Thunderbirds at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

I live in Northern Virginia, close enough to Joint Base Andrews to easily visit for the biennial air show. I like photographic challenges and airplanes, so this is a good event for me.

I’ve done this enough times to know most of their routine, what to look for so I’m ready to shoot, and what kind of shots I like. Here are some of my favorites from the 2025 show.

Mirror Image Pass

The mirror image pass is performed with both aircraft passing along the runway, on parallel paths, with the inverted one, #5, nearer to the crowd than the upright one, #6. Number 6 flies alongside and slightly above #5. Here the illusion of belly-to-belly is almost perfect. You can see #5 looking straight ahead, while #6 is watching #5 to hold position. I’ve never seen this maneuver head-on; I’m guessing #5 flies above the near edge of the runway while #6 flies significantly farther away, hence #6 appears smaller than #5 because of the added distance.

Unusual To See #7 in the Formation

The show uses six aircraft, with the commander flying #1, with #1-4 doing most of their work together in a diamond formation, and a pair of solos, #5 and #6 mostly performing apart from 1-4. The show mostly alternates between the main group of 1-4 doing a maneuver, followed by one or both of the solos doing a maneuver while the main group repositions, then back to the main group showing off. For some maneuvers, the solos join the main group to form their delta formation. There is also a seventh aircraft, and this is the first time I’ve seen it fly. It didn’t participate in the show, except for this flyby.

Diamond Formation Pulling Gs and Making Vapor Trails

On humid days, the aircraft sometimes form vapor trails, usually when they’re pulling Gs. This day wasn’t especially humid, so the trails were minimal. I always like vapor trails and the maneuvers when they come in especially fast after a dive from high altitude.

Right Angle Cross

When I see them approaching on a converging path, I pick one to follow in frame and spray the shutter when I think they’re getting close to one another in frame. They roll as they approach each other, and if I’m lucky, I get one shot with them both in frame. If I’m really lucky, both aircraft will be sharp.

#5 Is Frequently Inverted

Famously, solo #5 has its number painted upside down in a nod to the fact that this pilot spends a lot of time inverted.

Head to Head

I keep trying, and failing, to get both aircraft sharp in a head-to-head pass. I use the same technique for this as with the right angle cross: follow one, spray the shutter when they get close. The one that I panned with is usually sharp (the one on the left in this photo) and, if I’m lucky, I’ll freeze the other one too. I need to use a faster shutter speed for this, but I keep underestimating the requirement.

Calypso Pass

The Calypso Pass is a nice slow pass with the solos flying back-to-back, an easy shot to get that shows both sides of an F-16.

Top Side Visible During Aileron Roll

These airplanes are subjected to lots of stresses and wear during a season. By late Summer, the paint has taken a beating. The maintenance crews do a great job of keeping the airplanes looking great, as shown by this view of the top. I always like to get a shot that shows the panels control surfaces. Here you can clearly see the ailerons positioned for a roll to the left.

It was a very bright sunny day, making it really difficult to get good exposures of the white airplanes. I had to shoot everything really underexposed just to keep from blowing the whites out. Fortunately my camera does a great job capturing dim details that I can recover in post-processing. There was also a lot of heat haze. And the wind blew the smoke back toward the crowd area to my right so most of my shots to the right were smoky.

So, not my best work, but I got some keepers.

Civil War Century Ride

GPS Track of My Civil War Century Ride

Elevation Profile

That was hard!

I’ve liked riding bikes all my life. When I was raising my family, I would get out of the habit of riding, restart for a few years, then fall back out of the habit. Now that my children are gone, I’ve gotten back to cycling, riding more than ever. I’ve come to know some things about myself: I find long hours in the saddle to be very therapeutic - my mind wanders, and I enjoy a hard challenge - it gives me something for which to train. Without a goal, I don’t push myself to get fitter.

I’ve wondered for years whether I could actually complete the annual Civil War Century Ride. This event happens every September, starts and ends in Thurmont Maryland, wanders through mountains, and visits Gettysburg and Antietam, hence the name. And the route features 7000+ feet of climbing. I’ve done century rides before, but they were flat. I knew this would be a stretch goal when I decided last year to do this ride, and I trained all winter and spring. My training slacked some this summer, with two trips that interrupted my routine. I showed up for the ride in reasonably good shape.

