TASPics

Thunder Over Louisville 2009 Fireworks

2009-07-09T11:40:00.001-04:00

The airshow itself was great, but you haven't seen fireworks until you've seen them at Louisville. They have the largest fireworks display in North America. It is quite a sight. Unfortunately; other fireworks displays just aren't as impressive anymore.

Here's a few photos from the evening.

The rest of the photos can be viewed here.

Thunder Over Louisville 2009 Fireworks

Thunder Over Louisville 2009

2009-07-08T23:43:00.001-04:00

This airshow was April 18th and was, so far, the best I've seen. While there was no USN Blue Angels or USAF Thunderbirds, it did have the F-22 Raptor. This was my second time seeing the F-22. My first was in Dayton last year. It is truly an amazing aircraft. It can do things other planes cannot and it has stealth technology. The most impressive thing about it is they don't have a dedicated plane. Every F-22 used in a demo is a full-combat ready plane. They take one from the nearest base that houses them. Unfortunately, this plane is nearly on the chopping block. I'm not going to get into politics here, so I'll leave it at that.

We left at 4am and arrived in Louisville at 12pm. I had already been up for 24hrs straight (my work schedule didn't allow me to sleep before we left). We went straight to the river to watch practice. It started with 4 Apache's and 2 Chinooks. The pilot of the Apache with the tiger mouth decided to show a little for us since we were the only ones there. He kept moving toward us until he was so close, the rotor wash was blowing water on us. It was pretty awesome.

This was our first time here and it has now become a must go to every year show.

Here is the list of performers:

Kentucky Air National Guard Special Tactical Parachute Team

Lima Lima Flight Team

L-39 Albatross

Red Bull BO-105

Mike Wiskus & the Lucas Oil Pitts

F-15 Eagle Four Ship Fly-by

F-16 Viper

F-18 Hornet

C-130 Hercules

B-52 Stratofortress

B-1 Lancer

A-10 Warthog

F-22 Raptor

USAF Heritage Flight: P-51, F-22, F-16, F-4

P-51 Mustang

F-4 Phantom II

Miss Geico Racing Team

CH-46 Sea Knight

AH-64D Apache Longbow

CH-47 Chinook

KC-10 Extender

T-38 Talon

German Luftwaffe Tornado

AC-130 Spectre

MV-22 Osprey

I had almost forgot about adding the random photo that is completely unrelated to the airshow.

A Mallard duck in the river.

All the photo's from the airshow can be found here.

Thunder Over Louisville 2009

I'm Way Behind On Updating

2009-07-08T10:37:00.001-04:00

...I take too many photos and have been working way to much lately to keep this currently updated. I still have Louisville, USAF Museum, and Wright-Patterson AFB Military Tattoo posts to do. I hope to get these done in the next week and half. All of the photos are processed now except for about half of the Military Tattoo photos. Then there will be another lapse after two airshows July 18 & 19.

Cleveland National Air Show 2008

2009-06-13T02:03:00.001-04:00

Saturday, August 30th, I made the trip over to Cleveland to watch the air show. This year was much better than last year. I believe the US Navy Blue Angels are what pushed it over the top. Last year, the USAF Thunderbirds performed. I thought they were great. Now they are just good, the Blue Angels are great.

What I thought were just ordinary pictures, actually turned out to be great thanks to various backgrounds.

First off was a picture of a USMC Humvee. I was just taking a pic of the Humvee, after I got home I realized how nice the skyline of Cleveland looked in this pic.

The second picture is of the Blue Angels. I'm still learning how to photograph planes going several hundred miles per hour. I basically just click and pray. But this one has the sun in the background.

If you've never seen a C-5 in person, you cannot appreciate how enormous it is. While traveling to the airport, the tail was the first thing I seen.

I once again got distracted by the shiny objects. This one was a B-17G called "Yankee Lady"

Of course; I almost always find something completely unrelated to the air show that captures my attention.

A giant cow. Look at the back of the RV at the rear of the cow.

Complete with giant teats.

Now for a couple Blue Angels pics. The first pic is of Fat Albert. It's the Blue Angels maintenance plane that also does a demo.

I would like to post more, but I have to remember those who may have dial-up. So CLICK HERE and it will take you to the photo album where there is a whole lot more great pictures. I think there's about 420 pictures in the album

Vectren Dayton Air Show 2008

2009-06-07T03:06:00.001-04:00

I took about 300 pics at the show and my new camera is much better than my old one. It's nothing fancy. Just a Kodak Z812 IS. It's 8.1MP with a 12x optical zoom. It takes pictures and records video in HD. Pretty good for $249.

During the air show, they were offering Huey rides for $50. It was tax deductible so I assume it was going to some kind of good use. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground. However; my brother jumped on the chance. The thing about my brother is, while other kids were acting stupid and whatnot, he spent his time studying aircraft. It's his passion. For him, going to an air show is like going to the Playboy mansion. He can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about anything that flies.

But back to his Huey ride:

Everybody boarding

That's him in the white shirt in the gunner seat

And away they go.

This was his first flight of any kind. He said it was the best $50 he ever spent. I'm surprised he got out voluntarily, I was sure security would have to drag him out.

