Steadfast and the Buick

[RAD2LTR]

I managed to run over to the Santa Rosa airshow today and was surprised by what I found.

Please excuse the lack of prop circles, my camera can't shoot them most of the time. Its not from a lack of trying either.











I managed to catch a few lucky shots of other things as well.





Steadfast sounds fantastic and the Buick sounds very good as well. It was a nice surprise to see both out and flying today.

Will

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

Friggin vacuum cleaners!

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

The C17 was in reverse, as in backing up. I couldn't believe how much grass and stuff it was sucking in. Thats not dust on the lens, thats stuff getting pulled off the ground! I guess this is one time when you are safer standing behind something backing up than standing in front of it. I've never seen that before. My guess is that its semi common, but a first for me.

Will

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

I've only seen it once before in photos, but that was on a "wet" day after a rain, and it looked like the engines were sucking up moisture off the tarmac. The aircraft was also a C-17.

Pavement looks dry in your shots, so now I know water has nothing to do with the vortices forming visually. Weird!

[Mluvara]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

It does have to do with water in the sense that it is related to humidity. There is a huge pressure differential at the inlet, which causes a low pressure relative to the static air around the engine. The air cools as it is accelerated, turning the water molecules from a gaseous state into a visible state (condensation). Certainly, high humidity favors the phenomenon as seen in the photos.

Michael

[FlyKidChris]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

It does have to do with water in the sense that it is related to humidity. There is a huge pressure differential at the inlet, which causes a low pressure relative to the static air around the engine. The air cools as it is accelerated, turning the water molecules from a gaseous state into a visible state (condensation). Certainly, high humidity favors the phenomenon as seen in the photos.

Michael

That's a good explanation.

Several years ago, in the early (and very dark) hours of the morning, I went to our hangar at LAX to pick up a plane for a ferry flight. Our mechanics were doing a relatively high power run on a 757 and the entire engine inlet was obscured. Can you picture the "wall of water" special effect that's used for the portal in "Stargate?" That's just about what the intake looked like.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

Thanks for the clarification on that. I figured it had something to do with it being a bit on the humid side and the fact they were pretty well spooled up.

Will

[p51fan]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

It does have to do with water in the sense that it is related to humidity. There is a huge pressure differential at the inlet, which causes a low pressure relative to the static air around the engine. The air cools as it is accelerated, turning the water molecules from a gaseous state into a visible state (condensation). Certainly, high humidity favors the phenomenon as seen in the photos.

Michael

Wow.
You're a nerd.

[NOVA]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

I happened to be there today.. Seadfast looked, well.. Fast.. And Dreadnought looked as it should..

Pretty cool show!

[allison111]

Re: Steadfast and the Buick

I have seen the vorticies twice. Once was at an airshow in Amarillo Tx. We flew our HH3-E in for static display and were parked beside a C-5. The morning after the show, I was in front of the HH3-E to clear the rotors and call the droop stops and at the same time the C-5 was starting up. I watched as a vortex formed and went from #1 to #2 engines on the C-5. It looked like a rope between the two engines. And me without a camera in my hands. The only other time I saw one was from an F-16.