[Leica] P51.. Flight de-briefing

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

This post can be considered slightly long, hopefully interesting.

However, if you're tired of P51's and birthdays forget it and do something 
useful, take pictures! ;-)

Name of P51.. "American Beauty." And what a lady of flight she was!:-)

Emotional moments:
The first look at this beautiful machine of the sky was near tear producing
and I thought, "how strange it was being near tears looking
at an in-animate object." But she was special sitting there in the cool of
the hanger waiting to be stroked to life!!

I mean, I know in-animate objects and emotion. A new Leica M fresh from it's 
box and emotions rise at it's feel in hand. Or stand before a Rembrandt 
painting at the Hermitage in Leningrad and feel yer gut squirm with awe at 
it's ancient beauty.

It felt strange reaching out to touch the fuselage and let my fingers slide 
along it's shining aluminium skin wondering how I'd do wrapped inside this 
machine of the sky.

Then it was time for pre-flight briefing with it's safety checks, what to
do if an emergency occurred while on the ground. As basic as I can put it, 
"just get out as fast as you can and run the other way and don't look back!"

Now think about that for a moment telling a photographer to run and not look 
back. ;-) I adjusted that instruction to... "run like crazy, turn around and 
start shooting as fast as you can at whatever is happening!" ;-)

Then, "if this should happen in the sky" was slightly different.

"When the canopy pops off, release your harness, not the parachute
harness,;-) that seemed like a good idea keeping the chute, stand up and 
jump out whichever side you feel easiest.

Next..... This was a big part to remember.... "Do not pull the "chute
D-ring" until you see the plane below you! Well OK that seemed reasonable, I 
just hoped we're high enough for the plane to get below me before I hit the 
ground!;-)

Then I had to repeat the instructions several times to the crew chief,
without wrong wording or sequence. I made it 6 times as we walked about the 
plane and after the 6th she said.. "OK it sounds like you know what to do."

Shook my hand and wished me a good flight. You betcha, a female crew chief 
and she was as sharp about planes as anyone I've ever come across in my 
life.

Then she said "OK parachute time!" And placed a 50 pound parachute & harness 
over my shoulders. You'll notice I'm still standing on the floor of the 
hanger and have yet to climb up onto the wing and into the plane carrying an 
extra 50 lb pack on my back! :-(  This was my 76th birthday, not my 27th! 
;-) Man I was beginning to think I'll never make it into the machine let 
alone climb up.

It was a tad bit of a struggle, but my 3 morning a week work outs paid off 
with the extra effort in building leg strength.

My seat was right behind the pilot where a fuel tank had been installed
originally, however not much room in any event, certainly while wearing the 
chute.

My tension is beginning to rise as the seat harness is tightened and I'm 
firmly locked in place.

The final moment. They hand me my M7 loaded with colour slide film and 15mm 
lens. Which I hung around my neck, then tucked just under the shoulder 
harness to keep it in place as I didn't want it to bang into my face as the 
plane went up side down! :-) No I never used the M7.

Then came the 20D with10-22 mm zoom lens which I kept in my hands as I'd 
decided I'd use the motor drive to shoot as we rolled over rather than 
trying to shoot one frame at a time. After the first roll? Trust me, you 
aren't going to be twiddling a shutter release and film advance leaver.

With pilot in front we're ready to go. Sitting out on the tarmac there was a 
kind of engine cough, then  this in-animate machine came to life with a 
mighty roar and belch of exhaust. :-) You knew you were in for one heck of a 
ride! ;-)

Taxing to the runway for take off was as any aerial shoot, in a normal 
plane.  A pause for a few moments and all of a sudden this roaring lady gave 
me a kick in the butt and we were on our way down the runway.

I was suddenly aware the tail had come up and we were on two wheels level 
about to go airborne, now that's a moment to remember and suddenly we were 
in the sky like a rocket!

Once airborne the straight forward flight was similar to many hundreds of 
flights I've had in small aircraft, both fixed wing and heli's. Yer in the 
air and looking down, "big deal!"

Then the pilot asked on the intercom, " is there anything you'd like to do 
or go?" Me, "Brian how about a roll over or something exciting?" All of a 
sudden the plane nose began to drop and head for Mother Earth picking-up 
speed.

Then the roll began, my arms trying to hold the camera pointed toward me 
became like hundred pound weights, amazing G force feeling and I can't 
imagine what it must be like in a jet fighter. I managed to get off a number 
of frames one at a time.

However, my early planning was to shoot in motor drive so I could keep 
pressure on release and concentrate on where the camera was pointing.

Little did I know the G-force factor would be so strong and my arms fighting 
back to hold the camera in the right position was quite difficult. Awesome 
actually! :-)

When we levelled off I realized I'd forgot to set the motor drive on, 
corrected that and asked the pilot to do it again. ;-) Dang it was good fun 
also! ;-) And away we went. This time he seemed to do it with a greater 
degree of roll. ;-)

Now the camera motor working it sounded better. No I didn't have any 
sensation of stomach as I was totally locked into being a photographer on a 
shoot and to be successful.

We level off, fly along like we're in any old plane when I thought, "gee 
maybe just in case I should ask him to go one more time." ;-) And sure 
enough away we went, more G's again. either he was having fun cause he had 
someone who wasn't barfing. Or he was trying to get me to. ;-)

Level off and I felt great as I thought, "damn that was pretty good!" ;-) 
And we were finally getting some interesting pictures. Or at least I hoped 
so.

My flight time was just about up and I figured, " what the heck get one more 
as you haven't puked yet!" ;-) So this could be a great bonus ride if you 
don't. :-)  And away we went for the forth roll over, "Cool man I could get 
into this real flying stuff instead of sitting in a 747 cruising along like 
yer in an arm chair. ;-)

And that's about it folks, a piece of cake! However, be warned if you were 
just sitting there doing nothing you may well be barfing, but as I've 
learned over the years, as long as you are concentrating on your 
photography, where the plane goes and does doesn't matter a whit!

Your mind is fully concentrating at the job at hand... "making successful 
photographs and as long as that stays upper most in your mind it doesn't 
matter where the heck you are, upside down or feet down.

I trust you've found this a tad interesting.
ted