This is the second year we flew the Skyvan photoship for all the aerial fun in Florida. We’ve learned a lot from last year, and so our preparation for this edition went super smooth. To be fully flexible we operated the photoship out of Bartow, an amazing place with amazing people!! AND the restaurant was back open, so nobody had to starve.

We were blessed with 5 days of fantastic flying weather, only the mornings were plagued a bit by fog but once that was cleared we were all ready to go. And ready we were as an incredible schedule was awaiting us. We started with an incredible opportunity right away to get the aerial view of C-47 ‘Tico Belle’ 99% fully restored with D-Day markings. The USAF had given approval for the F-35 and F-16 join-up, the main reason for us to start flying on Monday as both jets would come in this day. It were two jets for sure, beautifully decorated with the American banner, but both were F-35 as the F-16 had a mechanical and would only arrive well after dark. The F-35 demo jet also flew the well-known ‘Heritage Flight’ formation for us.

First for Tuesday was the large T-34 mentor formation, this year they brought us 12 aircraft in 1 formation set up with smoke, only in the USA we get to see such an opportunity.

Our next guest behind the Skyvan was the Mig-17 flown by Tony Remudo. In authentic Cuban Air Force colors, we should count it now as a new Air Force on our #66 long list! Another highlight to see in front of our camera’s.

The biggest priviledge we got was the opportunity to capture aerial images of the Jack Aces team, flying 3 P-51 Mustangs. The weather could not have been more perfect for this occasion with a pink, orange and yellow sky interrupted by some dark clouds and rain showers… truly amazing!

Wednesday was going to be a relaxed day with an L-39 on the program… that turned out to be the biggest ‘cool beans’ surprise we will pull off this year. The legendary TF-104 Starfighter filled us with immense pleasure and thousands of photos were taken when it buzzed by the Skyvan several times. What an incredible machine, 60 years old with more charisma then any modern jet. A most memorable moment! There is a separate report online for all the F-104 lovers to enjoy.

Thursday started with a flying boat as well, when we had the chance to intercept the Grumman Mallard. With the fluffy clouds in the sky and the lakes beneath us, we could have not wished for a better backdrop to see this wonderful machine floating behind us, great livery too!

Now we have done almost every jet type we could expect in a realistic way behind the photoship, but there is always the challenge of adding another one. Not what you might expect, no jetfighter, but a glider with two jet engines!! Bob Carlton proved to us it does look pretty badass, especially when he activated the two large smoke trails, and so yes that really was a new jet type for us.

More famous aerobatic pilots line up with Melissa Burns, flying the Extra, and Skip Stewart in his Prometheus for a series of solo poses and 2-ships. When we passed overhead the airfield it must have been quite a view from the ground up, and from our position we could see all 2000 airplanes in a single view! As our final guests for the day was the Redline Team, they decided to fly also a 4-ship for us with Skip and Melissa, before releasing the pyro for their own photosession.

Final day Friday started early… yea we have to be ready to suffer a bit, but it’s the only way if you want to make good use of that 15 minutes of special sunrise light. And we got it, together with 4 Harvard and a T-28, coming as a formation and solo.