Speed and Sport Journal

The JATO

December 15, 2013
by joel

Everyone’s excited about the return of the military jet demonstration teams to the airshow circuit for the 2014 season. After a years absence, most photographers I know are ready for their return. Some are already planning their schedules around shows they will perform at.

I personally welcome the return, however having shot them so many times over the years, they will not be a deciding factor as to what events I attend.

Excitement aside, there is one element of the of the military teams performance that is gone forever never to return. That is the JATO performed by the Blue Angels C130 Fat Albert.

For those of you who never got to see this, here is a brief explanation. The acronym (JATO) stands for jet assisted takeoff. This is a means of lifting aircraft off of very short air strips in the minimum amount of distance. It is accomplished by attaching canisters containing rocket propellant to racks mounted on the sides of the planes fuselage. These canisters known as JATO bottles are triggered by the pilot when the correct takeoff speed is reached. Once fired the bottles provide jet force lift to turboprop and heavy jet aircraft. They remain on for a short time until they exhaust their fuel.

It is a truly amazing site to see as heavy aircraft are launched into the air in this manner. It would be nice to see it once again, but the cost, logistics, and lack of serviceable JATO bottles makes this a near impossibility.

Photo Stories: Used Bikes

When you shoot pro motorcycle racing, you are use to seeing shiny new bikes in pristine condition. At the pro level teams have spare parts to replace any that are damaged in practice or qualifying. At the semi pro and amateur ranks however, things are quite different. Small teams on small budgets don’t have the resources the pro’s have. Improvisation is the name of the game for them, and duct tape is there best friend. It makes for some very creative looking bikes.

This second shot is one of the most creative uses of duct tape I have ever seen. See if you can spot all the pieces applied to various parts of this bike.

Photo Stories: On the Edge

We airshow photographers love shots with vapor. Give us jet aircraft on a humid day, and we’re poised and ready. Vapor normally occurs when the aircraft reach speeds around 400 mph, and conditions are right. The amount of vapor depend on moister content in the air, and the make up of the plane. Jets with broad wing surfaces tend to develop more vapor and at lower speeds than others. Either way the effect is quite dramatic.

Lots of vapor at the morning practice for the 2010 Gary Airshow.

There is another type of shot that to me is more impressive. This shot can only be achieved when the aircraft is right on the edge of breaking the sound barrier. Without getting into the physics of it, this happens at the speed Mach 1.0 (between 662 – 760 mph) depending on weather conditions. When light is right you can see the shockwave created by the plane. I have captured this effect twice here is one of those shots, from 2010 at the Quad City Airshow.

Shockwave from Superhornet at 2010 Quad City Airshow.

2013 SCCA Blackhawk Valley Regional

It felt good to be at trackside again. This was the feeling I had as I completed the first event of my season. When you near the end of a season, you are a bit fatigued and looking forward to a break. However after two or more months of down time, and computer work that feeling fades fast. At this point you are anxious to get out and shoot again.

The event just completed was an SCCA double regional event with points scored towards the national standings. Most of SCCA’s 29 classes of competition were on hand. This particular event comprises the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Blackhawk regions. Together this covers half of Wisconsin and Illinois. Turnout for this event always seems to be high. This is probably due to the area covered, and that it is most competitors first chance of the year to go racing again in the Midwest.

I enjoy the variety of cars and people you find at these gatherings. You will find the one car one man operation, the family operation, and the multi car full crew operation. You won’t find any big prize money, or sponsorships. So what makes these men and women go through the effort of hauling a car across state for these events? They all are there for one reason, the love of racing.

The number and variety of cars range from old to new, and the number of them is amazing. From spec classes of a single type, to classes with multiple types, you will see a bit of everything.

Poplar Grove Wings and Wheels Festival

While preparing my schedule for 2013, I had already decided as far back as November that my airshow schedule would be quite different from past years. Even before sequestration, I was planning to skip many of the large shows I would usually attend in favor of smaller ones. The primary reason, variety. I felt the small shows would provide unique and rare aircraft that normally does not get booked into large shows. For me this worked out quite well. I was able to get up close to, and meet the people who own and fly these great old aircraft.

Stearman's starting up for formation flight. — Stearman’s starting up for formation flight.

Poplar Grove’s Vintage Wings and Wheels Festival was a perfect example of just such a show. Vintage aircraft flying and on display, as well as vintage cars and tractors.

It’s not often you get five or six Stearmans in one place, and flying formation. Also in attendance were WACO, Fleet, Pietenpol, a and Bird BK among others.

Daniel W Helsper spent ten years building this Pietenpol Aircamper.

With the a fair amount of old cars and tractors included, it was a day well spent. For me this kind of up close and low key show is a joy to shoot. The ability to get close and interact with the people who love these machines adds a lot to the experience. This show and others like will be a priority for me going into next year.

1928 ord Model A Pick Up. — 1928 Ford Model A Pick Up.

From automobiles to aircraft, Packard made some of the finest engines of the day.

A pair of vintage Allis - Chalmers tractors. — A pair of vintage Allis – Chalmers tractors.

Crosses

Try not to get cross with me if I get you crossed up with this post. In Airshow language it might be the the high speed cross, the knife edge cross, the double cross, or the switch blade cross. Whatever you call it it is one of the most eliciting maneuvers performed by military or civilian aerobatic teams.

The illusion of two or more aircraft on a collision course and narrowly missing one another by mere feet always draws gasp, then applause from the audience. But it is just that an illusion. These pilots are not dare devils, or reckless individuals. In fact just the opposite. They are highly trained and skilled aviators doing what they are good at. But still we will leave the average Airshow spectator with their illusion, it excites them and makes them come back for more.