The route has a 1000 foot climb over 7 miles right at the start. I was afraid this would be too hard for me. I shouldn’t have worried. It was strenuous, but when I reached the top of the climb I was surprised, thinking, well that wasn’t so hard. But of course I did that climb with fresh legs and cool temperatures.

Then I had the first of many descents during which I reached speeds in the 30s. There were a few descents during which I reached the 40s. I would bend down into a sloppy aero position to try to preserve kinetic energy to coast at least a little up the next climb. During every descent, I was in the drops, hands on the brakes, ready to slow down, busy checking for hazards ahead and thinking, “Please don’t hit anything! Now I’m going to have to climb again.”

So it was up, down, up, down, all day. I was doing OK until the climb at mile 60. That one was grueling. The climb actually started at about mile 48, with a long, but relatively gentle ascent of about 300 feet to about mile 59. Then there was a brief ride through Smithsburg, a right turn onto Raven Rock Road, left onto Ritchie Road, all during a relentless climb of about 800 feet, with all of it steep, parts more than 10%. Coming as it did when it was hot and I had just climbed 300 feet and with 60 miles in my legs, I was pretty tired at the top.

Then came the relatively flat part of the route, about 30 miles with only 500 feet of climbing. The brief ride through the Gettysburg battlefield was cool. I rode right past Little Round Top, thinking about how close the Confederates came to winning at that spot, and how brutal the fighting was. And then it was just a long slog back to Thurmont. I reached the end, really tired, and glad to be off my bike.

It’s good that I downloaded the course GPX file and installed it on my cycling computer. The route was marked with spray-painted marks on the road to indicate turns. But it was very easy to miss them, especially when the turn came on a descent. It’s hard to see a small bit of green paint on the road when I’m descending at 30mph. I spent most of the day constantly looking at the computer to verify that I was still on course. This route had a lot of turns and I couldn’t trust that the riders ahead of me were doing the same course (there were shorter options) or that they were even on the course that they wanted.

The rest stops were just OK. There were lots of bananas and sliced peaches on offer. But there was also plenty of water and Gatorade.

The weather was OK. I would have liked for it to be a little cooler, but I can’t complain. The temperature at the start was about 70 and it was overcast and the wind was very light, but it cleared up after a couple of hours. It also warmed up and the direct sun made for some hot stretches. With about 20 miles to go I was worried that it might rain as clouds rolled in, but the rain seems to have passed to the east, and it got sunny and hot again, and the wind picked up. It was sunny and windy as I finished. The ice cream at the start/finish was wonderful.

This was a real challenge - a hard stretch goal; I’m glad I did it; I doubt I’ll ever sign up again for that kind of ride with so many climbs.

Final numbers: 103.6 miles, 7667 feet climbed, maximum speed: 49.9mph.

Armed Forces Cycling Classic Challenge Ride 2025

Challenge Ride Route

Yesterday I rode in the 2025 Armed Forces Cycling Classic Challenge Ride. I’ve done this once before, but skipped recent years because of other plans. This year is the first iteration of this ride in which the start/finish line is actually in DC adjacent to the US Capitol building. I’ve been training all winter; I wanted to see if I could get another gold medal.

Sadly, I just missed the cut-off; I wasn’t able to start another lap with about 30 minutes left to go in the three-hour window. I completed four laps, enough only for a silver medal. They physically blocked the course to prevent riders from going out for another lap.

It was really cool to be able to ride in DC without worrying about cars. In fact, this was my first time ever riding in the District, after 30+ years living nearby. I parked in East Potomac Park near Hains Point, then rode to the starting area. I was near the front at the start and we got going much faster than last time because there weren’t so many early choke points. I quickly learned that there are hills that I had never noticed when I drove my car on those same streets. There are also lots of manhole covers, some with deep depressions. The course proceeded west on Independence, south on 14th, and across the Potomac on the I395 express lanes, then, near the Pentagon, joined the course from previous years between Crystal City and Rosslyn. The course was mostly in pretty good shape, with only a few places where there were deep gaps in the concrete. I really didn't like the expansion joints on the 14th Street Bridge; they look like intermeshing teeth with gaps that could grab my wheels, but I never had any trouble with them. There was a lot of rain overnight and the road started out damp with a few puddles, but it mostly dried out before the end of the ride. The temperature was pretty cool at the start but I warmed up quickly and only broke out in a brief sweat a few times.

