Thursday, June 11, 2009

Aviation - Hill Air show


Wow - The Hill Open House Air show was cool in more ways than one. Yeah, of course, there's the regular static displays, your aerobatic regulars and even the RC's got a shot.

This year another visitor made a presentation.... RAIN!! Lots and lots of cold, freaking rain. Here it is, the start of June and we're getting May's rain.

I really don't mind it that much, but when you have to exchange sunblock for umbrellas and sunglasses for goggles; damn!

I consider myself a die hard when it comes to what I love. My buds too, are usually pretty DH themselves, but this year the rain kept lots of them away. But, not us!
Mr. Scotty and myself, we braved the freezing, cold rain for the thrill of a great show at the Air field.

The First day of festivities saw great temperatures of 78-f for most of the day. Pleasant. Very unusual for this time of the year, specially at an air show.

But the 2nd day (Sunday) the Lord must have gotten pissed with us for skipping church to see fast jets, amazing aerobatics and the occasional low-cut t-shirt. :)

Good seats. Oh yeah. If you gonna go and see the Blues or the Birds, or any other great performer you want to get great seats. In order to get great seats you have got to get your ass early enough to the flight line. Specially when the estimated attendance for this show was 400,00o visitors.

This time around early was 5:30 am. Yup, we got the routine down.

Getting to the right spot early enough is accelerating, because you know, you will see everything that there's to see without obstructions. (maybe)

The day was amazingly fresh, cool and clear. The vendors, the performers and the spectators were in great spirits. As you pass security you could already see the particular tails of your favorite planes, towering over the many tents and other smaller planes. The only thing in your in your mind is to rush to the "good spot". Once you got that done. Relief! Now you are free to wonder about and check the static displays.

Camera in hand, I was ready to used up all the 4-Gs my SanDisk card could hold.

In a few minutes the roar of engines perked up the field. The single aerobatic performers started the show.

Sean D. Tucker and his bright red Oracle Challenger II biplane kicked off the show.
If you have never seen Sean do what he does with a plane, I highly recommend you check it out when he's at an air show near you.
This guy has done what only very few dream of. He has flow with the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels.

The show went on beautifully. Fire jumpers, Air force academy Wings of Blue, Chinese CJ-6a, Mig-17s, Hellcats, Zeros and Russian Yak-11 filled the skies.

We came to see the big boys. The Viper West F-16 flight demo, the Hornet West Navy West F-18 demo, the Heritage filght F-4 Phantom, the P5i Mustang and of course, The Thunderbirds.

The whole first day the Sun shone brightly on all of us and a gentile 75-78 F weather was spot on. Once in a while, a nice cloud made it even better. The whole show was as good as it gets.

The smell of JP4, the roar of the jets and the excitement and anticipation of the crowd made you come alive.
I guess this is what NASCAR fans must feel when they enter that oval track. It was great just being there.

The F22 Raptor took to sky and I was lucky enough to snap a quick picture, right above my head. Damn good thing I still had my star filter in place.

The 2nd day of festivities started also early. Looking out the hotel's window, kinda made you wish you were born with a different set of brains. The kind that would override the wish to see jets for the kind to stay in a nice warm bed and get some sleep. We couldn't believe, that we were getting ready to head out in the pouring rain!!

That's right, rain; heavy, fat, stinging, wet, cold rain.

But, we have traveled this far (80 miles or so) and by God, we were ready for another day at on the flight line.

Getting a "good spot" this day was a cinch! We had a pick of the prime spots. Right on the fence just yards from the main show performers.

After situating the chairs, food, drinks, etc. The next step was to find some place dry enough to wait it out. That part was easy. Just right behind the good spot, there was great place that was dry and empty. The huge left wing of the B-52H

All we had to do was to drag our soggy, sorry butts to that wing and wait for the good news of better weather.
The show was schedule for 10:00 am but that was not going to happen. The rain was just making sure the planes and aviators were keeping grounded.

Kinda crappy since, many of the show performers flew long ways to come and do their stuff. Not to mention our selves. But somehow, it was different and I was starting to appreciate the new conditions around us.

The previous day the Jets looked shinny and impeccable. This day, they took on an almost ominous nature. Looking at them, it made me realize I was seeing the true nature for their existence.

Although no "BUFFS" (you know what that means) or other bombers flew, it wasn't hard to imagine these pieces of hardware bound for their targets; ready to fulfill their mission and perform the role their were intended for.

Taking a sizable chunk of real estate was the venerable and trusted B-52H
Strato-fortress. No kidding. This thing is a formidable and intimidating machine.

This time around the guys from the 23rd Bomb Squadron The Barons - from Minot Air Force Base, ND were here to display the aircraft.

Man, these guys have some stories to tell!
As we waited for the rain to let up, I got the chance to spend sometime with the guys that make our skies safe.

"Blackjack" is a navigator who has a great sense of humor and loads of good stuff to dish out. The same goes for his buddies on this most awesome plane.

Man, I tell you. I did miss my calling. Well, my shitty eyes, kept me from ridding with the "Power of God".

I'm just glad that there are people like these guys "keeping an eye on things" for us. Cheers Barons! And thanks for sharing the wing with us that day.

As the day wore on, it seemed that the rain was finally going away. The performers all agreed that they were going to perform, even in less than perfect conditions.

The skies still looked pretty ominous but at the same time, there was a new excitement building all around us. We could see droves of people starting to fill the tarmac with chairs, ponchos and tents. It was getting good.

