Point Mugu Airshow (March 31st 2007)

Nikolai

Few pictures from the show.

B-52

Tail



Pano (CS3)



Radar plane (Edit: E2C Hawkeye)

Nose view



Propeller



F-15





F-22











F-117A Stealth







It can fly very low:


The rest is here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/Events/302479

(A few more galleries are coming, including Thunderbirds and P-51, F-15 and F-22 trio)

Prezwoodz

I think the Radar Plane is an E2C Hawkeye yes?

I got some M-16s flashed on me once when I was peeking in the window of one that had parked on our ramp at the airport....What? It was there!! heh

behr655

Nice series Nik. I just want to know how this one stayed in the air after the batteries fell out.



Bear

bsvirginian

I've never seen an E2C with props like that. Is that just a west coast thing? bsvirginian

Nir

behr655 wrote:

Nice series Nik. I just want to know how this one stayed in the air after the batteries fell out.

Bear

i agree nik, great series! what i want to know is why couldn't they have cleaned the dust off before the show?

ivar

Cool shots a little moisture in the air, huhh?

This plane just looks like some skin fell off if you ask me

Nikolai wrote:

Nikolai

Prezwoodz,

Prezwoodz wrote:

I think the Radar Plane is an E2C Hawkeye yes?

I'm not sure .
I think I saw E2C earlier and it looked different, but I'm not that big on the plane IDs.
Let's see if Mike Lane or somebody else with the on-hand military aviation experience can tell us.

Nikolai

Bear,

behr655 wrote:

Nice series Nik. I just want to know how this one stayed in the air after the batteries fell out.

Bear

Thanks!

Yeah, it does look very weird. I was wondering myself why didn't the close the chassis hatch right after the take-off...

Nikolai

Nir,

Nir wrote:

i agree nik, great series! what i want to know is why couldn't they have cleaned the dust off before the show?

Thanks!

ivar

Nikolai wrote:

I'm not sure .
I think I saw E2C earlier and it looked different, but I'm not that big on the plane IDs.
Let's see if Mike Lane or somebody else with the on-hand military aviation experience can tell us.

looks like an E-2 hawkeye to me.

DJ-S1

Great series Nik! looking forward to the rest -

Nikolai

Ivar,

ivar wrote:

Cool shots a little moisture in the air, huhh?

This plane just looks like some skin fell off if you ask me

Thanks!

It's amazing, how sharply this thing can turn!
F-15 was flying in the same air (20 minutes difference maybe), but it got nowhere near as much "vapor blast" (I don't know what the technical term is).

ivar

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks!

It's amazing, how sharply this thing can turn!
F-15 was flying in the same air (20 minutes difference maybe), but it got nowhere near as much "vapor blast" (I don't know what the technical term is).

I'm sure there is a technical term for it, I just call it condensation (due to pressure change) but I'm not one to be difficult about technical terms anyway. "Hey, we need to go right, you do that thing, I'll do this thing. Gimme that long checklist, k?"

Nikolai

Prezwoodz, Ivar,

ivar wrote:

looks like an E-2 hawkeye to me.

You guys are correct, it *is* E2C Hawkeye, I found it in Wiki (with the Pt.Mugu as its home station! )

Nikolai

Dj-s1

DJ-S1 wrote:

Great series Nik! looking forward to the rest -

Thanks!
It will take a bit (I filled both cards that day) and it's not gonna be as impressive as these ones (well, Thunderbirds are still cool:-), but I'll do my best :-)

Maestro

Awesome series. You did a great job capturing the action of the planes in the air.

Awais Yaqub

Great series i loved 1st a lot
How they sound ? if compared to F16 more or less ?? i heard stealth has no sound

Nikolai

Maestro,

Maestro wrote:

Awesome series. You did a great job capturing the action of the planes in the air.

Thank you, appreciate it!

Nikolai

Awais,

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Great series i loved 1st a lot
How they sound ? if compared to F16 more or less ?? i heard stealth has no sound

Thanks, man!

They all (I mean all the Fs) can be both very loud and very quiet, depending on the amount of thrust they do. Sometimes it's deafening, sometimes you don't hear it until it's right on top of you....

When two or more of them were airborn, it was plain scary sometimes, since you had no idea which plain is coming from where. You just hear the roar...

F117 only made a few passes w/o any stunts, so I can't say about its all audio or maneuvering capabilities. I wouldn't call it very loud, though...

wxwax

Wow, this is super, real sense of speed.



And I like this one too. That Buff sure cleans up well, huh?

Nikolai

Sid,

wxwax wrote:

Wow, this is super, real sense of speed.

And I like this one too. That Buff sure cleans up well, huh?

Thanks!

I was hoping to get something stately at the show, since I was totally out of ideas, and that B-52 tail was the closest I could find. Still no cigar, though...

