[professortarzan]

Professor Tarzan is back as promised, here are a few shots of the mean machines in action. They were all captured with my humble Nikon D3300 and the kit lens, I hope you like them.


Not may aircrafts deserve the legendary tag more than the Douglas DC-3, also fondly called as Dakota. First flown before WW2, a few of them are still ferrying people in some countries. My father, an ex-serviceman, was surprised when I told him that a Dakota flew at the show.




A T-6 Texan(?) with F-18s in the foreground. I have known the existence of F-18s for around 20 years and I never thought they would be so downright photogenic. Not even after watching Top Gun: Maverick.




Here is an Avro 748, again with F-18 in the foreground.




Another shot of F-18. Okay, this is the last one, I will keep my excitement in check.




A closer shot of F-16s parked. The pic in my previous post was not doing justice to the Falcons.




The SU-30 taking to the skies in the backdrop of F-18s and F-16s. It's not often that one would spot them together.




And here it is banking left with full afterburners on take-off. As I mentioned in the other post, it was quite an experience.





The showstopper, F-35. As someone who was (and still is) critical of the JSF program, I have to acknowledge it was really good. It was fast and I had a very tough time capturing it.





This is Major Kristin "Beo" Wolfe, the demo pilot of F-35. I am not masking her face as she is already an internet personality.




Indian Air Force's Rafale, the pilots knew exactly when to turn on the afterburners.





The Surya Kirans put an amazing show as always, the pictures don't do justice to their efforts.






Homegrown LCA Tejas in action.




The F-16 taking off with full afterburners, with KC-390 on the foreground.




Sarang, the air display of ALH Dhruvs keeping the crowd entertained.




And finally HAL Prachand, our very own attack helicopter.

[CLIX]

A few more from another vantage point.
(Nikon D500 + 70-300 and earplugs !)

[ArijitGupte]

Originally Posted by stewie

Next time i do it, I will probably only go for the ADVA pass as i wasted the 1500 Rs extra for the exhibition. There was no difference in the experience since they were not really checking anything at all.

I agree. I too was there on Thursday from 08:15 till 17:00 and did visit a few exibition halls in between the two air shows.
There was no checking of the pass after the main gate entry.
Infact I didn't carry any bags or camera as the rules stated otherwise. But at the show, people were actually carrying portable chairs and also food tiffins l.

There was also a band which I believe was the USAF team singing songs.
Good to see them enjoying the show as well.

[Jeroen]

A T-6 Texan(?) with F-18s in the foreground. I have known the existence of F-18s for around 20 years and I never thought they would be so downright photogenic

Yes, that does look like a T-6 Texan, too far out to see which variant. The T6 is at least as photogenic as the F18 (my opinion) and has a very interesting and diverse history. Almost 16000 were build. Many pilots who got their wings in the 1950-70s would have flown on the T-6 or Harvard version as part of their pilot training. My parent neighbour, a retired KLM 747 captain did and he had some photographs on his desk of him sitting in the cockpit.

There are still quite a number of these classic T-6s in airworthy condition and you might come across them at various airshows around the world.

I had the pleasure of flying one in 2010, with an instructor in the back seat obviously. Quite the handful if you come from light aircraft such as small Cessna’s.

Any more images of it?

Jeroen

[professortarzan]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Any more images of it?

Unfortunately I don't have more images, sorry. We were just settling down in the morning when the T6 started flying and it didn't fly in the afternoon session either.

Thanks for sharing your take on the T6, it's always interesting to learn the history of an aircraft.

[Aiel]

Originally Posted by professortarzan

A T-6 Texan(?) with F-18s in the foreground.

Though a Texan technically, it was referred to as Harvard (i.e., its name outside th eUS) when it was in service with the IAF.

Originally Posted by professortarzan

Here is an Avro 748, again with F-18 in the foreground.

That is an Antonov AN32.

[professortarzan]

Originally Posted by Aiel

That is an Antonov AN32.

You are right. I saw them both that day and for some reason I remembered this pic to be of an Avro 748.

I was too confident that I didn't even think while posting.

[SS80]

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

Great to see such close photos and nice of you to share. I was lucky to see it at close range, way back in Dec 1996 whilst I was doing my instructor course with Air Force. Memories are still fresh in my mind. Big change from there.(sorry for the quality of the old photos)

Thanks for sharing the photos Sir. I have a few doubts which some of us would surely have, maybe you can enlighten us on these.

How are these fighter jets brought here? Do they come on a carrier close to India and then take off from there and land here? Or do they use extended fuel tanks that look like missiles on wings?

Do most fighter jets have long-distance continuous flight ability?

How long in advance do the countries start coordinating for such events, because I assume it would involve a lot of understanding to allow a fighter jet of a different country to fly over our coast and direct to a crowded city.

