U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds: Oregon International Air Show

Posted on Saturday, Mar 26, 2011

Saturday, August 29, 2009

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were intended to be the climax of the air show and they succeeded handily. They were over an hour late which only increased the level of suspense for the thousands of show goers scanning the horizon for any sign of them. When the fighter jets finally arrived, they came from behind the crowd with little warning.

The Thunderbirds have their own announcer and a soundtrack that plays over the P.A. system while they perform—not that you could hear anything over the din of the six Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcons. Like the other jets we had watched over the course of the last day and a half, they were fast and loud; what really set them apart was the absolute precision of their flying. The intricate maneuvers they performed were similar to many we had witnessed earlier in the day by high tech prop planes—but performed at near supersonic speeds. Wow.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

F/A-18 Hornet: Oregon International Air Show

Posted on Saturday, Mar 19, 2011

Saturday, August 29, 2009

If you’ve followed my previous posts about the 2009 Oregon International Air Show, you may have noticed that the skies have been awesome. It would be hard for me to imagine more perfect weather for an air show than what we experienced over the course of the weekend: cool temps combined with layers of huge, three dimensional clouds that ranged from bright white to ominous gray with plenty of blue sun breaks for variety. This pair of images is terrific example of our good fortune.

Watching this F/A-18 Hornet approach us at near supersonic speed was particularly cool because of the vapor halo that kept forming around it. I always understood this to be the predictable result of an aircraft nearing the speed of sound. This turns out to be incorrect. The temperature and humidity have to be just right for the vapor cloud to appear.

National Geographic’s website explains it like this:

Despite its name, the sonic boom cloud doesn’t always come with a sonic boom, and it’s not a shock wave of the sound barrier being broken. The clouds only occur in unique weather conditions, when aircraft fly fast enough to cool the air around them, causing moisture in the air to condense into clouds. These halos of vapor appear for only a few seconds when aircraft reach speeds just below or just above the speed of sound (741 miles an hour/1,193 kilometers an hour).

This video footage shows the phenomenon occurring during one of the F/A-18′s flybys.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Robosaurus: Oregon International Air Show

Posted on Saturday, Mar 12, 2011

Saturday, August 29, 2009

When I imagined what we might see at an airshow, Robosaurus did not come to mind. That didn’t stop it from being one of the most popular performers of the day. Of course, if it breathes fire and can rip apart cars with its jaws that kind of goes without saying, doesn’t it?

The first time we saw Robosaurus was Friday night after dark. Watching the silhouette of what looked like it could be a giant dinosaur coming toward us down the runway was quite an experience. Then it breathed fire and somehow all the kids instinctively knew to rush forward to the fence. Well, not all kids. Lewis seemed to conclude that immediately rushing toward a giant creature of unknown origin as it was breathing fire might not be the most prudent form of action. Better to see what happens to the other kids first…

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

F-15 Eagle: Oregon International Air Show

Posted on Saturday, Mar 5, 2011

Saturday, August 29, 2009

If you’re paying attention you may have noticed that this is my third consecutive post on the theme of flight. Its images were easily the most technically challenging to capture. Being my first airshow, my expectations for them were suitably low so to say I’m pleased with the results would be an understatement. These two images of an Oregon Air National Guard F-15 Eagle flying past us at nearly the speed of sound are two of my favorites.

I’d never even considered attending an air show until New Years Day 2009 when a B-2 Stealth bomber flew directly over us at the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena. Watching that flying black wedge pass over our heads as we sat along the parade route was one of the highlights of the day, so much so that I immediately decided we would be attending the Oregon International Air Show in Hillsboro later in the year.

When the time came, I was much better prepared in terms of my lens than I had been for the butterfly shoot recounted in my previous post. The clunky, slow 75-300mm zoom lens that I described in disparaging terms had long since been replaced by a fast focusing 100-400mm zoom that was perfectly suited to this task. All I needed to do was come up with a pleasing composition while staying focused on an object traveling in excess of 700 miles an hour. It took me a while to get the hang of it but by the time this F-15 showed up on the scene I was getting some tack sharp images.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.