Time to Think

Northrup Grumman N164W BAC 1-11 a photo by Liembo on Flickr.

A rare visitor anywhere, this BAC 1-11 has been to KBFI a few times over the pa

Ruslans don't rotate a photo by Liembo on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
They humble the Earth to move down beneath them.

I'm a pretty unimpulsive person. I like to approach things in a calculated manner with no surprises, however last week, that all went out the window. A close friend of ours win a week's use of a condo in Las Vegas and invited us to go, not thinking that we'd actually take them up on it. But we did! They had an entire extra suite at their disposal. The trick was that I was still had to work, and my son still had school. 

The hemming and hawing of the decision had to be made by 2:30pm in order to make the last Allegiant flight out of Bellingham in time, and it was nearing 2pm. I consulted with my manager and it was allowed that I was OK to work my 8 hours from the condo in a staggered fashion. C is going well in school, so we figured we could swing it. So at 2pm Jenn clicked 'submit' on the ticket order page and we had 30 minutes to pack.

This Friday and Saturday I took part in the Historic Flight Foundations first 'Air 2 Air' photography class. The Air 2 Air class is designed to give aviation enthusiasts a chance to learn about techniques, equipment and skills needed to take part in air-to-air photography for fun and possibly profit. The course included instruction from air-to-air photographers as well as trade magazines. I had a blast in the class, but the high point of the experience takes place on June 4, when I get to fly in the HFF's B-25 bomber and shoot air-to-air photographs of their P-51 and Spitfire, or their Tigercat and Bearcat. I'm very excited, but I am also a bit apprehensive. The techniques involved are challenging, and I really have only one shot at this (it's not every day one gets to fly in a B-25 and photograph war birds in formation). 

Every year, dozens upon dozens of bizjets descend on Boeing Field for Bill Gates' annual CEO Summit, and this year was no exception. I completely forgot about it until I checked the flight trackers, which I do almost religiously each morning, to see what flights were heading for KBFI in the next few hours in case something interesting was enroute. On Wednesday, KBFI's tracker looked like an airport for a major city with a huge number of inbound flights. I thought I was looking at the wrong city:

Lunar Arc a photo by Liembo on Flickr.

A bright upper tangent arc and two faint parhelia (sundogs) around the half moon last night. 20 seconds at ISO 400.

Half Moon a photo by Liembo on Flickr.

My 5D coupled to my 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope

For almost 5 years, my standard lens for aviation shooting has been my Canon 70-200mm F/4 L, which has been a trusty lens, very sharp, and a good length on the APS-C sensor on my 30D (112mm x 320mm equiv). However, switching to the 5D mark II has reduced the range. For a while now I've been contemplating the Canon 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 IS L lens, which is very popular among planespotters for its range and sharpness. 

During the heroic, night-time raid on Osama's compound, some sort of malfunction or incident forced the infiltration team to scuttle one of the helicopters used on the mission. The tail section apparently fell outside the compound on the other side of the 12 foot walls and was left behind, relatively intact. The initial photos are intriguing and will no doubt lead to much speculation on the type of helicopter it was; a new type or a heavily modified H-60 type. 

No doubt foreign intelligence agencies (I'm looking in your direction, China) are en route to the Abbottabad area to attempt to secure those fragments like they did to downed F-117's in former Yugoslavia.

I don't think this is a modified H-60, as the tail rotor is on th eopposite side of the tail, which would be a considerable engineering rework. What I can't tell is if the tail elevator is canted to the front or back of the tail.

More pictures will be added as I find them.

More information at Aviation Week and DefenseTech.org.

[update] Probably an MH-60 varient: armytimes.com

This also looks pretty compelling: