A Weekend in the Metroplex-KAFW, KNFW, KLNC, KDFW (Image Heavy)

Hello All,

Time for another installment from me. This time I was back in Fort Worth for the long weekend, and decided to get some impressive amounts of shooting in before classes get too heavy. After a red-eye bus from Austin on Thursday night, I was set and raring to go at Alliance come Friday morning.

Sadly...the traffic wasn't so cooperative. Talk about a slow morning, but images were still to be had!

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And pretty much everything Bell Helicopter owned flew that morning

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This Canadian visitor was a nice surprise

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And the local FAA King Airs are always a nice treat

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Volga was loading their weekly cargo of 747 components

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This C-40 beat up the pattern for about 30 minutes, which was a pleasant diversion from the quiet morning

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The runway at the Naval Air Station in Ft Worth had been closed all August, prompting the Spads (our local F-16 reserve outfit) to relocate to Alliance. With the runway having opened Thursday afternoon, I got to see the final F-16s depart for home. By this time I had been joined by a good friend of mine who had traveled down from Chicago, Sadly the light was...poor. So pardon the bad shots of these 2.

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From here, we decided to try our luck at the just re-opened Naval Air Station...

...And boy am I glad we did. We swiftly caught the Spads vipers we had just seen leave Alliance, and then settled in while hoping for some F-35 action. We didn't have to wait long, although in 107+ weather, it sure felt long. People were so concerned for our health that they called 911 and had both paramedics and cops come check up on us to ensure we didn't need first aid (we were okay!)

Our first F-35, this C model carrying Edwards AFB Markings

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Followed by a pair of USMC B models

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And a KC-130

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And Lockheed's chase F-16D

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And a USAF A model (allowing my friend to catch all 3 models in the same day, having never before caught a single F-35-not bad!)

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And to conclude the day with a bit of luck. We left the NAS at 1655, and the Antonov was scheduled to leave Alliance at 1710. We arrived at Alliance at 1745, and she was just lining up on the runway. Sometimes lady luck just beams down...

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The next day was the annual Warbirds on parade event in Lancaster. It is a small affair, and not even really an airshow (no aerobatics) however the presence of Diamond Lil was enough to entice me to go, as did the promise of seeing the Cold War Air Museum's collection.

CWAM has an awesome set of aircraft, including this ex-Bulgarian MiG-21UM

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The MiG-23 fired up and taxied for the crowd

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As did some other warbirds

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The star of the warbirds in attendance, Diamond Lil!

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Lastly, CWAM's Mi-24D took to the sky for a few quick passes to close out the day. What a beast of a helicopter!

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All in all, not a bad little event!

And the weekend was closed out today with an oh-so-brief trip to DFW to settle a 3+ year hunt for a certain AA Retro jet that has eluded me on countless occasions. Although a pattern reversal 20 minutes before she arrived robbed me of my arrival shots, I did finally succeed in catching the Astrojet as she departed from 36R at DFW, an excellent and fitting end to a great weekend.

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Thanks for checking 'em out, and hope you enjoyed.

Cheers!

Nick

Nick .... great set and sweet images of the F-35!

Agreed! Nick those F-35's look awesome, and pity the poor light you had on those F-16's :P

Wow! Excellent work as always!! The light on the F-16s wasn't THAT horrible, but who cares?! You got all three variants of F-35!! I'll take an F-35 shot over an F-16 any day of the week!

Some stunning shots there Nick!

Thanks guys! The F-35s were a pleasant surprise. With the runway having been scheduled to be closed through today, I wasn't confident that Lockheed would be prepared to do any flying when it suddenly came available just before the holiday weekend.

As for the light on the F-16s...what can I say, I am a bit picky about light....

That Mi-24D is the A380 of helicopters. How the hell does it get off the ground!?

