Falcon Field (MSC, KFFZ, FFZ)

[Joe Copalman]

[Joe Copalman]

The CAF's gorgeous F-4N made a rare outdoor appearance on Friday. 

[josephea6]

Wow!  I love that shot Joe!   

[Joe Copalman]

I miss when happy meals used to come with cool toys.

[Jay Beckman]

They just completed the first flight of a Sonex with a turbine engine.  Bob Carlton (of jet sailplane fame) was the pilot.

They've dubbed it the "SubSonex"

[Jeff D. Welker]

Truly Nolan's Rockwell Commander on final into Falcon this morning. This is a very clean aircraft with a wonderful paint job. One of the nicest Commanders I've seen in a while. The photos were shot from the CAF parking lot. The morning light was nearly perfect for the angle of approach. Thanks Joe for the heads-up.

Turbo Mouse on final...


The Yellow Terminator in the float...

[Joe Copalman]

Local King Air returning home.

[Joe Copalman]

TBM recovering after participating in the memorial fly-by for Eddie Packard back in late January.

[Joe Copalman]

I've been after a shot like this for well over year.  Yesterday evening finally yielded the right combination of clouds, sun position, an inbound aircraft, and both of my kids being asleep for me to give it a shot.  Took a lot of work to get decent detail, color, and light on the PC-12 while retaining sufficient detail in the background, and while there are still a few things I can gripe about, I'm pleased with the result. 

[BillOz]

Now that really is a cool shot, awesome shot, nice shot, great shot!
Congrats on getting it all to work out.

[Matt Ottosen]

Really awesome shot, Joe, congrats on finally getting it!

[Joe Copalman]

Thanks guys!   Bonus is that it's one of my favorite FFZ regulars - a PC-12 that used to belong to Harrison Ford.

[Jeff D. Welker]

@Joe - It doesn't get much better than that. Great image all the way around.

[Jeff D. Welker]

I was truly inspired by Joe's recent image of the PC-12 on final into Falcon. The great monsoon thunder-heads blossoming in the background really made for a special photograph. As I was leaving my office around 4:15 this afternoon, I noticed a similar situation east of Falcon and was aware that SubAir's Beech 1900 was inbound at 4:42 PM. Crossing my fingers, I went home quickly and grabbed a camera/lens to see if I could get lucky.

Unfortunately, the good light was quickly swallowed-up by a huge thunderstorm encroaching from the west. All I got was a stinker dark "blah" sky as the 1900 zoomed over-head. I need to be more dedicated if I hope hope to capture an image as tremendous as Joe's. Either way, I like that 1900. It does not screw around on arrival. Compared to the student pilots doing T&G's, the 1900 lands like the space shuttle - all business.

[Joe Copalman]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Jeff, poopy skies indeed, but you did a lot of things right - not often that one gets that much prop blur while still being able to count rivets.  I played it super-safe on the PC-12 shot and was cranked all the way up to 1/320, as I saw the conditions were pretty close to what I had been after and I didn't want to blow the shot by going for too much blur.  Also, the wider aperture it yielded meant I had very little to clone out in terms of dust spots. 

Honestly, the biggest thing that allowed me to get that shot was not having anything going on at home at that moment.  The kids were asleep, Jonna was napping, and I didn't have anything that needed to get done around the house at that very moment.  Ever since the monsoons started, I've watched flight tracks on Flightaware and looked to the east to see the clouds I wanted where I needed them, but for whatever reason, I couldn't make the two-minute drive out to Falcon Field to get the shot.  Frustrating sometimes to be that close and not get the shot, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do.