Aviation Nation 2003 Nellis AFB Las Vegas Air Show

[AAFO_WSagar]

What a week!

This was the first time I've been involved as deeply as I was with the production of an airshow as I was with Nellis.. and speaking from the "inside".. It is a LOT of work!

I'll have a full report as soon as I recuperate from a week of very little sleep, many hours of just plain physical labor, way too much fun and.. moments of extreme stress..

At the moment, I'm transferring images from my laptop to my desktop, via my PAINFULLY slow USB link cable between the two machines.

As soon as this process finishes and I download the two cards from yesterday that I did not even have time to put on the laptop, I'll post up some pix.

A few notes:

One, I'd like to publicly thank ALL of the members of the United States Air Force who helped make this show a success.

Particularly, Lt. Col Rob "Lips" Hertberg, Aviation Nation Director of Operations, for his unfailing "CAN DO" attitude!

Working with WoW staffers, Jim Pera and Jim Kippen (you'll remember him from his Riff Raff duties) on the ramp at Nellis, helping facilitate the many needs of the racers and pace plane, EVERY time either I or anyone else involved asked Col. Hertberg for something, the answer was always a very quick.. YES!

Right down to watching him brief John Penny via cell phone when, while we still held out hope for him to make it to Nellis, but not until after the mandatory pilot briefing on Friday, would be the only way he could fly into Nellis legally.

Mr. Bob Jones, Nellis Air Force Base, Aviation Nation Director of Air Show Support, for rescuing this wayward photographer, when he inadvertently wandered somewhere, he was, until approved, not supposed to be, (note: he is now, officially, on the approved list!) last Tuesday while he was scouring the ramp looking for Chris Rounds and the Red Knight... (moral of the story, never believe a group of NCO's when you ask the "can I go there?" question....) I'm sure a bunch of people got a laugh out of the next half hour of this hapless photographer's life... I think he may well earn a new "callsign" out of the event... any suggestions Chuck?...

Redline?

Raptor?

UhOh?

OOPS!?



Anyway.... a GREAT show!.. more coming, with photos. The more I type, the slower the transfer of images... So, I'll sign off for now and post more later.. hopefully tonight, but, one two hour's of sleep night, while I performed "VIP" Pickup duty in one of the rented WoW vans, has just about killed this 52 year old's stamina for... well, for now anyway! Every time I stop moving. I find myself falling asleep!

I'd be remiss if I did not include Master Sgt. Chuck Ramey in my accolades of the Nellis staff! I don't think Chuck got even as much sleep as I did over the course of the week! Likely, much less.

I can not say enough about the men and women in Blue at Nellis!

You are simply the best of the best!

Wayne

PS.. Chuck.. your new callsign, if I have anything to say about it is...... "Pringles".....

[AAFO_WSagar]

IF1 GREAT SHOW!

I was, frankly, totally surprised at what a good "show" the IF1's put on at Nellis!

They were able to fly a much shorter course than the Unlimited racers, thereby, being able to be much closer to the crowd line. The effect was totally cool!

You could see them throughout their entire runs and they were going at it with as much vigor as you usually see at the National Championship races!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Another IF1 shot

Unfortunately, we were NOT blessed with very good light at this year's Nellis Air Show!

Net effect was some fairly challenging conditions, at least for this shooter..

Here's another shot of the IF1 competition this weekend at Nellis...

[AAFO_WSagar]

One More IF1

Still working with the new lens that I purchased at Reno.. Getting somewhat inconsistant results but generally happy with it..

[AAFO_WSagar]

Skip Holm Public Relations!

I've got to hand it to Skip! He's as good at working a crowd as anyone I've ever seen. Especially, kids!

Here, he's signing a print for a new race fan.. perhaps, another lady aviator someday in the future. I watched Skip interact with several young fans, and he is very genuinely interested in them.

I left Nellis with a new respect for Skip Holm!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Rare Bear Crew Adopts John Parker!

It was not a good weekend for John, at least, mechanically.

He is left with a blown engine and some new, very good friends!

During Saturday's demo, John's baggage door blew open, the Rare Bear guys went to work on that and also found some oil leaks in the engine plumbing..

