Aerial photography...
everything up I accepted the job. The first step in aerial photography is to have some means of being aerial, and with that my friends at the CAF volunteered to help as long as costs were met and a small donation tendered. No problem there, so my friend and chief CAF pilot Randy Wilson agreed to fly the mission in our newly restored Fairchild monoplane, "Tarbaby". Randy is as good as they come being qualified to fly most everything in the CAF inventory.
The "Tarbaby" was built in 1946 and is how flying should be enjoyed. It is a fabric airplane and the windows roll down so we flew open air style. It has enough power that we could cruise at about 100 mph though going south with a good headwind we were making around 80 mph. Following the highway to Rankin there were a goodly number of Texas motorists almost keeping up with us, but all the better to enjoy the scenery.
We found our target site just north of Rankin without much trouble and Randy was able to make slow looping orbits over the well site to allow me to shoot photos, both digital and 35 mm, to my hearts content. Low and slow is good for aerial photography. After about 20 minutes "on station" we headed back north to the Windwalker Skeet Shooting Club to take some shots of a big charity event that Janie and her company were helping to sponsor. Then back to Midland International Airport were Randy brought the Tarbaby in to a smooth if not tricky landing on runway 160 L [above]. The Tarbaby has a tendency to lurch to the left when it lands. Dramatic but not too difficult for a skilled pilot.
A great day and thanks to all. And with a nice check coming in from friend Joe Galloway and our We Were Soldiers photo site, it's going to be a good month to be in photography!
 | There is nothing better than to get to do two of your favorite activities and having someone pay you do to them! Today, thanks to Streams commentor Janie S., I got to do just that. Janie is one of the head salespersons at a major oil field service company and she had called me several weeks ago to see if I might like to take some aerial photos of a major "frac" job that they were doing for a client. With some trepidation of lining |
The "Tarbaby" was built in 1946 and is how flying should be enjoyed. It is a fabric airplane and the windows roll down so we flew open air style. It has enough power that we could cruise at about 100 mph though going south with a good headwind we were making around 80 mph. Following the highway to Rankin there were a goodly number of Texas motorists almost keeping up with us, but all the better to enjoy the scenery.
We found our target site just north of Rankin without much trouble and Randy was able to make slow looping orbits over the well site to allow me to shoot photos, both digital and 35 mm, to my hearts content. Low and slow is good for aerial photography. After about 20 minutes "on station" we headed back north to the Windwalker Skeet Shooting Club to take some shots of a big charity event that Janie and her company were helping to sponsor. Then back to Midland International Airport were Randy brought the Tarbaby in to a smooth if not tricky landing on runway 160 L [above]. The Tarbaby has a tendency to lurch to the left when it lands. Dramatic but not too difficult for a skilled pilot.
A great day and thanks to all. And with a nice check coming in from friend Joe Galloway and our We Were Soldiers photo site, it's going to be a good month to be in photography!