Golden Age of Sports Cars

May 26, 2013
by joel

Today if you were to ask someone to name a sports car, the names you would get are, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Maserati just to name a few. These super expensive, limited production, state of the art machines however can only be possessed by the wealthiest individuals. For those of us of more modest income, we may be able to purchase the cars on the lower end of the range price wise. This would include the Corvette, SRT Viper, and some Porsche models. The other thing to consider is these machines are made by multi million dollar corporations. Utilizing state of the art computers and design tools.

What we refer to in the golden age of sports cars, are cars that were modified or built by individuals and partnerships. Some were modified versions of production cars, but quite a few were purpose built from the ground up as race cars. This was at a time when speed and form began to merge, and rudimentary understanding of aerodynamics was beginning to enter into racing. Most were funded by wealthy individuals interested in, or planning to race themselves. Quite often these same individuals would then move on to other interest, selling or storing these great machines. As a result few of them were built, and even fewer still exist.

Attending the Spring Vintage Weekend at Road America provides an excellent opportunity to see these cars do what they were made for, race. Members of the SVRA always put on a good display of rare automobiles in true racing form. In just two years this has become one of my favorite events. You just never know what gem you will see there.

joel

Photo of the Month April

Starting this month we will try something new. A photo of the month feature. This will not take the form of a normal monthly photo, as it will be either a single shot or sequence of shots showing an event, and telling the story behind it.

APR Audi R8 first makes with TRG Porsche 911 RSR. — APR Audi R8 first makes contact with TRG Porsche 911 RSR.

We will start things off with a bang. We’re at the 2012 Rolex Grand-AM race at Road America. I was shooting from the inside of turn eight at the time. On the first lap I noticed quite a bit of contact among the GT class cars as they came through this turn. On the next lap, the number 67 TRG Porsche 911 attempts to pass APR’s Audi R8 on the outside. The Audi locked up the brakes in an effort to slow down enough to not drift wide in the turn. It did not work, and resulted in the Audi climbing up the left front fender of the Porsche. The Audi spun around in front of the porsche, and into a gravel trap. However he was able to turn around and continue. The Porsche was not to fare so well. Due to suspension damage from the incident, he only made it through the next turn before something broke sending him into the retaining wall. The Audi finished the race with only cosmetic damage.

APR's Audi R8 climbs up the left side of TRG Porsche. — APR’s Audi R8 climbs up the left side of TRG Porsche.

Aftermath of contact in turn eight with TRG Porsche.

The Coming Airshow Season

With sequestration being all the talk of the airshow industry, I believe some very important points are being overlooked. It would seem, judging by popular belief, that you can’t hold an airshow unless you have a military jet team. I guess we have been spoiled having had the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, and ACC demos for so many years. Now might be the time to take a step back and give some thought to just what makes an airshow. Truth is airshows began and evolved long before the first jet aircraft was invented or flown.

Let’s go back in time. It is late 1918 early 1919. The first ever professional pilots are coming home from World War I. The military still not completely sold on the strategic value of aviation, is all too eager to get rid of many of the aircraft in their inventory. Many pilots are able to buy the planes they flew in combat for very little money. Now, with flying skills, an airplane, and no real market for either what are they to do?

Some find work as crop dusters, and some carrying mail. Air mail was still in it’s infancy (having just been started by the U.S. Post office), and there was only so much crop dusting work to be done. This left a lot of planes and pilots with no real marketable skill.

It was then that some took to barn storming just to earn gas and a little pocket money. They would often show up unannounced, land in a farm field near a town, and find a kid to go to town and announce their arrival. Informing the towns people, (many who had never seen a real airplane) they would be performing daring aerobatic feats for just a nickel. I can’t help but think that the excitement those people felt at the time, was the same we feel seeing the high speed jets of today.

While there may not be as many, or any jets at airshows this year, the airshow will still go on. The form may be a bit different, but the essence of what airshows began as will still be present. So think of this season as a chance to take a closer look at the aerobatic acts we kinda took for granted at previous shows. The level of performance and skill these men and women exhibit, has it’s roots in the original barnstorming days.

If we were to have no jet teams for 2013, what can we look forward to? Airshows to put it simply. Fewer of them, and most with more variety than they have had in past years. Great aerobatic performances, and a lot of very cool and rare warbirds.

Come to think of it taking a year off from shooting the same jets we have been shooting for years is probably a good thing. If you are just a fan of your local airshow, then Chicken Little is right, your sky is falling. However if you are a true lover of aviation and airshows, you will have no problem finding good things to shoot this year.

Joel Love

New Events

It won’t be long before the new event season will here. While parts of my 2013 schedule are still in a state of flux, I thought it might be a good time to talk about something that I do every year.

Every year I make it a point to try to shoot something new or different. I haven’t decided yet what that will be for 2013, but for last year it worked extremely well.

The first new event for me last year was the ISOC Snocross finals in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. If you have never seen it, it is like AMA Motocross, but with snowmobiles. It is quite a site to see, especially if it’s your first time. The way the course is laid out it provides for a number of different angles and view points for the photographer or spectator. Like most events fo this type, there are different classes of competition base on size and power of vehicles. This makes it an all day event, with lots of shot opportunities.

Oh, in case you were wondering, the people in the background are wearing shorts and T shirts. We had uncommonly warm weather for a March weekend, it was 83 degrees.

My second new event was vintage auto racing. The VSCDA Spring Vintage Weekend at Road America, was my best surprise of the year. I was blown away by the number and quality of vehicles present. From the 1920s to the 1990s, American to European, well known to extremely rare, there was no shortage truly amazing vehicles.

This is already on my calendar for this 2013, and is one of the events I am most looking forward to this year.

joel

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