2006 NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show
- Thread starter speedy_2
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- 1,295
- speedy_2
I am supremely jealous that you got to see Fat Albert do the JATO
Excellent photos man. The 3rd one is now my wallpaper
You have no idea. They did JATO last night and I thought they weren't going to do it again. Then I heard them go off before I even had my camera on. I quickly flipped it on and turned out to start shooting!
- 5,082
- Panama City, FL
I was there today, as well, and I hope nobody thinks I'm trying to hijack the thread if I post some of my own pics.
I had two cameras with me today, as the camera I'd planned to use became unavailable at the last moment.
The first is a Sony point-and-shoot, really useless at an event like this, but it was all I had at first. No manual control at all, not even able to turn off auto-focus. The pictures from this camera are severely cropped as it only has a 3x zoom.
The second camera was my Dad's, also a Sony, but more high-end than mine. Still not an SLR, and won't rapid-fire. I encountered a couple of difficulties learning to use it. First, the viewfinder is a copy of the back panel display, not just an optical view, and it shows you the pic you just snapped. While you wait for that to go away, you lose track of the object you were following in the hope of getting another shot. Second, you can turn off auto-focus, but there is no manual focus control. Whatever distance it's focused at is locked when you turn off autofocus. If you need to change it, switch the center auto-focus on, aim at something the right distance away, half-touch the shutter, turn off auto-focus. At least it can be turned off, which combined with manual shutter speed makes it take the picture at the instant of the press of the shutter button. And I lied about two difficulties, there was a third. Apparently the camera will not stop down past f8! No f11 or beyond! I had to keep the shutter speed faster than 1/500th or get whitewashed pictures, as I did not have time to find an ISO setting. The Fat Albert JATO pic is darkened a bit for this reason. I had to use a slower shutter speed because I didn't want to freeze the propellers, but the camera wouldn't stop down far enough.
OK, way too much camera talk, on to pics.
First is the jet truck (there's ALWAYS a jet truck) with my little camera, held high over my head and aimed as best I could by trying to see the display, which is useless in full daylight, and tiny as well. Damn sign. . .
Next up was an F-15E Srike Eagle demonstration, with some pyro on the ground (Simulated ground attack.)
The F-15 joined in with others for the Air Force Heritage flight. Lead is Dale Snodgrass's F-86, right wing is the F-15, left wing is an F-4 Phantom, and slot is an A-10.
Next, the F-86 gave a demonstration, but I have no pics, as most of it was too low to try for, as far back as I was in the crowd, and as slow as my point-and-shoot was in deciding to click its shutter. After the F-86 came an F/A-18F Super Hornet, which was incredible. I now had my Dad's camera, but had not quite got the focus set right. I had set manual focus, but not preset the distance correctly. Oops. I included them anyway because you can see how severe the maneuvers were. The third picture (bottom left of the four) was a near-supersonic flat pass. Huge vapor cloud on the aircraft!
I almost had the focus fixed by that last picture . . . .
The F-18 had an accident on landing, blew the tire on the right main gear. Very noisy bang, smoky trail down the runway, not slowing down very much (no brakes!) Near the end of the runway, he threw it into a hard right turn, intentially throwing the plane into a skid. It spun nearly 270 degrees and went off the runway backwards. The gear dug into the ground, stopping the plane, although the nose came up very high when that happened! The right stabilizer was also damaged by digging in a bit. The show was down for almost an hour while they saw to the crew, made sure the plane was safe (no leaks, seats safed, etc.) and did a FOD walk on the runway. The plane was out of the way and the show resumed with a couple of items having to be skipped. Here's the Super Hornet's final parking place. Looks expensive!
Now on to the Blues! Fat Albert first, then the diamond, and a couple of solo maneuvers.
More diamond. I got a little careless with my framing, tried to zoom in too far rather than cropping later.
Around this point in the show, after the diamond does another pass and the solos do "sneak" passes, the first very low from the left, probably 3 knots under supersonic. I knew he was coming, saw where he was, but he was low enough I couldn't get a picture; he was actually obscured by the crowd in front of me! It's a shame, because the humidity was high enough to almost completely hide the aircraft in vapor. I got the second sneak, though, which comes from directly behind, just as everyone recovers from the first pass, then climbs hard after crossing the crowd. After the sneak, I got a line-abreast flat pass. This is usually a loop, but clouds moved in and they transitioned to a low show in the middle. (They were able to end with the normal high show, as the cloud cover lifted again during the show.) The last picture is the two solo pilots in a double-break maneuver. Just a second or so after the picture the left plane pops HARD left and the other climbs more vertically. For some reason the focus is off again on that last picture. I HATE point-and-shoots!!!!!!!
