MCAS Miramar (Top Gun) - AirShow

[Chris Dodkin]

Spent 4 hrs in a queue on Saturday, and failed to get in, so I set off at 7am on Sunday, and got pole position at the front of the viewing area!

MCAS Miramar was the Top Gun flight school from the movie, and has a huge annual airshow.

Weather was terrible - with low cloud and fog until lunchtime, and after that it eventually brightened up to allow some actual flying!

Even so, visibility was not as good as I'd like, but I did get some nice captures of the action.

Taking off in the fog to check cloud levels

Low level pass

Finally some sunshine! The Blue Angels taxi for takeoff

Steep angle of climb on take-off

Wingtip to wingtip gap was just 18 inches!

Demo of a 'carrier' take-off

The latest 'Raptor' shows off it's concealed weapons bay

Heritage Flight

Insane inverted formation

Blue Angels Diamond

Blue Angles 4 abreast fly-by

'Fat Albert" transport flies the flag

Just off the deck at around 600 mph!

 

[Vic Shaw]

Nice set Chris and really show off the precision flying of these guys. Just looking at the spacing in the Blue Angels Diamond, it's pretty much inch perfect. The only thing I would say is there needs to be more prop blur on the P51. The P51 looks like a two seater too, maybe you could get a ride in it

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Vic - I was battling all day with hand holding the 300 with 2x, and having enough shutter speed to keep everything sharp - just couldn't drop it enough for the prop blur on the Mustang.

Now if I'd had my tripod and gimbal mount....

Maybe I'll fake it in Photoshop

 

[Vic Shaw]

Well I guess you did have a bit of a task on your hands then