Hey There Big Guy!

It was not that loong ago when this view off your left wing would have been really bad. Today the Mikoyan MiG-29 has felt the effects of time and cycles of high G loading. Back in the 70's when the cold war was running strong Russia saw the release of the U.S. McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle make its way to the heavens giving the United States a new level of air superiority.

The U.S. had taken technology to levels unheard of in the area of target acquisition and engagement using the advanced radar/targeting equipment onboard. The Russians were not as technologically advanced, they build some really well designed aircraft. The MiG-29 was the lightweight design when compared to the MiG-27 but yet the MiG-27 had the most amazing capability. It was so strong (due to extensive use of titanium) it could handle aerodynamic forces other aircraft just could not. The primary maneuver it could perform than no other aircraft was able to was call the Cobra Maneuver (pictured below).

This is not unlike the famed maneuver Maverick (Tom Cruise) from Top Gun performed pitching the aircraft up and then jamming the power in allowing the aggressor to "fly right past" him and the could get in position for a kill shot.

Ok, I guess that is enough of the aviation talk but the intro photo was fun to build. I was on a trip to Quincy Illinois and while taxiing up to the Fixed Base Operator we say these two MiG-29 sitting next to each other a ways down the ramp. After dropping our passenger, I grabbed my camera out of my back and walked down to the MiG's. It was truly a sad sight to see two aircraft that had served their country so faithfully is a dilapidated state of repair.

This last one says it all. My First Officer asked when I got back to the plane asked if they were in good condition. I just showed him this image with the bird crap on it.

Anyhow, the image below is the basis of the opening image. I spent a little time tonight cloning a the image into shape. Dropped a cloudy background that I took in Phoenix AZ last year. A little bit of non-distructive burning to balance the image and I was ready to go. Here is the original image.

The thing about doodling in Photoshop is that it sharpens your skills while you are working on a totally unimportant image.

I am going to take next week off from blogging (like I was really consistent this week) for Christmas so I will say it early. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS