Plenty of traffic, nice company, a good book and perfect weather everyday, I had a great time. 79 passes in 7.5 days. Most of these images were taken from the canyon exit and further east, around the corner towards Point Juliet.
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6. It was about a 25-30 minute walk east to get here, but it benefits from the higher aircraft that usually skim the top of the canyon, dropping in lower as they turn the corner and head towards Panamint Basin. It was also a lot better for late afternoon light as the aircraft were turning towards a SE direction.
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15. Plenty of F-16s knocking about most days.
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It was impressive to see so many different hornet squadrons. Apart from the local regulars of VX-9 and VX-31, I noted appearances from VFA-2, VFA-14, VFA-25, VFA-32 (on detachment from NAS Oceana), VFA-41, VFA-86, VFA-122, VFA-137, VFA-154 and VFA-192. Here are some of my favourite passes from them.
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44. There were probably about 15-20 passes throughout the 2 weeks that skimmed the top of the canyon. I don't count these as part of the 79 landlocked passes, but I liked these shots.
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Wednesday 11th February was just one of those days! The day before, this QF-4 passed over very high and today he flew up Panamint, got to the Highway 190 by the camp site and then turned round and headed south again. Shortly after, 2 harriers chose to follow the road instead of the canyon and then, I got car parked late in the afternoon by 3 harriers from VMA-214 of Yuma. Just goes to show that no two days are the same and almost anything unexpected can turn up.
46. Record shot of an F-4 in Panamint.
I kept a log of the traffic each day.
Monday 2nd: 7 passes.
Tuesday 3rd: 18 passes.
Wednesday 4th: 10 passes.
Thursday 5th (0900-1230): 6 passes.
Monday 9th: 13 passes.
Tuesday 10th: 8 passes.
Wednesday 11th: 11 passes.
Thursday 12th: 6 passes.
Thanks for the company, Alan Kenny, Brandon Moffit, Peter Steehouwer, Kevin Whitehead, Dan Stijovich, Rod from Vancouver, Alan from San Fransisco and the many Dutch photogs over for Red Flag that said hello.
Equipment used was a Canon 5DmkIII and a 500mm F4 IS L with a 1.4x convertor III. More images on my website.
Thanks for looking.
Tim
Quality shots what a great spot 
