Sunday at the Chino show was a good day for reflection.
There were reflections high,
reflections low,
and reflections at convenient eye level.
The drenching rain in the morning provided ample time to reflect on the lengths we go to chasing these old planes around. Sensible people, and guys with delicate electronic cameras that don't like water, took shelter away from the flight line. I was using a 1970s Nikon FE, and I'm too stupid to stay out of the rain. Stupidity has its rewards:
Considering how things started, it was a happy surprise when props started turning and it became evident that we were going to have an airshow.
And it got better, as the clouds lifted and the freshly scrubbed air let us see hills that usually are just vague shapes in the distance at Chino.
As the flying got going, I reflected on this, my 30th year of chasing old planes around with cameras. After all that time, I'm still seeing stuff that's new to me.
And yet, there were familiar shapes, and at least one plane at the show that I saw during my first season of warbird chasing in 1981. And they're not stale yet.
Now here's somebody with a lot to reflect about. Walking around like any first-timer shooting pics with his cheesy digital point-and-shoot of the airplanes -- mostly
his airplanes -- what must Ed Maloney have been thinking about all his years of scraping together old planes, having his museum/collection/junkyard shunted from site to site around southern California all those years, and the slow buildup to the kind of celebration of the old machinery that we were all enjoying?
I thought Ed looked and sounded great this year. It seemed to me he picked up a lot more of the airshow narration duties than he did a few years ago. You go, Ed!
After the show, the evening light was as pretty in its own way as the morning's had been. I went and took all the same pictures again because it was like a whole different day.
I'm not sure if I can remember the last airshow I enjoyed more. I think I'll reflect on it a little.
August
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