F-35 at Flying Legends

I was surprised to see that the aeroplane had no propeller at all and assume it was one of the new fangled ‘jets’. Don’t they normally not allow those at the Flying Legends Airshow.
It made a lot of noise and sometimes flames were produced out of it’s rear end. Perhaps that is to frighten the enemy so it doesn’t have to use it’s machine guns so much.

Consider yourselves fortunate, I’ve yet to see a F-35.
Our country is so large, unless you’re near a base that operates them, you don’t see many types.

On my next trip to the Phoenix area, I’ll have to make my way to Luke.

Not normally a fan of parafin burners, but it was good to see, particularly the demonstration of post-stall flight (or whatever it’s called) during the break. 🙂

Thanks everyone….it made quite a good thread.
…and it was a really superb display….will I get into trouble for saying such things at an essentially vintage event ?

Alan

Thanks for that, I have tried all the focus methods on the D3200 and none of them are perfect ! It loves clouds, prefers them to aeroplanes – especially polished aluminium ones such as the Red Bulls or the two TFC Curtiss aircraft. Still, beats the Practikas I used in the early seventies, only perhaps having one 36 exposure and one 24 exposure film for the day !!!

Incidentally, I tried to get the shot of the heritage formation approaching head on, I had my camera on spot focus and pointed straight at the nose of the F35. Refused point blank to focus ! Stealth technology ? Or perhaps Nikon D3200 and Tamron 70-300 lack of technology !

RJH,

It’s often difficult to get focus to work on the F-35, F-22, and similar aircraft. Nose on is probably the most difficult because it was specifically designed not to reflect energy back towards the sender. Here is a short video from a guy who really understands the modes for the D3200 series and explains them very well. I hope there is some useful info in there for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ8ab8dt4OI

Saturday.

Sunday

…and then the lens ‘conked’ out. Back to Canon for repair tomorrow.

Mark

They were flying from RAF Fairford.

So two different aircraft, 5164 on Saturday, 5125 on Sunday. Does one assume they would have been based in the UK for the show ? Long way to come from Arizona for a quick display.
And oh that blue sky, very different to the cloudy Saturday when I was there ! Still, not sure whether would have been able to cope with the heat with a cloudless sky ! And still wouldn’t have had the quality of photos that SimonR has !!!!!

AZ7Z9886 by sboreeves, on Flickr

The F-35 Demo is from Luke AFB, Which was named for Frank Luke Jr, located to the west of Phoenix, AZ. As to which plane, I have no idea, I am by the base several times a week and I see more and more F-35s flying.

Did anyone think the Legends write up in Flypast was a bit lacklustre?

Incidentally, I tried to get the shot of the heritage formation approaching head on, I had my camera on spot focus and pointed straight at the nose of the F35. Refused point blank to focus ! Stealth technology ? Or perhaps Nikon D3200 and Tamron 70-300 lack of technology !

As above: AF-139 15-5164

There is an excellent photo on Flickr, taken at RIAT by a John Higgins, of F-35A 5164. Hope it is OK to quote his comments here “15-5164 F-35A Lightning II 56th Fighter Wing / 63rd Fighter Squadron ‘Panthers’ Luke Air Force Base, United States Air Force.”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/elferrito/42758984074

Clearest I could get with my pathetic attempts at phtographing it came up with LF tail code and the number 5164 but can’t read the small letters in front of that, can’t attach photos at the moment as won’t upload ! According to my findings on t’interweb the tail code is 56th FW at Luke AFB Arizona ?
I’m sure somebody has posted much clearer pictures than mine to peruse for detail anyway.