The heritage flight and the other performers started to take off and the field came alive once again.

The roar of the big stuff sounded even louder due to the heavy cloud coverage. The sound didn't have any place to go. I like that sound.

One of the performers we were more excited to see, was the F-22 Raptor. This freaking thing is loud and powerful. When Raptors fly, it feels like the sky is ripping apart. Right on!

Because of the conditions that day, the nature of the show switched to a "low show". Also, the performers seemed to sense the mood of the crow and they gave us a little more juice than the previous day.

The FA-18 Hornet did a series of high speed passes that normally it wouldn't do. This time, both the FA-18 and the F-22 opened up those thirsty afterburners and let us feel the power they hide under the hood. They literally rocked the ground. Hell yeah!

Once you see these guys do their thing, you know who own the sky; there's nothing out there than can touch them. I can't wait to see the new F-35. Hopefully, politics and self-servant politicians won't kill the project before we get a chance to see them.

The day and the show went on without a hitch. In fact. because the show times were shortened, we really got to see all the good stuff without any long waits in between.

Finally, the time came and the T-Birds got ready to take over. The rain seemed to diminished and give way to the Sun.

The jets took to the sky and I could catch rays of light dancing on the edge of the wings. Amazing!

The show went on as it should. I got close to the end, when the sky opened up again. We were getting almost pissed, because we haven't seen any T-bird performance canceled yet.
The show stopped. Over the speakers, the voice came saying that due to weather, the Birds decided to halt the show for the time being. They didn't suspended nor quit. They were just waiting in higher elevation for the cloud coverage over the base to clear.

We could hear those powerful jets high above, beyond the clouds. The lighting gave the wh9le thing a surreal tone.
The really became Thunderbirds!

After the sky cleared, we once again, felt the rush and anticipation for the show to continue. We didn't have to wait long. The solo pilots made a grand entrance again, burning the sky right over our heads with a speed pass.

I could have stayed there for hours.

The show came to its conclusion and we watched the gleaming jets touch down and park under a clearing sky.

Maj. Rick Goodman - Opposing Solo - Was kind enough to come over and chat with all of us by the fence. He felt grateful that we showed up for the show. He mentioned that the Birds didn't want to cancel the show and that seeing us, "down there", gave them the push they needed to continue. After all, these are war birds, a little rain will never stop these birds from doing their job. It was good to hear that.

All too soon, it was time to leave. It was great '09 show at Hill.

On our way out, we got to see something that I haven't witnessed before. A Thunderbird Transformer!

I was bummed out because we didn't get to see the whole transformation, but I saw enough to be impressed. This life size replica of a F16- Thunderbird is folded and then placed inside a transport semi, for the next show!

Freaking cool!

Hope you guys get to see it when it comes to an air show near by.


'Til the next show in the sky.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Around the house

I know, this post doesn't really fit within my 3 descriptions but it does fit within my life's interest. Photography. Specially studio - form photography.

I was working on my lights the other day. I just added a couple of medium size soft boxes to my home studio and I'm anxious to try 'em out soon.

I'm guilty of not spending much time in the studio. I will be looking for models and fun objects to photograph soon. I supposed that when I have something, I will be posting it.

Oh yeah, I came across a cool site, that allows you to "Meetup" with those with similar interest as yours. I haven't found many "breasts" enthusiasts around my area yet. I probably need to start it myself.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

America - Aviation - Motivation

Just about every day, when I get up I take a deep breath and I breath America; I breath in America with all it's splendor and faults. It makes me feel great to know, that I live in paradise.

I usually tried to avoid the news that early, because I don't want to be bummed out the rest of the days by the "bad" news we usually get that early. Usually I listen to the Bob & Tom show because I'd rather start with a laugh and some silliness.

Today I started with the news. Yep. Of course, the news were bad. The first report it had to do with the Air France 447 flight that went down in the middle of the Atlantic. I'm sorry for the families of all those souls. I really hope we'll get to find out, what went wrong and fix it for future flights.

Then of course, the 2nd biggest news had to do with GM, the car industry and an administration that seems to keep on spinning the bad news and fumbling the truth.
Talk about depression!

Going through the rest of my day, I also found out, that somehow, somewhere, there's a neighbor who's life is so easy and uncomplicated that she has extra time to keep tabs on the goings on of the residents in my street. It is apparent that she also posses the ability to pass judgment upon the actions of her neighbors. Humm. a bit unchristian for some who professes to be Christian.

These and other pressing matters were starting have a negative input in my whole day. I need to find an island of sanity.

At that moment I remembered that I've DVRed ( not a word, but it should be) the new PBS program by Dr. Wayne Dyer. "Excuses Begone".
I started to watch it, looking for some good nuggets of wisdom that I could use today.
I found one. "No Excuses, no Explanations" - How great is that?

If I make no excuses as to how I live my life, or how I decided to architect my future, then there is no explanations to ANYONE!!!

I have to admit, that in the past few days, I have been feeling less than right. A sense of drudgery and chaos looming in the horizon had occupied my mind. Dyer always seems to have an explanation for those "down" days.

So, after pondering on the news, the nosy neighbor and other personal challenges, I have decided to Let Go and Let God. Isn't that what they say in recovery? Oh, well. I'm using it for myself today.

Alone, I can't solve the big problems our nation faces, but I can start fixing myself with small doses of Ed's ABC's!