I
Igor
Guest
Stearman4 (Mike) sent an E-mail and told me he was leading a flight of 5 Chinooks from Fort Lewis Washington to Reno today and would be passing over a 10 house town called Ashwood. Ashwood is about 18 air miles to the East of Madras and sits in a narrow valley.
Mike told me if I was in the Ashwood area around 11:00 I would probably see them. I departed Madras at 10:30 and headed East. They were about 10 minutes early but I still saw 4 of the giant 58,000 pound machines. They were in single file about 2 minutes apart, were using ground hugging radar and flying as low as 300 feet above ground. Mike was in the lead and must have passed without me spotting him down in the valley. I watched the other 4 go by. The last fellow was up high and I got my best pixs of him.
I was orbiting about 1000 feet above the hills and 1.5 to 2 miles to the West of the "town" and used my telephoto on these 58,000 pound giants. I think Mike said they would be doing about 120mph so I'm surprised the pixs are not blurry beyond recognition. The Cub was bouncing around and I was flying with one hand and taking pixs out the open window with the other.
I was able to contact Mike on 122.8 but it was difficult to hear him.
Maybe he can bring his Cub to the Madras AirShow/Fly-in the last wkend of August and we will have a real visit.
Phil
Mike told me if I was in the Ashwood area around 11:00 I would probably see them. I departed Madras at 10:30 and headed East. They were about 10 minutes early but I still saw 4 of the giant 58,000 pound machines. They were in single file about 2 minutes apart, were using ground hugging radar and flying as low as 300 feet above ground. Mike was in the lead and must have passed without me spotting him down in the valley. I watched the other 4 go by. The last fellow was up high and I got my best pixs of him.
I was orbiting about 1000 feet above the hills and 1.5 to 2 miles to the West of the "town" and used my telephoto on these 58,000 pound giants. I think Mike said they would be doing about 120mph so I'm surprised the pixs are not blurry beyond recognition. The Cub was bouncing around and I was flying with one hand and taking pixs out the open window with the other.
I was able to contact Mike on 122.8 but it was difficult to hear him.
Maybe he can bring his Cub to the Madras AirShow/Fly-in the last wkend of August and we will have a real visit.
Phil
