My better shots from the last year of USAF flying

[aurora85]

Here are some shots I took while on the road. Used my Tamron 75-300mm at the time and my trusty Canon SD1000. Here are a few of the 500 shots taken.

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[aurora85]

For these shots I got to know the A10 pilots we were dragging over to the desert and swapped cameras with one of the guys. Here are the shots they took of me in there flying. The last one was interesting. Our A10s got intercepted after we dropped them off in France. The result was an awesome rare shot.


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[strokedbeast]

Just AWESOME. Thanks for sharing.

[PhotosGuy]

That's an interesting series. You must love your job!

[darkknight1999]

Wow awesome shots!

But more importantly Thank You for your service!

[Crappymonkey]

Wow. That last one is amazing.

[ForumForker]

Outstanding pics, the last one is truly awesome.

[SkyBaby]

Wow!! Those are beautiful!! I love the one of the tanker with the boom extended. It's so high up you can almost see the curvature of the earth and it has some great depth to the sky.

[ChasWG]

Truely unique and special. Not everyone can take those images. You're a lucky person! And as others have said, thank you for your service to our country!
The last set with the A10's are really amazing as are the F15's. That shot of the squad of 15s looks like a world of hurt if you're a bad guy! And that has to be a really long and not comfortable flight for those A10's across an ocean.
Great stuff! Please post more!

[cozmo2312]

why is it that the KC10 seems to have such a nose high attitude in these pics? is it an optical illusion, or are you really flying like that?

nice pics btw, thanks for sharing!

[SnowManZ]

what do you do in the KC-10?

I am engineer on the E-3.

[YankeeMom]

It's rare that I say, "Wow" out loud when viewing a photo, but I did when I came to that last one (the snowy mountains.) Amazing photo -- they are all a treasure. (The stadium one is pretty cool, too! :))

[ChunkyDA]

The tanker needs to slow down to match speed with the slower A-10. note the position of the leading edge slats.
Great shots, if you dropped the A-10s off, how did you meet back up to retrieve your camera?
why is it that the KC10 seems to have such a nose high attitude in these pics? is it an optical illusion, or are you really flying like that?

nice pics btw, thanks for sharing!

[xMClass]

These are the kind of pictures that makes me wish I was an Airmen instead. Great series.

[Lumpy8]

Wow awesome shots!

[cozmo2312]

The tanker needs to slow down to match speed with the slower A-10. note the position of the leading edge slats.
Great shots, if you dropped the A-10s off, how did you meet back up to retrieve your camera?


that's what i originally thought, and had to look it up to see that the kc10 has a typical cruise speed of ~200kts faster than the warthog. i knew the a10 isn't the fastest bird in the sky, but i thought the speeds would have been a little closer than that.

[kona77]

Excellent job getting some of the most interesting shots. I would guess a lot of effort went into getting those shots, so here is a big THANK YOU..

And thank you for your service!

[aurora85]

The tanker needs to slow down to match speed with the slower A-10. note the position of the leading edge slats.
Great shots, if you dropped the A-10s off, how did you meet back up to retrieve your camera?

Thanks for the questions guys. I'm a pilot in the KC-10. As far as the high deck angle, that is to accommodate the slow speed that the A-10 requires. Note that our slats are extended and we are flying as slow as practical as mentioned above. We still have a descent margin above stall. As we burn off fuel on our long legs, we gradual see a lower deck angle. Often the A-10s require us to do a maneuver called a Toboggan, where we start a shallow descent in our block altitude to allow the A-10s to gain some thrust advantage on us, allowing them to get into the contact position easier.

As for getting my camera back..luckily we all ended up at Ramstein for the night and it was preplanned that in case any of us diverted they had my mailing address to ship it back to me.

[aurora85]

that's what i originally thought, and had to look it up to see that the kc10 has a typical cruise speed of ~200kts faster than the warthog. i knew the a10 isn't the fastest bird in the sky, but i thought the speeds would have been a little closer than that.


The A10 is painfully slow! Our cruise speed with them is typically 240 kts. This equates into long days as our AR speed is around 190-200 kts. The best point of the trip is where we finally have them in radar contact and can break off from them to steam ahead to our base. We can really put some distance on them fast!

[007]

Nice shots.. and Love the Last one over France.. that you are hard to get..

[aurora85]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4279203752_6c4851122f_b.jpg

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http://http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/4279202390_2ffe331378_o.jpg

[aurora85]

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[Dennis Valet]

Ummm that last shot is freaking awesome

[kona77]

Great shots of America's heroes. I bet you guys clank when you walk. :)

[aurora85]

Great shots of America's heroes. I bet you guys clank when you walk. :)

not quite..that wouldn't pass the flight doc ;)

[jollyroger99]

Thanks for sharing these with us, the A-10 is my wifes favorite. Thanks for your service. Stay safe.

[darkknight1999]

Off topic for a sec... but jolly I love the line in your sig. Its freaken awesome!

[Radders]

Superb! I love photos like this, Very unique!

[By-tor]

Great series... Love the Greek herk in the background on #1

[frameworks]

Spectacular! Keep 'em coming

[MD83driver]

Great set of shots, I especially like the short approach into Lajes AFB in the Azores. We usually got in Saturday nights and left the next day. I've had some great layovers there. Did you ever get a chance to visit the Tropical Point Restaurant down on the water?

[MacDogg]

Awesome shots!

[FactionOne]

the A-10 is my wifes favorite.
Damn you must be pretty! :rolleyes:

Heheh, sorry, but I couldn't resist ;) Honestly I think your good lady's on to something, I've always found the interesting look of the A-10 to give it great appeal. 240kts is a bit of a spoiler though eh!

To the OP, WOW - they're some amazing shots. The last shot in each round are my favourites, but choosing is made difficult when the options are all so impressive. I've a soft spot for the one inc. the Tornado too; the reasons are two fold, one my Grandfather helped bolt the prototype together; and two, it helps me feel less guilty about liking the shot inc. Dassault stuff so much :)

All the best to you and your colleagues...

Rob.

[policy]

Great pictures!