Edit: I had thought about coming to P'cola Friday and crashing at my brother's mostly to save having to get up at dawn today, but Dad wanted to come, so I had to wait for him Saturday morning. Had I known they were doing a night show Friday night, Dad would not have made it, as I would have been there Friday! I can't imagine that JATO in the dark!!!! What else was done???
I had two cameras with me today, as the camera I'd planned to use became unavailable at the last moment.
The first is a Sony point-and-shoot, really useless at an event like this, but it was all I had at first. No manual control at all, not even able to turn off auto-focus. The pictures from this camera are severely cropped as it only has a 3x zoom.
The second camera was my Dad's, also a Sony, but more high-end than mine. Still not an SLR, and won't rapid-fire. I encountered a couple of difficulties learning to use it. First, the viewfinder is a copy of the back panel display, not just an optical view, and it shows you the pic you just snapped. While you wait for that to go away, you lose track of the object you were following in the hope of getting another shot. Second, you can turn off auto-focus, but there is no manual focus control. Whatever distance it's focused at is locked when you turn off autofocus. If you need to change it, switch the center auto-focus on, aim at something the right distance away, half-touch the shutter, turn off auto-focus. At least it can be turned off, which combined with manual shutter speed makes it take the picture at the instant of the press of the shutter button. And I lied about two difficulties, there was a third. Apparently the camera will not stop down past f8! No f11 or beyond! I had to keep the shutter speed faster than 1/500th or get whitewashed pictures, as I did not have time to find an ISO setting. The Fat Albert JATO pic is darkened a bit for this reason. I had to use a slower shutter speed because I didn't want to freeze the propellers, but the camera wouldn't stop down far enough.
OK, way too much camera talk, on to pics.
First is the jet truck (there's ALWAYS a jet truck) with my little camera, held high over my head and aimed as best I could by trying to see the display, which is useless in full daylight, and tiny as well. Damn sign. . .
Next up was an F-15E Srike Eagle demonstration, with some pyro on the ground (Simulated ground attack.)
The F-15 joined in with others for the Air Force Heritage flight. Lead is Dale Snodgrass's F-86, right wing is the F-15, left wing is an F-4 Phantom, and slot is an A-10.
Next, the F-86 gave a demonstration, but I have no pics, as most of it was too low to try for, as far back as I was in the crowd, and as slow as my point-and-shoot was in deciding to click its shutter. After the F-86 came an F/A-18F Super Hornet, which was incredible. I now had my Dad's camera, but had not quite got the focus set right. I had set manual focus, but not preset the distance correctly. Oops. I included them anyway because you can see how severe the maneuvers were. The third picture (bottom left of the four) was a near-supersonic flat pass. Huge vapor cloud on the aircraft!
I almost had the focus fixed by that last picture . . . .
The F-18 had an accident on landing, blew the tire on the right main gear. Very noisy bang, smoky trail down the runway, not slowing down very much (no brakes!) Near the end of the runway, he threw it into a hard right turn, intentially throwing the plane into a skid. It spun nearly 270 degrees and went off the runway backwards. The gear dug into the ground, stopping the plane, although the nose came up very high when that happened! The right stabilizer was also damaged by digging in a bit. The show was down for almost an hour while they saw to the crew, made sure the plane was safe (no leaks, seats safed, etc.) and did a FOD walk on the runway. The plane was out of the way and the show resumed with a couple of items having to be skipped. Here's the Super Hornet's final parking place. Looks expensive!
Now on to the Blues! Fat Albert first, then the diamond, and a couple of solo maneuvers.
More diamond. I got a little careless with my framing, tried to zoom in too far rather than cropping later.
