here's a quick photo album I made of the decent pics i took while there Saturday 7/28/07
I know about the crash now, and am truly saddened.
I hope these pics are respectful, and appreciated.
they were all taken on my friends cannon powershot A630, and I had never used it before. all native pics are 3264x2248 and if requested I can email 1 or 2 to you specifically.
some of the shots are static ground stuff and should be self explanatory.
in the air the KC-135 (or whatever model it was, it was labeled 3 different things in the program, schedule, and announcer) was AMAZING! you'd never believe a plane like that could do what it did.
the F22 well, BLEW MY MIND! not only can it out maneuver anything I have ever seen, it does it with ease. it did a full 360º turn INSIDE the limits of the airfield!
to any "nay-sayers" to it's abilities, you can NOT judge until you see it in person. ALL videos I have seen on the net don't even come close to doing it justice. it took less that the runway's length to accelerate form almost "stall" to just below the speed of sound!
oh yeah, did I mention it is the absolutely LOUDEST plane I have ever been in the presence of? we were seated at about 50 yards from show center, and when that thing went full afterburner pulling up or whatever my ears actually hurt for almost an hour afterward!
I also have shots of "Glacier Girl" the P38 flying in the "heritage flight" with the F22 and the F86!
there was an actual U2 spy plane, and a B2 fly over (HOLY SH--! it is HARD to photo that thing!) my shots were terrible, and every time I went to actually watch it myself I thought I would be hit by it because it was so close, yet with a digital camera it is hard to "track". "b203" was the BEST I could do at a close range shot on the 3 passes it did, though I admit I was pissed at myself for missing most of it trying to take a damn picture!
any pics with the "kids" label are my best friend sons Jacob and Owen (jacob being the older one), Wade their father is in a few shots too. "me" is just that me in the shot, though wade is not a great photographer, I am too small in the frame and he makes the camera add weight to me somehow.
I have a few shots of Sean Tucker taxiing, though none in action...
the "in the way 30 min" was some dmn new plane model that ramped up early and sat literally 25 yards from us idling for 30 min.
there's a shot of some skywriting they did, my thumb had to block the sun on one of them.
the Sherman tank was taken because it was actually firing "blanks" right there, 25 years away! they had the whole re-enactors doing mock ground war the whole time of the warbirds show, moving down the show line!
the "wildfire" shot was just that, after the bomb run of the B17 / B24 the pyrotechnics set off a grass fire that went on for a good 20 minutes. it stunk like %$%$.
there are SO many things I did not take a pic of because honestly I wanted to see the action and all that, add to the face my buddies camera isn't the best to work with.
the first pic is from our travails across rural Wisconsin, a detour of the Hwy we were supposed to take to somewhere, and well... which is right?????
anyway, 4th year running perfect weather, amazing time, and the worst sunburn of my last 10 years. my forehead is actually "leaking" puss from blisters as I type this... my DUMB arse didn't wear a hat in 85º clear skies to protect my face, no sunblock either.
Enjoy and as I said a few pics can be emailed in native resolution as requested.
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<> the names of the images are from what I was told at the show. I am NOT an expert and the 001,. 002 and so on, I don't remember what they were, ALSO the spitfire "trainer" was called a spitfire in the warbirds show, but was a 2 person so I guessed.... the seafury was ALSO called that during the show, it may be mistaken indentity. sorry I have forever sucked at actual identification of planes even up close (I don't know exactly what to look for)
<2ND EDIT> I forgot to mention, in the 10K blockbuster bomb pic, my buddy with his 2 sons, well the rolled up print in his hand is a picture of 3 B24's on the Polesti raid which his grandfather on his mothers side was ON! I met him, talked with him at length, and was quite close to him. he lived literally across the street from my friend, and passed away last year. I actually got to meet a survivor of that, and have an appreciation for the B24 many here will never understand. My friend included (he never knew about WWII aviation until a few years ago when I told him about this sim and what I was into)
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z125/JB73Mustaine/
