OHTM Air Show

I spent the day at the Owl's Head Transportation Museum (OHTM) soaking up the sun and getting my jollies off watching the show. If you're ever in Maine in the summer, drop in on this place -- near Rockland -- on the weekend. There's always flying of antique aircraft going on then, even if there's not an aerobatic display happening. (FYI: That one's usually on the last weekend in July.)


This is Rob Holland in his Ultimate 20-300 biplane, by far the best aerobatic performance I've seen in a long, long time. At times, he's not even flying, he's tumbling through space.


This is a Chinese trainer called a Nanchang CJ6A. Not exactly what I would call absolutely beautiful airplane, but it was extremely graceful in the air.


A rare day, indeed. This was the fifth or sixth time I've been out to Owl's Head and this is the only time I've seen them fly the Sopwith Pup. This particular plane is a replica, but is powered by an original LeRhone rotary engine! What a beautiful ship. The "smoke" trailing from the engine is not a mechanical problem, but is unburnt castor oil used to lubricate the engine. (FYI, that's one of the reasons the old pilots always wore those cool-looking scarves, to wipe the castor oil off their goggles so they could see -- that and it reduced the chafing from their jacket collars whipping around on their necks.)


I have always had the hots for this airplane -- the Vought F4U Corsair. This particular one is the night-fighter version of the F4U-5 with cylindrical radar dome on the starboard wing. (For those of you who may remember Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, the WWII series about the Black Sheep Squadron led by Pappy Boyington, I happened to be at the Oxnard Airport in California one day and got to take pictures of four of their Corsairs as they took off from a refueling stop during a filming. Talk about being on Cloud Nine!)

A Happy Accident

While on assignment to shoot cliffs for my cousin Mary, I came across this shot. I was so intrigued by the contrasts of texture and color and the reflection of the sun in the tidal pool. It was captivating.

Monolith Sunrise

This is an image I've had in my head since my college days in the late 70s. 'Bout damned time I did something with it, huh? Thank God for Photoshop.

Fire of '47 Overlook

In 1947, a huge fire took off and burned the entire east side of Mount Desert Island, home of Bar Harbor and yours truly. This was taken from an overlook dedicated to that fire, although I was mostly interested in the clouds. I collect clouds.

Sentimental Journey

This is a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress named Sentimental Journey, owned and flown by the Commemorative Air Force's Mesa, AZ Wing. This is the first time I've ever seen one flying up close.
Sidebar: Back in the 70s, I was in Southern California while in the Navy and was almost killed in a Santa Ana wildfire. After the fire swept over the mountain some squadron mates and I were on, I saw a silver B-17 borate bomber doing dumps on the fire down below us. This could very well be the same one, as she was a borate bomber in Southern California at that time and has always been silver. Small world, if so.

A Foggy Flog Blog

"Flog" is Golf spelled backwards and best describes my vain attempts at the game. I once shot a 98, though, but that was only on nine holes and there were a whole lot of angry people around making me nervous. Needless to say, I was never asked into the PGA. This is one of the water hazards at the Kebo Golf Course here in Bar Harbor.

Blog in Blog

Just a little fun this morning, as it's raining cats and dogs out there thanks to Tropical Storm Beryl

Yet another day

The light through the trees makes work go by so much easier, except that I have a hard time working. Sigh.