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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 17:15:35 GMT 12
Another totally uber cool moment in my career - not very often you get to fly a fighter from the front seat when you are not even a rated pilot. I was at Le Bourgeot for the Paris Air Show - cant actually remember what year it was but it was a little while ago. A very good friend of mine Claude Martin was the chief test pilot for Dassault and also the display director (or something like that) for the Airshow. We had been discussing about some of the shoots I did over the years with Dassault products and he asked me if I would like to come for a flight with him in the Mirage 2000-5. Wasnt an air to air shoot or anything like that - just a flight with a good friend to say thanks for the work I had done to help promote their products. During lunch in the Dassault chalet Claude told me we were going to head off out over Paris for some sightseeing - sounded cool. After lunch and in typical french fashion with a glass of wine - we headed around to the other side of the airport to go flying. As we kitted up Claude just happened to mention "Oh by the way you will be in the front seat". This was a WTF moment. I wasnt going question it and proceeded to strap in the front. Claude explained that I would have to raise and lower the gear as this could only be done from the front seat - no problem. After we took off we headed out over Paris and got to see the sights from a pretty unique perspective, especially rolling inverted at about 15000ft looking down on the Eifel Tower - now that was cool. As we came back to Le Bourget Claude told me to get my camera ready as he was going to do a low pass - he forgot to mention it was going to be inverted LOL. I got a pretty cool shot as we came down the runway at 200ft inverted - rolled the right way up, quick dumbbell then back the other direction inverted. Was an amazing experience and one for my all time favs list.  Aussie 626 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  194486702_10221434644081029_4821689076619149444_n by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  197313713_10221434644761046_3568579323688426524_n by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  197818774_10221434644001027_7736856844194190257_n by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  203981916_10221434644121030_5685881122692992571_n by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  44430885400_dc9bc9aee8_b by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 19:16:21 GMT 12
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 19:22:44 GMT 12
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 20:17:37 GMT 12
Another cool flight with the French - this time in Singapore. Denis Garnier and I spent about 90 mins out over the South China sea in the Rafale. Got to show me some pretty cool technology on that flight but wasnt allowed to photograph it  Our takeoff was something to remember. Lined up at the end of Changi airport. Got clearance to take off and Denis did a max perf takeoff. Soon after we rotated the tower asked where we were as he had lost sight of us - Denis replied - "passing 15,000ft Sir" and we hadnt even crossed the piano keys at the end of the runway.  NS 20 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  NS 17 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 20:25:28 GMT 12
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 20:44:30 GMT 12
Found this one from another memorable shoot for all the wrong reasons. We were out by Lancaster, California shooting the Skyraider which was owned by a friend of mine David Price who back then owned the Santa Monica Museum of Flying. Bruce Lockwood was flying the Skyraider and I was in Cottonmouth the P51 with Bram Arnold. The canopy on the P51 had a window cut out in the back of it for shooting air to air so I was unharnessed and turned around shooting out the back. Well about 20 mins into the shoot I heard the engine cough and splutter and everything went silent. Bram yelled out are you buckled in - I replied "farq no". Well you better farqing well do so very quickly as we might have to bail out. My response was Farq This - I have no interest in my first ever sky diving lesson. The engine kicked into life for a few seconds then stopped again - and Bram made the decision to dead stick it into Lancaster airport. That was the longest few mins of our lives but we squeaked in over the fence with about a foot to spare. Needless to say we got VERY drunk that night.  NS 82 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 20:47:41 GMT 12
Have to say its quite fun going through all my old images and adding them to this thread - brings back some great memories and no where else do I have all this stuff in the one place. Thanks Dave Homewood for letting my put them here. Hope it helps motivate others to take up air to air photography - its an amazing thing to do. This was heading back into Santa Monica airport after playing out in the Mojave Airport all day. David Price who used to own Santa Monica Museum of Flying is in the P47 and I am in the back of the P51 Cottonmouth with Bob "Hurricane" Hannah.  NS 89 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 20:48:49 GMT 12
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Post by kiwined on Dec 31, 2021 20:57:19 GMT 12
From a shoot with the Royal Navy, got to fly with Flt Lt Gavin Phillips who was an exchange officer with the Harrier Squadron at Yeovilton in the brand new two seater - think it was the T8. Even got to do a take off from the ramp which was pretty cool. The purpose of the shoot was to shoot Spon Clayton in the single seat SHAR. During our flight Gavin also showed me how the nozzles on the Harrier work - little bursts with the nozzles can turn the noze instantaneously in the direction you want but also washes off quite a bit of speed.  NS 88A by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  40568132053_f59da9f625_o by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by thebrads on Dec 31, 2021 21:03:42 GMT 12
These are awesome, keep posting them, and please keep adding the stories to go with them! A pic of a jet is a pic of a jet, but the stories behind them make them interesting.
