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For our final project of the 2025 season we flew out again to the USA, to enjoy the sweet California vibes! It would be the third time already to fly the Skyvan photoship for the Pacific Airshow. All was looking very good to have an incredible line-up, that included of course a number of military participants. Unfortunately we encountered the fall-out in full of the government shutdown, with a result that all of the US military was cancelled for the airshow. As the Snowbirds would also participate in the airshow – and they are from Canada – it would become our only military photomossion. But… we had the worst luck in a long time, as a few of their jets were damaged by FOD on the weekend before and so they arrived scattered and late with a direct result… no photoflight. |
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| However… we are in the US and we have a lot of flying friends in California, who all came out to still give us a spectacular week in the air!! It might have not been the military jets, but it was a lot of fun to fly with the aerobatic guys. Our biggest ‘THANK YOU’ goes to Jason Karlin who gave us the opportunity to capture his entire fleet of aerobatic aircraft with the Decathlon, Champion, a few Extra’s and a super nice sunset flight presenting one of the bizzjets from his company Paragon Airways. | |||
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Not only did the aircraft fly in a spectacular solo performance for us, throughout the days we also got to see a number of rare two- and three-ship formation, level and inverted! Also Torrey Ward flew his MiniJet – oh yea, that is a real jet – in a sunset join-up for us. Day two saw us flying the Skyvan photoship over to Chino for 2 incredible guests. We had flown before with the famous P-51 ‘Gunfighter’ and B-29 ‘DOC’, one of our most epic warbird flights ever. But getting a chance to see both aircraft together in the air was something not to miss, a once in a lifetime chance. |
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In the evening we had our second sunset flights, we used every bit of California sun to the maximum. More warbirds flew behind and beside the Skyvan with the T-6 Harvard and TBM Avenger, both solo and in formation. Australian pilot Emma Mc Donald showed us her Extra, while Anthony Oshinuga flew the Pitts Special for us. | |
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| The coolest surprise that evening, the OV-10 Bronco with the long nose, smoke included. As most pilots knew each other, we got to see a number of rare formations again. |  |
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| Day 3 brought us another unique aircraft, the big Albatross. Our friends from the Sheriff’s department also joined our photoflying line-up with the AS350. It was our very first join up since Pacific Airshow in 2023 with this helicopter. Next year we hope to finally get a chance to see their awesome Hueys! Also the T-33 – in beautiful bare metal colors – flown by ‘Wired’ came to our party, the evening was concluded with another aerobatic formation of the Pitts and T-6. |  |
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| Day 4 is the day we fly traditionally from Camarillo airport, with the warbirds of our friends maintaining the SoCal Commemorative Air Force wing. But we started the flight which was for many photographers the highlight of this project. Scaled Composites gave us a super unique opportunity to see for the first time their two ‘Model 401’ jets in the air together. After they made a few passes at Pacific Airshow, the jets made a detour towards Camarillo coastline to give us this incredible chance. Who knows what they’ll bring next year! | |||
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| From our CAF SoCal friends we also got a few surprises. First we flew with two T-6 Harvard, with the bare metal one being a new aircraft for us. Out of nowhere – at least for the photographers onboard the Skyvan – came the famous Pink L-39 ‘Pink Strong’ flown in an incredible way by Jason Somes. And that pink smoke is really réally pink! | |||
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Their Hellcat was a very welcome classic in the line-up, but the recently restored Spitfire stole more of the air to air show as this was our first chance to see it flying. Our final flight, and also a bit of a classic, was the sunsetflight with the amazing PBJ, the sole flying naval version of the B-25 in the world today. With the golden California sunset light all over its airframe, we can say again we had an A++ week in the USA, and for sure we will be back in 2026. | |
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| Official Licensing & Prints - Piemags Aviation | |||