After a night of rest,  and Little Dude spending the night with Gramie, Mama and Papa pilot load up and fly over to KHIO for the day. This weekend is the Oregon International Airshow.  Papa pilot is a photographer and cinematographer and is planning on doing a photo shoot with AceMaker in the T-33 VAL-HALLA a P-51 from the Heritage Flight Museum, and Oregon Air National Guard’s 75th anniversary F-15 from the 173 fighter Squadron. To help us with our shoot, Bo Driver is coming up from California in his Bonanza, and he will serve as the lead formation pilot for our Bonanza.

Hanging out at an airshow is a really fun and unique experience, and from this perspective it’s a behind the scenes view of the inner workings of an airshow. One gets to see tons of different airplanes and meet lots of interesting people and its an amazing experience to see all that goes into the making of an airshow. To help Papa Pilot with the camera work Le Pousser has driven down from KBLI. The photo team in complete!  To get the photos and videos we need a clear open view, so the back doors of the Bonanza are removed (one of the main reasons we purchased an A-36). The Photographers in the back sit on the floor harnessed in to take the photos.

After meeting up with Acemaker and the pilot of VAL-HALLA  a plan is created for our first of two shoots for today. The first shoot is planned as a transit between KHIO and KPDX, and a formation currency flight for AceMaker.  After a full briefing and a complete plan in place for our shoot/transit we take off from KHIO and and rejoin with the T-33 and P-51 off our right wing. It’s a relatively short distance between KHIO and KPDX so there’s not much time to shoot, but, we were able to make some nice images of these two planes together.  Mama Pilot has the incredible opportunity to ride in Val-Halla, and Papa Pilot was only slightly jealous…

We drive over to the 142nd Fighter Squadron from Atlantic Aviation to discuss the 2nd air-to-air shoot with the OANG F-15 team.This experience is very rare, and as we walk into base ops our excitement really increases as this is “really going to happen”. What a great group of people is all I can say.  We conducted our briefing in the flight planning area within base ops, and then it is time for a tour of our subject.  The F-15 we will be shooting has been painted as an eagle to celebrate the 75 anniversary, and it’s really a sight to behold. After our tour, it’s time for Role Call, a USAF tradition, and we came prepared with a bottle of whiskey for the squadron. Shorty after, it’s time to head back to Atlantic and calm the nerves before we part on this shoot.  There are lots of moving parts, and everything has to come together  just perfectly for this to work- planning and experience are KEYs to a successful mission.

Our plan is take off towards Mt. Hood well in advance of the P-15, T-33, and F-15 because we have a slight speed deficit.  It’s a beautiful Oregon evening, and the stoic Mt. Hood is as Iconic as ever.  We establish in our orbit, and the first plane to rejoin with us was the F-15.  WOW!!!  Usually being intercepted by an F-15 is a really bad thing, but, today it was one of the most exciting times of my life and the Eagle driver brought his A game.  After some maneuvering we capture it! A T-33, P-51 and F-15 flying in formation with an iconic PNW mountain in the backdrop. The shoot is complete and we make our way back in the bonanza to land during the show at KHIO. Mission complete. Of course this is a very simplified version of events. Coordination for air to air shoots is very precise and well planned.

Everyone is off to rest, and Mama and Papa Pilot have plans to head back to KBDN the next day.

 

If you want to see more of Papa Pilots awesome work visit: www.airtoairphotography.com or follow him on instagram at @airtoairphoto.