A few Pics from Aviation Nation 2019

[chuck540z3]

I attended the now bi-annual “Aviation Nation” air show at Nellis AFB this past weekend and as usual, took some pics.  Unlike past years, however, I didn’t take my big camera and long telephoto lens, because it’s such a pain to lug around due to its bulk and weight.  This year I brought my new Nikon Z-7 mirrorless camera with a very pedestrian 24-70mm zoom lens, hoping that the high resolution of 46 MP would allow me to crop each photo and still have a decent pic of the aircraft.  Although not as good as what a good prime telephoto lens would take, they turned out pretty good.  Here’s an example of an F-35 and F-86 flying together.  Kind of hard to see at only 70 mm….

 

 

 

Cropped using only about 10% of the image, it’s not bad…..

 

 

 

 

So with that introduction (and excuse), here’s some more, all cropped from much larger images.

 

 

 

 

T-28

 

 

 

This beautiful P-51D did a spectacular demonstration, but I was too busy with my camera taking pics of static displays.  If you ever wanted to build a super clean Mustang, this would be a great subject.

 

 

 

 

C-17 Globemaster III and KC-135 Stratotanker

 

 

 

 

F-22

 

 

 

 

The best part of this show is the so-called Combined Arms Demo, which had 4 F-16 Aggressors, 2 F-15E’s, 2 F-35’s and 2 A-10C’s in the air at once, buzzing all over the place with high speed passes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all sorts of ground explosions, they created some very nice smoke rings for the F-35 to fly through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One very interesting Viper Aggressor is painted in a similar black and red scheme to the Navy F-5N I just completed.  In this case, the finish is flat black and not gloss black.

 

 

 

 

Another Viper in a digital camo scheme I’ve never seen before.  I might need to build this one someday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This F-15A was painted in this wild scheme after the October 1, 2017 massacre.  I’m not sure it can still fly, but it appeared to be operational when viewed close up.

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited November 19, 2019 by chuck540z3

[Shoggz]

Brilliant pictures - thanks for sharing.

 

Those smoke rings are insane!

[markiii]

Damn, I missed another one. Anyway, nice pics Chuck and you should do the digital  Viper.

[Eagle Driver]

Both days there. Fantastic experience. Even got F's are my Fav's a little gift.

Sabre was freakin' awesome.

Spent some time around L-23 and spoke with the guy there. That thing gave me my wings 23 years ago.

Next time will bring a folding chair though.

[Dany Boy]

Very nice photos

[Kagemusha]

Great scenery, and blue skies!