Wings over Camarillo 2014 pre-show

Last Friday I spend the afternoon at the Camarillo airport near Los Angeles, where the fine folks of the Commemorative Airforce (CAF) were preparing for their yearly airshow. 

Curtiss C-46 China Doll at Camarillo, CA, USA

The CAF is a non-profit organisation, dedicated to restoring, preserving and showing historical aircraft all over the US and Canada. Originally known as the Confederate Airforce, the CAF has several "wings" with the main South Californian one being based at Camarillo.

Curtiss P-40N Warhawk at Camarillo, CA, USA

As I wasn't able to attend the show during the weekend, I did the next best thing and flew a single-engine DiamondStar DA40 into Camarillo the day before. Photography wise it turned out to be a great, as unlike during the air shows days itself, there were no restrictions on where one could shoot from.

Pre-airshow days come with a great atmosphere, which I remember from my days helping to organise the airshow at my home airport Moorsele in Belgium. 

P-51A Mustang at at Camarillo, CA, USA
There were a fair amount of rare birds at Camarillo, such as the one and only flying P-51A Mustang flown in from Chino, CA.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
this P-63A King Cobra that flew in from the Palm Springs Air Museum,

A6M Zero at Camarillo, CA, USA
and an original Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero based at Camarillo. I especially like the contrast between the American "Budweiser" advert and the Japanese aircraft. Let's all be friends now!

World Record altitude breaker Long-Ez, Camarillo, CA, USA
It wasn't all warbirds however, with a fair amount of GA and Experimental aircraft like this Rutan Long-EZ ex altitude record holder. And yes, as an ex-owner of the Rutan aircraft, the Canard designs are still very close to my heart!

All images were shot with the Fujfilm X-T1, with either the 55-200 or the 10-24 Fujinon lens.

C-47 duo at Camarillo, CA, USA

More photography at Camarillo can be found here.

BJORN




Comments