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Post by kiwined on Jan 1, 2022 7:10:21 GMT 12
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Post by kiwined on Jan 1, 2022 7:13:30 GMT 12
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Post by kiwined on Jan 1, 2022 7:26:43 GMT 12
South Africa was always an amazing place to visit and go flying. Spent numerous trips over the years flying with the SAAF in their Cheetahs and also Impalas. On one shoot even did air to air with Russian Su-37 that was there for the airshow. Low level over the bush was a highlight until you realised that if you had to eject there were lions and leopards and lot of other stuff that would make mince meat of you very quickly.  Aussie 263 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  SA1 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  SA2 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  SA3 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  SA4 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  SA5 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  SA6 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by ZacYates on Jan 1, 2022 17:46:28 GMT 12
Another incredible selection of shots and subjects Ned, thank you so much for sharing! I love the Santa Monica stuff - super scary moment in Cottonmouth aside - and the Finland pics. I love highway/road ops, and the camo on the Hawks is wicked! Another totally uber cool moment in my career - not very often you get to fly a fighter from the front seat when you are not even a rated pilot. Having pilots for friends can pay dividends in truly unexpected ways. Amazing! |
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Post by Antonio on Jan 1, 2022 21:51:25 GMT 12
I love the Ilmavoimat pic with the MIG21 from HävLLv 31.
Such a famous unit.
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Post by kiwined on Jan 2, 2022 11:04:51 GMT 12
Warbird I shot long time ago - one of Cavanaugh Flight Museums P-51Ds over Texas. Ladd Doctor was flying it at this time and he went on to have a serious accident in a warbird. Had been in Oshkosh the week before and got to shoot their Grumman Cougar along with a Sabre. Will see if I can find those pics as well to scan in.  CWD1 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by kiwined on Jan 2, 2022 11:09:11 GMT 12
This one was actually a hilarious shoot - I was at RAAF Sale shooting with the Roulettes that week and Dave Steele who was the CO at the time said we should try and get a few Pig shots aka the F-111 as it was there for a few days. Well why not we decided. However the speed difference between the PC-9 and the Pig was well quite different LOL. We managed to get a few decent shots while he was as slow as possible and we were in a shallow dive. And to add insult to injury when we were done the pilot of the Pig goes "hey watch this" and. he lowered his gear - we laughed and told him to Farq off and he cleaned up, hit the burners and that was that.  Pig1 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  PIG2 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  PIG3 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  PIG4 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  PIG5 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by kiwined on Jan 2, 2022 13:43:25 GMT 12
Will start adding bunch of helo stuff in now as well This was from a shoot with great friends at Starspeed in London. Over the years I have shot a number of shoots with them but on this day we decided to put up a bunch of the fleet and get a formation shot of them all. Now this was a LOT more challenging than you think especially with a few guys that were non military and we had to have them in the middle of the formation for specific reasons. In the south of england we identified and area where we could have a pretty good sized racectrack pattern course. We gave ourselves a LONG run into the background we wanted so that we could "try" and get everyone into position. But I have to say everything actually came together quite well. I was in an AS350B3 camera ship and you would not believe the amount of comms we had going back and forth. Ec155 up 10ft, AW169 back 5ft, etc etc. But as you can see from the shot in here it actually didnt come out too bad. Lot of lessons learnt for next time we try a formation shoot with this many aircraft. But overall happy with the result of the formation and then went off and did some one on one shots.  Starspeed 01018 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  Starspeed 00153 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  Starspeed 01659 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  Starspeed 02309 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  Starspeed D 02740 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  Starspeed D 00083 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr  Starspeed 00222 by Ned Dawson, on Flickr |
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Post by campbellbox on Jan 3, 2022 9:44:18 GMT 12
Just loving this total treasure trove you're building here Ned. Thanks heaps - please keep them coming when/if you have the time and inclination.
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Post by ZacYates on Jan 3, 2022 13:46:26 GMT 12
Hear hear. I grew up seeing your pics in Pacific Wings and other mags and it's wonderful to see your work in glorious high resolution!
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