Into the Wild Blue Yonder

You'll never guess what I did today (unless I told you earlier). I flew with a bunch of planes that will be flying in the 88th annual Chicago Air and Water Show!!!

Originally, I was only scheduled to fly with one of the teams... the Lima Lima Flight Team (pronounced Lee-ma Lee-ma). I got the honor of flying in the #2 plane with Rick Nichols. The backseat of those planes were pretty cramped, and for obvious reasons, they strap you down really tight. It made it extraordinarily hard to move, let alone try to take pictures. The plexiglass window and the sunny skies sure didn't help much. Let's not forget the G forces whenever they made turns and started doing loops and tricks! Along with being strapped in tight, they gave us a headset so we can listen in on the chatter (and have the pilots tell us to do something or not to do something...)

"This is Lima 1, let's do a whiffer."
"This is Lima 1, initiating whiffer."

I'm thinking to myself, what the hell is a whiffer? Then I see the lead plane go shooting straight up in the air and corkscrew above my head. Awwwww jeeez.

"This is Lima 2, initiating whiffer."

Man, that was so cool. I couldn't really get a good shot of the other planes pulling the stunt because first, we were too far apart and all I was able to bring up was a wide angle, and second, I could barely lift up the freaking camera to the window because of the G Forces! And then on the way down, my camera started floating in the air because of lack of G Forces! HA! I'm actually surprised I didn't get airsick from the ride, although I did come down with a headache and was a bit dizzy.

In the end, I did get some shots of the Lima Lima Team, but I was pretty disappointed they didn't fly up to Chicago to do their demonstration... I think it was a combination of a time issue, plus not having the air clearance to fly over the city. It also made me nervous because I know my editors were expecting planes in Chicago! Uhhhh, crap?



Luckily, I think the City of Chicago people really liked me (or the fact that I was working for an international company - Reuters - and want the publicity) so they sent me up with the Red Baron Pizza Squad next. Unlike the Lima Lima planes, these were open air, and they put you in the front seat! How the pilot can see where he's going in the back seat with all the giant wing in front is beyond me. Now, the Red Baron planes are stunt planes (the Lima Lima planes were military training jets), plus they were open air, so they didn't try anything crazy. Again, they didn't go into the city, and the darn wings in front really limited my field of vision. Another flight, and I still don't think I have enough to make my editors happy.



I thought I was on my way out again, and I was offered a third ride! And third time was the charm. I went up with Sean Tucker and Team Oracle. Unlike the previous flights, I was actually put in a "chase" airplane that hovered right above Tucker's craft... they must do these media previews all the time because they had things set up fantastically. Plus, they had clearance to go into the city.



As a bonus, the Blue Angels who had been flying around decided to join in the formation!!! With a set-up like that, it was impossible to take a crappy photo! So in the end, I was happy, but more importantly, my editors were happy :-)



Well, to wrap up my longest post ever, I'll share these last two images... I can't go flying in a bunch of stunt planes and old war planes without taking shots of me in them right? Here are a couple of shots of me in the Lima Lima plane. First in formation:



And second, in the middle of a whiffer. Why not? And before you say anything, yes I have a weird face in it but that's because of all the G Forces!