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dragonlady7via https://ift.tt/2zEqzWN
I went to an airshow today, and I thought of @dolly-bassett11 because this is the same airshow where years ago I photographed the Lancaster bomber in my blog header image. But this time they had a B-17, so for the first time in my life, if you can believe that, I got to watch one fire up its engines and take off and fly around. It then flew away, unlike the B-25 Mitchell that had taken off just before it, finished its passes, and then came in to land. And it didn’t come back!
So we watched the rest of the air show, and then we were leaving along with everyone else, and i spotted a plane in the distance and I said, “That’s her!” and so we stood there awkwardly in the entryway to the parking lot field and I managed to awkwardly take a photo as she landed.
(It was the Memphis Belle, which is of course the one from the movie, not the real one who served with that nose art.)
It was much, much quieter than the Mitchell, which I absolutely had not expected.
Of course their own C-47 was there, and she did her usual awesome trick of having 14 paratroopers jump out of her in two passes of 7 each, which never fails to thrill. This year because of the wind, she actually released them directly over the heads of the crowd, and then they drifted gently sideways toward their landing spot, safe on the runway.
In the first group, two of them collided dramatically, but I could see that one of them had clearly anticipated it and steered himself into the other one so that he could control it and correct course. it was still very thrilling for the audience. (Dude was like… are their parachutes supposed to have holes in them? I said, well they all have exactly the same openings in the same spot so I reckon that’s so they can steer. Then he was like, why aren’t the parachutes blue on the bottom for camoflage, and I said that’s not how shadows work buddy, I don’t think you can reliably camoflage a falling parachute. They jumped at night, mostly. He was like, ohhh.)
There was a matched set of four yellow single-propeller planes, sort of similar to the Grumman Avenger in size and shape, but not, and they had the RAF bullseye on them, except that only one of them was the regular RAF bullseye and the other three had little maple leaf motifs in the center, which I honestly had never seen before but figure must be the RCAF? And I could not for the life of me figure out what they were. So I need someone British to help me. I cannot find a list anywhere that includes them.
(Your picture was not posted)
I went to an airshow today, and I thought of @dolly-bassett11 because this is the same airshow where years ago I photographed the Lancaster bomber in my blog header image. But this time they had a B-17, so for the first time in my life, if you can believe that, I got to watch one fire up its engines and take off and fly around. It then flew away, unlike the B-25 Mitchell that had taken off just before it, finished its passes, and then came in to land. And it didn’t come back!
So we watched the rest of the air show, and then we were leaving along with everyone else, and i spotted a plane in the distance and I said, “That’s her!” and so we stood there awkwardly in the entryway to the parking lot field and I managed to awkwardly take a photo as she landed.
(It was the Memphis Belle, which is of course the one from the movie, not the real one who served with that nose art.)
It was much, much quieter than the Mitchell, which I absolutely had not expected.
Of course their own C-47 was there, and she did her usual awesome trick of having 14 paratroopers jump out of her in two passes of 7 each, which never fails to thrill. This year because of the wind, she actually released them directly over the heads of the crowd, and then they drifted gently sideways toward their landing spot, safe on the runway.
In the first group, two of them collided dramatically, but I could see that one of them had clearly anticipated it and steered himself into the other one so that he could control it and correct course. it was still very thrilling for the audience. (Dude was like… are their parachutes supposed to have holes in them? I said, well they all have exactly the same openings in the same spot so I reckon that’s so they can steer. Then he was like, why aren’t the parachutes blue on the bottom for camoflage, and I said that’s not how shadows work buddy, I don’t think you can reliably camoflage a falling parachute. They jumped at night, mostly. He was like, ohhh.)
There was a matched set of four yellow single-propeller planes, sort of similar to the Grumman Avenger in size and shape, but not, and they had the RAF bullseye on them, except that only one of them was the regular RAF bullseye and the other three had little maple leaf motifs in the center, which I honestly had never seen before but figure must be the RCAF? And I could not for the life of me figure out what they were. So I need someone British to help me. I cannot find a list anywhere that includes them.
(Your picture was not posted)