Bernoulli's principle, physical principle formulated by Daniel Bernoulli that states that as the speed of a moving fluid (liquid or gas) increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. The phenomenon described by Bernoulli's principle has many practical applications; it is employed in the carburetor and the atomizer, in which air is the moving fluid, and in the aspirator, in which water is the moving fluid. In the first two devices air moving through a tube passes through a constriction, which causes an increase in speed and a corresponding reduction in pressure. As a result, liquid is forced up into the air stream (through a narrow tube that leads from the body of the liquid to the constriction) by the greater atmospheric pressure on the surface of the liquid. In the aspirator air is drawn into a stream of water as the water flows through a constriction. Bernoulli's principle can be explained in terms of the law of conservation of energy (see conservation laws, in physics). As a fluid moves from a wider pipe into a narrower pipe or a constriction, a corresponding volume must move a greater distance forward in the narrower pipe and thus have a greater speed. At the same time, the work done by corresponding volumes in the wider and narrower pipes will be expressed by the product of the pressure and the volume. Since the speed is greater in the narrower pipe, the kinetic energy of that volume is greater. Then, by the law of conservation of energy, this increase in kinetic energy must be balanced by a decrease in the pressure-volume product, or, since the volumes are equal, by a decrease in pressure.

Lol Kenny

Jason-very loudly!

Wunala-that's just plain funny!

Kenny why you don't have your own TV show by this point is mindboggling to me. TV would actually be tolerable...


Damn you, Nick! A Flogger AND a Hind?!?! Excellent shots. And congrats, I see you beat me to the AA Retro, which seems to keep eluding me.


Also, my Dad would have loved your shots of the Liberator. Great job.

Lol William, Jackass and Impractical Jokers has been created already but I do plan on doing a YouTube channel dressed as Ben Franklin and doing spoken word to gangsta rap songs. Ill let you know when that's up.

Nick as always, just amazing AMAZING stuff. Keep 'em coming!

Those F-35s are sick!!!

Thank you William, Kenny, Sergio. Some of y'all need to make a pilgrimage out here to TX at some point to experience the goodness that is DFW, IAH, NFW etc...

I might even be able to promise F-35s and foreign F-16s (still bummed I didn't catch one on Friday).

Nick

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Originally Posted by NickPeterman

Thank you William, Kenny, Sergio. Some of y'all need to make a pilgrimage out here to TX at some point to experience the goodness that is DFW, IAH, NFW etc...

I might even be able to promise F-35s and foreign F-16s (still bummed I didn't catch one on Friday).

Nick

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It's certainly on my list. Possibly in the early spring.

Keep me posted, Steve. There is a good likelihood that I would be out of the country, but I can certainly give you a step by step idea of where and when to hit certain airfields in the area.

Nick, great set of shots you posted! Really like those F-35s and the Mig 23. I'm hoping to catch my first F-35 later this year.

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Originally Posted by NickPeterman

Keep me posted, Steve. There is a good likelihood that I would be out of the country, but I can certainly give you a step by step idea of where and when to hit certain airfields in the area.

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Will do. I certainly appreciate the guidance.

Very nice stuff Nick, quite the light, luck, and traffic showing up in that set.

Kenny... can you come teach in our Aero department? At least I can understand your brand of English haha

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Originally Posted by NickPeterman

Some of y'all need to make a pilgrimage out here to TX at some point to experience the goodness that is DFW, IAH, NFW etc...

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Don't forget SAT!:tongue: http://youtu.be/fORanvyliYE
Excellent photos as always Nick!!

that's what I'd call a productive weekend! nice!

btw, am I the only one who things the MURICA!!!!!!Flag on the Liberator looks ridiculous?

Thanks again, guys!

RWB-I'd love to hit SAT, I just have no earthly idea where to go...

Greg, where are you going F-35 hunting? Nellis, Yuma?

Skyteam-I wholeheartedly agree with you. I wish they had gone with the Diamond Lil artwork on both sides...or something. If it was authentic, I guess I could live with it, but still is a bit in your face.