Hard to capture too much excitement but when you are near these big guys there is a surprising amount of exhilaration and acceleration (they can start and stop on a dime and unload a huge cargo in a blink of an eye). The C-17s put on an fascinating display at the Elmendorf Air Force base open house for us every other year. Yesterday evening, while preparing for this weekend's Arctic Thunder show, one of these guys crashed with all aboard (4) perished. These displays are not without risk, even for the less glamorous aircraft.
From Arctic Thunder 2008
Bad head angle but wanted to show the cargo hold and tail markings.
iso 400, 285 mm, f/13 (what was I thinking?) 1/500 sec
I have seen these display and there is a move called the drifting turn, where the tail slides I have a fear this is the move that went wrong during practise.
Nice pic, looks under exposed to me and that you had to do quite alot with it to get the darks out? Nice and Sharp :)
Indeed, it did come across rather dark; I'll work on trying to get a bit more detail. My C-17 library is a bit limited and in light of the crash I was trying to find something appropriate and this is what I came up with. I'll try to improve this weekend if the show happens.
you arent going to find out exactly what happened. rest assured of that. i'm sure that the authorities knew exactly what happened as soon as it happened, but you and i wont find out! it is ashame and i hate it when that happens. i spoke to my cousin this morning who works on the hornets and he said they are waiting on the third one. really nervous. these things happen in threes and there have already been two this week.
i'm hoping it all works out for you this weekend. good luck!!
The Air Force has decided to go ahead with the show so my luck is good so far. It has been hard to work this afternoon as the sky has been buzzing with snowbirds, Blue Angels (up again as I type), and raptors. I probably should have tried to get on the base to photograph the practice as the weather was better today than the projections for the weekend. Rain or just gray, still should be fun.