So how did it go?

• I think I’m in better shape than last time. I actually rode slightly faster, on average.
• The wind sucked; it was windy all morning.
• I tried to be mindful about drinking but should have done it more often. Same for eating.
• I was able to produce power surges whenever I needed for climbs.
• If I do it again, I need to show up in better shape to get past the cut-off at 2 1/2 hours.

 

 

Six Pillars Century Ride 2025

GPS Track of Six Pillars Century Ride

It was windy!

Totals: 102 miles, 780 feet of elevation gained.

I’ve wanted to do this ride for several years in a row as an early season organized event, but had to cancel, either because of bad weather or, one year, I had just had major surgery. This year the weather was cool and clear, but very windy.

I drove to Cambridge early in the morning, claimed my rider packet, and started riding around 7AM. This was not a closed course, but traffic was very light. I and about 100 riders did the 100-mile course. The rest stops had limited selections of snacks, but plenty of water and Gatorade.

I spent the whole ride in brutal headwinds and gusting side winds and merciful tailwinds. The scenery varied among typical Delmarva pine forests, wetlands, and brief coastal views. I had never seen this part of the Maryland Eastern Shore; it was a nice exploration. There was very little shade. I was glad I was mostly covered. I ended up nearly sunburned on my wrists where my sun sleeves left a gap with my gloves: now I have weird dark stripes on my wrists.

It was a long slog and I finally got back to Cambridge. I missed the turn before the airport near mile 90 and, by the time I figured that out, I just looked at my phone to figure out the best route back to the course. It added maybe a mile to the ride.

Instrument error was obvious through the entire ride: my Garmin 530 bike computer regularly showed my elevation was below zero.

This was my third century ride, but the slowest. I’m glad I finally got to do it. I doubt I’ll volunteer for this windfest again.

Five Boro Bike Tour

Standing on Church Street while Waiting to Start

On May 4, I rode the Five Boro Bike Tour. This is an annual bike ride that visits all five boroughs of New York City on streets that are closed to automobile traffic. I’ve wanted to do this ride for a while, but hesitated because of its reputation for crowds and erratic riders. I knew I would regret it if I never tried it, so I signed up.

My wife and I drove up from Virginia on Friday and stayed for two nights in Newark. I took public transportation into Manhattan on Saturday to pick my rider’s packet up. My brief walk through the city reminded me why I can take big cities in small doses only. After picking the material up I had to exit the building through the gift shop, meaning, there were loads of vendors selling cycling gear. I think they don't offer to mail packets to riders because that forces riders to come on site and walk past the vendors.

On Sunday morning, my wife and I drove to the ferry dock on Staten Island and parked at the outlet mall. We boarded the ferry and went to Manhattan. Her plan was, while I rode in the event, she would visit friends. There were a few hundred other cyclists on the ferry, with their bikes, and wearing spandex and jerseys. When we reached Manhattan, I rode my bike on the designated route to the starting area for Wave 2, namely, Church Street. I had to listen to way too many speakers on stage talk about how great the ride is and how wonderful the sponsor is. I wondered whether they did this routine for every wave. Then a choir sang the national anthem, and we finally got the starting horn. I was way back in the pack, and the riders ahead of me were moving slowly to the start line, so we all straddle-walked our bikes to the start, where we were finally able to start riding.

My GPS Track from Lower Manhattan to the Staten Island Ferry

The route went right up the middle of Manhattan, on 6th Avenue, past Macy’s and Radio City Music Hall, into Central Park. The crowd of riders was thick; I had to spend so much of my time avoiding collisions and road hazards (parked cars, concrete dividers, bollards, vented manhole covers) that I didn’t get to enjoy seeing the sights along the way.

Google Earth View of My GPS Track through Midtown Manhattan

When I zoom into the plot of my GPS track, it looks like I was drunk, even disappearing into buildings sometimes. I think it was a combination of weaving through traffic and GPS receiver instrument error.

