I walked out to the ramp to begin my preflight on the Champ. I reached up to run my hand along the wing, and it gave under the light touch of my fingers. I sucked in my breath and exclaimed, “It’s fabric!” I admired it and was in awe of the feel of it. My face must have shown my amazement, as my instructor laughed at me with my first encounter with a truly original style fabric covered plane.
It’s an Aeronca Champ built in 1945.
Getting a chance to do an air to air photography shoot has been something I’ve dreamed about since I began photographing airplanes. The beautiful shots that grace the covers of the aviation magazines with beautiful prop blur at sunset over an incredible location, conjured up images in my mind of photographs I never thought possible for me to do. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it so quickly with my newly acquired photography skills, but it happened and this is the story.
There’s a place that’s turned the clock back in time, where you can not only see but hear the sounds of an era long past. It’s tucked away, just off the Virginia coast line in a little spot called Pungo. They have a grass strip runway among the trees, and some very well kept hangars with an amazing assortment of WWI and WWII era planes holed up inside. It’s the Military Aviation Museum.
Continue reading A Trip Back in Time: The Military Aviation Museum
Sun-n-Fun is the biggest airshow I’ve had the pleasure of attending so far, and situated right smack dab in the middle of sunny, beautiful Florida. My home state.
From the moment the helicopter lifted off the pad, my heart was filled with excitement. It’s the same feeling I get when an airplane achieves rotation speed and becomes airborne. You feel it in your stomach, it pushes down through you and almost immediately you can feel your rump lift slightly off the seat, and then you settle back down gently. You can tell you’re airborne just by how it feels, you don’t need your eyes to know it.
There’s something remarkable about a place that transcends time, brings together a passion for timeless beauty with an enduring legacy of pride and resilience. Stallion 51 in Kissimmee, Florida is just that kind of place.
July on Pensacola Beach and at 8:00am, it’s already hot, crowded and exciting! Parking is the biggest challenge you face besides the heat. Plenty of people have stayed the night and camped out on the beach, so even though finding a spot isn’t really an issue, you can’t see the ocean for the sea of tarps and tents that are already in place.
Home for me is Pensacola, Florida. I may not live there any more, but I still have family there. I don’t visit as often as I’d like to, but I’ve been trying to get home more these days. I planned a trip home after recovering from my last reconstruction surgery just to get some nice salt air in my lungs, and to let everyone see that I’m doing better.
Continue reading A Visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum
After being turned away at the balloon fest due to high winds in the morning. We decided to check out the area. Zebulon has no hotels and the closest city is Wilson, about 20 miles away. We decided to check out the town while waiting for balloon launch time. They have an airport right behind the hotel, so we decided to venture to it and see if anything was flying. I can always take a picture or two of an airplane, right?
If it flies, it will probably get my attention. When I was at Sun n’ Fun earlier this year, they were scheduled for a balloon launch early one morning. I’d never seen a hot air balloon up close and I wanted to photograph them. The pictures I’ve seen are so beautiful, so I thought it would be amazing to get a chance to see them. I got up early and got my camera ready and never saw a balloon.
