Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Photos of operational aircraft from bases, airports and "spotter" outings
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Pavlov's Dog
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Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Pavlov's Dog »

A few select phots from the recent Exercise Crimson Eagle 2011. The exercise is the final hurdle for Apache Conversion To Role training and is over 9 weeks long. It aims to test aircrew, ready for operations world-wide, and focusses on firing the range of weapon systems available to Apache crews in a tactical scenario. The exercise also considers operating with high All Up Mass and in hot and dusty environments and takes place in California and Arizona twice a year.

My only regret, not having enough cash to purchase a 2.8 300mm or 400mm and making do with a less than average Tamron 70-300mm!

The Blue Angels practise sesions were a daily occurance whilst we were based in California.
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Plenty of visitors too.
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A very heavy Apache with 8 Hellfire, 2 RCEFs full of fuel, full internal fuel load and max load of 30mm. For those AH purists, note how low she sits by comparison to a Middle Wallop based aircraft.
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Into the Arizona desert for some environmental training aka 'dust landings'!
Arriving......
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.....another arrival.....
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Flying across the Arizona desert, view from the front seat looking aft.
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In formation across the desert.
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Decent during attack profile.
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Some interesting co-habitants in Arizona.
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Unfortunately these were from inside the airfield transit bus.
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Self portrait from the front seat whilst in transit across the desert.
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Thanks for looking,

PD :smile:

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Spock
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Spock »

Some cracking photos there.
Thanks for sharing.

Trev :clap: :clap:

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Harlequin67
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Harlequin67 »

Very nice indeed.
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Agg
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Agg »

Awesome set! Thanks for posting :) And I hope those poor Apaches got a good and thorough cleaning afterwards :P

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Stu
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Stu »

Ace set thanks for posting them :clap:
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whitus1
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by whitus1 »

the last picture of I presume you is pretty smart! :rock:
keep flying

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captain scarlet
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by captain scarlet »

Very interesting set, thanks for posting. :clap:

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Hellfire
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Hellfire »

Another excellent set. Loving the brownout sets. Used to work with the Tamron. Good little piece of kit but you do notice the difference when using a Canon lens. Still, you did a cracking job mind.

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gary1701
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by gary1701 »

Excellent stuff, and very nice to see images of the AH at work from the inside. Really look forward to any more than you can post in the future. I guess that if you've been on Crimson Eagle at El Centro than you'll probably be deploying soon? Whenever you're back at Wattisham and you see a photographer on the fence, come and give me a look!

Gary
Last edited by gary1701 on Mon 02 May 2011, 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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RickIngham
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by RickIngham »

Cracking stuff as always PD - your Tamron seems fine to me! Loving the self portrait and brown out shots. More dust than SPTA could ever give you!

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Arno 01
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Arno 01 »

Thanks for posting another cracking set from the other side of the fence, really look forward to your posts :topbombing:

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TonyO
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by TonyO »

Great work PD, fascinated by the dust landings, are there any cueing aids or systems to help you when landing in such conditions or is the viz good enough around the sides to give you the references you need?
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vortex003
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by vortex003 »

whitus1 wrote:the last picture of I presume you is pretty smart! :rock:


Agreed! Great set of pics :cool:

:rock: :rock:

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^^Gord^^
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by ^^Gord^^ »

Very nice!

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LN Strike Eagle
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

Excellent shots, very interesting to see - agree with everyone else on the cockpit/self portrait.
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Pavlov's Dog
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Pavlov's Dog »

All,

Thank you for your comments. :smile:

Agg wrote:Awesome set! Thanks for posting :) And I hope those poor Apaches got a good and thorough cleaning afterwards :P

Yes they did, Army Aircrew always clean their own aircraft. :wink: The sand left behind on the wash-down point after each wash was quite extraordinary. Incidentally, we weren't allowed to clean them in Arizona for fear of detergent getting into the eco system so they had at least 5 weeks in that state.
captain scarlet wrote:Very interesting set, thanks for posting. :clap:

LN Strike Eagle wrote:Excellent shots, very interesting to see - agree with everyone else on the cockpit/self portrait.

Bought a Go-Pro Hero HD whilst in USA and this is still from that camera. I'm very impressed with it so far.

Hellfire wrote:Another excellent set. Loving the brownout sets. Used to work with the Tamron. Good little piece of kit but you do notice the difference when using a Canon lens. Still, you did a cracking job mind.

I find the Tamron a little wishy-washy with quality (edge blur in particular). I think it's more to do with the lens mechanism having some slight play although the glass is probably of inferior quality when compared to Canon, especially L series.

gary1701 wrote:Excellent stuff, and very nice to see images of the AH at work from the inside. Really look forward to any more than you can post in the future. I guess that if you've been on Crimson Eagle at El Centro than you'll probably be deploying soon? Whenever you're back at Wattisham and you see a photographer on the fence, come and give me a look!

Gary

I deploy within the next six months or so, I'll give you a wave if I see you. Where is the best location at Wattisham for you to photograph? I'll let you know when I'm next airborne and see if I can get a shot of me from the outside for once!

RickIngham wrote:Cracking stuff as always PD - your Tamron seems fine to me! Loving the self portrait and brown out shots. More dust than SPTA could ever give you!

The ground support lads take particular pride in driving a 4x4 in circles at the landing site in order to create the worst conditions possible. They actually broke the 4x4 in the end!

TonyO wrote:Great work PD, fascinated by the dust landings, are there any cueing aids or systems to help you when landing in such conditions or is the viz good enough around the sides to give you the references you need?

By day we use the cueing information in the Helmet Mounted Display which provides flight information such as attitude, power, height, rate of decent (ROD). We aim to fly through a virtual gate of 20 kts at 50' with about 300 feet p/m ROD and if the parameters for that gate are not met we over-shoot. It then becomes very dark as the dust cloud envelops the aircraft and then you rely heavily on the symbology in the HMD. There is also quite a lot of noise as loose stones and sand smash into the aircraft fuselage so it's quite a harrowing experience at first. At night we use the FLIR, which is strange because there is no reference to the aircraft's alignment except for the symbology. By day we utilise the aircrafts cockpit framework for reference. The FLIR sits on the aircrafts nose so you do have longer period out of the dust cloud as far as view is concerned. Either way it's pretty A-level flying.

Once again, thanks for looking.

PD

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Trevster
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by Trevster »

Excellent set! :rock:
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RickIngham
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Re: Ex Crimson Eagle (USA) 2011

Post by RickIngham »

Pavlov's Dog wrote:By day we use the cueing information in the Helmet Mounted Display which provides flight information such as attitude, power, height, rate of decent (ROD). We aim to fly through a virtual gate of 20 kts at 50' with about 300 feet p/m ROD and if the parameters for that gate are not met we over-shoot. It then becomes very dark as the dust cloud envelops the aircraft and then you rely heavily on the symbology in the HMD. There is also quite a lot of noise as loose stones and sand smash into the aircraft fuselage so it's quite a harrowing experience at first. At night we use the FLIR, which is strange because there is no reference to the aircraft's alignment except for the symbology. By day we utilise the aircrafts cockpit framework for reference. The FLIR sits on the aircrafts nose so you do have longer period out of the dust cloud as far as view is concerned. Either way it's pretty A-level flying.

Once again, thanks for looking.

PD


PD, as the AH is a 'tail-dragger' do you flare in a brownout or just stick it down on the deck keeping at that ROD? Apache isn't a perticularly wide aircraft so I would have thought there would be a danger of rolling it if put down too hard?
Hope to see more of your superb work again soon!

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