Free Fly Days - Everett's Paine Field

[Trackside]

For the past 2 weekends the Flying Heritage Collection Organization (FHC) has put on Free Fly Days to show off their impressive collection of WWII vintage aircraft. The FHC is a new member of the Everett/Mukilteo community and a most welcome one IMO.

Yesterday's Free Fly Day featured a Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VC, and a Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk which flew for about 25 to 30 minutes and followed with a Q&A session in which the public was encouraged to ask the pilots questions.

Before taking off they taxi past the crowd allowing for a great close up.

I took these with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Canon 100-400L IS handheld.

1) The Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk 1/640s f/8.0 at 200.0mm iso250

2) The Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VC 1/800s f/8.0 at 180.0mm iso250

Once in the air they did a series of low and really fast fly-by's. It was a thrill listening to these aircraft buzz by.
3) 1/1000s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

I'm new to the Aviation thing, and working off of Harbour Pointe Blvd in Mukilteo it only took me 6 years to realize what a interesting neighbor I had. I'm sure some of you know me from RailroadForums.com and like rail fanning this sport is full of white guys of all ages. I'm guessing there as about 1,500 people there. I showed up with the family about 10 minutes before fly time and was able to park about a block away and got a spot right up front.
4)

The pilots did an excellent job of angling their aircraft so we could create the illusion that we were flying along side them rather than standing on the ground.
5) 1/1600s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

6) 1/1600s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

7) 1/1600s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

8) 1/1600s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

9) 1/1600s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

10) 1/1600s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

11) 1/1250s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

12) 1/1250s f/8.0 at 375.0mm iso250

June 5th is the next Free Fly day when several P-51 Mustangs will fly!! I'd encourage anyone with even a mild interest and a 300-400mm zoom to show.

I hope you enjoyed the shots - C&C always welcomed.

 

[BrianH]

Simply amazing shots!

 

[squirl033]

great stuff! one minor nit... i'd have preferred slightly slower shutter speeds, maybe down in the 1/250-1/500 range, to give a little prop blur and more sense of motion in the pan shots. other than that, these are very nicely done! i really like # 6 - the shot of the Spit against the clouds - reminds me of that poem, "High Flight".... nice to see, too, that they got the right version of the P-40 to paint the AVG colors on. i've seen so many N-model P-40's in AVG markings, which is bogus, since AVG only flew B's and C's, and later on a handful of E-models which they got shortly before they were disbanded.

wish i'd known that was going on, i'd have been there for sure! i'd love to make to the show on June 5th, but i have a prior commitment... hopefully i can get up there for one of these "free fly" days before the end of the season, though!

 

[BobH]

Those are all great shots, thanks for posting them!

The next to the last shot is my absolute favorite. Nice light, the planes are sharp while the trees have just a touch of blur from panning, which implies motion. It's a nice tight shot, with lots of details. Very nicely done!

I'd encourage anyone with even a mild interest and a 300-400mm zoom to show.

That's one place Canon has Nikon beat... Nikon's 80-400 is slow to focus, and generally in bad need of an update. Canon's seems to be quite good by comparision.

Guess I'll have to borrow Deb's 70-300 and see what I can do.

 

[JaniceL]

Very, very, very, very cool shots.

 

[BobH]

On Memorial Day, the Flying Heritage Collection, will unveil the newest additions to the collection – two fully operational tanks, the Soviet T-34 and the Jagdpanzer 38(t). The event provides a great opportunity for the public to see historic tanks return to action and to witness the first driving and firing demonstration of these restored, battle-ready armored vehicles. The Soviet T-34 tank will drive and fire at 12 p.m.; the Flak 88, a famous WWII artillery weapon, will fire at 1 p.m.; the Hetzer will drive and fire at 2 p.m.

