Scratch another off the list......

So, everyone has some kind of list of things they want to do, right?

Places you want to visit, books you want to read, concerts you want to go to, ect ect.

I have a list too, but it's about cars. I've got a list of cars I want to see and shoot, and, ever since being blown past one of the Autobahn nearly twenty years ago, I have always wanted to get up close and personal with a truly hot redhead.

Ladies and boys......the Ferrari F40.

Slick and low.

She gets wider towards the rear. But it makes for a nice view.

You TELL me that's not sexy!

After shooting the best Ferrari ever made, I spontaneously popped into Fantasy of Flight as I was about to pass it on I-4. I forgot it was a WASP visit day, and cursed when I ran into "Betty" Wall in the foyer, since I had just literally finished reading her book the day before. If I had meant to go to FOF and remembered the WASPs were going to be there, I'd have brought it for her to sign.

So, since next weekend kicks off Airshow season, I decided to fire off some shots and calibrate my timing (I shoot everything manually, not in AutoFocus, like everyone else seems to do these days.)
Since I had just shot the ride of the recurring Napkins character when I shot the F40, I was pleased to see the Stearman in the scheme I had chosen for her aircraft flying about, and of course shot her.

The Boeing Stearman PT-17 takes off.

Kermit takes the Curtiss TP-40N up for the Flight of the Day

Glamour Pass

High Speed Pullup.

After the TP-40N's demonstration, I headed over to the Florida Air Museum, which was my original secondary destination for the day, as they recently finished a repaint on their T-33A and acquired a retired C-47A.
They have also moved most of my favorite aircraft at the museum (more about that in the next blog) out of the hangars in preparation for Sun n Fun, which presented opportunities for some fun shots.

The Grumman F-14D-R Super Tomcat does some sunbathing.

The new look of the Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star. I don't like it, but then again, they didn't ask me.

After asking about the C-47A at the Museum's front desk, where it took a while to explain the aircraft I meant (Seriously, I know they're volunteers, but why work at an aircraft museum if you don't know a damned thing about aircraft??), I found out that the C-47A was off across a taxiway in a non-public part of the airport.
But damnit, I wanted my shots, and I grew up around airfields. I know how to keep my head on swivel for approaching aircraft.
So I hopped the fence, sprinted across the taxiway, and snuck across the field to shoot the symbol of early commercial aviation.

Sitting pretty


Graceful lines

while shooting a survey crew showed up and mentioned I probably shouldn't be there. I finished getting the shots I wanted and was back over the fence and had slipped into the rental car before airport security showed on the scene.

I headed back out front and shot two of the unique birds that the Florida Air Museum somehow got ahold of.

This is the Lockheed XFV-1 Salmon, a tail sitter and very rare.

This bird, though in pitiful condition, is quite rare. This is the Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, the only jet seaplane ever built.