Moose135

Haven't been out to CLT much the past month or so, but I took a ride down Friday afternoon to catch this Russian beast. We were camped out at the overlook next to 18C when he came in...on 18L. Another day, another Antonov. We had another An-124 arrive after sunset on Sunday, and I caught some shots as it was leaving on Monday.

No, Islander fan since they started play. I'm mostly indifferent to the NBA, but I lead towards the Nets given their Long Island roots.

I'm a Giants fan too, Joel, this year hasn't been much fun at all!

I'm a Met fan - I'm rooting for the Astros because of Chase Utley.

Like my old IP would say, it's not the plane, it's the nut holding the stick.

I don't know what he's going to do if he catches that thing!

It was a bit of an air show at CLT today. First, we had a C-17 from the Mississippi ANG depart - they arrived late Saturday afternoon and spent the night. The NC ANG wing at Charlotte will be transitioning to C-17s later this year, so this will be a more familiar sight. Next up was a 4-ship of T-38s out of the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley. They dropped in for a gas and go.

Thank you!

What an amazing experience! I went to Tellico Plains, TN, at the Cherohala Skyway Visitor Center, near the TN/NC border. I spent Sunday night in the area, and I got to the parking field around 5:30am, before they had even opened. Watched sunrise, hung out with some cool folks, and the eclipse was spectacular! It was a hot day, no clouds in the area, but as the eclipse progressed, you could feel the temperature come down some. As it reached totality, it got dark and calm. I was shooting pictures without looking at the camera, changing settings and shooting while looking at the incredible

I'm just north of totality, and will be heading to the mountains near the TN/NC border. I have a room for Sunday night (and one closer to the coast in SC, just in case of weather), and a couple of locations for Monday. I have my camera gear ready and have been testing it.

As I was about to leave work today, I checked the CLT spotters FB page, and saw an alert that a Qatar 777 was diverting due to weather in ATL. Of course I ran down to the airport. It had already landed when I got there. The ended up parking it on the south cargo ramp, something they don't often do, but I thing the main ramp must have been busy.

I gave up beer for a month once - worst 3 days of my life. ;-)

Had an old friend do the fly over at the NASCAR race last Sunday at Pocono. It's a KC-135 from the NJ ANG, which was recently painted in NATO Tiger Meet markings.

That's right! I forgot about that - I did shoot most of the "Best Of" winners on Saturday at Columbia last year.

How were they able to do that? The winners aren't announced until the banquet on Saturday night.

Not really. They have some clubs interested in 2020, but that is three years out - in the past, they normally would have announced 2019 at this year's Nats, and 2020 next year. They change procedures so someone could bid three years out, if it helped them book a place, which is why Chattanooga for 2019 was announced last year. It's not cause for concern that they don't have one yet.

Nice work! You need to do it more, you'll build up those muscles. Take a look at the Optech camera straps, they have a little stretch in them, and help save you when the camera is hanging around your neck or shoulder. I shoot with the Canon 100-400, and I always handhold for air shows.

Same here! The new Chargers look great, and perform just as well. I have a Durango - if I didn't want something I could take on some rough "roads" when out with the camera, I probably would have gotten a Charger. And as to quality, I don't see where Chrysler products are any worse than anyone else - in 3+ years, and 93K miles, the only time my Durango needed anything other than scheduled maintenance was when I hit a deer.

We had an Evelop Airlines A330-300 come in to CLT on Thursday night. They are a Spanish charter airline, and were bringing a plane load of State Farm Insurance employees back from a trip to Stockholm, Sweden.

FBF is closed, except for the NYPD Aviation Unit helicopters. The runways are still there, and to a certain degree still usable. They need to coordinate with JFK tower (among others) to operate fixed wing aircraft, as JFK is just across the bay from FBF. The Historic Aircraft Restoration Project uses a hangar to store/restore/display a number of aircraft, and the C-97 was housed there. The Berlin Airlift folks also used to keep their C-54 in the hangar for winter maintenance/storage, flying in after the show season ended in December and out again in March. I think the last time they did t

I don't know - they have been like that for the 10 years I've seen her in the hangar, they weren't recently added.

The Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, which operates the C-54 that you may have seen on the air show circuit, also owns a Boeing C-97. The C-97 has been in the HARP Hangar at Floyd Bennett Field for the past 15 years undergoing restoration. They have finally completed all the work, and are prepared to fly it out. They attempted to depart today, however an issue with one engine scrubbed the attempt. They actually taxied out to the runway ready for takeoff when they discovered the issue. If all goes well, they may try again on Thursday. Here are some photos from today's atte

All of the mainline legacy US Airways jets have been repainted, but there are still about 40 or 50 (out of 260 or so) regional jets still in US Express colors.

Here's a first pass at some photos from Maxwell AFB: The A400M crew also showed off a few tricks before the team flew.

Actually, I live in Charlotte, NC these days, so it was only a six hour drive, but worth it to see the PAF. I'll be back home on Long Island for the Memorial Day weekend air show, and we have the Thunderbirds this year, so I wouldn't have driven to Maxwell just for them. I'm downloading pictures now, and have a ton to go through, but I think I got some good shots.