A Quiet Airshow???

[rpcrowe]

No that's not an oxymoron I shot the meeting of the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego, the largest radio controlled electrically powered model airplane club in the country...

1. These rather large model aircraft are totally electrically powered. Even the jets have electric fan engines. There are many aircraft that are replicas of commercial airplanes and of warbirds. This father and son team are working on a replica of the Navy F4U Corsair of WW-2 and Korean Conflict vintage...


2. This is not an easy event to shoot because when the planes are off in the distance, they are too small for even a 400mm lens on a crop camera to get a decent image size. When the planes are close, they are really close and both the prop aircraft and the jets are traveling at high speeds.


3-4. Some of the planes did acrobatics...




5-6. Others like this Junkers 87 Stuka dropped bombs filled with talcum powder. I spoke to the owner and mentioned that the normal delivery of the bomb from the Stuka was done while the plane was in almost a vertical dive. He said that he knew that but was not going to risk an expensive model airplane for the sake of historical accuracy




7-8. all in all it was a fun morning and I will share my images with the club members which should pave the way for more visits...




There is always something to shoot in the San Diego Area...

[FootLoose]

Impressive images, Richard. What kind of speeds do these aircraft get up to?

[Rick50]

Yes, very impressive shooting. Just great!

[mugge]

They are just great.
Cheers Ole

[JBW]

talk to the Stuka pilot about putting in aito dive pull out mechanism like the originals had. And great shots

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[rpcrowe]

Just like we consider the equivalent focal length on crop sensor bodies, they consider equivalent speeds for their aircraft. The replica aircraft can travel an equivalent of several hundred miles an hour. There are racing aircraft which are virtually flying wings with pusher propellers that fly even faster.

These darn things are a lot smaller than the replica planes and more difficult to shoot. IMO, they are not quite as photogenic in the air either so, I didn't do a lot of shooting of these races...





There is no way that I could have followed these fast planes flying so close to me if I used a tripod or monopod - even with a gimbal. However, my arms and shoulders got quite a workout shooting with my 7D Mark II and 100-400mm f.4.5-5.6L IS II lens which is a pretty heavy package to be swinging around as fast as I did when following these model aircraft.

It was a lot more tiring that shooting real airshows or even the Red Bull Air Races at San Diego Bay or the Blue Angels practice at El Centro California. My arms and shoulders are a bit sore this morning. I think that I might just use the rig I originally fabricated for long lenses the next time I shoot this event.





I might even consider modifying this mount to hold two cameras and shoot with the 6D2 wearing a 70-200mm lens and the 7D2 wearing the 100-400mm. I could boresight these cameras so that the 6D2 would cover just about the same viewpoint as the 7D2. I would then view through the 7D2 and control the cameras individually with wired remotes taped to each grip. I might even put a 1.4x TC on the 100-400mm lens. That might even work for some other fast moving sports shooting.

Another addition which I did not take with me is my Topcon sports finder.



I once frequently used this finder when I shot with a 400mm prime lens. I could more easily locate my subject against a plain background such as the sky (for planes) or ocean (for surfers). Since I have been using the 100-400mm zoom lens, I would just zoom back to 100mm to locate my subject and then zoom in. So I stopped carrying the sportsfinder. However, I found that with these small planes traveling so fast, finding the subject with a shorter focal length and then zooming in was too slow.

[Donald]

As others have said, Richard, they are mighty fine images. I am sure you would be guaranteed a welcome back from the members. Indeed, this could be a very lucrative market for you. I am sure the owners would love to have a top quality image of their plane.

[rpcrowe]

Donald, Thanks... I never thought of making money this way. It is a good idea and I will test the water on it. I could have the "pilot" fly the plane at my direction to get the very best shots. I would also like a cloud filled sky.

In playing around with my various setups, it "seems" that my 6D2 with the battery grip is an easier package to swing around, using the relatively heavy 100-400 Mk.II lens, than when I have the lens mounted on the 7D2 without a battery grip. Although the battery grip package is a bit heavier in total, it "seems" to balance better. I placed the quotation marks around the word "seems" because I would not be able to really ascertain which rig is easier to use until I have been swinging the battery gripped rig for a couple of hours. I ended up quitting the shoot because my arms and shoulders were beginning to give out.