June 8, 2006

"Ercoupe over Golden Gate"

Dan Kluepfel and Ralph Finch of Davis, California took to the skies for this amazing shot of an Ercoupe soaring above San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.  After all those X-Men 3 commercials, it's nice to see the famous landmark in all its serene (intact) majesty.

Credit where it's due department:
Dan Kluepful took the shot, while Ralph Finch did the flying.  The pilot of the Ercoupe is Dan Hall of Aliso Viejo.

"Beats Workin' for a Living"

An AVweb reader who wishes to remain anonymous sends greetings from the back of a C-130 "somewhere in the Pacific."  We loved the photo and very nearly named it our "Picture of the Week."

In hindsight, maybe it's best we didn't — an AVweb hat might wreak havoc with our mysterious submitter's secret identity.

Regarding Anonymous Submissions:
We can and will honor requests to withhold your personal information (such as your name or home town), but you must include those details with your submission.  It's nothing sinister — we don't use the information for marketing and don't sell it to third parties — but we do need to verify that you are a real person if we ever need to contact you about your photo submission.

"Riding with the Warbirds"

Dave Bier of La Grange, Illinois writes, "I had the extreme good fortune of riding in a WWII Corsair recently (back where the radio equip used to be) and snapped this picture as we formed up with a B-25, an SBD Dauntless, a Wildcat, and a Bearcat (not pictured off our right wing).  The planes were in town for an airshow.  Incredible experience!"

"Victory"

E.J. Gonzalez of Portsmouth, Virginia was on-hand when billionaire record-setter Steve Fossett stepped out of Virgin Atlantic's much-celebrated Global Flyer.  E.J. reports that Fossett received a well-earned round of applause as he touched ground for the first time.

"Florida Fire Control"

This time of year always sees a hefty rise in the number of fire-fighting photos submitted to our "Picture of the Week" contest.  Not that we're complaining — fire-fighting machines like this Boeing 107 lend themselves to some really exciting photos.  Thomas W. Sawyer of Ocklawaha, Florida tells us this helicopter works fire control in the Ocala National Forest — and was on its way to another mission when he snapped the photo.

Based on this photo from Jeff Brooks of Flushing, Michigan, it looks like the decision's already been made.

Jeff writes, "After tying down all the aircraft on Western Michigan University's ramp, I decided to get some pictures of the incoming storm and, to my surprise, caught a beautiful shot of Mother Nature at its finest."

Long-time "POTW" readers know we can't resist pointing out the trends in our weekly submissions — and this week's photos featured a surprisingly high number of cockpit photos.  (Eighteen, to be exact.)  Of those, we had three great-looking "kids in the cockpit" photos.

Now, there are two kinds of "POTW" reader (according to the letters we receive) — those who are about to shout "Oh, cute!  Honey, come here and look at this!" and those who will go, "Oh, no, three pictures with no airplanes in them."

You can both consider yourselves warned.

Tina Nelson of San Carlos, California put her niece, Julia Dellenbach, at the stick of a 747 at KSQL's Hiller Aviation Museum — and this the result.

Another Tina (Tina Madovoy of Clarksville, Tennessee) had the same idea this week.  This is her 7-month-old son "taking his first ride in a Cessna 152."

"Aviators in the Making"

Rajeev Pandey of Corvallis, Oregon is taking things a bit slower with his two sons, ages 3 and 5 years old.  Not only did he wait until they'd mastered walking and talking to begin their training, but he also started them out on a cockpit familiarization trainer at Oregon's Evergreen Air Museum (home of the Spruce Goose).