Frankly, I've never really seen anyone but John work on his airplane. He seemed QUITE happy to let this VERY able crew administer to his stricken racer!

[AAFO_WSagar]

I asked John how it felt having someone else to work on his plane.. his answer: " I ask if they have something and bang, I've got six guys all over the airplane! I like it! "

[AAFO_WSagar]

Happy 50th T-Birds!

This was, of course, THEIR PARTY!

[Race 29]

Wayne,
Awesome pictures! Looks like your pretty used to your new lens!
Thanks for sharing!

Race 29

[Leo]

security

Great pics Wayne!
Sure glad they did'nt shoot first and ask later.
I wandered into a hangar at Travis many moons ago while on a visitors pass. Still don't know what was in there as I was very quickly and roughly escorted off the base after more than a few questions. Luckily I was 18 at the time and they actually believed I could'nt read the warning signs...
That'll teach em' to leave a door cracked or a "secret" out in the open!


Leo

[hattend]

Excellent shot Wayne. I really like the F1 pics. I need to get to Stead earlier next year so I can see the little guys race again.

Don Hatten
Rare Bear Fansponsor

[AAFO_WSagar]

GOTTA LOVE VR LENSES!!

Originally posted by Race 29
Wayne,
Awesome pictures! Looks like your pretty used to your new lens!
Thanks for sharing!

Race 29

Well.. I'm beginning to like it more all the time. Main problem is the autofocus, it's much slower than my old Sigma 50-500.. but then... the Sigma does not have VR, which the 80-400 VR Nikon does have..

Here's an example of what it can do for you... this shot is at 1/30th and 102mm, pretty "oversquare" and the airplane itself is moving. I was able to keep the pipper just about stationary and got a full disk (or almost) anyway...

For that, it's probably worth the $$ alone.. (if I had the $$ to make anything worth $$ alone )

Dan Martin is beginning to move out for his taxi down to the active for Sunday's demo in this shot..

A lot more coming, I'm trying to get a "quick and dirty" gallery up, rather than putting the full size images here.. This board does not have a "thumbnail" function, although, from what I can see, version 3.0, which is currently in "beta" does have this function..

If true, and if retrogradable, *hopefully* it'll show all new images as thumbnails with click for full size link, and, bigger hope, that it'll show all past images in same way. This will speed up the loading of these image threads with their full size files showing, a lot!

Here's the image.. I'm still totally beat up from my 8 days at Nellis, so.. we'll see if I get the Q&D gallery up today or not...

[T. Adams]

Very nice

Gotta love VR or IS whichever you choose. I finally got some decent prop shots this year too, after emptying the bank account for Canon's version of the same lense.

What I find hard to believe is the auto focus is slower than the Sigma. I never have used the Sigma, but Canon's IS lense is fast as hell focusing. Anyway enjoy your new toy.

Oops, I bought the 70-200mm, not the 100-400mm Canon version, now I see why the 80-400mm could be slower.

[Race 29]

Wayne,
That IS a great shot! If no one has said it yet, THANK YOU for sharing such great pictures!

It's nice to see Dan Martin going is around the pylons again. If you get the chance, let us know who all showed up. And also, if you get the chance, get some sleep!!

Race 29

[AAFO_WSagar]

Originally posted by Race 29
Wayne,
That IS a great shot! If no one has said it yet, THANK YOU for sharing such great pictures!

It's nice to see Dan Martin going is around the pylons again. If you get the chance, let us know who all showed up. And also, if you get the chance, get some sleep!!

Race 29

Hey... Thank YOU Race Two Nine!.... GOTTA love the technology to take out the shake!... humn... I should TM that slogan!

It was absolutely fantastic to see Dan at Vegas! A very nice thing about it down there... providing, one has time to spend with them, the racers have a lot more time to visit. It's a great weekend! Though, this time, I was just too darn busy to do a lot of visiting...

Maybe next year...

Was good to finally meet you also Tyson... though stuck as I was, on the ground, I did manage a few shots of Sean as well.. perhaps not as dramatic, certainly, not as much fun in the taking.. (we do live for those air-2-air ops don't we....)

Here's a few that I dinged off on Sunday.

Wayne