Wings of War at Manassas

On Saturday a few of us met at Manassas Airfield to see the bombers that had taken part in the DC flyover to mark the end of WWII. The fighter jets were at Culpeper but I particularly wanted to see the B-29 Superfortress, Fifi, the only one of its kind left in the world, intact and flying. Steve, Charles, Michele and I had to wait for ages before we were allowed on the ramp. There were plenty of other folks there but most of these were waiting, lucky enough to be taking actual flights, which were really expensive. A 40 minute flight in Fifi cost $1500 on the day. It looks like online bookings made before were cheaper, see here.

I walked all around her, taking in the sheer enormity of her, noticing the dents and war wounds on her shell and scrambling underneath so I could stand up and look inside the bomb bay, savoring the aged, musty and vintage aroma that only an old vehicle can emit. Fifi had been discovered at Lake China, CA where the Navy weapons center were using her and other plane carcasses for target practice as well as being abused by sand and vandals. The CAF managed to convince the Navy to hand her over in 1971 and 3 years later she was restored and flying. There is another B-29 being restored which had hoped to make the flyover but it doesn't have a working engine yet, details here.
These planes are costing millions to restore to flying condition, and then to insure, so the high prices for public flights can be appreciated.

We were allowed to climb up a ladder to look into the cockpit of a B-24 Liberator. I couldn't resist this shot where I lined up diamond Lil's gun to reach down onto Fifi, and a guy timed it perfectly, raising his arms as though pushing the gun away. We could also clamber up into the inside of this plane.

A C-45 Expediter.

There were a couple of B-17s on the tarmac. This one had engine problems during the flyover and is now having a cylinder replaced.

Another B-17, Aluminum Overcast, was getting readied to take up some lucky passengers, so we quickly walked around getting our close-ups. Today proved that getting up and getting here early paid off. Once these planes had been out on a flight, the public were not allowed near them again because of the hot engines, and latecomers had to be satisfied with standing behind ropes and viewing them from a distance. The propellers had to be rotated to get the oil inside moving and the parts lubricated. This guy had to turn 9 blades on each engine and it looked hard, so I asked if I could have a go. It was pretty tough and I understood why he used a rag as cushioning. I had imprints from the prop edge on my palms for some time afterwards.

My feet took me back to Fifi again and I grabbed a shot of one of her individually named engines and then tried a selfie from directly underneath.

This is a SB2C Helldiver, 'The Beast'. One of the flying team was prepping the plane for flight and kept us amused with his delivery of information. There's only 4 of these left in the world, 3 in museums and only 1 that's airworthy. "At least it was when I landed", quiped the guy! Costing over $200,000 to restore, she has been given the markings of the carrier U.S.S. Franklin.

This amazing war veteran on the right is 92 years old. He used to fly in the back of a Helldiver at 18 years old and recalled when during one flight he looked down to see a kamikaze pilot smash into the U.S.S. Franklin. His son had brought him along today and I really hoped he was being treated to a flight.

The flight crew prepping before getting Fifi ready for take off.

We waited to enjoy the sensory experience of Aluminum Overcast starting up and rolling to the flight strip. The noise was deep and deafening, the smell of oil and fuel reached us before the hot gritty gusts from the engines. Michele and I grinned at each other as we lifted our faces towards the old warbird as she slowly cruised towards and then turned for the runway.
Click her for a video of her starting her rumble to the flight strip.
Once she had rumbled away, we followed Steve to the cars where he took us to a spot where we were directly underneath the flight path of the planes as they landed. We stood in the glaring heat, kicking ourselves that we hadn't brought any water, and looked skyward for glints and spots in the distance that could be our planes. We only had a few seconds as they thundered over but they were glorious and Michelle even managed to get a couple to waggle their wings in a returned greeting to her outstretched arms.

I took a photo of a modern plane before I realized what it was, and was going to delete it, but I actually liked the lighting on the propeller so I left it here. We saw the B-17, the B-29 and the Helldiver fly over.
And then it was back to the airfield again to hopefully see Fifi start her engines for her final flight of the day.

A C-47.

The Helldiver going up again with an impressive passenger. The guy at the back in the sapphire shirt is a Dutchman living in London. He called in sick on Thursday, flew over here and then spent 2 days, spending thousands, flying all the war birds. This was his last flight and then he was rushing to Dulles for a red flight back home. Good luck explaining the sun tan!

We all crunched together behind the ropes staring at Fifi, willing her to start her engines. And then the signal came, The 2 inside engines fired up and then the 2 outer ones. Closing down the 2 outer engines, she turned and headed for take-off. We all stood patiently as she slowly made her way to the top of the field, then unhurriedly turned around. The engines all fired up and revved loudly, the volume increasing as she gradually picked up speed down the runway. Her nose slowly lifted and the only flying Superfortress in the world disappeared from view against grey stormy skies. I hope I see her again some day.

Blooms at Sunset

At camera club on Tuesday evening everyone was in the mood for flowers. Blandy was in full bloom with its spring flowers and I rushed to get there after work so I shoot some quick shots before the sun set. I arrived to find others out in the gardens crouched down or hunched over, busy creating their petal portraits.

