Spontaneous Air-to-Air Shoot

I took a rather last minute trip to the Pacific Northwest because when your friend buys an airplane, you're going to want to go for a ride in that plane. About 5 minutes out from the airport, my friend made a phone call. "Are you at the airport?", he asked. The voice on the other line confirmed he was, to which my friend suggested he grab his plane and take off with us.

After takeoff, both pilots coordinated on the radio and before I knew it the was a beautiful classic V-tail Bonanza on our left wing. It was close. VERY close. The pilot of the Bonanza suggested that we fly straight and level without hitting the mountain and he'd take care of the rest. After reconciling the fact that there was another several thousand pounds of metal encroaching on our space in the sky, I grabbed my camera and got to shooting.

Ultimately I decided on the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 as I figured the Bonanza would be far enough away that I would like to have the zoom. Surprisingly, I spent most of the time shooting closer to 70mm. The Bonanza placed itself carefully around our aircraft in different positions to allow several different angles. We put some distance between us as we began to circle around Mount Saint Helens. I mentioned to my friend flying the plane that we had a dinner reservation that would not tolerate tardiness so we might want to think about heading back. "We'll be ok", he said. I could sense the tone of "calm down man" in his voice, and he was right. This was a bucket list experience and I'd gladly miss a dinner at a nice restaurant to enjoy it.

As we flew around the mountain, it felt as if I could reach out and touch it. On the back side I saw the steam from water evaporating off the hot rocks of the volcano. The sun beat down on the side of the mountain and lit it up in a way that resembled the surface of the moon. As we made our way around, the Bonanza joined up for a few more shots and left us with a flyby that may have warranted a wake turbulence advisory. As the sole (former) air traffic controller on the plane, that responsibility probably rested with me.

We touched down back at Grove Field and as the canopy opened on the Grumman Tiger I looked at my watch. 4:00PM on the nose. Perfect. Off to dinner.