In Central Park I was amused by the many joggers who just wanted a regular quiet Sunday morning jog in the park, but instead had to deal with a massive swarm of cyclists. Finally the crowd thinned out after exiting Central Park and I was able to relax a little on the way through Harlem.

I crossed the Harlem River and then very shortly afterward went right back to Manhattan. The Bronx got short shrift on this route. Back in Manhattan, the route led along the East River on FDR Drive down to the Queensboro Bridge. This was the only spot that was dangerous: the riders bunched up on the climb, with some riders walking, others riding very slowly, and no one leaving room for riders to pass on the left. This is the only place where I saw a crash; I had to swerve to miss the fallen rider.

Into Queens I went, following the winding route, first North, then South, into Brooklyn, then through Brooklyn, finally reaching the expressway that leads to the Verrazzano Bridge. The headwind on that elevated road was pretty brutal. Finally I approached the bridge and I was worried that I’d have a hard time making the climb: my shifter battery died and I was stuck in a single gear, and by this point I had 30+ miles in my legs. I worried for nothing - the climb wasn’t all that hard. I coasted down the other side into the finish line festival. After a brief rest and water break, I got back on my bike and went back to the outlet mall where I was parked.

BIG LESSON: Always bring the battery charger on cycling trips and always check the charge the night before the ride. After getting home, I discovered that the wire that powers my rear derailleur was unplugged. This must have happened when I removed/reattached my rear wheel for the car trip. After plugging it back in, my gear shifting started working again.

I was surprised at how many women were riding. At home I see maybe one woman cyclist for every ten men riding near my home. I’m glad that there were more women participating. And there were lots of black and Asian riders. I’m glad there are so many people of color participating in what in Virginia seems to be a white- male-dominated sport.

I saw one guy wearing blue jeans while riding; seems like a recipe for pain. Lots of people wore plain athletic shorts and t-shirts. But most wore typical cycling clothing: spandex and jerseys. It was cool, and started out cloudy, then cleared up to be pretty sunny, and by the time I got to the finish line it was overcast. It started raining after I got back to my car, so I managed to stay dry. When I left the car on the way to Manhattan, I decided to leave my jacket behind, which turned out to be a good move because I didn’t need it. Well, I didn’t need it on the ride. I wished I had it on the ferry because the doors were open and it was cold on the water.

I saw a few recumbent bikes, a few tandems, a few elliptical bikes, and even a few hand bikes. But the most unusual was a Penny Farthing. I saw him at the start, and again in the parking lot when I packed up; he apparently parked in the same place that I did. I would have liked to see how he did the climbs and descents.

There were several rest stops with water and toilets. I didn’t stop at any of them; I didn’t need to. So I can’t comment on the rest stops with respect to water, toilets, or food.

Overall, it was about 42 miles of riding, including the ride to the start from the Manhattan ferry terminal, and the ride from the finish festival back to the ferry terminal on Staten Island. I’m glad I did it; I had fun; I doubt I’ll do it again.

After the ride, my wife and I met at the parking garage. I changed into street clothes and we headed home. This was our first road trip in her new electric vehicle. Finding and using chargers was an adventure in itself.

Galapagos Islands

Blue-Footed Booby

My wife and I visited the Galapagos Islands in February. This was my first trip to South America and my first time in the Southern Hemisphere. The Galapagos Islands remind me of the Hawaiian Islands, at least with respect to geology. They also have similar invasive species problems. This was a fantastic trip, with wildlife, volcanic features, and wonderful visits to beaches and hills in warm, humid weather.

We flew from Dulles Airport to Quito on Copa Airlines, with a stopover in Panama City. We had a full day in Quito, during which we rested and walked to the nearby botanical garden for a visit. In spite of its location on the equator, Quito was cool and damp because of its high elevation.

After our day in Quito, we took a bus to the airport. We had to put our luggage out the night before for invasive species inspection and sealing. At the airport, we had to go through hand luggage inspection in addition to security. We flew Latam Airlines to San Cristobal Island, with a stopover in Guyaquil. The airport on San Cristobal was a typical small-island airport - no jetways, no air conditioning, only one area each for arrivals/departures, and a long line to get through entrance control. Even though this was a domestic flight, we still had to clear passport control and provide documentation that showed why we were there and when we were leaving. After passing through all that, we had to wait, as a group, for all of the luggage to come off the plane, where it was lined up in rows and, when it was all out, a cop with a dog briefly inspected it. The cop selected a few bags for more-thorough inspection and then the rest of us could claim our luggage and leave.

