Aircraft Bucketlist

What aircraft would you really like to have the opportunity to shoot? What are the ones you you travel to find?

Here is my list:
Airplanes
Rutan Boomerang
Rutan Quickie
Dyke Delta
Transavia PL-12
Mini Imp
Cri Cri
Corby Starlet
Velocity
Mooney M-18

Helicopters
Helicycle
Mosquito Air
Kamov (any of the Civil varients)

Gyroplanes
McCulloch J-2
Air & Space 18A
Little Wing
Pitbull
Bensen

Interesting question. For myself nothing in particular, but I'd like to see WWII aircraft from outside of the US, such as the Junkers Ju 88, Stuka or the Lancaster. A trip to Europe is on my bucket list. I'd like to see their air shows.

Although not on my bucket list, I was fortunate to capture this very rare experimental aircraft of the WWII era...

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oXnn​P8

My collection of analogue photos was destroyed when my flat got flooded (with raw sewage mostly), so I would really like to be able to go back and photograph many of the types that I have lost, mostly British cold war jets, flying, not just sitting still or doing ground runs. So

F4K Phantom, the RAF/RN variant.
EE Lighting
HP Victor K2
Harrier GR3/GR5
Sea Harrier
Blackburn Buccaneer.
SEPECAT Jaguar
Tornado ADV/F2
HS Nimrod.

I have the Vulcan, I even shot the very last full display she flew.

Being in the UK is great as we have some really good collections of classic and older aircraft here, I'm only a couple of hours from both the Shuttleworth Collection and IWM Duxford, as well as BBMF at RAF Coningsby, which also has the Typhoons, including the Typhoon OCU. Quite a few of the above list are at Bruntingthorpe where they are regularly ground run, so that is also an options for those. I really do wish that one of the DH 98's were in the UK, I know that the US did operate them, but both of them going to the US is a bit hard to take when we don't have a flyable one. I don't think that there is a similarly significant US type where the last two surviving airworthy examples are both outside of the Us. Other than having a mossie over here I would quite like to do the opposite of Frank and do an airshow tour of the US, if I could manage at least Oshkosh and Reno along with one of the major military shows that would be a great tour, I don't know if that would be feasible in one trip though. The other trip that would be good is actually run as a tour by Aeroplane magazine, or it used to be, and is a tour of Australia and NZ taking in IIRC the two big shows in Australia as well as a show in NZ. I think it's a three week trip, and if I remember right the prices were in the £3 to £5 thousand range

Alan

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18217156
Although not on my bucket list, I was fortunate to capture this very rare experimental aircraft of the WWII era...

Nice shot of a cool plane. I'd like to make it out to Planes of Fame sometime to see it. Do you have any idea how often they fly it?

I just found a cool video (if you ignore the music) showing an air-to-air photo shoot with the N9M: https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=1i9aHn_lnYk

BigAl007 wrote in post #18217971
Other than having a mossie over here I would quite like to do the opposite of Frank and do an airshow tour of the US, if I could manage at least Oshkosh and Reno along with one of the major military shows that would be a great tour, I don't know if that would be feasible in one trip though. The other trip that would be good is actually run as a tour by Aeroplane magazine, or it used to be, and is a tour of Australia and NZ taking in IIRC the two big shows in Australia as well as a show in NZ. I think it's a three week trip, and if I remember right the prices were in the £3 to £5 thousand range

Alan

A couple other flyins in the US that you may want to consider if you do come out this way:
1. Popular Rotorcraft Association Convention in Mentone Indiana (http://pra.org …RAConventionInf​oPage&i=32). This one is always held right around Oshkosh, so may work out well in your schedule. It's the big one for gyroplanes and to a lesser extent homebuit helicopters.
2. Rough River Flyin (http://www.roughriver.​org/). This is the big one for canard aircraft. It may not fit in too well with Oshkosh, as it is in late September.
3. Sun 'n Fun (http://www.sun-n-fun.org/). Probably an obvious one if you're considering Oshkosh, but it's Aventure's smaller cousin.
4. Bensen Days in Wachula Floria (http://bensendays.us.c​om/). This is another big gyroplane flyin. This one it typically held around the same time as Sun 'n Fun and is also in Florida.
5. Mojave Experimental Flyin (http://www.mojaveflyin​.com/). This is (I believe) held at the home airport of Scaled Composites and usually has a big turn out of one-off designs and Rutan Experimentals. It looks like it's also around the same time of year as Sun 'n Fun.

