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It's a bumper update for this edition, with three from my local airfields and the rest from the Russian Federation.
Starting with my local airfields, at Rocky Mountain Metro (formally Jeffco) we unfortunately had a P-2 Neptune run off the airfield. No major injuries and fingers crossed that aircraft will be repaired.
While at RMM it would be rude to not shoot any other interesting aircraft, so here are the other air-tankers plus the NOAA P-3 "Miss Piggy".
To conclude the local flavour three days of National Guard flying with the local F-16s trying to capture some nice angles, which I finally did on 11 July.
Next stop Russia! Another year, another trip to far off places. This would start in St. Petersburg before heading north to the Arctic Circle. My first three stops were general aviation airfields starting with a visit to Kasimovo with the usual assortment of aircraft including a rare Technoavia SP-91 Slava.
The second day was a relaxed affair visiting four airfields, the first one, Rzhevka, actually being an ex-airfield with an airworthy Il-14. The owner even ran the engines just for us!
Next stop was Gostilitsy where we would pick up our An-2 to transport us to another two airfields.
With the luxury of having an An-2 at our disposal we then flew to Kummolovo. This is the only way to travel, even if it was me doing the flying :) There was ever a Russian Air Force Mi-8 dropping paratroopers.
Last stop before returning to Gostilitsy was Seltso where our tour guide showed us the NDB he had built himself, and then a Microwave Landing System he was working on!◊◊ top
3rd July 2010 - Russia, Utah, Arizona and Colorado
Since the last update I've travelled back to Russia where, as usual, I had a fantastic time. The articles will trickle out on Global Aviation Resource over time before being published here on skippyscage.
As soon as I got back from Russia I attended the CJAA Jet Blast at Wendover, UT that was cancelled from earlier in the year due to weather concerns. This new date also got hit with weather issues, mostly from out of state, and the only aircraft taking part were the T-33s. I still managed to get some pleasing shots however.
The full set of TA-4J Skyhawk photos from four days of shooting at Marana Regional, AZ.
The last of my reports from my Siberia trip is from the VARZ-400 Vnukovo Overhaul Works in Moscow.
Closer to home for a change some old jet action from Denver International where we now have a surprising amount of Boeing 727s flying here.
My closest airport is Centennial where I was trying to shoot B-25 Barbie III, except it hardly flew. So I did some biz jet shooting also catching a nice US Navy T-44C.
Last up are some tourist images from St Petersburg - mostly of the Monument to the Defenders of Leningrad memorial.My trips this month will include the DC-3 Fly-In at Rock Falls, Il and Red Flag 10-4 at Nellis. Take care and see you around.
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26th May 2010 - Lots of Aviation Updates Today
I have a huge update today before I go traveling for two weeks to Russia and Utah.
The TA-4J Skyhawk first flight photoshoot went very well. Aircraft Magazine has run a four page article and Global Aviation Resource also just published an article.
At Buckley AFB I finally caught the blue-tail special scheme F-16 for the Colorado ANG flying. Since it was painted a couple of months back it had become mostly a hangar queen unfortunately.
Earlier that month I also toured the Colorado Army National Guard hangars and those photos can also be found on the Buckley AFB page.
Staying on the Buckley theme I was lucky enough to get on base to shoot the 2-135 GSAB taking five H-60 Blackhawks on deployment to Iraq.
Boeing 787 test aircraft number four arrived in Colorado Springs on 24 May marking the first visit in the state of one of these aircraft. I managed a few night shots through the fence after most of the clutter had been driven away.
B-17G Liberty Belle did its annual visit to Rocky Mountain Metro a few weeks ago so I took the chance to shoot it from some different angles from outside the airport. Runway changes made the job more difficult but it was fun running around between sorties. I also shot a rather nifty NOAA DHC-6.
Talking of Russia two more updates from my trip to Siberia, this time two general aviation airfields. At Evsino I flew in an An-28 which was launching parachute jumpers which was fun. Also on the airfield was an ex German Air Force Ju-52 which later served with the Russian Air Force.
