Blue Angels Over San Francisco Fleet Week
October 12th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
It is by far one of the most dramatic venues to see the Blue Angels perform. Fleet Week in San Francisco has long been on my list of places to shoot the Blues, so when I knew we would need to capture new material for this CoNA project, I started laying the groundwork with the Team back in the spring. It was just last Monday that I finally got word there would be a backseat open for me in the #2 position flying with Lieutenant Commander Paul Brantuas, callsign:DINO. DINO flew F-14s with VF-31 before being selected to the Team and having flow with VF-31 myself back when I was creating ANYTIME BABY!, it was a little like getting fly along with a cousin.
In addition, Blue Angel #4, Lieutenant Mark Swinger, callsign “GOPHER” also flew with VF-31 when I was covering the final TOMCAT deployment in the Arabian Sea. On this Thursday practice demo over San Francisco Bay, the Team was flying both of their #7 two-seat Hornets, one with me in the #2 position, and the other with “Gopher” in the SLOT. In his backseat was another legacy FELIX Tomcatter from VF-31, LT Blake “SOBBY” Coleman who appears in a lot of the images from that flight. He is wearing a khaki flight suit and is hard to miss. The images I am posting today are just a teaser for the high-energy slideshow and video from this flight. Using the look-back camera footage that rolls on every backseater lucky enough to get a ride, I also shot some of my own hand-held video.
In a the near future, this video will be posted here and you will get to follow the action from inside the cockpit as the demo rolls over San Francisco and crushes me with multiple 7.3Gs maneuvers shaking the entire jet and sending “vapes” over the wings and canopy.
So check back soon and until then, enjoy these shots!
SMOKE ON!
EROK
Comments
-
Grrr30 Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 6:33 pmI cant beleive they still fly in this antiamerican city>
-
Grrr30 Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 6:38 pmCool pics !