June 09, 2008

T-Bird Sunday

So as has been previously related, the weather around The Pond on Sunday was pretty miserable.  Until around 1230pm, there were thunderstorms and high winds which caused no end of havoc, which prevented the Duckford AirFest from doing anything at all.

But the storms blew away, and with a four hour window before the next ones were supposed to happen, AirFest threw the schedule out the window and went for broke: how many teams can we get in the air in a limited amount of time?

The answer was "most of them."  The Pond was alive with the roars of jet engines and the growls of prop planes for a good while, but the prevailing winds were such that none of the actual planes came anywhere near Pond Central.

330pm.  The Thunderbirds could be clearly heard taking off in the distance.  I couldn't take my usual position off in the field behind Pond Central, since there were small rivers running through it, rivers that only form when it rains really hard, so I had to hope that I'd be able to get a pic or two from Pond Balcony.

Yup.

I had to adjust the contrast on this, but otherwise, it's as it came out of the camera.

Not bad, but I like this one better:

Different pass from them, same nice tight formation.  Less zoom, too. 

The Thunderbirds didn't come into view for the rest of the performance.  Drat.  Never saw the two solos, either.  Double-drat.  The diamond is amazing to see, holding that ridiculously tight formation as they blitz by at high speed, low altitude. 

Oh, and the Snowbirds?  They were at the Canadian Grand Prix.  Good reason not to be here!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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June 07, 2008

Thunderbirds Are GO!


Yes, this is the best I could do today...
Today was a weird weather day for the Duckford AirFest.  Sudden downpours, hot, muggy, and very windy played hob with the schedule.  Out of the shot, about ten or 15 miles in the direction of travel, was a VERY ugly looking storm front, which was headed towards The Pond at a good clip. 

In fact, it was such an ugly looking storm, that the Thunderbirds ended their (roughly hour-long) program after about 20 minutes.  Good thing, too: about five minutes after they landed, just as I made it back to Pond Central,  it became as night and the rain began to bucket down.

Even before that, though, I pretty much knew that I wasn't going to get any pictures as interesting as last year's.  The Thunderbirds' F-16 is smaller than the F/A-18 flown by the Blue Angels, seemed to be flying higher than last year's show, and the mostly white colorscheme did nothing to make them stand out against the low-ish clouds.  Hopefully Sunday will be a nicer day (the weather forecast doesn't look promising, though) and let me take some better pics.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:43 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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