WATER'S STILL HIGH

These photos are from a week ago, before the air show started. It's not dramatic by our standards but the Mississippi is still in flood, although dropping. The triangle in the lower right of the first picture is the bottom of the Arch's grand staircase. Just beyond, a street and walkway are still under water. Same street in the second picture below the fence. No helicopter flights in the show.               

  

STUNT PILOT

Sorry no post yesterday. You would think this work stuff would start to leave an older guy like me alone, but no.

Anyway, back at the air show. This was a remarkable aircraft. As you can see, it appears to have two fuselages connected by a single wing.  Another local photographer thought that there is a small jet engine in the center, maybe for the steepest climbs. It seemed go go straight  up, cut power, start to plummet down and then kick in the engines and roar off. No idea how it manages to maintain lift while flying upside down (or how the pilot maintains consciousness). This was very entertaining.          

VTOL

That stands for vertical take off and landing, a military plane that can be used as a fixed-wing aircraft or a helicopter. This sequence of pictures from the air show illustrates how the engines themselves can be rotated from vertical to horizontal. It's amazing that the pilot can maintain control during the transition.              

JUMPERS

Another annual Fair St. Louis event is the air show. It was smaller than usual this year (no biplanes, which I really love) but there was still some cool stuff.

This is the Army's Golden Knights parasailing stunt team. Kind of a weird name since, to my knowledge, there were no parasails during the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, they were tremendously entertaining, swooping around the legs of the Arch..         

MORE BOOM

More variety from Saturday's fireworks at the Arch. These turned out okay but next year I should find a different point of view.               

NOW THAT'S BETTER

Taken Saturday evening from Kiener Plaza, the fourth and last fireworks show during Fair St. Louis. There are several more good ones and I'm sure I'll edit others.

If You Liked Yesterday's Post, How About Some More?

Well, yesterday's post went down very well by my standards. I posted the first image on the Fujifilm X-T2 users FB page and got, as of this writing, 100 likes, loves, wows and comments, blowing the doors off all past photos. There is lots more to do from the Theatre Crawl but I'm short on time so here are a few more fireworks shots. More minimalist approach.        

Okay, Now I've Got It

Wednesday night's shots of the NYC fireworks weren't so great. The Fujifilm X-T2 I'm shooting with these days does the same things as my big Canon DSLR but the controls are often very different. I think I've figured out the settings for fireworks. We have a big Fourth Of July festival under the Arch, Fair St. Louis, with fireworks Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this week. The family went downtown for it last night.  This time it worked.      

Upside Down

How can an airplane ever fly upside down? It baffles me when I see an aerobatic show. You know, the wings are shaped to create less air pressure on the top, and thus lift. It you turn the machine over it should push the machine straight into the ground.

Of course, they do fly that way. Turns out it's a combination of a special wing shape and the angle of the wing (and the plane itself) as it pushes through the air. There's a good explanation here. But there are even more complex issues. How come the engine doesn't starve for gasoline and seize from lack of oil pressure? Engineering to the rescue, as this describes.

I threw in the bottom picture just to give a sense of the scene along the Mississippi River during the show.               

 

The Sixth Of July

As mentioned, we took a special offer last night at Kemoll's, one of our fine old Italian restaurants, for dinner and fireworks  The view faces the Arch and Mississippi from the 40th floor of the tallest building downtown. The meal was terrific and the view unique. I was bedeviled, though, by the reflections in the windows. You can see the kitchen door towards the left of the second picture. Maybe a helicopter next time.               

Air Show

There is an air show a couple of times a day at Fair St. Louis, the holiday celebration at the Arch and Mississippi River. This is way harder to shoot than the fireworks. I'm probably doing good things for my upper body strength by raising and lowering a DSLR with a telephoto that weighs as much as my forearm, but it wears me out.

I just don't understand the physics and engineering of how these planes go through the contortions they do. There could be a whole post about flying upside down.

The final evening extravaganza is tonight. We're doing dinner and fireworks at a restaurant on the 40th floor (as high as it gets in STL) directly facing the Arch and river, camera and tripod in tow. Hope the windows aren't a problem.