Skippy

Nikolai wrote:

Few pictures from the show.

B-52
Tail
Pano (CS3)
Radar plane (Edit: E2C Hawkeye)
Nose view
Propeller
F-15
F-22
F-117A Stealth
It can fly very low:
The rest is here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/Events/302479

(A few more galleries are coming, including Thunderbirds and P-51, F-15 and F-22 trio)

Glad you got to go to the Airshow Nik, this lot look great
They just had a big one here too, but our promised tickets didnt show up :cry .... ohhhh well

Thanks for sharing I love the ones that look like clouds surrounding the plane, they look awesome ..... Skippy
.

moose135

Great shots, Nikolai! I'm planning on getting to a few airshows this year, and seeing your shots is certainly making me impatient!

bsvirginian wrote:

I've never seen an E2C with props like that. Is that just a west coast thing? bsvirginian

I hadn't seen those either, but a little Googling found that they are an upgrade which started rolling out a couple of years ago. It's the NP2000 program - the 8 bladed props give increased performance and reduced maintenance. Eventually, all the E-2Cs will have them installed.

fmkjr

Great shots!
Great pictures!

You might have mentioned what lens you used and I overlooked it... but what lens did you use? I will be shooting an airshow in June (for my employer) and plan to rent an 80-400 or something similar.

frank

Nikolai

Heyya Skip,

Skippy wrote:

Glad you got to go to the Airshow Nik, this lot look great
They just had a big one here too, but our promised tickets didnt show up :cry .... ohhhh well

Thanks for sharing I love the ones that look like clouds surrounding the plane, they look awesome ..... Skippy
.

Thanks!

Bummer about your lost tickets..:-( :cry

Yeah, this vapor/condensation/whatever does look awesome. This is first time I was ever able to catch it, so I'm very glad myself..

Cheers!

Nikolai

Moose,

moose135 wrote:

Great shots, Nikolai! I'm planning on getting to a few airshows this year, and seeing your shots is certainly making me impatient!

Thank you!

Yeah, those are great fun! Only... Each time I forget to bring the chair and the sunblock. Hence, each frigging time my feet hurt and my skin is patched red.
Oh, yeah, and each time I'm getting my eyes burnt from all that sky staring... despite of rather thick polarized sunglasses and a hat...

Seefutlung

Really Good Stuff Nik.

Gary

Nikolai

Frank,

fmkjr wrote:

Great pictures!

You might have mentioned what lens you used and I overlooked it... but what lens did you use? I will be shooting an airshow in June (for my employer) and plan to rent an 80-400 or something similar.

frank

Thank you!

Most of the airshots are EF 100-400L IS USM f/4.0-5.6, most are at 400. Very few (like explosion ones) are EF 70-200L f/2.8 IS USM at 70.

"Display" pictures are mostly EF-S 10-22 (hardware) and 70-200 (softwa... I mean, a few candids :-)

I also cranked ISO up to 400 and stepped 100-400 down to f/8 (ISO 160 f/4 for 70-200) to get somewhat sharper pictures. Noise is not really a big deal, but I wanted to make sure I get most of the action, since those things are faaaaaaast.

BTW, IS is a *huge* help!

HTH

Nikolai

Gary,

Seefutlung wrote:

Really Good Stuff Nik.
Gary

Thanks man!

ShepsMom

Great shots Nik!!! I just came back from Blue Angels show, i took over 400 pictures I also got horrible sunburn, but i had a blast!! I can't wait to edit all the pictures and see which 1 of all 400 i like

moose135

Nikolai wrote:

Most of the airshots are EF 100-400L IS USM f/4.0-5.6, most are at 400. Very few (like explosion ones) are EF 70-200L f/2.8 IS USM at 70.

I also cranked ISO up to 400 and stepped 100-400 down to f/8 (ISO 160 f/4 for 70-200) to get somewhat sharper pictures. Noise is not really a big deal, but I wanted to make sure I get most of the action, since those things are faaaaaaast.

BTW, IS is a *huge* help!

HTH

Those are a couple of good lenses - I've shot a ton of aviation shots with the 100-400L, with great results. I have the non-IS version of the 70-200 f/2.8, and that works really well also.

I don't know that you really need to bump up to ISO 400, especially if you have a nice bright day. I shoot a lot of airliners, and even when shooting military at airshows, I typically shoot in Av at f/7.1 or f/8 and ISO 100, and unless there's cloud cover, that usually gives me a shutter speed in the 1/500 range. That should be plenty fast enough, since you should be panning along to keep them in the frame before you shoot.

Here's an example from last summer, when the Tomcat was making it's farewell visit to Long Island. They're making a pass at about 300 + knots. I shot this at ISO 100, f/9.0 and 1/400.