Around this point in the show, after the diamond does another pass and the solos do "sneak" passes, the first very low from the left, probably 3 knots under supersonic. I knew he was coming, saw where he was, but he was low enough I couldn't get a picture; he was actually obscured by the crowd in front of me! It's a shame, because the humidity was high enough to almost completely hide the aircraft in vapor. I got the second sneak, though, which comes from directly behind, just as everyone recovers from the first pass, then climbs hard after crossing the crowd. After the sneak, I got a line-abreast flat pass. This is usually a loop, but clouds moved in and they transitioned to a low show in the middle. (They were able to end with the normal high show, as the cloud cover lifted again during the show.) The last picture is the two solo pilots in a double-break maneuver. Just a second or so after the picture the left plane pops HARD left and the other climbs more vertically. For some reason the focus is off again on that last picture. I HATE point-and-shoots!!!!!!!
Edit: I had thought about coming to P'cola Friday and crashing at my brother's mostly to save having to get up at dawn today, but Dad wanted to come, so I had to wait for him Saturday morning. Had I known they were doing a night show Friday night, Dad would not have made it, as I would have been there Friday! I can't imagine that JATO in the dark!!!! What else was done???
- 26,628
- OREGON
- a6m5zero
I hate cameras, period. Man, I suck at taking pictures.
That heritage flight is pretty strange, with A-10, Sabre, Eagle and a Phantom flying together.
Japanese Air Self Defense Force have used three out of the four in service, except for the A-10 Thunderbolt II. JGSDF(Ground Force) should, so get that one. Then again, they don't even have enough Apaches in their fleet. Did the USAF really use A-10? I assume, since it took part in the Air Force Heritage thing. I was under the impression that A-10 was used only in the Army.
When I went to the air show in Hillsboro, Oregon, their heritage flight was done with a P-51 Mustang and a Eagle. That was a couple years ago, and only air show I've ever been to. While it was very cool to me, it didn't have no Strike Eagle demo. That would've been really cool. Very cool plane.
That heritage flight is pretty strange, with A-10, Sabre, Eagle and a Phantom flying together.
Japanese Air Self Defense Force have used three out of the four in service, except for the A-10 Thunderbolt II. JGSDF(Ground Force) should, so get that one. Then again, they don't even have enough Apaches in their fleet. Did the USAF really use A-10? I assume, since it took part in the Air Force Heritage thing. I was under the impression that A-10 was used only in the Army.When I went to the air show in Hillsboro, Oregon, their heritage flight was done with a P-51 Mustang and a Eagle. That was a couple years ago, and only air show I've ever been to. While it was very cool to me, it didn't have no Strike Eagle demo. That would've been really cool. Very cool plane.
- 1,295
- speedy_2
I was there today, as well, and I hope nobody thinks I'm trying to hijack the thread if I post some of my own pics.
No, not at all. I was hoping anyone who when would use this thread to post their pics too.
This pic that you took. I work with the guy in the Yellow shirt. I was at the other white tent stage left of that one! Too bad, no shots of me though.
- 5,082
- Panama City, FL
I hate cameras, period. Man, I suck at taking pictures.
That heritage flight is pretty strange, with A-10, Sabre, Eagle and a Phantom flying together.
When I went to the air show in Hillsboro, Oregon, their heritage flight was done with a P-51 Mustang and a Eagle. That was a couple years ago, and only air show I've ever been to. While it was very cool to me, it didn't have no Strike Eagle demo. That would've been really cool. Very cool plane.
The A-10 is Air Force, the Army has no fixed-wing combat aircraft. It is used heavily for ground attack, makes enemy tanks go all to pieces. Became famous in Desert Storm, Iraqi tank crews would actually camp outside their tanks when not maneuvering, it was safer!
The Heritage Flight is something that started a few years ago for the Air Force's 50th anniversary. Whatever older planes are onsite for the show form up for the flight at some point during the day. This is the first one I've seen that was all jets. The Navy has done a similar deal called the Tailhook Legacy Flight.
Just for fun, I found two pics of the "sneak" pass from last year and the year before. Last year's shows the extreme low altitude used, and you can see that almost no one is aware of the plane's presence, as its sound hasn't reached us yet!. The 2004 shot was on a day worse than this year's weather-wise, very low and heavy cloud cover, but high humidity gave us the vapor cloud. Very cool.
This last is from the museum at Pensacola NAS. I don't have a wide enough lens, this is actually stitched from 6 separate shots. Also, I wish they would add pilots in flight gear to this display. Empty planes in flight look a bit weird.
Speedy, I wanted to add that I like the b&w/color shot in your set. 👍
