2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

[rpzo]

I thought I would share some pictures from my first airshow of the year with you all. Overall a decent show for early in the year. There were Navy & Air Force Heritage Flights, the Red Bull Mig 17, John Colver and his T-6 aerobatic routine, F18 demo, A10 demo, Gordan Bowman-Jones on the PA, and the Blue Angels. Airshow season has begun.

On the way home I asked my 10 year old son what the highlight of the show was for him and he said it was when the Mustang did an aerobatic routine after the Heritage Flight. I was surprised by his answer and after more talk I realized he had never seen a P-51 aerobatic routine in the 15+ airshows that we have gone to together over the last five years. Steve Hinton's routine was decent but it wasn't in the Hoover category. It made me realize that a staple at most of the airshows I had gone to over the last 30 years is a rare sight these days. Are there any P-51 routines traveling the airshow circuit? It's sad but I doubt that he will ever see an aerobatic performance by a P-38 or a Bearcat would be even more of a rarity.

Cheers

Rick

Picture 1. Corsair-Hornet Heritage Flight
Picture 2. John Colver & his WarDog T-6
Picture 3. Steve Hinton and Spam Can
Picture 4. Mustang & A10 Heritage Flight
Picture 5. Fat Albert JATO take-off
Picture 6. Head-on pass
Picture 7. Blue Angel's echelon pass

[FlyinLo]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

It's sad but I doubt that he will ever see an aerobatic performance by a P-38 or a Bearcat would be even more of a rarity.

Well, until Lefty gets White Lightnin' back together you may be right on the P-38, but Howard Pardue tends to give the Bearcat a workout at Oshkosh on a pretty regular basis. Granted, it is probably not at the level of a Hoover performance, but it is there nonetheless.

[Peashooter]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

The A-10 makes the P-51 look like a toy! What did Randy say about Jets?

[T. Adams]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Very nice shots, it must be nice to live where the arishow season has started. It's only 30 freakin degrees here in Chicago right now.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Very nice shots, it must be nice to live where the arishow season has started. It's only 30 freakin degrees here in Chicago right now.

I agree, on both counts! Nice shots and it'd be nice to have an airshow! Weather has been very nice, early this year here but no shows for a while yet...

Wayne

[rpzo]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Thanks for the compliments.

I was actually surprised that they scheduled an airshow at Lemoore for this early in the year. The chances of ground level valley fog in that area are pretty high during the late winter and early spring. As it turned out temps were in the low 80's with blue skies. A great day for watching the planes fly and well worth the 300 mile roundtrip drive.

Lemoore is an impressive facility as well. A vast majority, if not all, of the fleets west coast F-18 squadrons are based there. I would guess at a couple hundred Hornets parked in various locations on the ramp.

Tim, been to Chicago many times during the winter months and you have my deepest sympathies. BTW, I was shooting with the 10D in RAW mode all day long on a 1GB card and a single battery. I filled up the card as the Blues were taxiing in and the battery still had juice left in it. I could have shot 400+ images in the highest quality jpg mode. If you can swing a 1GB card it's worth it.

Rick

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

I was shooting with the 10D in RAW mode all day long on a 1GB card and a single battery. I filled up the card as the Blues were taxiing in and the battery still had juice left in it. I could have shot 400+ images in the highest quality jpg mode. If you can swing a 1GB card it's worth it.

Rick, really nice shots, particularly that head on cross shot of the Blues!!!

For the price of that 1gb card, or thereabouts, you can get one of the little storage drives.. HIGHLY reccomend that angle, as then you can shoot all day and the next and next and into the next week (usually, at least 20gb) before having to download the stuff to your laptop or desktop.

Really the only way to go, unless you can afford a pocket full of cards.. which, would be nice, trust me.. But, with two cards.. I currently shoot with a 512 and a 256, with a 340 micro drive as standby, I shoot one card, stick it in the drive to download it while I load up the next card, by the time I'm done doing the reload, the card is downloaded.. Then I stick that one in my pocket.. fill the next, plink the full card in the camera, quick format it and repeat the process. With a little timing, you can just keep on shooting and shooting.

I've only lost two loads into the storage device.. one because of battery failure, the other due to talking to someone while doing it.. forgot to do it, removed and formatted the card without checking .. (bad Wayne!)

Anyway... my $02.+

Wayne

[rpzo]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Wayne,

The head on pass shot was pure luck. Out of the 6 or so head on passes they did that was the only one were I got both planes in the frame. Hard to follow one plane through the viewfinder while looking for the other with the free eye, as you probably already know.

For the price of that 1gb card, or thereabouts, you can get one of the little storage drives..

Is that little storage drive battery powered? That would be slick to have one in the camera bag or vest and not have to worry about finding AC somewhere. I know that sometime before September rolls around I will need to get a second card which will likely be something less than a 1GB since I've blown most of my budget for toys this year.

Rick

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Wayne,

The head on pass shot was pure luck. Out of the 6 or so head on passes they did that was the only one were I got both planes in the frame. Hard to follow one plane through the viewfinder while looking for the other with the free eye, as you probably already know.



