Originally posted by Cee Cee Probably my most interesting shot of the day, a burst of vapour from the leading edges, with most of the aircraft (except for the right wing tip) shot through through the exhaust wash.
Interesting shot - I have some similar ones.
Quote: some nice shots posted by Rob, you must have attended Saturday as the F35 didn't fly on Sunday, very disappointing as this was the reason I went. Having been to every show since it started I was going to give it a miss this time as there was nothing that I hadn't seen before, although it's always good to see military Jets flying, but after all it's a 2-3hr slog in the traffic to get there
then a long day in the sun, then same sort of traffic on the way home It's just hard work! And then to shoot with the DA55-300 more hard work! It was only the announcement on Thursday that the F35 was going to fly which got me over the line, and we decided to go.
So Rob, how much flying did the F35 do on Saturday ? When they made the announcement that the F35 wasn't going to fly, mid morning on Sunday, they cited thunderstorms at Amberley Air base in Queensland as the reason, ( as the F35 wouldn't be able to land!). So what were we going to see ? An F35 taking departing for Amberley ?
I understand the flying of military aircraft is subject to the operational requirements of the air force, but really, the largest crowd I've ever seen there, had to be 100 -150K at $65 a ticket and they can't put a plane in the air because of thunderstorms in another state.
The F35 didn't do much - about three runs over the airfield I think, but they are treating it with kid gloves since it hasn't been accepted into service yet. I'll have to put more pics of it online - I have another one with some nice vapour trails off the wingtips. I missed a lot of shots because I couldn't find aircraft staring into the high afternoon sun, and the combination of the DA*300 and 1.4x TC hunted quite a bit. I could have had more photos of the F35 but I wanted to take some video of it as well, and juggling two cameras seldom works well! I also missed some of it because the aircraft took off a lot sooner than the announcements indicated, and they suggested that it was going to be involved in the capability display, so I was expecting it to fly in combination with other aircraft.
Anyway, in terms of fighter flying displays, if you saw the F16 and F22, you saw the best of it. Mind you, the flying of the F18 Hornets in the RAAF capability display was excellent too. The F22 demonstration of vectored thrust was amazing. I decided to attend because of the F22 flying, and the F35 was a bonus. Originally I thought the F35 was simply to be a ground display, so any chance to see it in flight was great! I'm disappointed for the C27 squadron who have yet to have one of their aircraft flying in a display - yet the new P8 took part!
I'll post more pics in the Aviation group as I get them edited.
I hope to see more of your photos too!
---------- Post added 08-03-17 at 01:12 PM ----------
Originally posted by tabjohnson Can't waterspot our $100 million baby can we? ;-)
I think they were more concerned about a fly-by-wire aircraft having its electronics fried by lightning.
I'm not sure why it stopped them from doing a few circuits of Avalon, though.
---------- Post added 08-03-17 at 01:15 PM ----------
Originally posted by Cee Cee pretty ironic really considering the full name " F35A Lightning II " I would have thought lightning survivability would have been inherent in the design right from the start in a state of the art jet fighter, but they are very complex machines, and what would I know, I'm sure there are reasons.
As you say, I'm sure that they had their reasons. Maybe the manufacturer wouldn't accept any risk of storm damage to an aircraft not yet handed over?