The second airfield was Golovino near Tomsk with had the usual mix of Yak-52 and An-2 aircraft. Most interesting was a very rare Yak-12 that had been in a museum for many year but had just been restored to flying condition.Both the above were combined in one article for Global Aviation Resource.
Finally catching up on some older shoots from a year ago here are a couple from Switzerland. Alpnach is the main Swiss Air Force helicopter base and I spent a very enjoyable day hanging out with some of the helicopters coming very close to us. It was also nice to shoot the Allouette IIIs on digital before they retire.
Mirage IIICS J-2313 is preserved on a pole at Buochs.
I'd shot this very same aircraft when it was in the old silver colour-scheme at Dubendorf in 1983.◊◊ top
9th May 2010 - TA-4J, The Philippines, Red Flag 10-3, UK Shooting plus updated search engine
I have quite a few updates for you in this installment; some recent shoots also some older backlogged photos that I'm slowly chipping away at.
As new photos are added I have updated the Flash software and pages to display the images at 1024 pixels wide instead of the original 850 pixels. The 850 size goes back to the time when we all used CRTs, but now when over 90 percent of monitors are now wider than this I have decided to go large.
Since the last update I was fortunate enough to shoot the Fighting Classics TA-4J on its first flight and subsequent test flights at Marana Regional, AZ. Maj and his team did an outstanding job in the almost five year restoration and emotions were at a high level throughout the weekend. As I have publication commitments I'll just show a single teaser for now.
I was back in the Philippines in February and have a couple of sets of tourist type photos taken with a Canon SD940IS compact camera. It’s really small and perfect for travel and very inconspicuous. The lighting is very difficult though, as the camera has to cope with extremely bright sunshine and very deep shadows, which makes for a wide dynamic range.
First up here are some street shots in and around Iloilo on the island of Panay.
San Joaquin also on the island of Panay has a very impressive cemetery just outside of the town built from coral.
A nice recent movement at my local airport saw a Dornier 328JET pass though. Not too many of these were built and to see one fly these days is pretty rare. It was due to depart in perfect light before the sun set, but the crew filed an incorrect flight plan and so they ended up departing after the sun had set behind the mountains.
At the beginning of March I once again visited Nellis AFB, NV for the latest Red Flag exercise RF10-3. Visitors included the Australians' with F/A-18A Hornets and the Royal Air Force with Harrier GR.9s. I spent four days there shooting on and off base and had some wonderful photo opportunities. I think this is the only remaining shoot at the smaller 850 pixel size.The above Red Flag shoot was also pushed on the Global Aviation Resource site.
Catching up on some unprocessed shots and back to a trip to the UK in May 2009, first up a trip to RAF Lyneham to shoot some stock RAF Hercules' in digital as I'd really only shot them on film before. A bonus was a lovely looking Airlift International DC-8 which happened to be visiting.
For sheer nostalgia to see avgas dinosaurs still flying RAF Brize Norton cannot be beaten. I was lucky that three Tristars flew and a VC-10 bashed the circuit for hours including an impressive nose-up flapless approach to land. Lighting was tricky at times with the sun popping in and out of the clouds but it was well worth the visit. My last visit back in September 2007 saw only a single movement!The aviation search engine has also been revamped so that more specific searches can be performed. If you are a media representative I can provide a link that gives you thumbnail results. E-mail me for more information.
That's all for now – I'm back in Russia in a couple of weeks for some more interesting adventures, this time up to the Arctic Circle.
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21st April 2010 - CO ARNG and more from Siberia
Since the last update I've been to Nellis AFB, NV shooting for 4 days during Red Flag 10-3. This was run by Combat Aircraft as a double-page spread and is pending publishing on GAR.
I also just got home from a superb weekend covering the first flight of a TA-4L out of Arizona. This is pending publication in Aircraft Magazine.
I got to play a little with the Colorado Army National Guard while flying some off-base training picking-up and dropping an external load with an H-60. This took quite a bit of scouting out and running around but paid off in the end.