 I only took a few that I was pleased with but just a couple of days later I was driving to meet Janice so we could photograph the Trilliums before it got dark. I'd photographed these last year, click here, but then my subjects had been wearing water droplets had been after a heavy thunderstorm, and today I was hoping for some more sunshiney shots.

 I grabbed a quick shot from Fox Meadow Winery on my way. One day I'll stop here and see if their wines are as wonderful as their views, but I had no time today.
I pulled up in the parking lot and could see that the Trilliums were in full bloom. But the poor things had taken a battering. It had rained heavily the day before and many of the flowers looked worse for wear but were still standing proudly, holding their tattered petals aloft like battle banners.

I started walking down one of the paths focusing on the blooms that were intact and had good lighting. It was a pretty challenging task.

I think I did OK and was satisfied as the last rays of sun dropped below the horizon. and my reward had been the discovery of a small cluster of Showy Orchis, hiding behind some large green leaves under a tree.

A Resinous Return for Polymer Photos

I met up with Richard after work on Friday after work prior to our exploration on Saturday and we decided to pay a visit to one of the plentiful and interesting little bars near his house. We walked in and had to suppress our laughter as we saw many of the regulars lined up in chairs playing fruit machines as though their lives depended on it, total concentration written on all their faces. In a bar!

We ordered drinks and not even 10 minutes later, the whole place abandoned us and went outside, leaving their beers on the bar top. For a cigarette break apparently, not because they didn't take to their new visitors. They were actually a great group and we were soon laughing and joking together, even discovering that one of the regulars was John David, a locally celebrated artist. Click here for info. After our evening's fun, we departed, promising our new friends that we'd be back and headed to cozy beds to ensure we'd be up bright eyed and bushy tailed for tomorrow's adventuring.

We were dedicated explorers on a mission and before 7:30am could chime, we were both up and sipping tea then gathering photo gear and leaping enthusiastically into the car, with no hangovers or regrets of over indulgence from the night before. We stopped in Cumberland as we saw steam plumes rising above rooftops. Our timing couldn't have been better, the gates to the rail yard were open and one of the old steam trains was being serviced. Within 5 minutes of our arrival, it blew its whistle and trundled out of the gate for a few yards, just passing us, then rumbled back in again. We managed to capture some photos although once I pulled my camera away from my face, I realized that I'd been sitting a little too close to the rails as the train rolled past. Once it was back in the yard again, it came to a standstill and didn't move. We waited a while but then made the decision to leave, thanking our lucky stars that we'd been fortunate enough to see the action.
So it was back into the car and on to our destination to revisit the plastics factory that I'd explored last weekend with Jeff. I had spare batteries this time so no worries about running out of power. I could do as many long exposures as I liked. Out of interest I had remembered the placement of a couple of objects on site and was curious to see if they had been moved, an indication of other visitors. When we arrived, they had both disappeared and further damage had been wrought. I was glad we were here again to document the place. I took many photos on this trip but many I can't show as they would reveal the name of the location.

The first reception office and entrance to the museum. They had all the products they made here on display and handed out small plastic tokens with biblical verses on them.

Plastic screens used as panels in the museum. This style screen was also used as window coverings on the outside of parts of the building.

Caps and cone holders, spindle adapters and cheese holders. God knows why they're all so many different colors but they looked interesting and almost alien sitting on the bowed shelves.
And then we came to the main reason why I had wanted to return to this place, this fantastic art piece of a door. The room is almost in complete darkness and it would have been so easy to walk past and not notice it, but when my flashlight cast an inadvertent beam across its front, vibrant colors flashed like jewels. Close inspection of this art piece revealed that someone had stuck hundreds of small colored glass chunks and pebbles to a large translucent textured pane of plastic, and this was done on both sides of the door. We also noticed that near the handle was a space for a battery or some source of power making us realize that this door actually lit up.

We then spent the next 30 minutes or so painstakingly setting up our cameras and taking shot after shot of long exposures while we both 'painted' the back of the door with our flashlights. You can just about see my white blaze to the right of the door. This artifact played on our minds, we were horrified to think that it could suffer the same fate as the rest of the factory and be smashed to pieces. I pondered over this for a couple of days and then wrote a letter to the Mayor with a photo, requesting he save this and a few other pieces.

A window covered with one of the panels from the museum.

I had no idea what this was but it was pretty scary, tucked away in a dark room. Richard later identified it as the Esso Oil Drop Man, saying he had an old key ring. A history of him is here.

I have a set of these at home, and it made me realize that I need to make my plant labels....

We entered the paint room area where there were many huge barrels of paint and stuff we couldn't identify. But I'd only snapped a couple of shots before Richard declared it a hazard zone because of fumes, and I willingly turned tail and fled.

Beautiful samples of plastic and lucite were still sitting on tables, alongside coffee mugs and pens laid next to papers; it was almost as though everyone had suddenly just upped and left.

I found this old photo of the owner which made me smile. He was a known eccentric who did things his way and was also pronounced a genius by friends and associates. He made a huge impact on those that knew him and the city he lived in. I really hope that some of this building and contents can be saved before it becomes just another mutilated shell with locals regretting that they'd not acted sooner...