Shock Wave Pattern
 

Thought these interesting from http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1a

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/DSC_7901.jpg
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m.../DSC_7901a.jpg

The lad done well with his camera.

Seen these before, but never get bored of looking at them.

Two points...

1. I've been to SF a couple of times. There HAS to be a major risk of the planes encountering a big fukkin pelican on their lower routines. How do they get clearance to do this sort of stuff? How is it legitimised by the bigwigs?

2. Why, when there is a jet doing 700mph just feet away from him, is the chap in one of those shots of the patrol boats not even looking? He's casually looking the other way.

> 2. Why, when there is a jet doing 700mph just feet away from him, is the
> chap in one of those shots of the patrol boats not even looking? He's
> casually looking the other way.

Partly because he hasn't heard it yet, but mainly because it's a very long lens, with readily identifiable non-perspective foreshortening. I'd believe the aircraft is a quarter mile from him.

A lot of these wow-lookit aircraft shots are produced in this way.

P

The Blues routine involves a failry complex manoeuvre by the 4 ship which gets the crowds attention the the 2 solo jets sneak in from 2 different directions one after the other. They are very low and very fast and you're right to say that you don't hear them until they are past you.

However, they aren't that far away, as you can see from this shot which I took at their homecoming show this year. Having seen the show before I knew where to look for one of the fast pass aircraft which came straight along the crowd line, the other came from behind the crowd line about 2 seconds after this one had passed. I'd estimate him to be well below 100'

Mac

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e.../BA-PPrune.jpg

One question I'd like to ask, while I'm in the right company.

Is it inherently more difficult to fly these high performance jets at exactly 100 feet than it is to fly at exactly 10,000ft? I presume it's dependent on the weather conditions and temperature gradients around terrain features, but my only experience of it is in computer games where, if you let go of the stick, it carries on more or less in a straight line regardless.

P

Yeah.

I'm a photographer, so I do know a fair bit about perspective :ok:

There are shots on that link where the plane is very close. Closer than a quarter of a mile. Like I said before, I've been over to SF for this event... and believe me, you know he's coming. All eyes in SF are fixed on him as he dips in from the bridge end.

My first question was a tad tongue-in-cheek - I know full well why the chap's not looking. It's nothing to do with him not knowing it's coming. Think about those stewards at football games who sit facing the crowd, despite the pentaly shootout that's going on behind them.

No offence intended, I'm sure we've both spent quite a bit of time explaining why the photo makes the plane look like it's six feet away...

<<There HAS to be a major risk of the planes encountering a big fukkin pelican on their lower routines. How do they get clearance to do this sort of stuff? How is it legitimised by the bigwigs?>>

I don't know. I actually asked one of them once and he just went AAWWWK AWWWWK AWWK and puked a herring all over me.

Oh you mean how do the PILOTS get clearance...

The Red Arrows lost a Hawk in 1980 during a sea front display in Brighton; although it hit a yacht mast, not a bird.

FYI
 

..there ia a video available (Not UTube) of the shock wave progression from the rear seat of a F4 but it is an old and grainy 6mm type film that has been digitised.

Cough up then glad rag, where's the film available?

I was in SFO during the Fleet Week w/e and saw this display. It was awesome, but there are big gaps where you are thinking 'where did they go?'

Having said that, the low pass from the bridge end was well worth seeing.

Very interesting photos!