C5M - Super Galaxy

There were two reasons to go to Dover for the Air Show this year.  Both were personal reasons.  And one I can talk about on the Blog.  That one reason was to see FRED fly.

FRED was my office from 1983 to 1992.  Best time ever.  My office location always changed.

The current version is the M model, Super Galaxy.  When I was crewing, it was just a regular Galaxy.  The A and B models.

I have over 3600 hours with FRED in various categories as a Flight Engineer.  I saw a lot of the world.  Thanks tax payers!

When I departed Dover for the final time in 1992 as a civilian, I was never sure if I'd see FRED fly again.

Took care of that concern a few days ago.

Even though the show flight was about 20 minutes long, there was still a taxi, takeoff and landing.  The A and B models had a specific noise when the engines were advanced to take off power.  That noise is no longer there, due to engine upgrading from GE's TF-39s to GE's F138-GE-100s.  The distinctive high pitched whine is now gone.  Thankfully, it lives on in YouTube land.  Yet, I still enjoyed the show.

I did a number of air shows back in the day.  FRED was always a big hit.  First in, and last out.  Always a static display.  Air shows were fun assignments.  Lots of great questions from technical numbers to aircrew life.

The aircraft is so large there were times during the demo it did not fit the frame.

C5M Low Pass

NIKON D500 Ver.1.31/Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6

247 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

EV 0, Shutter Priority, Size DX

C5M Left Bank

NIKON D500 Ver.1.31/Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6

330 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

EV 0, Shutter Priority, Size DX

C5M (Distant) Approach

NIKON D500 Ver.1.31/Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 110 (Auto)

EV 0, Shutter Priority, Size DX

C5M Approach

NIKON D500 Ver.1.31/Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6

142 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

EV 0, Shutter Priority, Size DX

C5M Touchdown at Dover

NIKON D500 Ver.1.31/Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6

127 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100

EV 0, Shutter Priority, Size DX

With the last two photos, the mm of the shot is close to the minimum mm would be 120.  Neither shot is cropped.  Another interesting photo note is the difference in the color of the sky.  The in flight shots and the close shots all have a nice blue to the sky.  On the distant approach, the sky is very hazy.  Lots of water vapor.  It is as close to in focus as I can get.  And the sky doesn't look the same - at all.  Interesting.