[csmoore]

Yup, it's in Rhinebeck. I've only gone once as a little kid. I just paid a quick visit to their website though and they won't be opening until after the semester is over .

[ramseybuckeye]

I get what you're saying. Just getting flight instructors next to their Cessna's would be a little boring lol. Luckily for me there's an old aerodrome nearby and they're constantly putting on shows flying WWI era planes, so that's a fantastic idea.

Well, if you can get a ride shots of those old planes in the air from different angles could be spectacular. Like from above with a patchwork of fields below, or a simulated dogfight, what ever story you tell can be that much better with at least one photo of a plane in the air. The guys with the planes may eat that up, especially if you offer them copies.

[tclausen]

Ah, well that ought to make things much smoother. Now just have to think of which lenses to use, an off-camera flash maybe. Think of the angles ahead of time.
I looked at your gallery and the photos you have there are really great, but they are quite different from portraits and closeups of machinery. For this series you will have to probably make the photos more intimate. So think of a slightly warm white balance, close crops, getting really near to your subjects.
Since it is much easier to write out ideas for others than for oneself, I'll write one out
1) photo of airport, the building and some planes, depending on what you can get in frame
2) photo of the pilot drinking coffee and reading newspaper (or whatever his/her ritual before flight is, showing their surroundings and attitude/mood)

For 2, a staged photo of the pilot doing the pre-flight paperwork (flight plan, load chart, weather, ...), their cap slung haphazard on the charts, and a coffee mug (with mandatory off-set coffee-ring on some scrap chart below mug) seems more like it. Add a crayon for effect, and that just screams b/w to me?