I guess from your posts that you are into the experimentals, and also gyrocopters. I was lucky enough to get to meet the late Wing Commander Ken Wallis a couple of times, as he was based locally to me. I also saw him demonstrate Little Nelly at some airshows in the 1970's and 80's. The only aircraft I have ever seen that would in good conditions land itself completely hands and feet off the controls, and with no autoland system. such an inherently stable aircraft, and cutting power slowly just has it gently descend. When my son was about 8 he got to sit in Little Nelly at a local village fete, which as a James Bond film fan he loved, and Ken was great with the kids. He came to give a talk to the Air Training Corps Squadron that I used to instruct with, which was one of the best attended events we had, he had a very interesting life. It is a shame that the autogyro has such a low popularity in the light/popular or even wider flying community. I almost met Barnes Wallace too, but unfortunately he passed away before the event where I would have meet him. As an engineer I am as interested in the greats of aviation engineering as in the aircraft themselves.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #18217971
My collection of analogue photos was destroyed when my flat got flooded (with raw sewage mostly)

Oh man, how sad.

s1a1om wrote in post #18218451
Nice shot of a cool plane. I'd like to make it out to Planes of Fame sometime to see it. Do you have any idea how often they fly it?

I just found a cool video (if you ignore the music) showing an air-to-air photo shoot with the N9M: https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=1i9aHn_lnYk

That is a cool video. Being able to do air-to-air shooting is on my bucket list, but probably will not be fulfilled.

I've been to the Planes of Fame air show twice, and I believe it's worthy of being on a bucket list.
Over the past several years I've seen the N9M fly at 3 air shows...

Planes of Fame, Los Angeles County air show, and Wings Over Camarillo air show.

I think POF in Chino, CA is the home base for the N9M. If anyone is making a special trip to see it
in flight, they should contact the POF people first.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18218631
Oh man, how sad.

It wasn't great, having your home flooded is not at all nice, trouble was all the cardboard boxes with the slides, negs, and prints were under the bed, so I lost the lot. At least the computer survived, since it was up on the desk, I only had a couple of inches of water, so most of my stuff survived. I went out in the morning and everything was fine, got home about four hours later to find the building underwater after a short but violent thunder storm, outside of the building was a large tarmac surfaced carpark, and the building was at the lowest point of it. This was right in the town center so nowhere for all that rain water to go. I had been helping my friend in his shop, trying to stop the water coming in the roof. I had not got around to trying to digitise the film collection, so of course no backups at all. Thank god for digital being easy to back up with effectively first generation copies.

Alan

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18218654
That is a cool video. Being able to do air-to-air shooting is on my bucket list, but probably will not be fulfilled.

It shouldn't be all that hard to setup. There are flight schools (both fixed and rotary wing) all over the country. Call your local one and explain what you'd like to do. I spoke with one helicopter flight school a few weeks back and they said it wouldn't be a problem to try, as long as there was thorough pre-flight briefing between the pilots. They may even be able to find you a subject if you don't have anything to specific in mind.

I'm planning on trying it a few times in the Spring

BigAl007 wrote in post #18218496
I guess from your posts that you are into the experimentals, and also gyrocopters. I was lucky enough to get to meet the late Wing Commander Ken Wallis a couple of times, as he was based locally to me. I also saw him demonstrate Little Nelly at some airshows in the 1970's and 80's. The only aircraft I have ever seen that would in good conditions land itself completely hands and feet off the controls, and with no autoland system. such an inherently stable aircraft, and cutting power slowly just has it gently descend. When my son was about 8 he got to sit in Little Nelly at a local village fete, which as a James Bond film fan he loved, and Ken was great with the kids. He came to give a talk to the Air Training Corps Squadron that I used to instruct with, which was one of the best attended events we had, he had a very interesting life. It is a shame that the autogyro has such a low popularity in the light/popular or even wider flying community. I almost met Barnes Wallace too, but unfortunately he passed away before the event where I would have meet him. As an engineer I am as interested in the greats of aviation engineering as in the aircraft themselves.

I am into pretty much anything out of the ordinary. Odd Airplanes (my favorite is the BV-141), unusual experimentals, pretty much all gyroplanes, uncommon helicopters (primarily Kaman and Kamov).

That's really cool that you met Ken Wallis. From my reading he had some of the best flying gyroplanes, but wouldn't sell his aircraft to the public (I forget his reasoning).

As another engineer here, I'm also into the greats designers of the aerospace industry. I have an original copy of Juan De La Cierva's (inventor of the autogyro) book "Wings of Tomorrow", the book on Joe Sutter (cheif engineer of the 747), a great book on Al Mooney "The Al Mooney Story They All Fly Through the Same Air", a book on the less well know Fred Weick (designer of the Ercoupe, renown aerodynamics on propellor theory, designer of what we know think of as the classic "ag airplane"), Richard Vogt's Book "Weltumspannende Memoiren eines Flugzeugkonstrukteurs" (designer of the BV-141 which I swear I'll translate someday", "Kaman Our Early Years", and the list keeps going on.

It's a fascinating industry and I love being able to be a part of it in my day-job.

s1a1om wrote in post #18219103
As another engineer here, I'm also into the greats designers of the aerospace industry. I have an original copy of Juan De La Cierva's (inventor of the autogyro) book "Wings of Tomorrow", the book on Joe Sutter (cheif engineer of the 747)

Speaking of 747s, it's one of my favorite planes. I worked on them a lot when I was an avionics tech with Pan Am.
I regret not being interested in photography when I worked at LAX. I could have gotten some great photos.