Show 4, post 1: Pre-show thoughts
Oshkosh, this is a big one! Over 10,000 aircraft and 500,000 aviation nerds! It is a weeklong event, I’ll be there from Wednesday to Sunday. That’s still 5 days of shooting aircraft of all types. From home built aircraft to the US newest 5th Generation fighter, the F-35. I’ve never been to Oshkosh and have no idea what to expect. There will be tons of stories and images from this event. I have been writing them down all my ideas so I do not forget them.
There is going to be a lot of warbirds I have not seen there. Hoping to see and shoot some unique images. I rented some gear for this event, Canons 50 megapixel monster, the 5DSR along with the 100-400mm MKII from LenRental.com. I’ll be using the 5DSR with my 500mm F/4.5 as my main body and my 7D MKII with the 100-400mm MKII as my 2nd body.
This list of events was posted over on the Warbird Information Exchange forum(WIX) by “BK”.
-75th Doolittle Raid Anniversary: “just under 16 B-25s confirmed” still hoping to get 16. Sun-Mon arrival, fly Tuesday will land and be lined up as if on the Hornet in Warbird Alley. Wed night will launch (7:45pm) as if on the Hornet in rapid succession. I assume no 500ft take-offs. 🙂 At 8pm the B-25s will “light up the skies,” with 96 shots of pyro!
-75th anniversary of 8th Air Force/70th anniversary USAF: Saturday B-1, B-2, & B-52 formation pass at 3:30pm, the B-1, B-2, B-52 will also make single ship passes. Followed closely by 2 B-29s, 2 B-17s, B-24(“we may have a B-24 on board now”), flight of B-25s, & A-20. Collings are in Chicago that weekend.
-The B-1B that is static for the week will also be the one flying during the week. Arrival Monday at 2:30pm, will fly during the Wed night show, then fly again during “Bomber day” Sat. B-2 is flyover only Sat. Two B-52s – one static, one for the Sat. flyover.
-Two F-22s will arrive Friday will stay the weekend. KC-135 arrives Tue. will be static rest of the week. Two Navy P-8s, one on display early in the week and open for tours Tue-Wed. This P-8 departs Thurs morning with another P-8 arriving Thurs afternoon.
-F-35 Heritage Flight arrival Mon., none static, several A-10s Heritage Flight and static. Composite Heritage Flight F-35, A-10 and 2 P-51s. Wed. & Sat. 122nd FW Indiana ANG two A-10s demo with pyro.
-RAF A-400M arrives morning and departs during airshow on Wed. will do a couple of flybys on departure.
-Mystery flyover Wed. and maybe Tue as well at the start of the airshow. “Lots of moving parts required.” Requires a tanker with people coming from far away. “If it works it’s gonna be awesome.”
-F-18s, F-16s Wisconsin ANG, Army Chinooks and Apaches.
– B-29s (Doc/Fifi) flying Tue, Fri & Sat., Doc on the plaza all week, Fifi on the plaza and selling rides in Appleton. YL-15 on the plaza, Scaled Composites Proteus, F-86A oldest flying jet, 2 P-47s from TN, Collings Mark IX Spitfire w/116 combat missions, recently restored SBD, CAF P-63, A-20, C-123 used as a stage for the honor flight/veteran parade.
-Blue Origin will have a space flown booster rocket on display as well as the capsule (open for tours) they plan to use for space tourism.
-Wed 30m warbird airshow display “fighters,” Thurs. jet warbirds, Fri. 60m warbird show w/B-29s, A-20 is flying in Tue., Fri., and Sat. warbird show.
-Sun. NASA T-38 and CAF P-63 in NACA scheme will fly together.
As you can see, there is going to be a shit load of awesomeness happening at Oshkosh this year.
An Adventure in Awesome 