SUN 'n FUN 2017

[XB-70A]

 

Today was a great occasion to leave the boredom of the Tampa Bay for the Lakeland's SUN 'n Fun air show with the French national demonstration team present for their 2017 US tour, celebrating the century of the country engagement in the First World War.

It's also the first time for them to fly over the US land for more than 31 years, as they already came in 1986 to celebrate the century of the Statue of Liberty.

 

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It was the 8th time for me to see my birthland national team and I have to say that this year's team has changed some things and the result now is way more punchy, vigorous, reflecting what still can be done with this little pearl that is the Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet.

 

I discovered with suprise that their support aircraft now was an Airbus A400M Grizzly, replacing the good old Transall C-160 which was ensuring the role for more than 30 years. The guys onboard were really nice, inviting us to came onboard the transport aircraft for some minutes while the team members were at the breifing. It also was the first time to me to go inside an A400M and one thing can be compared with the C-160 for sure : the paras/troopers seats still are as comfy as rocks...

 

One pretty cool demonstration of about 20 minutes that they completed with the famous "éclaté".

 

Thank you for this awesome time!

 

I was just extremely disapointed to be arrived too late and to leave way too soon... one beautiful B-25 Mitchell made an awesome demo...

 

... while a T-33 Shooting Star was turning all around in a melodious noise :

I'm not sure but suppose it was much more a Canadair CT-133 Silver Star as I looked under it some minutes before its display and it got a lot of marks of different Canadian teams (Snow Birds etc...) and its engine noise sounds different than the J33 to me. As the Canadian placed a license-built Rolls Royce Nene in their training jet that could be the explanation.

I will try to upload the videos tomorrow but still have to work a bit on them (34 gb of film...).

[tater]

Collings Foundation will be in town the next 3 days, so I will hear sweet, sweet radial engine noise for 3 days... with the added bonus of it being punctuated by Merlin noise.

 

Edited April 5, 2017 by tater

[XB-70A]

16 hours ago, tater said:

Collins Foundation will be in town the next 3 days, so I will hear sweet, sweet radial engine noise for 3 days... with the added bonus of it being punctuated by Merlin noise.

 

So lucky! I had to go back to my shop the same day... how many I could give to hear just some more T-6s instead of the idiots we got here! I haven't heard a Spit' for a long time now. The last was in 2007 or 2008... but it was powered by a Griffon instead, coupled to a contra-rotating prop.

[tater]

Argh. Why would autocorrect "Collings Foundation" to "Collins?"

[ZooNamedGames]

For me it's the worst time of the year seeing as I've got aircraft of every make, model and era flying 2000ft above my house. 

Its still cool, but being 20 miles from the airport they launch from is where the problem lies.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard an aircraft over my house, I could retire and go to the moon. Twice. 

[ZooNamedGames]

Watching the Blue Angels do laps over my house as we speak at about idk- 500ft. Only like 2 miles between me and them in direct distance. Pretty good seat to watch from.

Photos and videos later.

[XB-70A]

35 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Watching the Blue Angels do laps over my house as we speak at about idk- 500ft. Only like 2 miles between me and them in direct distance. Pretty good seat to watch from.

 

Lucky! I never saw them and just missed another occasion...

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Otherwise I tried to make just one movie yesterday with "Wondershare Filmora" on a (crappy) Mac but the definitive result can't be without a huge watermark at the center. The pro' version cost $60 (!) and that trial version didn't have any capabilities that deserve such an enormous price. I mean it's the same price as the Adobe program we were using during our cinema studies but at least it was able of enormous capabilities.

Is anybody here knew one practical free program (just to past and split multiple videos) or at least one that is worth its price?

[0111narwhalz]

Blender?

[LordFerret]

They were over NYC a few days back. Unfortunately I missed them.