May 1-3, 2009 Gathering Of Mentors
Saturday Flying

Friday night had winds howling all night long. Saturday morning dawned calm, but as the sun came up, so did the winds. The gusty winds provided quite a challenge for the pilots to stay in formation and for me to get shots with all of the turbulence, yet we all persevered. I have to say that this was one of the toughest shoots, I have done due to the conditions. While it was tough for me, the pilots had the real tough job! I know they were working their tails off to stay in formation and be safe while doing it. For the first flight, I rode in the back of Marc Russell's T-34. Marc flew lead while Ron Alldredge and George Wilen switched #2 and #3 positions to practice formation breaks and join-ups. Because of the winds, we didn't get much break and re-join practice. Holding position was tough enough.

The second flight of Saturday was another flight of three. I flew in the back of the lead ship, flown by John Flippen. George Wilen and Kevin Carson practiced formation breaks and join-ups in positions 2 and 3. As we took off, we had a pair of F-18s landing on the parallel runway.