chuck540z3 Posted November 9, 2022 Share Posted November 9, 2022 (edited) I was fortunate enough to attend the Nellis AFB Air show near Vegas for the 10th time this past weekend, which was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, especially since I love fighter jets. Since just about every American fighter jet model lives there, you’re sure to get the sweet smell of burned kerosene and loud noise all day long. One small disappointment is that there were almost no WWII Warbirds like there usually is, other than a P-51D Mustang. As a result, 90% of my pics are of jets and hardly any props. I took about 2,000 pics, deleted most of them as usual and wound up with about 325 which were good enough to keep. Here are a few of them. One of the reasons I attended this show was to see if I could get some reference pics for my next build, of a Block 32 F-16 Aggressor in the new “Ghost” scheme. Not only was this jet there, but there were two of them, one on the tarmac (86-299)… And my subject (84-220) in the air! This should be a great reference for painting the bottom. It even had an F-22 chasing its tail during a mock war game sequence The Navy usually sends an F-18 Super Hornet, but this year there were 3 of them, with 2 F-18G Growlers And an F-18F CAG bird There were several F-35A’s that flew, including this demo jet flown by Major Kristin “BEO” Wolfe, of Hill AFB, Utah. Not her jet, but I include this pic because there is no mistaking that Nellis is a working AFB, with about a dozen F-16’s parked in the background. Back to Kristin, who put on a terrific show Pretty good water vapor on a tight turn, considering the dry desert air Shortly after the F-35A demo, came the always super popular “Heritage Flight” of the F-35A, F-22 and P-51D Mustang The F-22 demo pilot was Major Joshua “CABO” Gunderson of Langley AFB, Virginia. It turned out that this was his last airshow as the F-22 pilot, so he was looking maybe a little sad as he taxied down the runway. As always, the F-22 demo was awesome. Since it was his last demo, Major Gunderson was soaked with lots of water from water bottles and a few fire extinguishers as he left the cockpit. After about 5 minutes of fun, the F-22 team posed for an official AF pic, which I took as well There were lots of other acts of course, including this jet powered fire truck called “Shock Wave”. Sadly, the other Shock Wave truck crashed and killed the driver only last July, so this act can be quite dangerous. Although a bit gimmicky, I thought the fire truck was absolutely awesome, especially when it drove next to the spectators and let the Rolls Royce jet engines fly. T-33’s are usually there, which are so beautiful in the air. As always, the last act at Nellis was the Thunderbirds, where they are based. Here’s a few random shots, although I’ve got about 75 more! For you photography buffs that might want to know, I used a Nikon Z-7 II camera and a Z 100-400 4.5/5.6 VR lens, which is a bit short for airshows and not as good as a 500mm+ prime lens. However, I have trouble finding the aircraft in my viewfinder at 200mm as it is, so this lens works for me and with 46 MP, most of these pics were cropped a bit, but still showed decent resolution. Unfortunately, the airstrip is almost North/South and you stand on the West side, facing East and the bright sun for most of the day. To compensate for this high contrast situation, I usually boost the exposure by about 1.7 stops so that the aircraft stand out from the sky a bit more. For focus, I used Dynamic Area Autofocus and AF-C, which with this camera combination, seemed to grab the jets out of the sky fairly easily. Shutter speeds were a bit high at 1/1,600- 2,000/sec for obvious reasons, but with the bright sky, this kept the aperture close to f5 while ISO was usually less than 200 and sometimes as low as 64. Hope that helps- and I'm still learning! Cheers, Chuck Edited November 10, 2022 by chuck540z3 blackbetty, Fanes, daveculp and 19 others 20 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldbaldguy Posted November 9, 2022 Share Posted November 9, 2022 Not fair! It should not be legal for one guy to be able to build the models you do AND take photos as great as these! And the Thunderbirds are sporting panel lines! Never would have believed it. The paint job on your Viper gives me a headache, however. chuck540z3 and daveculp 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveculp Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Thanks for posting these amazing photos. I've been waiting 3 years to attend this show, then on the day before I came down with a nasty bug. At least I get to attend virtually now, which in some ways is even better since my eyes aren't as good as a high-end camera. (Also, this way my feet don't hurt and I'm not sunburned.) chuck540z3 and LSP_K2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockie Yarwood Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Wonderful photos Chuck, thanks for sharing them! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Excellent photography Chuck, thanks for posting them here. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted November 10, 2022 Author Share Posted November 10, 2022 4 hours ago, MARU5137 said: (is that an ordinary Airliner in the skies behind the Thunderbird in the penultimate photo you took Chuck?mighty cool ). Post other 75 if you have time , ...Will love to see them.. Thank you muchly. I Appreciate it. Thanks Maru and yes, that’s a civilian airliner in the background. I really didn’t notice it until I downloaded that pic, but the military and civilian aircraft stay quite far apart all the time for obvious reasons. As for the other 75 pics, I’m now out of town for 2 weeks, so I might post a few more when I return. Cheers, Chuck Oldbaldguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Rademaker Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Terrific pictures, thanks for sharing them. Jim chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael931080 Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Great pics Chuck! One day...........................it's on the bucket list! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 (edited) What I wouldn't have given to be there for that show. F-35A. Your pictures as sublime as your builds Chuck! Sure like that pilot ("BEO")! But man - USAF says it is meant to replace "aging" F-16's, and also A-10's. I don't know much about the Air Force's overall strategy, but how can a jet with a thrust-to-weight ratio of around 60% - 70%, and no Gatling gun, replace the better than 100% TW ratio F-16, and the incredible air-to-ground fire power of the A-10? How much of the F-35's new-fangled systems are retrofittable onto F-16's and A-10's? Outside of stealth, what has it got that I don't realize? BTW - no VTOL capability. I do recognize that both airframes are quite old, so "age" is indeed a factor. Edited November 10, 2022 by JayW chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-10LOADER Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Nice stuff Chuck, thanks for sharing. Nellis never disappoints. When we would go TDY there on my days off I'd walk the flightline and shoot whatever I could. Needless to say, I went thru A LOT of Kodachrome slide film. Steve chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-10LOADER Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 The F-35 may be the next in line but, will NEVER replace the A-10 or what it is capable of period. Steve chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 right click...save, right click...save, right click...save....I'm getting a cramp.... Great pictures Chuck! We were supposed to send a HC-130J out for that but it had a grounding maintenance problem and didn't make it. Cheers...Ron chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveculp Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Chuck, was the Vegas Strong F-15 on static display this year? -- Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted November 10, 2022 Author Share Posted November 10, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, daveculp said: Chuck, was the Vegas Strong F-15 on static display this year? -- Dave No Dave, it wasn’t. My guess is that it’s a tired old F-15A that has probably been put out to pasture. Cheers, Chuck Edited November 11, 2022 by chuck540z3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadBaron Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 Fantastic shots! Thanks for sharing them! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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