Monday, March 23, 2009

Indy Transponder 23-March 0035z

Luke Air Force Base Open House by Chris H.
Spent a long, sunburn inducing day at Luke Air Force Base photographing their biennial open house.  Nightmare shooting conditions - harsh Arizona light, too much distance between media platform and flightline, lenses short about 300mm of focal length.  But, I love fast planes, so I had a great time anyway.  And I managed to salvage a couple of shots.

Air Show Continues, Includes Request From Base - KPHO Phoenix, AZ
The Luke Air Force Base Air Show 2009 will continue on Sunday and event organizers are asking spectators to refrain from bringing a couple of items along. They are asking that people leave backpacks, large bags and coolers at home. ...

Luke AFB Openhouse Air Show from Airline Pilot Central Forums by AZFlyer

Thousands turn out for Charlotte air show - Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL
Two members of the Navy Blue Angels precision-flight team perform a knife-edge pass at the Florida International Air Show at the Charlotte County Airport in Punta Gorda on Saturday. By CHRIS GERBASI Correspondent PUNTA GORDA - From people on rooftops ...

Navy Blue Angels on the runway from www.nbc-2.com
PUNTA GORDA: Sunday is the last day to see the U.S. Navy Blue Angels in action at the Florida International Air Show.
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels flew into Punta Gorda Thursday to headline the air show this weekend at Charlotte County Airport for the first time since 2005.
Chairman of the local air show Fred Buckingham said the team has been a very big part of this event. 

Air show listens, appreciates comments - Sun newspapers, FL
Donald Zawistowski noted that traffic and parking conditions at the Florida International Air Show are a problem, and air show management should fix these problems. As one of the directors on the air show, I can tell you that we are aware of the ...

Family Time at Mojave from Mojave Skies by Alan Radecki
The incoming inclement weather held off just long enough yesterday for another successful - if a bit breezy - Plane Crazy Saturday at Mojave. Antelope Valley Press aerospace reporter Allison Gatlin wrote a fantastic piece in Friday's paper about the event, and the result was a lot more families with eager young children attended. 

Open Air in Puerto Montt - ModoCharlie (Google Translator)
On March 21, as expected, held the Open Day organized by the Chilean Air Force. As mentioned in previous post, the 79th anniversary celebrations of the institution took place in Puerto Montt, specifically at the airport (and air base) The Tepual. This time, institutional facilities allowed a visit from public puertomontino and other surrounding cities. ...

Air show stops traffic - TVNZ, New Zealand
While people attending Saturday's air show at Whenuapai near Auckland thought what they saw was pretty spectacular, there are some grumbles about the traffic. There's been congestion on roads leading to the air base much of the day, with some motorists ...
  • Whenuapai Open Day 2009 - Making a Kiwi Fly
  • ... After a day in the sun, we made our way back to UFS as people fled to the carpark in the mad rush to get out. The rush to leave for GA planes was no less frantic. We sat near the plane watching the warbirds leave, and Chris took some great photos with my camera while I preflighted.  ...

Singapore Airshow Takes Flight - General * Asia * News * Story 
But barring bad weather, the only rivalry on peoples' minds will be the one between the RSAF's Black Knights and the RAAF's Roulettes. The showcase of high-speed maneuvers and screeching vertigo stunts by the latest and most powerful ...

The US Navy Legacy Flight Team and the US Air Force Heritage Flight programs have announced they will be among the 35 performing groups at the Cecil Field Air Show 2009 from 10 am to 5 pm April 18-19. Legacy will be flying an F-18 and a Corsair, ...

Crowds in the tens of thousands are expected in Mount Olive and Goldsboro the week of April 20 as, for the first time, the Wings Over Wayne air show and North Carolina Pickle Festival will be held the same weekend. Base officials estimated more than ...

'Human Red Arrows' perform displays at 13000ft - Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
A team of 'Human Red Arrows' has replicated the aerobatic feats of the RAF's display team without using planes. The skydivers leap from a plane at 13000ft equipped with wing suits and fly just inches apart as they reach speeds of up to 120mph. ...