Along with the FHC’s new tanks, the Memorial Day event will showcase military vehicles and weapons from the Puget Sound Military Vehicle Collectors Club.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120688831281025

 

[Trackside]

Thanks crew! Rocky - great suggestion. I'll have to try around 1/500 to 1/800. I wouldn't want to go below 1/500 or else I think the shots will be soft, but I really like the idea of having more motion blur on the props. The FHC brochure has a great shot of the P51 on the cover and the blades have what I guess I'd refer to as a 1 hour long blur (1 to 2 o'clock, etc).

I say no lower than 1/500 because I found it to be a little tricky to keep pace with them with all the people standing around. I had 2 kids (not mine) sitting at my feet who moved around a lot as kids do and I didn't want to step on their hands so I was standing about 1/2 a row back which meant I had to try not to hit anyone with my lens. As they came in you of course didn't have to pan at all and then all the sudden you were accelerating to keep up and then having to back off so you didn't overshoot as they passed. It was a lot of fun!

 

[squirl033]

"On Memorial Day, the Flying Heritage Collection, will unveil the newest additions to the collection – two fully operational tanks, the Soviet T-34 and the Jagdpanzer 38(t). The event provides a great opportunity for the public to see historic tanks return to action and to witness the first driving and firing demonstration of these restored, battle-ready armored vehicles. The Soviet T-34 tank will drive and fire at 12 p.m.; the Flak 88, a famous WWII artillery weapon, will fire at 1 p.m.; the Hetzer will drive and fire at 2 p.m."

as an AFV aficionado, i plan to be there to see this! and since i live 7 miles away, there's no excuse not to...

 

[BrianH]

"On Memorial Day, the Flying Heritage Collection, will unveil the newest additions to the collection – two fully operational tanks, the Soviet T-34 and the Jagdpanzer 38(t). The event provides a great opportunity for the public to see historic tanks return to action and to witness the first driving and firing demonstration of these restored, battle-ready armored vehicles. The Soviet T-34 tank will drive and fire at 12 p.m.; the Flak 88, a famous WWII artillery weapon, will fire at 1 p.m.; the Hetzer will drive and fire at 2 p.m."

as an AFV aficionado, i plan to be there to see this! and since i live 7 miles away, there's no excuse not to...

I will make one weekend but memorial day would be tough! and I live about 5 hours away LOL

 

[squirl033]

Thanks crew! Rocky - great suggestion. I'll have to try around 1/500 to 1/800. I wouldn't want to go below 1/500 or else I think the shots will be soft, but I really like the idea of having more motion blur on the props. The FHC brochure has a great shot of the P51 on the cover and the blades have what I guess I'd refer to as a 1 hour long blur (1 to 2 o'clock, etc).

I say no lower than 1/500 because I found it to be a little tricky to keep pace with them with all the people standing around. I had 2 kids (not mine) sitting at my feet who moved around a lot as kids do and I didn't want to step on their hands so I was standing about 1/2 a row back which meant I had to try not to hit anyone with my lens. As they came in you of course didn't have to pan at all and then all the sudden you were accelerating to keep up and then having to back off so you didn't overshoot as they passed. It was a lot of fun!

panning is definitely a practiced skill... and i'm SADLY out of practice! in my film days, i used to shoot SCCA rallies and airshows a lot, and had panning down pretty well, even with the poor-quality lenses i had at the time i was able to get some pretty good shots. the only panning i've done recently has been BIF photos, and they don't move as fast as aircraft!

as for shutter speed, typically to get a nice prop blur, 1/500 is about the fastest you should use, and 1/250-1/320 would be better.

just out of curiosity, how far away were they? are these shots full-frame, or cropped? i'd most likely be shooting with my 40D, for faster frame rate and the extra "reach" i get from the crop factor, but if they fly close enough, i might try my 5D in spite of the slow frame rate...

 

[Trackside]

Rocky,

No crop on #3 except for the height, and #7, #8, & 12 have about a 20% crop. Otherwise they are un-cropped full-frame at 375mm's. They let you shoot from the edge of the taxiway. It's front row fish in a barrel man. The only thing that's too bad is that the sun is almost directly south at that time of day, so I couldn't get any real good shots with the side of the aircraft lit up.