Pic(k) of the week 38: FLYING INTO THE SUNSET - JMB VL3 EVOLUTION
Those that are part of the "General Aviation" (other than military and commercial air transport) community, will appreciate the joy of flying close to sunset on a nice calm evening. Even after having been behind the flight controls for more than 15000 flying hours now, for me it remains the most magical moment of the day to fly! Trying to document this in my photography isn't always easy, but I hope the image below does exactly that to those that don't have the luxury of !
The aircraft below is a high performance JMB VL3 Evolution about to take to the skies for a short sunset flight; it is officially classified as an Ultralight or Microlight in most of Europe, which means its Max Take-off weight is limited to a relatively low 476,5kg or 600kg; depending on the country of registry.
When the category was initially created at the end of the seventies, it was largely to allow people to fly on a very limited budget or with certain medical limitations. Back then the flying machines were all very simple tube and fabric planes that were largely used to stay around the airfields where they were based at.
Especially in the last 10-15 years, the European "Ultralight/Microlight" category has pushed the limits hard and now has aircraft that exceed performance of factory built certified aircraft, both in speed and economy. At sometimes more than 200.000,-EUR (220.000,-USD) these aircraft or not cheap. My personal opinion is that these new generation high end "ultralights" should only be flown with proper high training; i.e. dealing with the higher speeds, advanced avionics and specific weather/airspace/ATC challenges; all typically encountered on long distance flying. This unfortunately is not part of the syllabus when one obtains his basic ultralight pilot license today and hopefully will be dealt with by the authorities and/or aircraft manufactures.
Back to photography. When I envisioned the image below, I knew I wanted to shoot a silhouette (or close to) in order to show the beauty of General Aviation while remaining more or less incognito. The image was shot at a smallish aperture to accentuate the star effect in the sun and at a relatively long shutter speed of 1/60s to have a nice prop blur (i.e. not a "stopped prop").
Image details:
- Fujifilm X-T3 with XF16-80 f4 lens
- ISO 160, 1/60s, f16, 22mm focal length
- Lightroom Classic for RAW development
- DxO ColorEfexPro 4 for optimal contrast
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