They were operating two Hueys at a time. I think each one carried 10 people. They ran these Hueys until after the show was over to ensure everyone who wanted a ride, got it. There was no shortage of people wanting rides, the line went on forever.

This was my favorite of all the aircraft:

It's a B-25. Everywhere they could put a gun, they did. I think the reason I liked it so much was because it was shiny. I tend to get distracted by shiny objects.

As I said before, the flight crew stayed in the same hotel, and ate breakfast at the table behind us.

Out off all the amazing things at the air show, this was definitely the best:

This Hummer is awesome just to look at, but there's more to why I like it so much

Take a look at what's in the trunk.

Flat screen HDTV, Xbox 360, & a sound system that bumps so hard it vibrates your nether-regions.

Of course; they had many souvenirs you could purchase, and I picked a up a few, but my favorite is my coconut cup. For $12 I got a coconut cup with a non-alcoholic lemon daiquiri. It was actually just frozen lemonade.

I have to take a moment and tell everyone about the hotel. We stayed in the Dayton Airport Hotel. We got a room with 2 queen beds for $79. The room wasn't spectacular, but it was nice. The most important thing was the people at the desk were very friendly. It made a great impression and should we decide to go to Dayton next year, we will definitely stay at that hotel. The restaurant in the hotel, Wilbur's Bar & Grille, served me the best bacon cheeseburger I've ever had. It was delicious and not some happy meal cheeseburger either, it was hefty.

I will post some pictures here and include a link at the bottom for the entire album. I will go right down the schedule.

First off was the flag drop by the Misty Blues all-woman skydiving team.

The Collaborators aerobatic demonstration

US Army AH-64D Apache Attack Helicopter

The B-25 "Panchito". The flight crew stayed in the same hotel as I did and sat at the table behind us during breakfast.

USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon

Ohio Air National Guard C-130H Hercules

F-104 Starfighters. These things were FAST. I was only able to get 3 pics of them, one of which turned out good.

Sean D. Tucker aerobatic demo

US Navy F-18 Super Hornet w/Corsair legacy flight

AeroShell aerobatic team

USAF C-17 Globemaster

USAF F-22 Raptor

F-22, F-16, P-51 Mustang heritage flight

Video of the F-22

All the pics, including aerial demos and static aircraft

2008 Dayton Air Show

Cleveland National Air Show 2007

2009-06-07T02:49:00.001-04:00

This was my first airshow and I was impressed. I took 129 pics of the event. I'm not a photographer, nor do I have a great camera. The zoom doesn't work well and I had to clean up the pictures with PaintShopPro to remove most of the "noise". I've never taken a picture where I had to follow something going nearly the speed of sound.

2007 Cleveland Air Show

Just click the above pic and it will take you to the picassa web album where you can see all the pics.

Highlights of the day:

To open the show, the Coast Guard did a mock rescue. They are incredibly fast. I think it took all of a minute to rescue the "stranded boater".

The Oracle father-son stunt team had a really close encounter. Everyone gasped at how close they were.

One of the Army Golden Knights parachute team nearly flipped over. His parachute nearly collapsed and you could see him trying to make an adjustment by pulling HARD on the other side to flip him back.

The C-17 cargo plane was pretty cool. You wouldn't think so, but it has reverse thrust engines and can land on a very short runway.

The F/A-18 almost broke the sound barrier. It had that moisture evaporation around the nose and wings right before it breaks the speed of sound. Of course, I missed that pic.

The Air National Guard stunt plane was really good. They had the cockpit hooked up to the speakers. He was talking normally until he would pull back the stick and head straight up. The G-forces made him strain to talk.

The Army Sky Soldiers Cobra team was good too. There's not a whole lot of stunts they can do, but it was still fun to watch.

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Words and pictures cannot even begin to describe how awesome they were. You have to actually see it in person.

It was such a great day, I'm already looking forward to next year.

2009 Schedule

2009-05-29T01:08:00.001-04:00

***I had written this previously on a different blog and copied and pasted it here***

Now on to the schedule. Lucky for me, there seems to be no shortage of air shows within a 3hr drive. I may not make all of these, but I'm gonna try my hardest. Of course, finances play a huge role. The schedule below includes just the demonstrations. There are many aircraft that are static displays which you can walk through or look in to. I've also marked the shows with free admission with a " * "

April 18th-Thunder Over Louisville * (this is definite now. Already booked the hotel)

Not only is the F-22 Raptor scheduled to be there, but at the end of the show they have the largest fireworks display in the U.S. Also featuring the B-2 Stealth Bomber (I almost wet my pants when I seen this), F-18 Hornet, A-10.

May 15th-Night at the Museum * (National Museum of the United States Air Force)

This is a special event to coincide with the release of the new Night at the Museum movie.

June 5-7 Indianapolis Air Show (had to drop this show, one too many hotel costs)

Featuring USN Blue Angels, A-10, AV-8B Harrier, & nice collection of WWII warbirds.

