AFW | October 2009 | Fort Worth Alliance Air Show | Mo' Blues.....

The diamond formation in echelon formation pass from behind the crowd over show center for their next maneuver.

I think this one is called the Delta Break where the diamond formation each break a different direction with the slot, Blue Angel 4, remaining level. If you look closely you can see forming vortex condensation clouds over the LERXs of the aircraft that are in the break.

Say hi to the Boss (Blue Angel 1) as he blasts over the crowd.......

Here the diamond while in echelon formation starts the Tuck Under Break- each team member starting with the Boss breaks right into a 360 degree roll that brings them under the flightpath of the aircraft next in the sequence.

The entire team in the delta formation performing the Delta Roll. This maneuver is the most difficult for the outermost members of the team who are having to make the most adjustments in thrust, roll, and pitch to maintain the tight formation during the roll. 

Not the best shot of what I got that day but for some reason the way this one came out really catches my eye. This is Delta Loop Break- the whole team starts out in delta formation, passes across the show center into a loop. As they pass the top of the loop and are vertically pointed straight down, the entire team breaks simultaneously in different directions. When the Boss calls the break, the Slot (Blue Angel 4) has to execute a quick 180 degree roll before making its break. You can tell from the picture which plane is the Slot from the twist in its smoke trail.

Last of the Blues before I move onto the other aircraft:

One of my sharpest shots of the Blues, here's the Slot (Blue Angel 4) rocketing over the crowd to reposition with the diamond behind the crowd line.

Last one of the Blues in the air, this is the final Break-to-Land. Blue Angels 6 is out of the field of view to the left flying next to Blue Angel 5 (they're the two solos) and Blue Angel 4 (the Slot) has made it's break to hand. Interestingly they all landed with a tail wind- they took off from 34R at the start of the show but landing on 16L and I didn't appreciate that big of a change in the winds during the show.

AFW | October 2009 | Fort Worth Alliance Air Show

Diamond 360 pass, here they are only 18 inches apart while in diamond formation. It was tough to get a good shot with the bright sky and sun in the background without losing the details of the F/A-18 Hornets in the shade.

I think this maneuver is called the Echelon Parade. Again, bright sky and sun behind them...arrrrghhhhh......

 This time Blue Angel 5 joins the diamond for the Line Abreast Loop. This is the group as they pull out of the loop. This is supposed to be one of the more difficult maneuvers to do as they all have to maintain precise formation together while in a loop but in a strict line abreast position.

AFW | October 2009 | Fort Worth Alliance Air Show

Just a small preview, I shot about a gig worth of pics at Alliance today and have some serious sorting to do:

Downside, the sun in the afternoon by the time the Blues have the airspace is in your face. Damns if that doesn't make you try every damn shutter and aperture setting on your camera. This was the first time I shot full manual all day and I promised myself this AM I'd do it instead of shutter or aperture priority. And it was good, some shots I wished had come out better but now at least I have a better idea of some of the tweaks I have to make to adjust for certain lighting conditions.

We got to AFW about 1230pm and holy shit, this is the biggest turnout I've seen yet at this show. Damn near walked a mile to get from the family truckster to the show vantage point.

The static was good, some stuff I hadn't seen yet and some perennial favorites. Only a few aircraft were roped off, nearly all of them you could go up to and fondle, caress and grope. And oh did I. Some of the stuff there that I can recall:

T-39 Sabreliner (USN)
2 MV-22 Ospreys (I'd seen the USAF SOCOM ones up close, this was the first time go inside a USMC machine)
T-45 Goshawk (USN)
T-44 Pegasus (USN)
T-38 Talon (USAF)
T-1A Jayhawk (USAF)
E-3C Block 30/35 Sentry (very cool to a Block 30/35 for the first time)
B-52H (Barksdale bird)
KC-135R (Altus bird)
C-130H (Texas ANG)
KC-130 (USMC)
F/A-18E/F ("Pukin Dogs")
RC-12D Guardrail (my first time get to fondle one up close)
A-10 Warthogs
2 F-16s from the 144th FW California ANG, one of them was the new boss bird with the black tail. Very cool.
1 F-16 from the AFRC at Carswell
1 F-16 with the Royal Netherlands AF (very cool to have that on static)
Lots of helos- Bell Helicopter's customer flight instruction center is at AFW, so they had all of their stuff out for display. There were SH-60 Seahawk as well as the UH-60 Blackhawk and the CH-47 Chinook as well. They even had the engine and transmission covers open on the Blackhawk.
American Eagle ERJ-145
American 777-200ER
American DC-3 Flagship Detroit (parked next to the 777, what a contrast)
There was a privately owned T-38 in 1970s USAF Thunderbird colors, that was cool to see!
3 CAP birds to tickle Chuck's fancy (2 172s and the Gippsland)
Diamond DA20
Cessna 421
ATP had one of the Seminoles there
Ted Smith Aerostar
C-7A Caribou
P-3 Orion

The flying demos that I saw included the A-10, F/A-18E Super Hornet, F-16, F4F Wildcat, T-28 Trojan, OV-1 Mohawk (super cool to see that one flying as a warbird), A-1 Skyraider, C-17 (The way they hauled this fat bitch around was impressive). Sean D Tucker flew, that was neat to see him throw that biplane all over the sky. There were some other demos to, I think it was a Bonanza doing aerobatics. And that damn jet truck, Shockwave. Ugh.

I had my Pro-43 programmed to the Blues frequencies and it was damn sweet to hear all that stuff. It quite literally does sound like singing as the Boss (Blue Angel 1) cues the team "Uuuuup....weeeee......goooooo, more powerrrrrr...........and smoke........"

When one is to geek out, one should geek out 100%. Scanner with the Blues, telephoto lens, check. It was funny hearing Alliance Tower say stuff like "Negative Charlie Bravo Niner-Two, the Blue Angels have the airspace and you'll either have to hold outside the airspace or divert."

Then you'd hear "Blue Angels, Alliance Tower, the airspace is yours" followed by "Alliance Tower, the Blue Angels have the airspace!"

Stay tuned, more pics to appear in this blog as I get through them. As well as more shots from September and October from DFW and DAL!