Weekend Heritage Flight Flying

[Bomber_12th]

This was the setup for the Heritage Flight this weekend at the Duluth Airshow, combining a Luke Field F-35 with the Minnesota-based P-51D "Sierra Sue II" flown by Vlado Lenoch. The "Sierra Sue II" repaint is new and will be released soon (the F-35 paint scheme is a repaint I found which is from the same Squadron as the one that was used for the Heritage Flight this weekend, and is only off by one serial number digit from the specific aircraft). Scenery is ORBX Global ground textures and ORBX Global freeware airports, as well as REX sky/clouds/water, but the rest is default.

I hope you like the screenshots!

(This screenshot was made as a recreation of a real photo taken by Vlado Lenoch yesterday (posted to Facebook), just prior to takeoff)

 

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Forming-up over Lake Superior.

 

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[T6flyer]

Beautiful images as always. Just seeing them, makes me want to start simming again!!!

(Company I work for builds F-35 Ground Training Aids and is also currently building a P-51D replica for New Zealand, so seeing these images means a little bit more to me)

Best wishes,

Martin

 

[Bomber_12th]

And some extra images taken of just "Sue". I already released a repaint of this aircraft sometime back, but this new repaint is almost completely new/revised since the previous effort.

 

[Bomber_12th]

Beautiful images as always. Just seeing them, makes me want to start simming again!!!

(Company I work for builds F-35 Ground Training Aids and is also currently building a P-51D replica for New Zealand, so seeing these images means a little bit more to me)

Best wishes,

Martin

Thank you Martin! It would be great to have you back simming again/active in the community - with the VR work you're company is entering into, I have a feeling you will (I know it would be too hard for me to resist "testing" the equipment). ; )
I was tremendously impressed by the Bf-109E that you were involved with, and I look forward to continuing to follow, if possible, the projects that GateGuards has underway/will do next.

 

[manfredc3]

Awesome shots.
Must have taken you some time to create.

Making me look forward to an airshow myself.

 

[MustangL2W]

Awesome Flying there... I never get tired of your "screenies." As real as it gets! Is that your Favorite Mustang scheme, or do you have another you fly all the time?

 

[ryanbatc]

WOW! Amazing screen shots!

I was there for the Fri practice and today's show. So much for nasty and rainy all weekend ha!

I did not have the L glass I had last year.... so I was stuck with my el cheapo tamron this year but the shots turned out ok.

IMG_2497 by ryan b, on Flickr

IMG_3100 by ryan b, on Flickr

 

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you all for your replies!

Ryan, thank you for sharing those fantastic photos of yours! I had adjusted the blue on "Sue" based on a number of photos which appeared to show it brighter than I had it on my previous repaint, but now, having seen a number of photos from this weekend, such as those you took, Ryan, I'm going to put the blue back to being more along how I had it before.

For those wondering, I of course used FSRecorder for this, and the screenshots themselves are from a couple flights (mid-day and late evening), and the total flight time of the longer of the two flights I did was about 30 minutes - so in-all, it probably took me about an hour and a half to do the two recordings and then play them back together to take the shots, just for the longer flight. I chose to do a longer duration flight to begin with, as I have yet to get a lot of experience flying in formation using jets, so I figured I would draw the flight-time out so as to provide myself with more good opportunities. I can fly just about any prop planes in formation, quite well, in FSX all day long, but adding a jet into the mix always feels like a lot more work to me, at least to do well at it.

 

[Bomber_12th]

Awesome Flying there... I never get tired of your "screenies." As real as it gets! Is that your Favorite Mustang scheme, or do you have another you fly all the time?

Thank you Jim! I would have to say that "Sue" is my favorite go-to Mustang, as the real aircraft certainly is my favorite of all of them out there (and the most authentic restoration to-date). It has been my "hometown" Mustang all of my life, having been operated by Doc Christgau, its previous owner, and now its current owner, Paul Ehlen, both from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Although it didn't look as good then, it was a common sight at the airshows I went to as a kid throughout the 90's, and although it more/less disappeared for a time when Doc stopped flying it, when Paul Ehlen purchased it in 2011 and had it sent for complete restoration to AirCorps Aviation (guys whose reputations for authentic restorations I knew all about), I was very excited and followed every bit of the progress on the restoration from the moment it entered their shop and every month's progress to the day it was completed, first flown, saw it at one of its first airshow appearances, and then again at Oshkosh when it was awarded WWII Grand Champion. Last fall, I was fortunate enough to visit/tour the AirCorps Aviation shops and got to meet the fantastic people that make that company what it is. While the aircraft is owned by Paul Ehlen, it is on permanent loan to the Wings of the North Museum, and over the past 2-3 years that the aircraft has been flying, a number of different pilots, in addition to Ehlen himself, have gotten the opportunity to fly it and bring it out to airshows, such as Doug Rozendaal, Jack Larsen, John Bormes, and now just this weekend, Vlado Lenoch.

I actually have plans to see "Sue" again, up-close and flying, this coming weekend.