June 20-21 Wings Over Pittsburgh (911th AW Pittsburgh)* (this show was canceled due to lack of funding. Yeah, I know. Gov't can spend $300M to study field mice and $1B+ on frisbee golf courses, but can't support a military open house.)

Featuring USN Blue Angels & US Army Sky Soliders Cobra Demo Team

June 26 National Museum of the United States Air Force & Wright-Patterson AFB Tattoo *

The museum contains the history of the USAF and some aircraft there are the only ones in existence. The Tattoo has live bands, including the USAF band, fly-overs of aircraft that I'm not going to see at air shows and small demos. It finishes off with a $100,000 fireworks display.

July 18th-Thunder Over Michigan (this is definite since I already bought the tickets)

I've already bought my tickets for this show. Unfortunately; Dayton air show was the same weekend. ToM wins out big time. Featuring USN Blue Angels, gathering of C-130 Hercs, WWII re-enactment, Vietnam warbirds, and WWII warbirds. On a side note, if you would like to make sure our WWII aircraft are maintained and restored to preserve our aviation history, please consider donating to the Yankee Air Museum.

July 19th-Vectren Dayton Air Show (this is definite since I already bought the tickets)

I had changed my mind on this show. We decided to make the trip from Thunder Over Michigan show in Ypsilanti, MI to Dayton, OH. Featuring the USAF Thunderbirds & the Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron. Also featuring the A-10 Warthog, F-18 Super Hornet, Sean D. Tucker, Patty Wagstaff, U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute, Team, Tora, Tora, Tora Pearl Harbor Re-enactment, & C-17 Globemaster III Demo.

August 8-9 Thunder Over The Valley (910th AW Youngstown)* (definite, got tickets)

I believe this is the first air show here in 20yrs. Featuring USAF Thunderbirds, F-15 Demo, US Army Golden Knights parachute team, USAF Academy Parachute Team, & Air Force Reserve Jet Car. This show also has a good static line-up

August 22-23 Selfridge Air Show (127th Wing Michigan ANG)* (This show is almost a definite)

Featuring USAF Thunderbirds, F-15 Strike Eagle, F-16 Viper, F-18 Super Hornet, A-10 Thunderbolt, KC-135 Strato Tanker, CH-47 Chinook, UH-60 Blackhawk, Mig-17, B-25, C-47, F-104 Starfighters, & Tora! Tora! Tora! Pearl Harbor re-enactment.

August 29-30 Northwest Ohio Air Show (Toledo)

This is a small air show compared to the others I have planned. The only military aircraft appearing may be the F-16s from the ANG base near by. Other notables, US Army Sky Soldiers & Misty Blues all woman parachute team. Recently added Red Star & Dragon. Seen them at Cleveland '08, really good performance.

September 5-7 Cleveland National Air Show (This show is a definite since I've already bought the tickets.)

Already bought my tickets for this show too. Featuring USAF Thunderbirds, AV-8B Harrier, F-18 Hornet, C-130 Herc, US Army Golden Knights parachute team, Wingwalking, B-17 Memphis Belle, & Shockwave Jet Truck,

October 17-18 NAS Oceana Air Show (website partially updated for 2009)*

Not much info has been released yet, but year in and year out, this is one of the best air shows in the world. I have no reason to believe 2009 will be any different.

So that concludes my 2009 schedule. Of course, it's still early and there may be additions and/or subtractions to each show.

Photos from my previous air shows can be found at picasaweb.google.com/taspics

My Camera

2009-05-29T00:24:00.001-04:00

I finally got the camera I've been wanting. Shopping during a recession definitely has its perks. I got $1300 worth of camera equipment for less than $1000. My new setup is a Sony a-300, 18-70mm & 75-300mm lens, 8GB Sandisk Extreme III compact flash cards, camera bag, extra battery, & tripod. When set in burst mode, the camera will take 3.5 pics per second. The high speed CF card allows me to pretty much shoot continuously in burst mode.

I don't have any pics of "my" camera, so I will post images of it I found on the internet.

First pic is of camera body and 18-70mm lens

Second pic is of the 75-300mm lens extended

Last pic is of the 75-300mm lens attached to camera body.

Shortly after I bought the camera, I decided to try out the zoom on the 75-300mm lens. A nearly full moon provided the perfect opportunity.

Hello, Welcome To My New Blog

2009-05-28T12:08:00.001-04:00

First, an introduction. My name is Tim. TASPics stands for Tim's Air Show Pics. My brother and I travel around Ohio and neighboring states to watch air shows. My brother is far more knowledgeable about the various military aircraft than I. He will probably be posting on here also.

I visited my first air show in 2007. It was the Cleveland National Air Show at Burke Lakefront Airport. I was hooked. In 2008 we attended the Vectren Dayton Air Show & Cleveland Air Show. This year, we have quite a few more that we are planning to attend. The 2009 schedule will be in a separate post.

My photos are of varying quality due to my cameras. In 2007, I used a Kodak C310. In 2008, I used a Kodak Z812 IS. For 2009, my new DSLR Sony a-300. It has a 18-75mm lens and 70-300mm lens.

My previous air show photos can be found via links in the right sidebar. Over the next few days I will create dedicated posts to each show.

So, that is all for now.