End of the year catch-up

I swear I blinked and time sped up, I can hardly believe the year is quickly coming to an end. 2009 was, to say the least, a crazy year what with moving from England to Arizona and attempting to take advantage of the numerous opportunities afforded by the aviation traffic in this area of the country.

One great bit of news is that my image of an RF-4 Phantom in the pattern over Davis-Monthan AFB was included in the December issue of COMBAT AIRCRAFT magazine. Seen in an earlier blog post I can't tell you what a joy it is to see these great aircraft resurrected from the Boneyard of the 309th AMARG (even though they'll be shot down for testing & training purposes).

Another pat on the back is that an image I took while on a "residency maintenance" trip to Anchorage was picked by my fellow Arizona Aviation Photographer members as their DEC '09 Photo of the Month. Some seriously talented folks there so I'm quite honored.

A scheduled trip to the Yuma, AZ and El Centro, CA areas yielded many fantastic images. Yuma is home to the sole Marine Aggressor squadron as well as Harrier, Super Stallion and Huey squadrons. El Centro is a very busy training base as well as the training home for the Blue Angels. Here's a quick peek, still more images in the queue:

 

 

 

 

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year's holiday. Keep your head on a swivel, you never know whene those pesky aircraft might sneak up behind you to demonstrate a little tactical surprise.