You got some ‘splaining to do!
Prolly one of those telescopic-lens-safer-than-it-looked kinds of things.
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Notice the editor didn’t even catch the erroneous reference to an “F-15″ in the text. Looks like fun though……..
“Prolly one of those telescopic-lens-safer-than-it-looked kinds of things.”
I was thinking one of those hot-chicks-sunbathing-on-the-porch things.
Yeah, guy,magnify the back-seater and see if he has his 35mm out doing the photo recce thing.
….and the best part, they were legal doing it!!
Now that is so cool.
So, how come they never fly by my house that way?
Michelle, lay out in the yard in a string bikini – they’ll come…
When I first saw the picture I thought it was taken from the Coronado Shores just south of the Del except the angles looked kinda funky.
As temporary residents of the Shores the wife and I get an almost daily air show but nothing so much as a Hornets-in-the-break view like that.
Of course I was 600 miles away at drill…but I will be home for the Blues this weekend!
THOSE are the flights you miss when you hang up the zoom bag. Telling the kids things like “oh you should have seen us over Timbuktu in 72″ pale in comparison when you can show ‘em a photo like this! “Son, I’m telling ya the gals loved it- we musta been flashed 10-20 times!”.
Of course all former squadron MOs immediately noticed the brand new all-the-same-color paint scheme. I’m sure the new ones age differently than the old ones. Yeah, that’s it.
Forgive me, but I’m thinkin’ P-Shop here. But a good P-Shop.
Gee, I don’t remember ever doing that. Ever. Airshow or no airshow. Ever. Of course there are a few choice West Coast VR Routes…(and Lex knows the ones I’m talkin’ about…) That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
VR,
Comjam
Comjam, this is definitely a possibility during a beach or oceanfront TACDEMO. The photo passes contained in the demo are done with a 45 degree entry to show center from right to left or vice versa to arc around the defined crowd area contained in the FAA waiver. The Rhino demo is authorized 200′ AGL for this maneuver so given the camera angle and not knowing where the 45 degree line was for this show, it’s very possible that the crew was well within the confines of their maneuvering area. I have flown the TACDEMO(F/A-18C) in Atlantic City and dealt with the same building issues there.
bdgerjmn:
Sorry dude, should have enabled the “smirking grin” logo. Seen the demo, knew it was legit, I was jus’ funnin’. Just thinking about a few other “demo’s” I’d done a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
VR,
Comjam
Something tells that the guy on the balcony did a nasty in his skivvies about 3 seconds after the photo was snapped…
Got buzzed once on C-139 from Lone Pine to Panamint Springs. Early in the morning and I was on my Harley. He snuck up on me from the west. He was really low! Maybe 20 to 25 feet. I was hit by noise so loud I thought I had been killed but my mind didn’t yet know it. The smell of kerosene and blue flames out the back. Down the road a bit he stood it on it’s tail and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. I kept control of the bike, got my heart rate back down to “really fast” and continued on to breakfast. He sure was having a good time. Lucky bastard. Wish I could do that once before I die.
Photoshopped, suckers!
Look at the shadows on the aft of the plant and compare them with the shadows under the balconies. Much different in lighting directivity. There were more clouds for the balcony shot so the shadows are much fuzzier.
Plus a floor is about 10 feet so the wingspan has to be several times 40 feet (four floors) or else it is VERY close.
It looks real to me.
Look at the compressed perspective between the plant/tree in the lower left, the apartment building and the Hornet. They’re practically on top of each other. That’s what a telephoto lens does, it compresses perspective and reduces perceived distances between objects in the fore and background. With that, the actual distance between them is likely greater and can explain why the building has fuzzy shadows and the Hornet has sharp shadows. Especially if there were broken clouds with the sun peeking through. Look at the light on both the Hornet and apartment building, it’s coming from the same direction.
Re: the tree in the floor above the guy on the balcony. That could easily be a tall plant inside that apartment.
If someone can get a hold of the actual image (likely digital), the meta data will say what the focal length of the lens was when the image was taken. My guess it was at least 400mm.
He couldn’t match the F15s for speed, although his average of 141mph for the five-lap final remained impressive.
We knew the Hornet couldn’t keep up with the F15, but who knew it would average only 141mph. C’mon, fastest to get slow and slowest to get fast somebody once said?
snickerObviously Tomcat-transition aircrew in that bird. Fighter Spirit, Baby!!!
The web page says it is in Detroit, but you know that is BS – there is a green tree in the picture!
The pict was taken in Detroit last week. For some unknown reason the hydroplane races have a hook up with the Oceana boys. They were here last year doin the same type of acrobatic flight demonstration . I work in the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and have had the pleasure of watching the practice runs during the week before the races the last couple of years.
Lex is exactly right, the plane looks a lot closer to the apt bldg than it actually was. They were breaking the 100 ft level in the practice sessions. Not quite low enough to see the effects on the surface of the river but a lot of fun to watch.
During the whole thing all I could think of was Lex’s anti-demonstration stance for regular squadrons (for change of commands and such). For all I know the pilot was an former Blue Angel and completely qualified to do the acrobatics (the good Lord knows they are out there – my CIO is one). But what kept running through my mind watching the practice session was that the jet was not painted blue and gold and how much flight time was being given for a publicity stunt during war time. It could be given to a JO in a more realistic scenario (Oh I don’t know maybe dropping some live ordinance or some such). Don’t get me wrong I loved watching the demo. But as a former grunt, who knows how I felt when the air cover come rolling in when it was suppose too, I couldn’t help but having mixed feelings.
As an aside – Nose there are some trees left in Detroit.
FMR_Grunt surely you were a JO once too right? My point in this response is that the Blues and TACDEMO program go to great lengths to ensure first and foremost, the public’s safety, the safety of the aircrew and airplane during a demonstration, and that they provide a Naval Aviation presence to parts of America that might not otherwise have access to these blue and gray jets. They do this so young men and women in the crowd can look up at that jet and say……man it sure would be cool to work on those things or even better fly them. It’s about recruiting and showing the public what Naval Aviation is all about. The crew that was flying that TACDEMO has spent countless hours in the simulator and in the jet training for this mission in addtion to being full time instructors training the youngest Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 aviators to support the troops on the ground and in the air. It isn’t as if the boss just gives the keys to the jet to two LT’s and says go have fun. The TACDEMO you saw is an approved, scripted, and rehearsed series of manuevers done each and every day in combat by those young(and old) aviators.
Every TACDEMO and air show that I flew, I and another pilot(and my maintenance team) spent the better part of 4 hours after each show talking to young kids/adults and answering questions about Naval Aviation. I can only hope that the performances and the display put on at each show by some of the best Enlisted personnel I have had the pleasure of working with had a positive impact on those kids and more importantly motivated them to join the USN/USMC team. It’s money well spent in my humble opinion, war or no war.
bdgerjmn- Hear! Hear! Lessee, the crew gets a chance to bag some hrs on cross ctry and the demo, the maintainers get a chance to escape the duty section rotation and hob knob with the crowd, the crowd sees very clearly that NAVAIR is so obviously superior to anything else flying, the city reaps the benefits of a crowd-thrilling performance, and of the young men and women that watch some small percentage will be tipped to our side. All positives in my book. For this crew it was one of those days when you climb in the jet and think “man I can’t believe they actually pay me to do this!”
Gman couldn’t agree more. I say that every time I strap into one of these airplanes still.
Yeah some of the test guys out at China Lake could get squirrly like that sometimes, but we didn’t really mind that much.