C-47/P-51C Formation

[Bomber_12th]

Being that he's currently gone on vacation, I snuck into Kermit Weeks' collection and had some fun with a couple of his aircraft. : )

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_1_zpsd6bf56c6.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_1_zpsd6bf56c6.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_2_zps77748cca.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_2_zps77748cca.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_3_zps3243f02f.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_3_zps3243f02f.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_4_zps7e43c732.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_4_zps7e43c732.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_5_zps0f58c35a.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_5_zps0f58c35a.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_6_zpsea8cb312.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_6_zpsea8cb312.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_7_zps9e7a7cc2.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_7_zps9e7a7cc2.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_8_zps9fb61500.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_8_zps9fb61500.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_9_zps2ef32092.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_9_zps2ef32092.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_10_zps33e35ae5.jpg~original (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_12th/media/FHC%20German%20Fighters/Harvard/FOF_Formation_10_zps33e35ae5.jpg.html)

[Mach3DS]

John way to go on this set! Great screens. I really love formation shots and you've captured the movement on these ones. The preflight shots really go a long way to setting up the series.

[Dimus]

Great shots John! I like how the P-51 uses the flaps to stay in formation.

Thank you for using the FoF for backdrop. I was there too yesterday for a quick spin of the Reliant and the Po-2 around the field. I wish I could turn the beacon on top of the tower to red/white. Kermit has installed a non-standard beacon on top of the tower, which is however what the WWII era beacons were like.

I recognize the P-51.:salute: May I ask which C-47 that one is?

[MenendezDiego]

They should just make a sticky already for your screenshots.

[FlameOut]

Great shots indeed, how do you do it ?

[Quicksand]

Outstanding shots, John!!!! :applause:

[Bomber_12th]

Hey guys, thank you for the very kind replies! I particularly enjoyed this grouping, and the C-47 is a very easy aircraft to fly wing with in the Mustang (I don't know if I had ever done formation flying with the B/C-model before, and it's quite a bit more restrictive to see out of than the D-model, but other than that of course has all of the good traits). It did require the use of 30-degrees of flaps with the Mustang, to get down to the same airspeed of the C-47 while still maintaining low cruise power and fully stable control. One of my motivators with this hobby as of late, is to try and capture scenes that aren't too common to see in FSX, and to try and make more interesting compositions than I have in the past. To do this I've found it great to bring together multiple aircraft, especially which have a common theme (such as in this case, both aircraft are specific to the Fantasy of Flight collection), and to try and capture screenshots that have the same types of angles and depth of distances that you get with real air-to-air photography. Although these particular real-life warbirds have yet to be flown together, that fact that both are with the same collection, it would be fully possible.

Dimus, if only you knew how often I fly from your Fantasy of Flight scenery in FSX! What an amazing piece of scenery to have in FSX, and compares so accurately with the real deal when you see the videos that Kermit Weeks posts. It's fun to just taxi around the place, and take in the water features and architecture. The C-47 model is the freeware Manfred Jahn model (c47basepack.zip available at Flightsim.com), with a repaint by Martial Feron of Kermit Weeks' N1944A (c-47a_us.zip available at Flightsim.com).

For attaining the screenshots, it isn't very glamorous - I used FSRecorder, which is available at Avsim (which allows you to record a flight and play it back as traffic, or as complete replay). This does allow you a lot more freedom though, than say trying to take similar shots while actually doing multiplayer flying, as you don't have to concentrate on flying while you are taking the screenshots. When you think of actual air-to-air photography, the photographer is often in the back of the photo-ship, and he is communicating with the pilot of the photo-ship and the other aircraft in the formation he is photographing, and directing them on where to be, much like a composer. Here's kind of a neat 'behind the scenes' look at what its like to be directing an in-flight photo shoot, where the photographer is in-charge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Fhs_EzdtI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DKXP0QGRvU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DKXP0QGRvU&list=PLBB399718A79CEEFD&index=5)

[Mach3DS]

Very Cool! The National Aviation photographer's convention was held here at Paine Field (two weeks ago). They were doing photoshoots all morning on May 17th with the Flying Heritage Collection and the Historic Flight Foundation aircraft. It was great, because there was abnormal amount of vintage flying taking place all day! :)

[skyhawka4m]

John....who are you posting large images like this? for some reason I have a restriction on mine posts of a 1024 width?

[Bomber_12th]

John, in your Photobucket account:

1. Go to "User Settings"
2. Once at User Settings, click on the "Albums" tab
3. On the Albums tab page, go down to "Upload Options" and click on the link that reads "Customize Upload Options"
4. When the Upload Options window opens, you will find an option that reads "Display my linked photos in their original sizes" and you will need to check the box and save

Photobucket did a good job of hiding that option with their latest web site change - I almost dropped them althogether after the changes they introduced, until I found that while doing my own searching of all of the settings.

[Bomber_12th]

Very Cool! The National Aviation photographer's convention was held here at Paine Field (two weeks ago). They were doing photoshoots all morning on May 17th with the Flying Heritage Collection and the Historic Flight Foundation aircraft. It was great, because there was abnormal amount of vintage flying taking place all day! :)

Rick, it is absolutely awesome that they do that! There are some really exceptional aviation photographers in your neck of the woods.

[Dimus]

John, thanks for the info on the C-47. I have it and I'll look for the repaint.

Thank you for the kind words on FoF. It was great fun doing it and you provided much help, inspiration, enthusiasm. I also have started working on a photoreal background based on a sat image kindly provided by meshman. The resolution is 1m/pixel and I have already applied some masks to it for the lakes, water features and blending. It needs some tweaking of the colours though and autogen annotation too, plus some slight rearrangement of the objects and aprons to fit the photo. So far I am not very happy with it and I don't have time any more to devote to it. Maybe some other time.

[skyhawka4m]

I'm actually uploading right from my PC an not another website. I sued to be able to load full resolution shots but now......if I want to load I have to resize them to 1024 x 6?? size.

[huub vink]

Great screenshots John (as usual) and both are beautiful models.

Also thanks for the explanation how to insert large size pictures. I never understood why my pictures were reduces in size, but now I know.

Huub

[FlameOut]

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
4. ... "Display my linked photos in their original sizes"

That is good to know, so now I will not have those little "pop-up" 2X3 size pics here on the Forum. :applause:

[stansdds]

:applause::applause::applause: