My First 06 Departures

(Originally posted to American Yank in England on 11 February 2008)

A rather eventful day today. We started with a fog delay, visibility was down to less than a quarter mile and so school and work started 2 hours later then usual. Kids slept in, I got to work a little more than usual before heading the kids off to school. The day got MUCH better when I passed by RAF Lakenheath and saw that the jets were departing runway 06 which the very seldom do. Quick run to do the errands and quick back to the favored muddy patch (as my daughter calls it) and viola'... fantastic F-15 images.

I like this one the best, he's straight above my head with the back seater looking down at me as he screams over.

Nice Couple of Days

Originally posted to American Yank in England on 5 Februrary 2008)

Today there was a bear of a wind that would shift direction without notice and made the last bit of the final approach a little hairy. This F-15C Eagle, one of the lucky still flying after the big longeron snafu (see this post for more info) caught a nice gust as he crossed the fence to the airfield and ended up going around. robably had less to do with the wind and more to do with the previous aircraft not yet clear for a safe landing. Then again, he might have just been wanting to get his photo taken again!


Some great passes by a 2-ship of F-15E strike Eagles that were kind enough to go 'round the pattern a couple of times, allowing for many nice images.


And finally, the reason traffic often gets jammed up around the end of the runway: F-15s you could almost touch right over the road!

Endangered Eagles are Back!

(Originally posted to American Yank in England on 15 January 2008)

Finally... after the resolution of the Air Force-wide no-fly order for urgent in-depth inspections after an in-flight airframe failure in the USA, the F-15C/D air superiority birds are back in the air and shattering the silence around RAF Lakenheath! After spending part of my morning talking to my accountant** about my first-ever UK tax return (ugh... taxes in TWO nations!) I needed a little relaxation and there's not much more relaxing to me than stalking an "eagle" for a quick couple of photos. (**I must say that Keith is the nicest guy, but really, it's taxes.)

Imagine my happiness when the flagship for the 493rd Fighter Squadron "Grim Reapers" taxied past my spot before blowing down the runway. Glad to have you guys back in the air!

Birds in the Sky

No, not THOSE kind of birds... big, loud, death-from-above kind of birds! The helicopter flew over the farm on their way to "work" after leaving RAF Lakenheath, I always love it when you hear them coming and I have just enough time to grab the camera gear for 4 or 5 shots before they're gone. When they're REALLY low I usually don't even get that many frames in before they're gone behind the barns.

Today after my daughter's speech therapy appointment and getting a van-load of groceries I had, oh... 5 or 6 minutes to do a little aircraft spotting before me ice cream bars melted and my frozen pizza became unfrozen. Luckily the Strike Eagles didn't disappoint and were ripping it up right as I got to the pullout. Good news is that I hear the flying halt for the older F-15C/D models is lifted and we should see those Eagles in the sky very soon. Every bird in the sky is a better chance of getting a great photo.

Amazing Technology

(Originally posted at American Yank in England on 19 December 2007)

Sorry folks, I'm going to go super-geeky on you today. The wizards over at Stanford University have come up with an amazing little program that converts raster-based images into vector-based images. What the heck does that mean and why should I care? Um, actually I'm not really sure why the majority of you should care. Unless you're an artist or designer or the like, it probably won't change the way you go about your daily business. But if you ARE one of those folks, it is very cool. Raster images like photographs and some drawings are based on the position and relationship of individual pixels. They tend to get ugly when you transform them (especially upwards) and can be difficult to print because of fine gradations in tone. Vector images, on the other hand, are based on geometric relationships (lines, curves, etc.) and can be up/down-sized at will without degrading the image quality and for certain printing processes such as fabric/screen prints the process is much easier. Just for fun, I tested the program out on a small section of an image I made of a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet as it moved on the taxiway for takeoff. Lots of heat behind made for interesting detail that I was sure would give the software a challenge. And the results?

Nice. Very nice. When things slow down after the holidays I expect to play more and create more.

Want to play yourself? VectorMagic