Cocoa Beach Air Show

EricD · Oct 5, 2009

Stopped by the Air Show this weekend and caught some cool action...Hornet F-16 was the best!

Hornet was bad ass!! You could feel the thrust in your chest when he flew by.

By the looks of those vapors coming of the wings and cock pit i think he was close to breaking the sound barrier,...but had to back off since Cocoa wouldn't let them hit the barrier speed

Smaller Jets....

Thinking these were Black Hawks....

pharmakon · Oct 5, 2009

Beautiful pictures. Wish I didn't have to work this past weekend... would have liked to catch it myself.

altitude604 · Oct 6, 2009

some great shots there!

just the aviation geek in me for this part though: F-18 Hornet... and the vapour is just caused by the moisture in the air condensing as it accelerates off of the lift generating surfaces or vortice generators. you can seem them generated on some prop aircraft around their engines during certain atmospheric conditions as well.

EricD · Oct 6, 2009

altitude604 said:
some great shots there!

just the aviation geek in me for this part though: F-18 Hornet... and the vapour is just caused by the moisture in the air condensing as it accelerates off of the lift generating surfaces or vortice generators. you can seem them generated on some prop aircraft around their engines during certain atmospheric conditions as well.

Yes..I my bad, indeed a F-18!

scubabear6 · Oct 6, 2009

Great Shots Eric!!! Yes those are BlackHawk Helicopters, very nice copter to ride in. I love the U.S.Army Golden Knight Parachutist and the old Sabers great old jet.:thumbup:

polymoog · Oct 6, 2009

Really great shots, nice and sharp

What ISO / shutter speed / F did you use?

EricD · Oct 6, 2009

polymoog said:
Really great shots, nice and sharp What ISO / shutter speed / F did you use?

Thanks...Nikkor lens 200-400M F4 Lens with a 1.4X t.c.

ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/2000 sec ,,,sometimes 1/2500 sec
Aperture:F6.3 or F8 depending on the situation,

PushingTin · Oct 7, 2009

Great jet photos but with props you need to use a much slower shutter speed to capture prop movement.

Looks like a great event to attend...

Jim Stafford · Oct 7, 2009

Great shots Eric. It was interesting to see you outside of the nature arena. You have got some fantastic skills. To second the comment on the vapor trails, you can get them off the wing of a race car also. Fantastic shot though. Great stuff as allways.

EricD · Oct 7, 2009

PushingTin said:
Great jet photos but with props you need to use a much slower shutter speed to capture prop movement.

Looks like a great event to attend...

Thanks...I was trying to freeze the props on the copter however. I did get a few a slower shutter speeds,...but i like the way these came out.

Phranquey · Oct 7, 2009

PushingTin said:
Great jet photos but with props you need to use a much slower shutter speed to capture prop movement.

My exact thoughts as I was looking at the photos. They look great, but props & rotary-wings need some movement, otherwise they look like they are ready to fall out of the sky....

aerialphoto · Oct 7, 2009

PushingTin said:
Great jet photos but with props you need to use a much slower shutter speed to capture prop movement.

Looks like a great event to attend...

My comments as well. 1/2000 on propeller driven aircraft is way too fast. I use 1/400-1/500 at the very most when using a 300+TC combo.

That doesn't ruin the images of course, it's just a comment

I've found it's fairly difficult (for me) to hand-hold and get really good blur with large helicopters, given the choice between possibly blurring everything and freezing the rotors, I'd opt for the latter. It all 'depends' though

Flower Child · Oct 9, 2009

You have some excellent shots here. The 4th is great because it gives you that sense of motion and action. The 3rd and 4th in from the bottom are especially great. Actually seeing those people in the army helicopter really add a lot.

Lsmith · Aug 11, 2010

These pictures are amazing! What camera did you use? Have you tried the Nikon DSLR series yet?

Cheers

____________________________________________
-Larry
Nikon D90
Hotels Cocoa Beach
Cocoa Beach

gardy90 · Aug 13, 2010

nice shots, very crisp, i will second the notion to slow the shutter speed to get that motion blur, my only other gripe is that's a F/A 18 Hornet, not an F-16, the F-16 has only one engine and is operated by the USAF as seen here...

love your shots though, wish our airshow here wasent so overcast and rainy...

ooh and the vapor trails coming off of the wings is from a High G turn, breaking the sound barrier would see vapor starting at the nose of the aircraft and moving twards the rear in a cone shape