United States - Washington - McChord AFB Air Show 2008 - McChord AFB, Tacoma - 07/19/08

[skyline]

Highlight from my pictures of today's show.

[skyline]

The weather condition in the morning was marginal for the jump. The C-17 flew into clouds right after all the jumpers went off the plane.

In the afternoon, the weather turned perfertly sunny for the rest of the show.

[thenewarea51]

Very cool superbug vapor shot! I really like the shadow!

Franz

[skyline]

Some Thunderbirds.

[Jason-Fight2FlyPhoto]

Dude, I have some great shots from Friday.  Lemme just say, I almost got into some trouble with the local cops.  The FAA didn't really give the orders to shut down the street that goes right under the approach path on the north end of the field (112th I think?)  for the practice sessions, so got some great head-on shots of the aircraft arriving and practicing (including full TB practice)  Anyway, I'm running on vapors now, see you out there again!

Also, did you guys notice that TB #5 was having some issues throughout the show with secure items in the cockpit?  lol  That's a lot of stuff hanging in her canopy.  You can see it in John's second to last Thunderbird photograph, of the mirror pass.

[hotas]

I think the loose gear in the cockpit of #5 is actually a refraction of #6 above her. I think an object of that apparent size loose in th cockpit during a performance would be cause to at least break away from a precision formation.

[KRIV Ralph]

I think the loose gear in the cockpit of #5 is actually a refraction of #6 above her. I think an object of that apparent size loose in th cockpit during a performance would be cause to at least break away from a precision formation.

I think its stuff in the cockpit. See here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfNrD0sBzUw&feature=related

[Galaxy5007]

Great shots skyline!  The C-17 flying into the cloud with the jumping in action was sweet, and I love the B-2 shot!

Gotta love that Mt. Rainier shot as well!

[Jason-Fight2FlyPhoto]

No, there is definitely stuff (papers) in on the canopy, I have pictures of her doing solo passes inverted where you can see it up there clear as a bell.  I just now walked in the door from todays show (I live 30 miles north of Seattle, long drive!) I'll post them when I have a chance. 

[skyline]

No, there is definitely stuff (papers) in on the canopy, I have pictures of her doing solo passes inverted where you can see it up there clear as a bell.  I just now walked in the door from todays show (I live 30 miles north of Seattle, long drive!) I'll post them when I have a chance. 

Jason

30 miles north of Seattle isn't a long drive, comparing with my 180 miles. The Canadian border officer wasn't quite convinced when I said I went down to Tacoma area just for an airshow. She said, "What airshow? What? Just to watch planes flying?". Looks like she didn't believe there's such a hobby for dummy call plane-watching. 

How's the show on Sunday? Since the weather is way better, you should enjoy the show very much.

John

[Jason-Fight2FlyPhoto]

Very true, John, but making that drive both ways for three days isn't that fun either. lol  I'm not one for lengthy car rides.  And I consider a 1.5-2 hour car ride long. haha

Anyway, the weather was spectacular today, however the vapor wasn't as good as it was yesterday.

I have just now finished looking through all of my pictures and am really quite pleased with my results!  Yippee!!

And here is a quick crop of Thunderbird 5 during the last inverted pass moments before landing.  During the Slow Roll early in the show you can actually watch these papers move around the canopy as the roll progresses.

Don't worry, I know when I see refraction.

[Jason-Fight2FlyPhoto]

Well, someone seemed to have dropped the ball with regard to closing roads on Friday for the airshow practice sessions.  Officers kept asking people to move, while more kept coming throughout the performers practice sessions.  Throughout the entire Thunderbirds performance and practice the police left everyone alone, as 112th had cars parked along its entire length. (There are many posted signs that say no parking.  I parked my car in a lot and simply walked out here.)

Anyway, I guess these pictures could fall under the "Don't let the FAA see these" ctagory.  I'll start another post in a more appropriate section of the forums a little later on the story around these pictures.

Two of the following pictures were taken zoomed as far back as I possibly could with my 50-500mm lens, to give you just a slight idea as to the proximity of the landing aircraft.  And also note, a lot of the passes for the airshow were pretty close to this altitude as this IS the official show line.

[correction] Close Landing3 was taken at 400mm, not 50.  I added that pic after I wrote the bit about the pictures themselves.

[Pablo Fernicola]

First off, congratulations to the personnel at McChord, to the crews manning the static displays, and to the performers.  It was a great show.

The press has the number of attendees at over 100,000 on Saturday.  In addition to the planes, the Stryker displays were fun.

Here are some of the nicer photos I got (for a larger selection of photos visit http://www.fernicola.org/McChord).

From all the photos my favorite was the Mig-17.


Many C-17 photos, first time I see them perform and it was impressive, here is one.


I really enjoyed Bud Granley's performances, with the T-6 and the Yak.
Here is him waiving at the end




The B-2 pass was very nice.

It almost looks like they have  a paper sign posted on the rear side window, but I could not resolve enough to verify.

A couple of photos with the obligatory Mt. Rainier background



F-18 inverted pass with the gear down (up?)


A different shot of the F-18 vapor from skyline (and a similar F-15 vapor to the one posted earlier by  Kevin Scott here http://www.fernicola.org/McChord/f-15%20vapor_std.jpg).


And one shot from the Thunderbirds performance


For Galaxy5007, another shot of the C-5 tail is here http://www.fernicola.org/McChord/c-5%20tail_std.jpg.

Did not see any other Fence Check shirts at the event 

Except for taking a bit over two hours to exit the parking lot, it was a great event.  Wondering how today's performances went.  The weather looked much nicer.

-Pablo

[David Atkinson]

Well, what an excellent weekend!

The static was very good, and the flying program was varied and interesting - cograts to dhfrat and crew!

Mark, as always, good to shoot (and drink  ) with you - next show the Red Hook is on me...

OK, on to some piccies, first the static...

David

[David Atkinson]

Saturday we were treated to a topside Beak flyby - shame about the marine layer, though...

David