Warbirds Over Monroe; or: Yet another 'CMC at an air show' thread

<p>As you all know, today is Veterans Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, or whatever everyone's respective country may call it. In observation of that, this weekend the small airport in nearby Monroe, North Carolina hosted Warbirds Over Monroe, an air show of mainly Second World War vintage aircraft. This was the first air show I've attended for decades. I crammed into a small bag the Bronica S2 with 50/3.5 and 75/2.8 Nikkors; and the Pentax SV with 50/1.4 and 135/3.5 Super Taks. With full sun forecast, I brought mainly Pan F 50 and Delta 100. As we'll see, I screwed up packing my bag.</p><div></div>

<p>I arrived as the gates opened (and chose Sunday rather than Saturday) so as to shoot the parked planes before the crowds were ridiculous. But...and Rick N, you may be keen to see this...diverting me before I reached very many planes was this Signal Corps display. I chatted up a chap there and he said that they've got some of the equipment operational, some not. They seem a bit less fastidious about period accuracy than your groups in NL, but it was nevertheless quite an elaborate setup of wired and wireless kit.</p><div></div>

<p>More Signal Corps...</p><div></div>

<p>Then I was off to the planes in earnest.</p><div></div>

<p>F4U-4 Corsair</p><div></div>

<p>T-28 Trojan</p><div></div>

<p>(On that last one of the T-28, I held the Bronnie upside-down over my head to get a higher vantage point. Rather heavy that thing...)<br>

The stars of the show were surely the several P-51 Mustangs. (Those of you better versed can evaluate which exact models these are.) These are beautiful planes.</p><div></div>

<p>Wing guns</p><div></div>

<p>Pre-flight preparation is not a sexy process, contrary to what the movies show. Glass cleaner + a rag...</p><div></div>

<p>The most impressive plane out there was probably the B-25. A bomber, yes, but bristling with guns for self-defense (2 in the nose, 2 in the tail, 1 each side).</p><div></div>

<p>Interesting firing angle here...</p><div></div>

<p>There was an AT-11 bomber/trainer sporting the Dutch flag. Apparently the NL Navy ordered these but could not collect them before being overrun, so they were used to train free Dutch flyers in the USA. More <a href="http://www.warbirddepot.com/aircraft_trainers_at11-allen.asp">here</a>...</p><div></div>

<p>This show actually had a mix of aerobatic events, simple fly-bys of historical planes, and a few overproduced sequences with "bombs" "exploding" (pyrotechnics lit on the far side of the airfield as the B-25 passed). I switched to the Pentax and 135 mm lens for these, and had shot mostly the aerobats when my film unexpectedly stopped at 24 (oops, this isn't a roll of 36), and I then found that I had brought only that one roll of 35 mm. Must've been tipsy when I packed the night before. Argh!!</p><div></div>

<p>I had nothing left but a roll of TMax 400 for the Bronica, but no long lens for it, so I valiantly bolted on the 75 mm and tried to shoot moving planes with that rig. A bit of a fool's errand really.</p>

<p>That's all folks.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks for sharing Dave! Yes, running out of film is annoying. So if forgetting the flash for your Canon A-1 for your daughter's tenth birthday party. Fortunately I was only ten minutes away from home so I recovered fast enough. Gah! My memory will be the death of me. Also left a tripod at a real estate shoot yesterday...</p>

<p>The B-25 was my Basic Air Force Trainer. Nice pictures. It's good to see some high class Black and White.</p>

<p>I like the B/W treatments of the campsites. They look very authentic.<br>

Nice "odd angle" shots of the statics. You get the B/W to work nicely here, too.<br>

FWIW, I also like the composition of th eAerostars shot, although I really do like those in color...</p>

<p>Super shots...you must have had a real blast at the show!</p>

<p>Thanks all, for your kind words. <strong>Dick</strong>, on Veterans Day, thanks for keeping the skies safe wherever you may have done so after training on the B-25. I hope they subsequently gave you something a bit more modern, and faster.</p>

<p><strong>Stephen</strong>--a blast, yes, ahem, well, as I said, they were detonating pyrotechnics to simulate bombing. I wasn't going to post this as it was not a very good capture, but since you mentioned it ... I was able to sort of salvage it with heavy post-processing ... :)<br>

<em>--Dave</em></p><div></div>

<p>I like the series.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

After the B-25, the B-29, Convair 440, C-121 (constellation), T-33, T-39 (Sabreliner) and a few others.including the Piper Navajo and Aztec and Beach Baron. AF pilot training is the best in the world. I would have paid the Air Force to let my fly the same airplanes they paid me to fly.

<p>Nice work, <strong>Dave</strong>. I spent a very similar Saturday with a Bronica at our local Vintage Air WWI display, held in remembrance of Armistice Day, though the aircraft were much older and the day rather overcast and dreary. I'll post a few pics at a later date. These old warbirds are just so photogenic; your "Spine of a Mustang" image captures the elegance of a great plane, and I like the dramatic tones of "Cleaning the Cowl". At our meet, some unexpected visitor arrived in a beautifully-polished Mustang and was ushered into an makeshift parking lot, (pic below). Thanks for a really interesting post.</p><div></div>

<p>Rick: Thanks for the kinds words, and looking forward to your WWI post. Bronicas at air shows at the same time, half a world apart! Mustangs are just awfully fun to photograph, aren't they? Everyone everywhere ought to have an opportunity to get out and see one of these sometime. (And hear it fly past ... wow they sound good.) So it's good to see there's one within flying distance of you, or, some rich/crazy soul has expensively shipped the thing in.<br>

<em>--Dave</em></p>

<p>Great pictures Dave. I like the warbirds better than signal corps radios and telephones though (Not to say, I don't own a number of those items hehehe).<br /><br />There are a few B-25 ground attack/anti-shipping versions that sport WAY more (and bigger) guns then this one though. <br /><br /> <br />I spent my Armistice Day at the Flanders Field cemetery and the Bayernwald dugout. <br />Shot a roll of Superpan with my Leica I. Should have something to show next weekend.</p>