'Going Loopy'... In Support Of Aviation Charity from Aero-News Network
Nonpilot Will Ride Along On Dozens Of Aerobatic Maneuvers United Kingdom resident Jason Phelan usually prefers his feet securely on the ground and firmly under his desk at Civil Aviation Authority HQ in Gatwick. However, in aid of aviation charity 'fly2help' he plans to see the world from a very new and unusual perspective... while working his way through as many aerobatic sequences as possible over three consecutive days.

Africa comes to Air Tattoo - Gloucestershire Echo, UK
"For more than three decades, international air arms have seen the Air Tattoo as a valuable place to meet, build relationships and exchange ideas," he said. "It's particularly pleasing when we have nations joining us for the very first time and it will ...

Night Witch over Orlampa! from Kermit's Blog by Kermit
I recently got a chance to fly our Polikarpov Po-2!  It was a Russian training plane designed as a primary trainer and has the distinction of having the longest production run in history from 1928 to 1959 with over 40,000 being built!  During the Great Patriotic War (WWII) the Russians employed a squadron of women operating these at night to harass the enemy by dropping bombs and grenades to keep them from sleeping.  They earned the nickname by their enemy as the "Nachthexen" or the "Night Witches."

Calf Combat Collage: WWII Air Battle Tattoo from Tattoos In Flight by Icarus
Illustrated here is a very colorful collage of a World War II dogfight over the Pacific between two US Navy Grumman F4F Wildcats and two Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters.  Reminiscent of the fantastic paintings and illustrations on the boxtops of plastic models in the 50's and 60's, this tattoo is very similar — close quarters [...]

Flightline II - B-19 from www.coastcomp.com
The B-19 was a mid 1930's experiment to learn about designing and building very large bombers.  It was the largest U.S. bomber before the B-36.  
Only one was built, and it was scrapped in 1949.

Zoom Shot from Air & Space Magazine

We were saddened to hear of the loss of Sparky Imeson, a well known guru of mountain flying.  The news story can be found here.
Sparky was the author of 19 books on piloting and aviation, but the most notable was the Mountain Flying Bible, in which he detailed in simple terms and easy to remember tips, the complexities of mountain flying.  Sparky's books are a must read for any GA pilot that logs even a few minutes in mountainous terrain, particularly if you do so with a normally-aspirated engine or in a taildragger.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sparky's family and friends.
The Indy Transponder would like to add there heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of Sparky.

A glitch with the space urine recycler aboard the International Space Station on Sunday delayed a vital test for a system that converts astronaut urine back into drinking water.
Mission Control detected a lower than expected liquid flow into a urine processor as they attempted to recycle a batch of astronaut urine into pure drinking water in a test. The unexpected glitch initially forced astronauts to call off the attempt. ...

Virgin Galactic Ramps Up To Begin American, European Space Flights from Aero-News Network
Suborbital Jaunts From New Mexico To Start In 2011, One Year Later From Sweden Last week Virgin Galactic announced the names of the five travel companies who will train to become "Accredited Space Agents" - ASAs - the first agents in Scandinavia allowed to reserve seats aboard suborbital space flights from Spaceport Sweden, slated to begin in 2012.

WK2 videos from RLV and Space Transport News
Rob Coppinger has posted several video clips of the first flight of the WhiteKnightTwo on December 21, 2008: VIDEO: 12 weeks after first flight only Hyperbola has WK2 video - Hyperbola
Below is a YouTube video of the second flight on February 5th :

Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart engaged from Zap2it.com - Television News 
Ford proposed over Valentine's weekend 
They've been together for more than seven years, and now Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart are engaged to be married.

Gleaned from the Nordo news letter this weekend.
About to lose Beautiful Grass Airstrip in Harpswell, Maine
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61644&id=1422121643&l=97ca5
(ME33) Farr Field is about to be sold and turned into someones waterfront 
home. I will have to sign an easement shortly to grant access to this property in order for sale to go through. [more]

From Widescreenstuff

Picture of the Week: AVweb's Flying Photography Showcase from www.avweb.com
Air Force Armament Museum/Battle of Cowpens/Florida Ranger Camp photos from Military Photos by Currahee 1SG
bangalore air show vertical climb  by vibhorj (vibhorj)
Luke Days Air Show  by Paulie420 

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