Is that little storage drive battery powered? That would be slick to have one in the camera bag or vest and not have to worry about finding AC somewhere. I know that sometime before September rolls around I will need to get a second card which will likely be something less than a 1GB since I've blown most of my budget for toys this year.

Rick

Hey Rick, I'm the first to admit, there's luck with almost EVERY great shot.. that's a classic though.. It is very hard to capture that moment, and you did it great!! Luck or not! Great shot...

Yea, the storage things are battery powered. Mine was a digital wallet, by "minds@work" which is now defunct. I don't know the current, "latest greatest" offering but there are several out there. They are cheaper and smaller than mine, which is about the size of an internal floppy drive, if you're familiar with that piece of hardware. The latest units are barely over the size of the laptop hard drive that they contain.

Battery life with my unit was/is always an issue though. It's much better with comact flash cards rather than microdrives. Seems to last quite a bit longer with them. I bought an additional battery pack for it pror to minds@work going under, though, I'd be ok with making up an external pack for it. It has a case with a belt loop, and it fits either there or in my photo vest pocket. Just an indespensable unit once you go fully digital.

I've seen people carry their laptops and use them for same purpose but this is FAR easier and lighter... oh, some of the new units even have a preview LCD screen.. I think they run under $300. Check on dpreview.com, I suspect you'll find some info there.

Here's a link for Portable Digital Image Storage Devices

Some have no internal battery.. some come without hard drive, if you happen to have an unused laptop hard drive lying about, they plug in nicely..
Wayne

[T. Adams]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Here is one of the digital wallets I found this morning.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/20tripusb20p.html

[M.A. Edwards]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Here is one of the digital wallets I found this morning.
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/insideco...ripusb20p.html

I've been using an iPod for storage and transport. If I'm not mistaken, there are Windows versions of the software out now... The thing is damn near bulletproof, good battery life, lots of room on the disk. Plus, you get tunes for the ride coming and going. There are a ton of accessories for mobile use and charging, and if you listen while you shoot, the extra capacity battery packs give you all the extra juice you'll need for a long day.

They ain't cheap, but for all the various uses it's capable of, it makes a nice package.

MAE - Comments@Reno-SteadAirport.com

[Kilo Hotel]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

I've been using an iPod for storage and transport. If I'm not mistaken, there are Windows versions of the software out now... The thing is damn near bulletproof, good battery life, lots of room on the disk. Plus, you get tunes for the ride coming and going.

Yes, the iTunes software is now available for the PC, and it works flawlessly. Highly recommended, even if you don't have an iPod.

Are you using the Belkin Media Reader to get your files off the flash card and into the iPod? I tried the BMR with my iPod and found that 1) it was painfully slow*, 2) it didn't report the results of the transfer reliably and 3) it drained the iPod's battery something awful. It just wasn't elegant and seamless, the way using an iPod for its intended purpose is.

If you found a different solution that uses an iPod for image storage, I'd love to hear about it. I sent the Belkin Media Reader back and am still using my ancient 10GB Digital Wallet (plugged into the wall whenever possible after I lost a CF card full of images and fried the CF card in the process, when the DW's batteries were low).


*something like 30 minutes to upload 300+ MB from a 512MB high-speed CF card.

[M.A. Edwards]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Yes, the iTunes software is now available for the PC, and it works flawlessly. Highly recommended, even if you don't have an iPod.

Are you using the Belkin Media Reader to get your files off the flash card and into the iPod? I tried the BMR with my iPod and found that 1) it was painfully slow*, 2) it didn't report the results of the transfer reliably and 3) it drained the iPod's battery something awful. It just wasn't elegant and seamless, the way using an iPod for its intended purpose is.

If you found a different solution that uses an iPod for image storage, I'd love to hear about it. I sent the Belkin Media Reader back and am still using my ancient 10GB Digital Wallet (plugged into the wall whenever possible after I lost a CF card full of images and fried the CF card in the process, when the DW's batteries were low).

*something like 30 minutes to upload 300+ MB from a 512MB high-speed CF card.

I've yet to find an elegant Belkin anything... Some time ago I had access to some Sony gear direct and not available here, so I dropped the flash memory entirely. The still camera has Sony's version of the Firewire built in, so the iPod is recognized directly for download at speed. What I'm really intersted in is the still capabilities of the high end digital video... the steadicam feature and the lenses are pretty nice for consumer items, and for what I do seem to be adequate. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the quality, but it could be that the nut behind the lense cap is loose....

I'll keep trying, though.

MAE - Comments@Reno-SteadAirport.com

[W J Pearce]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Hey Rick,

Great stuff. The head on shot is perfect! I don't think I have ever gotten a good one. Looks like you are getting comfortable with the Canon. Thanks for bringing us pics from Lemoore, and not the smell.

Bill

[rpzo]

Re: 2004 Lemoore NAS Airshow

Thanks for bringing us pics from Lemoore, and not the smell.

So you've been to Lemoore. Fortunately we were upwind of the local cattle ranches and weren't subjected to their aroma. The gods of easterly winds were with us that day. Heading up I-5 though was a different story. Had to hold my breath for about 10 miles.