Is there no potential threat to their technology (copying of some sort) that can happen due to such public displays?

What's the name of the meter they use to measure the service hours of a plane like we decide 10k km on the odometer for an oil change in our cars?

Sorry for the long list of questions. Just curious.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by SS80

Sorry for the long list of questions. Just curious.

Adding my (it may be bit trivial). Do these aircraft have base station controllers like ATC, or does the pilot carry out the task (using a flight plan..) exactly as intended ?

[Jeroen]

I know more about civilian aviation than military aviation, but I will have a go at some. We have some airforce members who can chip in.

Originally Posted by SS80

How are these fighter jets brought here? Do they come on a carrier close to India and then take off from there and land here? Or do they use extended fuel tanks that look like missiles on wings?

Do most fighter jets have long-distance continuous flight ability?

Most fighters have inflight refuelling capabilities. So they are are not limited by the plane's fuel capacity. The extender fuel tanks do add to range of course, but inflight refuelling extends it way beyond that.

Have a look here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP74D4gCK_U

Originally Posted by SS80

Is there no potential threat to their technology (copying of some sort) that can happen due to such public displays?

Well, if they want to keep it secret, they won’t be showing it!

Originally Posted by SS80

What's the name of the meter they use to measure the service hours of a plane like we decide 10k km on the odometer for an oil change in our cars?

It really depends a bit on the type of airplane. But in general it is flight time and calendar time (e.g. every 12months / 5 years etc)

The little planes I fly have a so called hobbs meter installed. It measures the number of engine hours. Which also gets recorded in the aircraft logbook. So as soon as you start the engine, the hobbs, start counting. The maintenance schedule is determined based on hobbs hours and also certain things need to be done every so many months years.

For larger civilian planes it is not much different, but they might also look at the number of so called cycles, which means the number of take offs/landings.

So it is at least, engine hours/flight time, calendar time (period) and cycles.

Not quite sure what military planes do, at the least the same as civilian aircrafts, probably some other stuff as well. Would be interested to hear.

Originally Posted by RGK

Adding my (it may be bit trivial). Do these aircraft have base station controllers like ATC, or does the pilot carry out the task (using a flight plan..) exactly as intended ?

Military planes, during peace time, will adhere to normal ATC procedures. So they will be talking to the same ATC as I would in my little Cessna. In addition they might be talking to military controllers as well.

In the USA there are many airports that have both civilian and military use. It will be regular ATC and Tower, although often the ramps are separated and might have an individual ground controller.

I used to fly to Topeka, Kansas. Big combined civilian/military field. Very long and very wide runway as it was originally build as military bomber base.

I would find myself behind fighters, tankers! Pretty cool!

Of course, during combat and or demonstrations it might be very different. During these sort of demonstrations during air shows, each aircraft is given a certain airspace and time slot in which it can do its demonstration. What they can and can’t do is tightly regulated. Usually as so called Airboss on the ground is in charge of the air space in which the demonstration are taking place. He/she needs to ensure overall safety for the aircraft and spectators on the ground.

Jeroen

[anish29]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Not quite sure what military planes do, at the least the same as civilian aircrafts, probably some other stuff as well. Would be interested to hear.

Military planes also keep track of the engine hours which can be downloaded from on-board computers. In addition to that, each flight is logged, and each sub-module (landing gear, airframe, tyres etc) are monitored separately by maintenance crew.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Military planes, during peace time, will adhere to normal ATC procedures. So they will be talking to the same ATC as I would in my little Cessna. In addition they might be talking to military controllers as well.

Each base has its own designated flying area which is under the control of the IAF. No civil airliner is allowed to fly within this airspace when military flying is taking place. When the aircraft need to transit from/to this designated area, they are in control of civil radar. The military fighters usually fly in formation, and only lead aircraft talks to the civil controller.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Of course, during combat and or demonstrations it might be very different. During these sort of demonstrations during air shows, each aircraft is given a certain airspace and time slot in which it can do its demonstration. What they can and can’t do is tightly regulated. Usually as so called Airboss on the ground is in charge of the air space in which the demonstration are taking place. He/she needs to ensure overall safety for the aircraft and spectators on the ground.

Jeroen

For Aero-India, we have Flight Directors from IAF who co-ordinate the entire display from ground. Along with them, each display team will have a spotter on ground giving real-time update/corrections to the lead aircraft.

[three10]

Did anyone get pics of the B-1 B’s today? That’s one plane I wish I could see in real life (only after the SR-71).

Unfortunately, had to satisfy myself with YouTube videos :(

https://youtu.be/NcBZPUHYbN0

[Aiel]

Uploading some pics taken during the airshow.

1. The Suryakirans


























2. IAF Sarangs











3. HAL Light Combat Helicopter (LCH)





I will upload my other pics over the next few days.