New York Air Show 2017 – F16 Viper

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Military.com has this to say about the F16 Fighting Falcon (the F16 Viper is the latest version).:

One of the most versatile aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory, the F-16 Fighting Falcon has been the mainstay of the Air Force aerial combat fleet. With over 1,000 F-16s in service, the platform has been adapted to complete a number of missions, including air-to-air fighting, ground attack and electronic warfare.

In an air combat role, the F-16’s maneuverability and combat radius (distance it can fly to enter air combat, stay, fight and return) exceed that of all potential threat fighter aircraft. It can locate targets in all weather conditions and detect low flying aircraft in radar ground clutter. In an air-to-surface role, the F-16 fighting falcon can fly more than 500 miles (860 kilometers), deliver its weapons with superior accuracy, defend itself against enemy aircraft, and return to its starting point. An all-weather capability allows it to accurately deliver ordnance during non-visual bombing conditions.

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According to Wikipedia:

At the 2012 Singapore Air Show Lockheed Martin unveiled plans for the new F-16V variant with the V suffix for its Viper nickname. It is to feature an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a new mission computer and electronic warfare suite, and various cockpit improvements; this package is an option on current production F-16s and can be retrofitted to most in service F-16s. First flight took place 21 October, 2015. Production run To upgrade Taiwan’s F-16 fleet started January, 2017.

Taken with a Sony Alpha 500 and Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3

New York Air Show 2017 – Overview

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I went to two friends to this years New York Air Show. I’d missed the 2016 show, but had last been there in 2015. Of course the trouble with such an event is that you tend to take a lot of pictures. I told one of my friends that this time I wasn’t going to take any pictures. I’d just enjoy watching the show.

Things did not turn out quite as I expected. I’d foolishly assumed that the displays would be pretty much the same as in 2015. This turned out not to be the case. There were a number of new aircraft that I hadn’t seen before, and which I wanted to take pictures of. Good thing I took the camera…just in case.

Above a member of the West Point Parachute Team, which opened the show.

Taken with a Sony Alpha 500 with Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 lens.

A recent visitor to our garden

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A type of woodpecker: a northern flicker. Specifically (if I’m not mistaken, which I might well be) a yellow-shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus). So if it’s a woodpecker why is it chewing up our patio rather than pecking wood? Grab a worm on the patio or bang your head against a tree? I guess it’s an easy choice.

As usual when I’m taken by surprise or my subject is moving I messed this up. When I noticed the bird I grabbed the nearest camera, which happened to my Sony Alpha 500 with Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3. Without thinking I zoomed in to the fullest extent not thinking that it as was relatively dark outside and that the combination of large aperture combined with large lens meant that that pictures were certainly going to suffer from blur resulting from the slow shutter speed selected and my inability to hand hold the lens at that speed.

This is why I don’t do more wildlife photography. Still better than nothing though. I’ve never seen one of these before.

Snow over the lake

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From the bright sunlight and the vivid colors of the preceding post: Temple, Yangon, Myannmar we return to the gloom of Winter in NY State.

Since this last snowfall we’ve had a few cold, windy, but essentially sunny days. Tomorrow will be in a similar vein. But then on Tuesday we have one of the infamous Nor’easters passing by. As of today (Sunday) we should expect, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (NOAA) at least 8 inches of snow; most likely 16 inches; and a potential 23 inches. This will be the largest snowfall of the season (at least so far) and we’re only about a week away from Spring. Crazy Weather!

Taken from our patio with a Sony Alpha 500 DSLR with Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 LD Di II.