We boarded some hot buses and made the short trip to the marina. There we waited on the dock for our turn to ride a zodiac to the ship. There were sea lions on the dock, sleeping. There were sea lions on the rocks, sleeping. There were sea lions in the water. There was an iguana running among us, and we had to be careful to avoid stepping on it.

When our turn came, we boarded a zodiac and rode out to the ship, the Silver Origin. There was significant swell, which made getting into/out of the zodiac an adventure, which we repeated twice a day for the next week. Once aboard the ship, we immediately noticed that it rolls, constantly. We’re used to much-larger ships that have better stabilization so this was a surprise. I never got seasick; it was never uncomfortable, but always noticeable. We waited a while for our turn to check in, then went to lunch, then finally got our key cards for our cabin. We unpacked, watched the safety video, went to the muster drill, had a quiet afternoon as the ship departed port, and were quietly sitting in our room when we had our first stop: Kicker Rock. I opened the window to take a few shots from our room.

Kicker Rock

This is when we noticed that the AC wasn’t working. It never turned back on after I closed the window, so we had a warm first night. We reported to our butler (that’s what the staff calls them) and he got it fixed while we were on our first outing.

This was an expedition ship, which means it is small, which means there’s also a meeting every night before dinner with a brief educational presentation followed by the activity director’s description of the next day’s activities. I was dubious about the value of these nightly meetings, but the educational info was mildly interesting and the description of the next day’s activities was crucial for making good decisions about what to do.

I used the Apple Journal app on my phone to keep track of what we did each day. I grabbed screen shots of the map at each stop so I had a record of the location of each activity. The ship has good Wifi so I was always able to get good maps.

Our first morning, I went with the “power walk” group to a hilltop viewpoint on St. Bartoloma Island. We climbed (on a boardwalk with steps) to the top of a volcanic cone, where we had a great view of the volcanic features around us.

St Bartoloma looking toward Santiago

The ship repositioned during lunchtime to a place off Santiago Island where we had an afternoon zodiac tour of the shore. Then briefings, followed by dinner. This was the pattern for the whole trip: a morning activity, the ship might reposition, then an afternoon activity, then briefings, dinner, bed. Sometimes there was a second morning activity. There were walks ashore, zodiac tours, snorkeling, and kayaking. There was hot weather and hotter weather. There were brief periods of blue sky, mostly partly cloudy days, and some overcast periods. There were torrential overnight downpours. What there wasn’t was a clear sunset or sunrise. And I was hoping for clear nighttime skies to see the dark sky, but we barely saw the stars. Having said all that, we did have good weather for all of our landings except one: a wet landing where the waves picked up as we returned to the ship and I got hit by waves up to my waist and then got rained on.

We also visited Isabella, Fernandina, Floreana, and Santa Cruz Islands. Each island has its own geography, wildlife, and unique places to visit.

After seven nights aboard, we disembarked at the same port where we embarked, saw the sea lions again, rode a bus to the airport, went through security again, and flew to Guyaquil on Latam. We stayed at a hotel in town until midnight, when we went back to the airport for our 3AM flight on Avianca Airlines. We had a stopover in Bogota, then returned to Dulles.

Wildlife seen: Iguanas, sea lions, lava lizards, Nazca and Blue-footed boobies, sea turtles, penguins, porpoises, and tortoises.

Photography from a zodiac in waves was an adventure. Aside from that, landscape photography was pretty good, with good light most of the time. Wildlife photography was also quite easy because most birds, iguanas, and sea lions were unbothered by close approaches. For landings, I used my 70-200mm lens for most shots and rarely wanted a different lens. I kept a second body handy on the ship with my 300mm lens attached and used that a few times for wildlife. I also brought my 24-70 lens, and there were a few times that I used it for interesting landscapes visible from the ship. I also used my phone a lot.

