As I mentioned in an earlier post, the MV-22s participated in the MCAS Miramar Open House MAGTF demonstration. While their ability to take-off, hover, rotate around and land like a helicopter is impressive, watching them crank by in a high-speed pass is equally impressive. Mainly it's those humongous prop blades that amaze me.
The one thing that bothers me about the Osprey, though, is the size and vulnerability of those props. That's a lot of real estate whirling about out there like a big flashing target. A couple of rounds fired into the propeller arc would make for a bad situation really fast. I don't care how well the MV-22 can fly in a simulated engine-out emergency, it's another story when one side is shot up and the damaged blades cause huge vibration problems that will violently shake the nacelle and vehicle. Think of an improperly loaded washing machine in spin cycle. I'm sure a lot of survivability studies have been done and my worries are overblown, but I can't help but feel really nervous about that.
Media Day and MCAS Miramar also saw the arrival of several aircraft for static display. Fixed wing aircraft tended to stay on the taxiway and head east to other spots on the ramp. Fortunately, the rotary wing aircraft chose to park near the press site.
These two Bell-made helicopters from MCAS Camp Pendleton were among them. Leading the way was an AH-1Z Viper (also known as a Zulu Cobra) from HMLAT-303. Close behind was a UH-1Y Venom (also called Yankee Huey) from the same training squadron.
In a neat coincidental juxtaposition, a pre-World War II era Ryan PT-22 has just landed and can be seen in the background.
I particularly enjoyed taking these shots, especially being able to get in tight with the telephoto and the resulting compression. It makes for a nicely dramatic image. Fortunately I had it slow enough to get some rotor blur. There is just enough motion to make the photo dynamic and alive.
Well, I thought I'd try something new and see if I can get videos to work on the blog, too. As you can see, the day was gorgeous once the clouds burned off enough from MCAS Miramar and we were allowed to take-off. A lot of low clouds remained, which added a lot of neat texture to the landscape as we flew over. It was slow, leisurely and wonderful!
Some days it's good to go to work. I was on assignment today doing photo coverage of the pre-Open House media event at MCAS Miramar and several of us were given a ride in a Polish-built, 1947-era Russian transport/passenger aircraft.
The An-2, NATO code name Colt, is the world's largest single-engine bi-plane. Not only did I get to ride in it, but the pilot, Bob Cable, let us all rotate through and sit in the right seat during part of our flight around the San Diego area.
Not very luxurious on the inside, ungainly looking on the outside and very noisy and very, very slow, the Colt was a blast nonetheless! I'd ride in it again in a New York minute.
On a side note, some photographers seek out and get the fast jet rides. I must be trying to corner the market on the slow movers. I've ridden the Goodyear blimp (and got to pilot it for a few minutes), the Stout Bushmaster 2000 (the 1950s updated version of the Ford Trimotor) and now the An-2. A speed demon I'm not, although those who ride with me in my car may beg to differ.
An An-2 used to frequent the early days of the Hawthorne Air Faire. The amazing thing about the Colt was there seemed to be very little difference between its high-speed pass and low-speed pass. And it took forever to fly the pattern. We all swore the Goodyear blimp was faster.
In reality the top speed is about 160 mph and landing speed (stall speed) is around 35-40 mph. But is sure seemed like there was no difference in top and bottom performance when it did its routine. It just flew S-L-O-W.
A semi-humorous side note occurred when we were crawling through the airplane while we were on the ground waiting for the weather to clear so we could fly: a young woman - she looked like a mid-twenty-something - was doing a running commentary while her friend filmed her. There was a portrait of an old man in the cabin and she found his big moustache fascinating. She jokingly referred to the portrait as a photo of her grandfather. She was somewhat chagrined when she was told it was a photo of Josef Stalin.
At least she knew who Stalin was, even if she'd never seen a picture of him. Ah, youth.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the MV-22s participated in the MCAS Miramar Open House MAGTF demonstration. While their ability to take-off, hover, rotate around and land like a helicopter is impressive, watching them crank by in a high-speed pass is equally impressive. Mainly it's those humongous prop blades that amaze me.
