T6 Smoke Trail

I have a lot of photos from the Reno Air Races.  Air Races, not Air Show.  Funny thing is and it is silly to say, for the most part races are races.  The colors of the aircraft change.  The aircraft positions change, but everyone is going in the same direction with very little attitude and altitude difference.  Like NASCAR, the locations where I can take pictures is somewhat limited.  To be sure, the number of aircraft in the picture can change, with more subjects I think the image is more interesting.  Airplane racing is a lot like NASCAR - only three dimensional.
Probably of no interest to the race purists would be the air show elements.  I couldn't get enough of the Heritage Flights.  I couldn't get enough of the Air Force fly-overs by the C-130s, B52 and U2.  The F16 Flight Demo was awesome.  The Patriot Jet Demo team was fantastic.
The point is, with my photos, there are a lot of race images and some will fine their way to the blog.  But the Air Show photos are much more varied.
So with that out of the way, one of the best parts of the demos was anytime the aircraft is trailing smoke.  With a photographic image, you get the instant in time.  The elusive photographic story can be told, but it is a lot easier with motion.  The smoke trail is the motion.  Viola!

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, 450 mm

Aperture Priority

D7200/70-300 mm

This is the far reach for my lens, I think it did just fine here.  
This is a T6, which just happened to turn 80 years old this year.  This is a World War II trainer, these days weighing in around 5,700 pounds.  The power plant is a 600 HP Pratt-Whitney radial design.  This class was my favorite to photograph.  The air frame is larger and the speeds are around 230 mph.  Faster than NASCAR, but bringing up the rear here in terms of average course speed.  The original design speed was 210 mph.
The races tend to be much closer because the modifications are very limited.  The engine size is regulated.  Much better for getting group shots.