Collings Aircraft Visit New England

“Witchcraft” fly-by at KMHT on 2016-09-20

Collings Foundation‘s “Wings of Freedom Tour” recently passed through a number of New England airports. The aircraft (B-17, B-24, B-25 and P-51) are always worth seeing. This time, their TP-51C “Betty Jane” had been replaced by the recently restored TF-51D “Toulouse Nuts”.

I saw the aircraft several times, at Beverly, MA (KBVY) on 2016-09-18, at Manchester, NH (KMHT) on 2016-09-20 and -21, and at Worcester, MA (KORH) on 2016-09-24. The Worcester stop featured additional aircraft; I was able to photograph their Corsair and Skyraider.

I also received the honor of being the Collings Foundation’s first “fan photographer of the week”. There will be a separate blog post about this.

TF-51D Mustang “Toulouse Nuts” being parked at KMHT on 2016-09-21

Bowman Field Fly-in

Resplendent Curtiss-Wright Travel Air 4000 (NC6005, c/n 534) from 1928.

The 30th annual Bowman Field Fly-in was held on August 27th and 28th. I visited the event on the first day. Bowman Field (B10) is a small grass strip in Central Maine in the town of Livermore Falls.

There were dozens of interesting aircraft visiting, from a 1928 Travel Air (see photo) through 1940s Aeroncas and Cubs to more modern variety. I am definitely visiting this event again next year.

Wiscasset Fly-in

CAF’s P-51D Mustang (NL10601, 44-73843)

Yesterday I visited Wiscasset Municipal Airport (KIWI, in Wiscasset, ME) where the Maine Aeronautics Association had organized a fly-in. The “star” of the event was Commemorative Air Force’s “Red Tail” squadron‘s touring exhibit “Rise Above” (about the Tuskegee airmen), complete with their P-51D Mustang. However, there were a number of interesting aircraft on display. The entire event had a pleasant, laid-back feeling that I felt was appropriate for summertime Maine.

Book topics? I am thinking of classic aircraft…

Finnish DC-Association’s Douglas C-53C-DO (OH-LCH, c/n 6346) at the Helsinki-Malmi Airport on 2016-07-11.

Over the years I have taken a lot of aircraft photographs. It really started as means to get accurate information for scale model projects, and I still take “detail pictures” whenever I have the opportunity. But I also take pictures that (I would like to think) are simply attractive to look at, if not for everybody then at least for those who like airplanes. Lately, I have been thinking about turning some of those pictures into books.

The question is, what would be good topics for airplane books mainly consisting of photographs. I am thinking “classic aircraft”… but what does that mean? Some of you are now thinking of P-51 Mustang, B-17 Fortress, etc., and sure, those are “classic”, no doubt. And while I have plenty of pictures of Mustangs and Fortresses, those topics are already covered quite well, just go to your local bookstore.

World War II Weekend

On Friday I was able to stop at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum‘s “World War II Weekend” event at the Reading Regional Airport in Pennsylvania. This is a huge 3-day event that comprises of an airshow, re-enactments, talks by visiting veterans and other experts, etc. For the past several years I have had conflicting engagements that have prevented me from going to this event, and I had one this time too, but at least I was able to stop in Reading for a couple of hours when “passing through”.

Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando (N78774, c/n 22597, 44-78774, “The Tinker Belle”) arriving

Scale Model Research: AS365 Dauphin

For some time now I have been planning to build a scale model of the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin helicopter, in 1/72nd scale (since all my models are in that scale). Given that I regularly spend time in Central Pennsylvania, I thought perhaps I could make the model to represent one of the Dauphins operated by the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, specifically their Life Lion Critical Care Transport unit. They operate three Dauphins.

Dauphin ready for another mission

Tagging Posts on Twitter and Instagram

In pursuit of better image metadata I always try to tag my Twitter and Instagram posts with relevant parties, e.g., airline and airport accounts. For example, a picture I tweeted a few days ago, shown below, I tagged with the Twitter accounts of PSA Airlines, American Airlines and Manchester-Boston Airport.

I do this to “link” the photograph to relevant entities on the Web. Someone looking at the picture might now have their questions answered better (“What is PSA Airlines?”, for example, in the case of this image).

Our Blog Has Moved…

I moved the So Many Aircraft Blog to WordPress.com today. All the old content is now there (OK, actually “here” since you are now reading the new blog). From now on new posts will only appear here, and the old blog will go away soon.

Spotting an Antonov An-124

Skirting a storm on approach.

Last Saturday @kbosspotter alerted me that an An-124 was due at KPSM (Portsmouth, NH) later that day (thank you for that!). My youngest daughter and I drove there and were able to witness this huge aircraft arrive.

The specific aircraft in question is an An-124-100 Ruslan (UR-82029, c/n 19530502630) operated by Antonov Airlines, a subsidiary of the Antonov Design Bureau. It flew to NH from France, and later in the afternoon continued on to NC.

Here are some pictures.

Certainly an impressive sight when it approaches.