Highlights of Wings Over Pittsburgh 2008, presented chronologically by maiden flight and alphabetically after that. This being my second air show (see here for the 2007 highlights), event photography was of a more tactical nature - hence the filing in the main blog instead of the pittsburgh sub-blog. Filling in blanks, shooting things I hadn't seen before or trying for new angles on things I'd shot previously, etc. The big highlight this year was attending with Martin and my longtime friend xeno - while it's a hard call as to who's the more lecherous of the two, I'm happy that the three of us got along well. That more than anything made the show (which seemed pretty scaled down from last year) all the more awesome.
B-17 Flying Fortress
I have a ton of pics that Martin took during the flight he took last year in a B-17. Given that, the images I took were mainly of the "what caught my eye" variety - no small challenge, as the plane was crawling with crew (at least one of whom was dressed in vintage flight suit and gunner kit), and the usual gaggle of proles crowded so close that I just couldn't get some of the shots I wanted. All the more reason to come back next year! I took more pictures than I'm posting - I think these are definitely the best of the lot, especially the nose and the first "storm front" image. I love the design of this plane - it has an art deco meanness to it that modern bombers are lacking. Look at those fucking machine guns!
Douglas DC-3
The iconic DC-3, lovingly restored, slightly upgraded, and repainted to a nifty Piedmont Airlines color scheme by the Carolinas Historic Aviation Commission. See here for a lot of nice information and what the software world would call a "changelog," detailing the history of this aircraft. I really wish I'd paid more attention to what the crew had to say, as they were all very enthusiastic and obviously had a love for the aircraft and its place in aviation history. As it was, my attention had been stolen by the nearby B-17 and B-25 displays. I only got a few pictures of the DC-3 (and none of the Mitchell, unfortunately). I think the positioning of the aircraft against the clearing weather front and the cockpit shot are the most interesting of the four.
B-52 Stratofortress
By far the funniest bit of the B-52 walkaround was overhearing some idiot trying to convince a lesser idiot that the C-5 Galaxy was a "better plane" than the B-52 because it was "bigger" and "faster." The flight engineer was on hand at the cockpit - the kid had to be a good five years younger than me and seemed to be looking forward to the eventual engine upgrades to the B-52, if for no other reason than four engines had to have fewer parts than eight. Boilerplate bullet point : B-52 tires weigh over 700lbs. The primary focus of this shoot was the cockpit, as it's apparently rare for them to be open for a show; and the upper area of the rear landing gear bay. I'd acquired several images of the "business end" of it last year, but for some reason had forgotten to look up.
Images in order : Starboard aft at the start of the show, what pretty much has to be a bomb/missile hardpoint, two shots of the cockpit, starboard forward right behind the cockpit, uh huh huh huh, three shots of the aft landing well (which would make nice industrial desktops), and the tail section with the Fed-Ex freighter behind it.
P-3 Orion
Unlike the rest of these birds, the URL for the P-3 Orion refuses to cache in my browser history. I have no idea why - it's probably just another one of Safari's quirks. Regardless, this was by far the highlight of the show for me, and after the F-22 demo was also the highlight of the show for xeno. Not only is this a Navy ship (go sailors!), it's on duty and the entire crew was both on site and very enthusiastic about their mission - on Saturday, that mission was talking about the P-3 and what it does in a language that civvies can understand. Amongst a number of cool points: the Sonar technician (younger than me by five years) talking about running sonar kit that's older than Disco; a couple of insanely cute Navy ladies talking about some of the kit they're responsible; and a lengthy "lecture" / Q&A session from the bird's PPC (Patrol Plane Commander) about how the command structure works aboard the Orion. He gave specific details about command instruction flow between the pilots and the flight engineer (including who's allowed to touch what), and the differences between being a PPC and a "regular" pilot (ten naval airmen under your command versus being responsible only for yourself, etc), number of flight hours (~200 hours in an Orion and you're still a Nugget. This guy said he typically logs 1,500 hours a deployment - and that's On The Job, not everything it takes to actually Run The Bird) He'd run mechanical stuff on a cruiser previously - an Ensign responsible for every machine on the boat but the engines, and he talked about how that did and didn't prepare him for command of an Orion. I asked The Stupid Question (well, what I'd considered one, but didn't know so asked anyway) about wether or not a Navy Airman is a Sailor or an Airman, and his response was (along the lines of) "I'm technically an Airman, but I was a Sailor first. In the Navy, there's no higher honor than being a Sailor - some of these guys, they're all 'I'm not a Sailor, I'm an officer :P' and my response is 'Bullshit. You're a Sailor!"
Indeed.
One of the other cool points aboard the Orion - one of the people in our impromptu informal "tour group" was a Naval veteran who had manned an Orion sonar console in the late 1960s. The techs were talking about how outdated the kit they were using was compared to upgraded Orions, and here's this guy wanting the scoop on what he considered to be the "new and improved" equipment!
Images in order : Nose, forward bomb bay (don't argue, it's plainly labeled as such), sonobuoy tubes, two images of the sonar station, four images of the area between the sonar station and the cockpit (love those keyboards!), cockpit (pilot consoles) and cockpit (flight engineer console).
F-15 Eagle
A few personal-use reference shots of one of the many F-15 Eagles that hasn't suffered a structural failure. There was no being polite here - it was either barge in front of a lingering photographer in order to get the shots I wanted or loop by the display throughout the day to see if the tail was clear. Love those engines.
F/A-18 Hornet
There were two F-18s at the show, both with canopies up, both with pilots on station. I found out quickly that the main reason the aircraft is manned on display is that there are bits of the controls that are still classified, and the military isn't too keen on the idea of anyone taking pictures of those bits. It looked like a fairly typical cockpit to me, but I don't know what to look for.... of course, it could have been a Growler or a precursor, as the bird had a mean looking electronics pod mounted under it.
Images in order : It seems the WSO has seen Supertroopers, love the tail, the only pics the driver would allow of the cockpit (note the rear view mirrors on the canopy), and two images from the demonstration.
EC-130 Commando Solo
The EC-130 - which would look like a vanilla C-130 from a distance were it not for the four transmitter pods on the tail) is one of those things I'd love to have taken more photos of and learned much, much more about... but we were heading from one end of the flight line to the other, it was in the middle, the line was enormous and glacial, and to top it off, civvies were crawling all over the thing like it was made out of money and new episodes of American Idol. Of course, this thing's designed to broadcast AM, FM, HF, VHF and UHF... so for all I know, it is. Hopefully there'll be one at next year's show - if there is I'll hit it first thing and get my nerd on, bigtime.
F-22 Raptor
Sure, on the ground, the F-22 looks stubby and ridiculously overpriced. In the air, it's a completely different story - you see the Raptor in action and after changing your pants you're ready to sign on with the Air Force brass who are insisting they buy more-more-more. I stuck a few clips up on youtube - a pass and loop, a pass with an F-16 on escort, and a pass and break with the F-16. They kept the Raptors well away from the crowds - heck, they may as well have thrown a tarp over them!
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