if he played that as well.  He smiled, put down his banjo and promptly started playing an Irish Jig.  Pretty neat stuff.  I’ll show you some of those images at a later time.

Today I wanted to show some of the interesting shapes, patterns and repeating lines I found.  There are just so many things to take images of.  I told Jeanne next time I go down, I’m just going to find an inconspicuous place to sit and shoot away.

There was one image that eluded me however.  There was a young lady (at least a teenager or older) that had pale skin, fine red hair, and wearing a pastel dress.  I thought it would make a great image.  There were always people standing around talking to her and other companions and I didn’t want to barge in and ask if I could take her picture.

Friday there were three images that I wasn’t able to capture that I really wanted to.  I had to be in Clinton for a 7:30 am meeting (which I made with 5 minutes to spare.)  On the way I saw the big orange full moon.  I could have pulled into the airport and parked at the observation area and got a great image of that blue moon.

Next I was going through the river bottoms near Maquoketa and there was a low hanging fog that bisected a great tree in the field.  I could have made a composite of the tree, fog, and moon.  My third shot was of a barn.  There is a wonderful barn on the way to Clinton but when I’m usually going to Clinton the light isn’t right.  I’ve taken some shots of it before and never been happy with the results.

Friday the sun was at a great angle and it was the “golden hour” of quality light.  To capture any of these images would have taken 10 – 30 minutes of set up and tear down (most would have required a timed exposure, which means tripod.)

So those are the 4 images that got away.  Kind of like a fish story isn’t it?  They sound so good but who knows what they would have really been.  🙂

We’re off to the Airshow in the Quad Cities today.  Hope to get some good images.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful

Happy Saturday.  I heard on the news this morning that today is the astronomical beginning of Fall.  Yea!!  This has been one of the most miserable Summers (weather wise) that I can remember.  I’m sure I’ve been hotter but I don’t remember when it was.  🙂

This image was taken last Saturday on the way to Vinton, Iowa en-route to the big jump.  It was too good to pass up so I did a U-turn at a cross over, went back and snuck  up on them in my most stealthy way.  Of course when you are my size you can’t be too stealthy.  They caught on to me really quick.

For all my friends who enjoy farm scenes.  I saw this implement sitting in a hay-field.  I’m assuming that this wagon is used to harvest silage.  I thought it made a nice image against the corn in the foreground and background.

Finally this wonderful old barn.  If you remember I was telling you last week after we left the Vinton Airport we went past this barn and after a mile of traveling down the road, I decided I had to go back and capture an image.

This is the type of barn I like to shoot.  Still pretty much in its original condition, without the metal roof and it has the weathered wood.  These old barns are such a common sight in Iowa but when I see one in this condition I just have to photograph it.

This week I start another (my third) 52 week project.  I need to post an image of the week.  The purpose is to keep me shooting and looking for new images to make.  The 365 project pretty much takes care of that.  Only two months and I’m really feeling the challenge.

I was trying to explain the 365 project the other day to a friend and he thought I just posted a different picture each day.  No I have TAKE a different picture each day.  Like last Saturday I made 600 images but I could only use one for the 365 project.  Sunday I had to come up with a photo I took that day. 🙂

A friend gave me some VIP tickets to the Quad City Air Show for tomorrow.  🙂  Hope to have some neat things to show you next week.  Enjoy this Saturday.  There are only 52 of them a year so make the most of it.

Oh by the way.  I just was notified that this is my 500th post!  WOW, that’s a lot of bloviating! Thank you for following the blog.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

All good things (as they say) must come to an end.  So it is with this adventure.  I took 600 images over a 4 hour period.  From that I culled it down to 441 so there are a lot more images I could show you but it is time to move on.

There are so many impressions and emotions I could leave you with.  I was a bystander or an observer to this event.  I didn’t participate  or jump but I felt very much a part of it and connected with my friends.

Above Kevin and Ann take a picture to send to their kids.  Kevin and Ann are both adventurers.  They love the outdoors and are active in many types of sporting and nature activities.

Brian’s wife Marla was there for support and took some video of Brian’s jump.  I haven’t had a chance to sit down with any of the group and ask them about their experiences.  That would have helped tell the story.  It’s been a very busy week so not much time for anything other than keep appointments.

One of the things I’ve learned in my career is that everyone has some important things to say.  Sometime soon I want to sit down with them and have them recount their experience.

The was the most popular way to watch the sky divers.  If you stood up right and tried to watch them it wasn’t long until you felt the pain in your neck.  I think I reported earlier that there were about three groups ahead of our group so the jumpers had plenty of time to sit and think about their pending adventure.

There were also other people there to show their support.  Bonnie came along with the group and of course my Queen was there to lend support.  Bonnie had jumped a few years back and felt like she had been there done that.  I think it was really cool that she came with her buddies to watch their experience.

