Traverse City Coast Guard (Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk)

One of the air show 'wants' for me was the Coast Guard demo.  It was advertised for the WONM two weeks ago, but didn't happen.  Schedule is always subject to change.  But Traverse city delivered and in a big way.
The show opened with two of the three Jayhawks assigned to the Traverse City Coast Guard Station sent out to do a show and stand by for the day.  
The challenge of rotor wing (helicopter) is the prop blur factor.  I started with 1/200th of a second and was not totally happy.  I worked my way down to 1/100th second.  During some of the more hover-like moments, the images are sharper.  But never quite like a high speed shot.
To help me lower the speed without using a higher aperture setting, I was using a polarizer as a ND filter.  I figure it has close to a two stop effect.  In past sunshine shots, I had to go with f/24 or higher.  Using the polarizer for the day, I was closer to f/18.  Better.
This shows up well on small screens and is acceptable in the monitors.  After all it is a hand held 450 mm shot at 1/100th of a second.  But the subject is enough for me to overlook perfection for a 95% shot.

Traverse City Coast Guard Two Ship Formation

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

450 mm, 1/100 Sec, f/18, ISO 140 (Auto)

-0.67 EV, Manual Mode, Polarizer

One of the demonstrations was for the helicopter to hover and drop a swimmer into the water via winch cable.  This was an opportunity for a more static shot, but was still a a distance with the same challenges.  Still looks OK on small screen and OK on the monitor.

Traverse City Coast Guard Insertion

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

450 mm, 1/160 Sec, f/11, ISO 100 (Auto)

-0.67 EV, Manual Mode, Polarizer

The main and tail rotor blur is pretty good.  Actually the tail rotor is awesome.

All in all a pretty good day.  I had the right setting for the situation.  For the helicopter and other prop driven aircraft the blur was good.