San Francisco Fleet Week

Today is the official start of Fleet Week in San Francisco. Yesterday was media day, and a practice for most of the scheduled demonstrations.

Here is a shot I took yesterday from the Golden Gate Yacht Club.


This is a movie my wife put together of last years San Francisco Fleet Week 2008. Potos and the movie clips were shot by me, but she put it together for here third grade class.

San Francisco Fleet Week October 2008 from Goldi Loxs on Vimeo.

VANDENBERG MINUTEMAN III LAUNCH

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile configured with a joint test assembly is scheduled to launch from North Vandenberg Monday between 3:01 a.m. to 9:01 a.m.

The launch is an operational test to determine the weapon system's reliability and accuracy.

The missile's three unarmed re-entry vehicles are expected to travel approximately 4,190 miles, hitting a pre-determined target near the Kwajalein Atoll.

The 576th Flight Test Squadron, which will direct the missile launch, installed tracking, telemetry and command destruct systems on the missile to collect data and meet safety requirements. Maintenance and operations task force personnel from the 91at Missile Wing, Minot AFB, ND are conducting operational tasks leading up to launch.

Col. David J. Buck, the 30th Space Wing commander, is the launch decision authority for this mission. Lt. Col. Lesa K. Toler, the 576th FLTS commander, is the mission director. A crew visiting from Minot AFB will launch the missile under the direction of the 576th FLTS.

This launch, the first of three in 2009, comes at a time of change within the missile world, as the Air Force moves closer to combining its nuclear missile and bomber assets into a fledgling Global Strike Command.

"The move to Global Strike Command means that we can re-build the way we do business from scratch," said Colonel Toler. "This is a great opportunity for us to write our future. We are already the best at what we do, but now we are currently looking at our processes to see how we can do our job faster and more efficiently."

The entire ICBM community, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, will use the data collected from this mission for continuing force development evaluation.

Here is a Google Earth image of what I think the Minuteman III flight path will be. The yellow pin is Vandenberg AFB Launch Complex. The white pin in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is the Kwajalein Atoll. The other whit pin will be my location on the San Clemente Pier. Hopefully i will be able to capture a nice early morning flight path image.

Click on the image to see a larger view.

B-17 & B-24 at Livermore Airport

Memorial Day Weekend at Livermore Airport gives you the ability to view history.

Here is the information if anyone is interested in coming out to see the vintage planes.

Vintage B17 and B24 bombers once again visit the Livermore airport. This year a P51 joins them. You can take pictures, walk through the bombers, and talk to the crew. Flights are also available for a $425 donation.

In recent years a number of other vintage aircraft, many from WWII, have also been on display.
See the eLivermore photos.

Sponsor: The Collins Foundation
Location: Livermore Airport
Times: Walk Through Tour times: Sunday: 12-4; Monday, 11-4, Tuesday, 10-4
Flight Experiences take place before and after the tours.
Admission: Walk Through Tour: Adults: $12.00; Children 12 & under: $6; Rides: $425 for 30 minute flight on B-17 or B-24.
More info: The Collings Foundation. For Rides Call - 978-562-9182

Lift Off...

Rebound, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

On the Strobist blog I read an article last week about how a reader uses several off camera speed lights to photograph the high speed movement of hummingbirds. In this process of using the off camera lighting he freezes the motion to almost eliminate the blur.

Now consider this a hummingbird will beat his wings from 15 to 200 per second. So you need a high shutter spend and High-speed sync with a strobe to stop the action.

Read more about it here at Strobist Blog., also link over to Pat Hunts Flickr Page and check out more of his work.

The post I read at Strobist blog and Pat’s work is what inspired my photo above of the Rufous Hummingbird, pulling up his landing gear just after take-off. Notice the ripples in the water from the downward air pressure of the wings beating.

I took this at the Coyote Hills Regional Park Nectar Garden. It was the only place I could think of that had a regular visitation of hummingbirds. I went back two days in a row to get this image. As Ms. Brezden used to say “Patience is a virtue in which great things happen”. I know she is did coin it, but man she used to tell me that everyday.

My image was taken with ambient light. I pumped up my ISO to 800 used my 300mm prime lens set wide open at f/4 and shutter speed at 1/2500 of a second. I set my camera on my tripod, and just waited for my quarry to come to me.

In the garden they have three water fountains, bird baths that the hummingbirds like to drink at. The walkway converges right in the middle of these fountains. All I had to do is wait. It wasn’t long and I could hear the familiar, but distinctive click or chirp that they make. I would hear them buzz around behind me. As they would get close to the birdbath I would slowly put my eye to the view finder and slightly adjust the camera to where they might be next.

Hummingbirds can be very skittish. Plus they have a great need not to stay in one place for more then they have too.

Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

Fleet Week is over and all the planes have gone. I walked to Pier 41 on Friday. Not the best vantage point to shoot the air show, but it was better then nothing. I took photographs from the Marina Green last year. Pier 41 gave me a different look at the planes.

Sunday was the fun day. I got up early and got to my secret spot by 11:15 AM. At 2:30 PM my secret spot wasn't very secret anymore. This spot puts me right under center stage and in front of the crowds.

The above image was taken on Friday October 10, 2008 at Pier 41. This was media day and practice for the Air show. Blue Angels flights 1 thru 4, however flight 4 has been replaced by flight 7. Blue Angel #7 is the two seater F/A-18. If you look carefully you will notice someone in the RIO position (Radar-Intercept Officer). This seat is usually set aside for media or dignitaries that get the rare privilege to fly with these amazing machines.

I only have one question. When’s my turn?

The Blue Angels from Joe Bloggs on Vimeo.

Transonic...

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

Today is the last official day of Fleet Week in San Francisco. The planes are all gone, and are in route to their next shows. Most of them will be heading to the Miramar M.C.A.S. show in San Diego. The Blue Angels are heading to Hawaii for their next air show.

This was the first time I attended the Fleet Week Air Show in San Francisco. We purchased reserved seats to view all the flight demonstrations. Even though the stage was very scenic, our seats were located across for the Marina’s outer jetty. The jetty blocked our view from some of the low flying acrobats.

On Sunday I returned alone to take some more pictures. This time I walked out onto the Jetty and set up camp just in front of where we were sitting the previous day. This proved to be a much better location. Especially if you are trying to capture a low level high speed pass by a Blue Angels solo pilot as he edges his aircraft just past the sound barrier envelope at 751 knots also know as transonic speed mach 0.8~1.2.

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007