The next three are more from my backlog. First up is the sixth part from my trip to Siberia, this time the old domestic airport at Severny-Novosibirsk which is slowly dying unfortunately.
A little bit further back in time some downtime in London allowed me to do some shooting at Heathrow - something I haven't done for many many years. One evening I played with the low light and another I went out to shoot a Polish Air Force Yak-40.
A few shots from Yuma, AZ where we drove from El Centro, CA and back to try to catch a few AV-8 missions. Caught a TAV-8B which, surprisingly, was a type I'd not seen before.
June saw a few shots of B-25 Barbie III in and out of Centennial, CO.I'll hopefully get around to catching up on some of the older stuff as time permits.
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23rd March 2010 - BT-67 and more from Siberia
I've just a couple of updates for you this time. First up I actually did some shooting at my local airfield, Centennial in Colorado. I just happened to logon to Flight Aware and saw that a BT-67 (Turbo DC-3) was inbound to land. By the time I got to the airfield they had already refueled and were preparing for departure.
This BT-67 was flying up from the Antarctic on its was to Calgary and was having to fly only four hour legs due to the weight of cargo they were carrying; One of the more bulky items being a set of Twin Otter skis. The aircraft is owned by the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and is operated by Borek Air who specialise in Arctic and Antarctic operations.It was certainly nice to see this nicely coloured and pristine aircraft in the sun!
The second update is the full set of photos from Tolmachevo-Novosibirsk in Siberia where we had a few frustrations and some unexpected company.The full set is available by clicking on the photo above and this was also published on the Global Aviation Resource website.
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27th February 2010 - A Gunship, ex-RAF Tucano's and more from Siberia
I just got back from a trip to the Philippines where I managed to arrange a tour around Manila International Airport which proved very interesting indeed.
First up is a rather pleasing AC-130H from the 16th SOS who recently moved from Hurlburt Field, FL to Canon, NM. Unusually it still had a bunch of kill markings applied from its last tour in the sand-box with the added bonus of a hi-viz gunship badge. They were deployed to Buckley for a couple of weeks on an unspecified mission.
I took an interesting trip to Arizona to check out RS Warbirds at Deer Valley who have a bunch of ex-RAF Tucano T.1s. They were a very professional and interesting outfit and have in their hands some very desirable modern warbirds that's for sure.
I've pushed out two more sets of photos from my trip to Siberia. First up the very interesting Irkutsk with An-14/An-26s seemingly everywhere - in fact we arrived on a scheduled flight on an An-24B which was an aircraft I've always wanted to fly in.
The second set is from Oyok DOSAAF, which is a Russian Air Force basic training base. We were very warmly welcomed and I even got some stick time in an An-2!This was also published on the Global Aviation Resource website.
I'm off for another trip for Red Flag 10-3 at Nellis, NV next week but, for now, that's all I have to share with you.
Apart from the e-mail list update and this blog there are other ways to keep abreast of my movements and updates.
If you are a Facebook user you can become a fan of skippyscage photography where I post more updates than on the mailing list or blog.
For even more musings you can also follow me on Twitter.
Thanks for listening!
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17th February 2010 - Irkutsk
The Irkutsk article was published last week on the Global Aviation Resource website. It included a scheduled flight on an An-24B!
The full set of photos is available the photo link below.
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22nd January 2010 - Siberia and Closer to Home
The Ulan-Ude article was published last week on the Global Aviation Resource website.
The full set of photos is available the photo link below.
Some new Colorado sunsets with a snow twist. (#9, 10)
Here are a few shots with a compact camera from the Colorado Railway Museum, Golden while location scouting.◊◊ top
29th December 2009 - Podcast Guest plus CJAA GAR Article
I was asked to be a guest on the Aviation Geeks Podcast - we recorded Sunday night and it was posted Monday night. It was great fun and a privilage to be a part of my favourite avaition podcast.
Up on Global Aviation Resource I did an article on the Classic Jet Aircraft Association.
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