So it was a remarkable experience and an enjoyable day.  I’m glad I got to spend the time with my friends and enjoy their experience with them.  They are all quality people and the whole experience was just awesome.

I’ll leave you with this image.  There is another story about this mascot that I do not have the time nor the inclination to pursue.  Suffice it to say that it is a worthy story to tell.  Perhaps another time.

Thank you for stopping by.  Back to barns and other things that interest me now.  Enjoy your Friday and be very careful this holiday weekend.

Good Day.  We are rapidly closing in on Friday and a three-day weekend.  I want to bring our other three jumpers in today so I got them close to the ground with out actually showing them on the ground.   Again as you remember I was required to stay pretty far away from the landing zone and it wasn’t the best angle to photograph them either.

First one in was Kevin.  I asked him a few times before the weekend if he had any second thoughts about jumping.  He always had the same answer.  He would say, “No I’m looking forward to it.”

Next came Ann.  I didn’t get a chance to visit with Ann much before she jumped.  But knowing that she has hiked the Continental Divide Trail with Kevin and works for the DNR so I didn’t think she would have any concerns.

I went to Rotary today and a lot of the talk at Rotary was about the skydivers.  People wanted to know why they did it and who all was involved.  This is for now anyway the talk of the town.  Good stuff.

Finally the last jumper of the group was Gayle.  She was jumping to celebrate her 50th birthday.  I got to thinking that Saturday how young 50 sounded.  Damn, it was a traumatic birthday for me and now it seems so young.  😦

By the time Gayle and her group landed the temperature had started to climb and what started off as a very pleasant morning was rapidly turning into another HOT and humid day.

So now we have them all on the ground safe and reasonably sound.  Tomorrow I’ll wrap up this amazing skydiving adventure with some final thoughts and images.

Enjoy this wonderful Thursday and thank you as always for stopping by.  Please be careful.

I continue today with more of Saturday’s adventure with skydiving.  Above Gayle is interviewed for her skydiving video.  I hope to be able to show you at least some of the videos here at a later date.

Gayle’s husband who is learning to be a pilot rode along on one of the flights and he had a wonderful time doing that.  He said that he would much rather ride in an airplane than to jump out of one.  🙂

I know that I’m going to have to pay for this image.  But when I asked them to put on the dorky hats they have to wear Ann and Kevin were gracious enough to put them on for me.  I will probably have to buy them both lunch to pay for this.

A little bit about Kevin.  He has been hiking the Continental Divide trail for the last several years.  Sometimes with Ann, sometimes with one or both of his children and yes sometimes by himself.  He is usually cut off from civilization (meaning no cell phone coverage) for days at a time.  His goal is to hike as much of the trail as he can during his life time.

Kevin and Ann actually went to the Gallopoulos Islands this Spring for two weeks.  Kevin said it was an amazing trip even if he didn’t get to hike.

Gayle shows what the dorky hat is really for.  🙂  So this was the last group that went up.  Tomorrow I’ll show you their landings and then on Friday I’ll wrap this adventure up.

I’ve seen most of the jumpers at work already this week and they all have a great big smile on their face.  Heck I’m pumped and all I did was take pictures with both feet planted firmly on the ground.

Enjoy your Hump Day and thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

So after 15 – 20 minutes of gaining altitude they level off and fly over the field.  Because the wind was blowing East to West they would fly over the airport to the East side and then jump.

This is Joel coming in for a landing.  His Tandem Pro did some steep turns and spins before bringing them in for a landing.   I don’t think they have barf bags with them but they’d need one for me.

Safely back on solid ground.    Joel was the first one down.  This was his second jump.  He did it about five years ago.  Figured he had cheated death once might as well try for two. 🙂

Then it was Brian’s turn.  His tandem pro tried a few spins with him and Brian told him that would be enough of that.  Brian said that when he stepped out of the plane it was the biggest rush he had ever experience in his life.

I asked Brian if he would do it again and he didn’t hesitate.  “Yes I would.”  I don’t think I could.  I’ve watched the videos of them jumping out of the plane and my stomach does flip-flops just watching it on a monitor.  I can’t imagine doing it up close and personal.  🙂

Next one in was Maggie (the ring leader of this bunch and event organizer.)  She said she really enjoyed it.  I couldn’t tell if she had enjoyed it as she was very subdued when she got on the ground.  🙂

Last one in was Amy.   I couldn’t get an image of her close to the ground.  By the time she was ready to land the airplane was back on the ground and it was between me and Amy.

I was limited as to where I could stand so I had to assume she made it safely down.  I soon saw them coming back from the landing zone all smiles.

You think they enjoyed the ride?  I was very disappointed in my shot making with the D800.  I had the wrong lens, which produced some motion blur and it is just not a sharp lens with that high of resolution camera. Lesson learned but I should have learned it the first time I tried to use the 70 – 300.

Second group tomorrow.  Thanks for checking out the blog.  Enjoy your day and remember you be careful.