USAF Heritage Flight

Photos of USAF Heritage Flights that I have had the privilege of photographing during the 2011 air show season.

Click on the thumbnail to view the entire album, and enjoy.

James :-)

Lunar eclipse

I woke up early to shoot the lunar eclipse that occurred here on the West Coast. Totality was shortly after 0600 hrs., just before the moon set. Beautiful sight. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image, and enjoy!

James :-)

'Hawg Heaven 2011

One of the USAF demonstration teams I was fortunate enough to see a few times this year was Capt. Joseph "Rifle" Shetterly and the A-10 Warthog West team. I saw their practice performance and both show performances at "Thunder Over the Valley" in Santa Maria, CA, and I saw both show performances and Heritage Flights at Nellis AFB's "Aviation Nation 2011". I took some time today to put a album together featuring my photos of Capt. Shetterly's demonstrations, the Heritage Flight at Nellis AFB, and a few static display shots of the venerable 'Hawg. Hope all you Warthog fans enjoy! As always, click on the thumbnail above to start browsing.

James :-)

Nellis AFB "Aviation Nation 2011"

Nellis AFB. "The Home of the Fighter Pilot" it's been called. Well, for one weekend in November, it's home to "Aviation Nation"...thousands of visitors being awed by everything from a B-25J Mitchell WWII-era bomber to a modern-day B-2 Stealth Bomber. Oh yeah, we had jets popping flares, a "Phabulous Phantom", and I think some demo team called Thunderbirds may have been there, too.

Anway, here's the pics, all 400+ of them, so sit back, relax, grab your favorite beverage, perhaps a bag of chips, click on the above thumbnail, and ENJOY!

James :-)

Tough times for air show lovers...

If you are an air show fan, you probably heard about the rotten news that came down the pipe from Air Combat Command on 01 Dec. 2011.  If you haven't, well, read it and weep:

ACC Statement on USAF single ship demo reduction starting in 2012

And thankfully, a petition has been started to urge Congress to reconsider this funding SNAFU, and bring the teams back.  Yes, admittedly it's a (very) long shot, but right now, folks, that's all we got:

Urge Congress to increase funding for military demo teams

This was a complete punch in the gut to folks like me in the world of aviation photography, to all those guys that served on those demo teams that made sure the aircraft was good to go on a daily basis for practices and shows, and to the pilots that flew the actual demos entertained many hundreds of thousands of people weekend in and weekend out from March to November. Like I said, the petition is a long shot, but let's not go quietly into the night on this one, folks...let's see what we can do about saving Viper West, Viper East, Warthog West, Warthog East, and Strike Eagle Demo.  SAVE OUR JET NOISE!

James :-)

PS...Nellis editing is still in progress...stay tuned ;-)