The Silver Origin was very nice. It accommodates up to 100 passengers, with a crew of about 100. Our room was comfortable and quiet. The constant rolling took some getting used to. I frequently had trouble walking a straight line in the halls. The hot tub regularly spilled water all over the top deck, and sometimes the water formed waves in the shower. The dining room food was good. Most nights, we chose to eat in the outdoor grill on the top deck. The expedition staff was very knowledgeable and friendly. We had daily interaction with them. The zodiac drivers seemed to be the hardest working crew members, at least among those we saw. I’m sure the kitchen staff works pretty hard too. Every time the ship stopped, the zodiac drivers immediately launched boats and took the expedition leaders out to scout the area before taking passengers. The zodiacs were constantly on the move until the last people came back aboard after a stop. Then the drivers loaded the zodiacs back on the ship. First out, last in. The crew was diligent about making sure we always had life vests on when we left the ship, and we had to swipe our room cards every time we entered/exited. We were invited on a tour of the bridge. It was very interesting to see how highly-automated it is.

Here’s a sample of the many photos I made on this wonderful trip.

Mating Tortoises

There was only one trip ashore that required getting on a bus: visiting the tortoise refuge. There were tortoises everywhere. Mating is apparently an hours-long event with very little movement.

Yellow Warbler

Galapagos Giant Tortoise

Silver Origin

The Silver Origin tours the Galapagos Islands only. They store about five zodiacs on the bow deck and hoist them onto/off of the ship at stops. There are also doors on both sides of the ship from which they launch more zodiacs. At the rear of the ship, there’s a large platform near the water line that they raise to form a wall while under way but lower to form a landing for the zodiacs. There’s no theater or stage; there are no shows for entertainment, there’s no casino, and only two places to eat. This was not a relaxing trip. There was very little time during the day when nothing was happening. If you want a typical cruise experience, this is not your boat. I really liked the small boat experience and I would gladly go on another cruise like this one.

Land Iguana

On our last full day on the ship, we visited the one place where we saw land iguanas. It was a hot, muddy walk ashore where we saw lots of these animals feeding in the bushes. When we returned to the ship, the crew asked us to take our muddy shoes off and leave them on the deck. They washed all of our shoes for us. Of course this wasn’t them being nice; they didn’t want us tracking mud into the interior of the ship. They also encouraged us to jump into the ocean and swim to waiting zodiacs nearby (also washing mud off of our bodies). The warm ocean water was nice, and surprisingly not very salty.

Blue Footed Booby

There were Blue-Footed and Nazca Boobies everywhere. The closest approaches were while riding on zodiacs, making photography a challenge. Even though we got very good looks at them, my photos are all underwhelming.

Nazca Boobies

Volcanic Landscape

The islands remind me of Hawaii, especially the Big Island. The older Galapagos landscapes have lush jungle, with newer landscapes (more recent lava flows) having only bushes and grass, and the newest lava is just barren rock. There’s also the wind shadow effect, with windward sides of the islands being green and wet, with leeward sides being barren and dry.

Sea Lion

I visited Alaska last year, and during that trip I took a sightseeing boat tour from Valdez. There were lots of Steller Sea Lions, and those adults were huge. In contrast, these Galapagos Sea Lions were relatively small, with adults only about 4-5 feet long. We were able to approach some of them quite closely; they just ignored us.

Flightless Cormorants

The Flightless Cormorants were pretty common. These swam right past our zodiac when we were looking at some other birds. During some of our landings we walked by them on the path; they mostly ignored us.

Marine Iguana

Marine Iguanas were everywhere. They were on land sunning themselves. They were swimming. They were sometimes in the way when we were walking ashore. Often they congregated in groups of a dozen or more.

Sea Lion

Galapagos Penguin

We saw penguins only once. This was the best shot I could get from the zodiac that was moving up and down in the waves. It was overcast and breezy so the zodiac driver did the best he could to keep us from drifting away. Shooting these birds was a challenge.

Flamingo

There was a handful of Flamingos standing on the beach for one of our landings. I think these birds are responsible for many gigabytes of storage taken up by photos of them. The other passengers surrounded the birds, so I had to pick a spot to get my shots without people in them. This was a high surf water landing during which I had to pick my moment to jump in/out of the zodiac while the waves were out.

So, we saw lots of wildlife, lots of volcanic features, and enjoyed a trip unlike any I’ve every made.