Hercules

On a trip to Reno, I wandered up to Stead Airbase, a former CIA facility and the home of the National Championship Air Races each fall. The idea was to nose around and see what I could see, and see if anything was going on.

As it happened, the US Forest Service was there doing fire-fighting training with a C-130 airtanker. The Herc made a few trips in and out of the airport area, did a bit of pattern work, and some touch and go landings. During one pass, the Herc made a relatively tight fast turn right in front of where I was standing. This view, which we see above, shows the sleek thin lines of the Herc from the front. This is in stark contrast to our normal view of the Herc from the side, where it is essentially a flying semi-truck.

One downside of aviation photography is that you rarely get a second chance at taking a photo. In this case, I would have liked to try a little slower shutter speed. This would have prevented the propellers from looking like they were stopped in mid-air, and perhaps would have filled in the color a bit under the wings.