Brass Bowl

The Brass Bowl took in MacDill’s Airfest 2009 on Sunday.  It started out a damp cool morning, with overcast skies and drizzle,  forcing us to take refuge in a 5 ton truck for twenty minutes early on.  But the squall line was moving fast, and it cleared up nicely in the afternoon. 

The lighting conditions for photography were problematic.  The sun, once it did come out, was shining directly into the lens on most shots.  Combined with the rapid movement of most jet aircraft,  the majority of my pictures were not worthy of posting here.  These are marginal, being off angle from the sun, but still having metering problems. 

Here an F-15 makes a high G turn, with extensive condensate due to high humidity and high G’s.  

An F-18 makes a slow roll as it passes by the crowd. 

One of my favorite aircraft of all time, a P-51D Mustang, sitting on the flightline.

A P-51D Mustang, a A-10 Thunderbolt II and an F-15 Eagle made several passes in formation. 

This was painted on the propeller of an AC-130 gunship.  I tried several times to get a picture of the guns on this aircraft, but people were enthralled by them, creating a constant crowd that blocked everything.   The AC-130 is a modified cargo aircraft with a 105mm cannon, a 40mm Bofors gun, and a 20mm Gatling gun.  Packed with sensors, it can detect targets all across the electromagnetic spectrum, including the infrared and visual spectrum’s.  It’s bad news for bad guys. 

The Thunderbirds flying F-16 Fighting Falcons.

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