Shooting Airshows

[Flish]

Warbirds airshow...Old School...You don't see many of these anymore. Ibelieveit's an F-86 Sabre Jet Shot with a Digital Rebel EF 75-300 F/4-5.6 IS setting 1/3200 @f/9 ISO 400.


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[Jeff Lucia]

What is that little open hatch there in the fuselage?

[GoinCarCrazy]

If I remember right, that's an air brake, where it disrupts the flow of air over the side of the plane. If you will, that flap slows one half of the plane down while the other wants to keep going at it's previous speed so it helps the plane turn a bit better, and if both deploy, it aids in stopping or slowing the plane.

[Flish]

It's called a speed brake. Mostmilitaryaircraft have them however the can be located in various places, even out on the trailing edge of the wing tips.

[Jeff Lucia]

OK, since I got this thread off-topic, I'll nudge it back with these shots. It was really overcast and I may have pumped the saturation a little too much in PP (suggestions welcome).


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A question for y'all: In the Raptor shot, there's a visible rainbow effect if you look close. I've never seen that coming off an airplane before, but I suppose it could be caused by moisture condensing in the pressure wave as the aircraft passed by. But it also could be an unwanted side effect caused by the 2x extender/70-200 combination (I borrowed a friend's 2x so I'm not too familiar with it).


Finally, a comment on the Blue Angels fly-by shot: This was pure luck--they were going so fast that I only had time for one shot, and truth be told, I lost them completely in the time it took the mirror to go up and down. Curiosity forced a quick chimp, andbing!there they were, lined up in front of me. If you look closely, you can see the two pilots in the closer aircraft looking away from the camera as they watch the #1 plane, and the two in the farther planes looking toward the camera as they watch the leader. Only the #1 pilot is looking forward.