Crikey, this rocked! Air-to-air with a Mustang IV

[evangilder]

So I was out at the CAF museum shooting an event commemorating the Battle of Midway. I have some shots that I will be posting soon. After the event, a certain airplane had shown up earlier in the day and I happened to ask the right folks about some air-to-air work.

A HUGE thanks goes out to David Price for bringing "Cottonmouth" over to Camarillo for a couple of weeks. Another huge thanks to Steve Barber (pilot), Terry Cedar (photo ship pilot with a very steady hand) and all of the ground crew at the CAF SoCal Wing. This was something that I have been trying to capture air-to-air for a long time! 8)

 

[pbfoot]

I love your shots but think SoCal needs more green , good work as usual with a nice subject

 

[Wayne Little]

fantastic shots Eric! Top work once again....

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Very cool - I remember when she lived at Mojave.

 

[Micdrow]

Great shots as always Eric!!!

 

[lesofprimus]

Awesome stuff Eric, what a treat man.... Any more shots??

 

[evangilder]

Thanks guys. We went up and did an orbital pattern for about three or four rotations, so a lot of all the shots looks the same, just slightly different angles.

I'm still going through the other shots from yesterday. I do have some shots of a Zero, Hellcat and SBD in formation for the Midway commemoration. That is a rare formation!

If things work out for me in October, I will have some more air-to-air work that will be pretty unique and cool.

 

[Heinz]

Fantastic shots Eric!

Thats meant to be a RAAF machine yeah? I know the southern cross is on the rudder but I haven't seen a desert camo on a Muzzie before.

 

[evangilder]

I'm not sure the paint scheme is completely authentic, but I guess if you can afford one, you can paint it any way you like. It has been through a few changes over the years. If sure is pretty in it's current state though.

 

[wilbur1]

Great pics eric, man i wish i could get aride in one of those

 

[evangilder]

I've never actually ridden in a Mustang either, but I got the next best thing yesterday. I was in an SNJ-5 next to it. That's not an easy formation. We were at 140-150 kts in the SNJ pushing the power as much as we could. Fortunately, you can't see the P-51 was running 10% flaps to keep level with us. When we finished the photo flight, the Mustang accelerated away and left us in his dust.

 

[Catch22]

Very nice!

 

[Njaco]

The envy level has risen again!!! Great pics!

 

[comiso90]

Thanks for sharing...

nice shots!

 

[comiso90]

I love your shots but think SoCal needs more green ,

It's not quite the rain forest Canada is but you may be surprised how much in your supermarkets are grown in Cali!

.

 

[Airframes]

Superb photography Eric!
I know what you mean about the difficulty of air to air with faster ships. I did it years ago, using a Chipmunk as the camera ship, trying to stay with the BBMF Spitfire19 and MkV. I had a very stiff neck when we landed! I did notice the flaps angle in one shot of the Mustang, but what the hell, who cares? Looking forward to the next shots.

 

[Gnomey]

You lucky b*stard! Great shots!

 

[evangilder]

Cheers guys. I have them posted to my website now. You can see them at:
Van Gilder Aviation Photography, September 6, 2008- P-51 Mustang air-to-air

 

[wilbur1]

Eric were you able to hear the stang as it went by you or was the plane you were in too loud?

 

[B-17engineer]

Great Shots!!!