Victoria's Largest Little Air Show was a Big Surprise!

[Tronhard]

Well I knew there was a powered model aircraft field as I pass it each time I cycle the local cycle path for exercise, but it appears very (excuse the pun) small scale. So, when I saw a request from a local camera club to photograph their air show I was really expecting a dozen die-hards with their planes having a great time.
Imagine my surprise when I had to queue to park hundreds of metres from the site, that was by then transformed with marquees, port-a-loos, and over a thousand visitors milling around. We had been given a late time to turn up (of which I was unaware), so I had to thread my way to the "VIP photo space" at the end of the runway, luckily sheltered from the sun's wrath by trees.
Over the next two days I was treated to a show including contributions from all over North American, and with some absolutely amazing models worth tens of thousands of dollars. One thing I found was that getting decent images of model aircraft is arguably harder than dealing with the full-size ones. They are fast and low and incredibly maneuverable! Still, for those who have an interest here are some images from the show.
Questions and comments welcome. NOTE: all images were cropped to a 1920x1080 proportion by request.


Boeing-Stearman Model 75, about 4m across the wings


A Hughes AH-6 helicopter, (the "Flying Egg") about 3m long


Fokker Eindecker, wingspan 3m: the original was the first aircraft to use interrupter gear to allow its machine guns to fire safely through the propeller arc in line with the fuselage and making aiming far more effective. It was the scourge of Allied aircraft until their technology caught up.


de Havilland Buffalo SAR, span 3.5m - the rear door opened and it did two runs of parachute drops!


The "Flying Iron", span 2m. Made of fibreboard and obviously designed to look like an iron, it flew amazingly well!


Fokker EV, span 3m, one of the few high wing monoplanes to engage in WWI

There was a model of an A10-Warthog that had all sorts of amazing working items, however its paint job rendered it almost impossible to get enough contrast against the cloudless sky to focus on, and powered by its two jets it flew really fast! So this is an image of it sitting sedately on the ground as it taxied after landing - I liked the powered canopy that opened on demand. So many things on the model worked that I wondered if the canon did too...


A-10 Warthog, span 4m

[Donald]

Wonderful, Trevor. I suspect that the organisers of the event will be delighted to see such high quality images.

[Tronhard]

Hi Donald! Thank you so much for your kind comments. I hope they like them too.

I am normally very conservative with the number of images I take, but under the circumstances I had to let rip on high speed auto to hope to catch more than part of an aircraft, and hopefully in focus.

I initially did this with a Canon 7D MkII (very new to me), with a 100-400 MKII zoom, and the 1.4xMkIII extender. I then realized that this combo would work for autofocus and metering, but ONLY in spot meter mode! I persisted but removed the extender in the end to get more focus points and thus more chance that the AI servo could track the target. So of about 900 shots I have about 300 images that would offer. Sometimes I just had to stand and watch in amazement at the quality of the aircraft and the skill of the "pilots".

[Wavelength]

Aircrafts and airshows...they are always awesome..these images are fantastic too

[bnnrcn]

Very nice set Trev .I haven't seen a Flying Iron before,thanks for sharing

[AlwaysOnAuto]

You could have easily fooled us all and not told us they were models.
Nice shots and thanks for sharing these.

[Tronhard]

Hi Urla:

Some suggested that next year they should add a flying ironing board!

[bnnrcn]

I'm looking forward to seeing images of it by you .

BTW Urla is my new location and I'm Binnur

Hi Urla:

Some suggested that next year they should add a flying ironing board!

[Tronhard]

I'm looking forward to seeing images of it by you .

BTW Urla is my new location and I'm Binnur

Of COURSE you are Binnur!!! Silly me - lack of sleep last night (we had intruders in our apartment building). You never did change the photo to do you justice though!

[Tronhard]

One more for those who like Fokker Triplanes - in classical Red Baron livery of course...

[Dave Humphries]

Excellent Trev,

I agree the RC models are harder than the real thing, for all the reasons you gave.

I particularly liked the Eindecker with the translucent (fabric) wings.

Thanks for showing how well it can be done, Dave

[Tronhard]

I just processed some images I took in the service area. Here are a couple for you keeners!


Fokker Eindecker, with pilot ready to start up!


Sadly this beautiful FW-190A had a malfunction and nose-dived into a stubble field at full power.
It was retrieved in several pieces after a bit of a search.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Stagecoach]

That's a magic series Trev.

[JBW]

Wow!

[Dave A]

Really enjoyed this series, especially the first image.

Dave

[John 2]

The dedication and attention to detail of these always amazes me. A flying Iron indicates a real knowledge of aerodynamics (or some one in a real temper). A really excellent series.

[James G]

Trevor, came to this thread a bit late bit, excellent series.

I have a habit of looking at images before I start reading, and truth be told had not realised these were model aircraft.

The Flying Iron had me totally bewildered and I was wishing I was there to see the conjunction of WW1 aircraft flying with modern. I still wish I had been there.

Having seen this type of model plane flying occasionally, I'd argue getting the shots you did is considerably more difficult that photographing the 'real thing' at an airshow.

[rpcrowe]

I would love to have been there. I plan on photographing a "real" airshow at Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar, California in September.

http://miramarairshow.com/

Thank you for posting the following:

I initially did this with a Canon 7D MkII (very new to me), with a 100-400 MKII zoom, and the 1.4xMkIII extender. I then realized that this combo would work for autofocus and metering, but ONLY in spot meter mode! I persisted but removed the extender in the end to get more focus points and thus more chance that the AI servo could track the target. So of about 900 shots I have about 300 images that would offer.

I have the same combination, 7DII and 100-400 MkII zoom. plus a 1.4x TC... I expect that the "bare" lens will have enough focal length for the full-size, real, aircraft. The aircraft will be mostly jets so I can boost up the shutter speed a bit, rather than worry about blurring the propellers as I had to do at the Planes of Fame Event...

Planes of Fame Series