Palm Springs Gathering of Mentors- Day 2

Last nights winds howled through the night, but morning dawned with the air a bit more still. Unfortunately, the winds picked up again as we prepared for the first flight of the morning. I got into Marc Russell's back seat to shoot Ron Alldredge and George Wilen. Ron wanted to make sure that I got some good shots of him and George. It was George that helped Ron figure out how he could own his T-34.

We took off from Palm Springs and headed south to Thermal for a gas run. The winds were heavy and the turbulence created some real challenges to formation flying. We were getting bounced around quite a bit, but these guys were real pros.

Ron on the left wing in a Vic formation


George and Ron in the echelon formation off our lead.

We got to Thermal, gassed up and headed back to Palm Springs. The flight back was equally bumpy. Once back on the ground, I went over to shake the hands of both George and Ron. They were working their butts off to stay in formation.

The pilots had a conference call with the T-34 Association at 12. After the meeting, we all sat down for lunch, provided by the Palm Springs Air Museum. I found John Flippen out on the ramp after lunch doing a pre-flight. John was getting ready to fly with Kevin Carson and George Wilen. I had noticed the paint scheme on Kevin's airplane when we arrived yesterday and knew the contrasts that paint job had would be fantastic for photos.

I asked John if his back seat was open and was hopeful when he said it was. I asked if I could tag along for some photos. His response was something along the lines of "Sure, hop in". As we took off, we were treated to the sight of 2 F-18s landing on the left runway right next to us.


We headed straight down to Thermal Airport for fuel. I quite captured a few shots of George and Kevin on the way down, which was considerably smoother than the morning flights.

Kevin and George on our left wing in an echelon formation.


On final approach to Thermal Airport.

Once we landed at Thermal and gassed up, we briefed for the return flight, adding some formation work so that George and Kevin could get some practice with formation breaks and re-joins. This gave me a great opportunity to catch interesting angles. The contrasts on both George and Kevin's airplanes coupled with the interesting angles made getting good shots easier.

George over the Coachella Valley


Kevin over the Coachella Valley

Kevin moving over on a formation change

George and Kevin following John through an echelon turn.

Close up of Kevin

After some formation work, we returned to Palm Springs, performing a banana pass for Palm Springs and then flew an echelon pass with a break to land. Because of the winds and weather for the day, we only got a couple of flights in. But other pilots got an opportunity to get training and clinic work in as well on other flights.

All in all, a great day despite tough conditions. Tomorrow morning we will be briefing early for some morning flying. Until tomorrow, Shooter out...