Geneseo
Coming Home.
My return to Geneseo, NY after a long hiatus finally ended this year at the ‘Greatest Show on Turf.” I have continued to mark my calendar each year with the hope I would be able to attend the Genesee Show. In the past, there was always a conflict in my schedule. In some cases making a choice between attending Geneseo or Oshkosh, WI. My air show budget never has enough capital to cover my wish list. As an aviation buff and amateur photographer, my dreams always include attending air shows every weekend. The dream continues to include blue skies, the sun at my back, a few new aircraft that I have not photographed yet and a chance to photograph them in the air.
This year I was able to enjoy most of that dream thanks to a photo contest offered by Atlantic Flyer that I won. As the winner of the contest, I was given a flight for air-to-air photography. As an aviation photographer, I have enjoyed meeting many people who share this interest and belong to several aviation groups. One such group is the I.S.A.P. (International Society Aviation Photography).
The fact that I entered the photo contest this year is due to a friend I met several year ago, John Maene, at an I.S.A.P. symposium. John took the time to call me just before the contest closed suggesting I enter. After discussing the requirements and giving me the e-mail address, I selected a few photos and forwarded them to the Atlantic Flyer. Richard Porter, Editor of the Atlantic Flyer, called me in June to notify me that I won the photo contest. There was “silence” on my end. The next challenge was checking with my “Social Director, a/k/a my wife” about the upcoming dates. No weddings, graduations or major family events were scheduled for that weekend so I was able to attend.
My wife and I arrived Friday just in time to watch the East Coast Demo team practice followed by the Heritage Flight with Dale Snodgrass flying the “Wings Over Long Island P-51.” The airfield already had a large collection of biplanes on the ground. The collection included: PT-17s, PT-23s, a Fleet Finch, N3N de Haviland, Tiger Moth, Waco UPF-7, L-Birds, C-45, C-47, U-78, a collection of WWI aircraft from the Great War Flying Museum, SE-5s, DR-1s, and a Sopwith 1-1/2 strutter. On the east end of the airfield was a collection of heavy iron including three Corsairs, a Wildcat, the only flying Helldiver from the CAF along with their Hellcat, a P-51, T-6s, SNJs, a B-17 (Memphis Belle), PBY and eight Harvards from the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association. Late arrivals included a C-54, B-25, TBM-3E, and a Sea Fury.
After taking a few photos of the F-15 demo team, I headed to the pilots’ tent to register. Working at the registration tent was Diane Wilkens, a long time photographer that I met in the 90’s at Breckenridge, TX. Diane informed me that there was a three o’clock media briefing I needed to attend. I arrived at the press briefing early, picked up my media pass and was introduced to Gilles Auliard from Atlantic Flyer. Gilles immediately welcomed me to Geneseo and congratulated me on winning the photo contest. Gilles conducted the pilot briefing for the photo flight. The photo planes were the HAG’s Beech C-45 with pilot Greg Johnson, and the UC-78 with pilot Tom Huf. Aircraft used for our Navy flight included a Wildcat, Hellcat and Helldiver for our air-to-air photo flight scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. takeoff. It was agreed that the photo plane would be on station over Lake Conesus where the Navy flight would join us in formation and circle several times for the photo op.
At about 4:30 p.m., I boarded the C-45 already running with Gilles, Seth Goltzer, and Laszlo Nyary and departed for Lake Conesus. The C-45 has a removable top cargo door panel for photo work and it is perfect for three but slightly cramped for four photographers. It required a little moving around for us but resulted in some great photos. As a photographer I believe we could have spent a couple hours on station and we still would have been looking for one more photo. Our actual time was about 15 minutes allowing for four or five circles for our photo op when we dropped down and headed for Geneseo.
The second photo ship then picked up where we left off and continued their shoot. Back on the ground we all discussed the photo shoot agreeing on a great job by our formation pilots in the flight.
Saturday ended up with no photo flights due to a conflict between the pilots’ briefing at 9:oo a.m. and a 10:00 a.m. air show start. The air show was delayed due to foul weather between 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. at which time it resumed. Sunday was a perfect day for the air show and some additional photo flights for photographers that had not yet been up.
I would like to thank the Atlantic Flyer staff, Richard Porter and Gilles Auliard for this opportunity and the gracious hospitality provided by all the members of HAG. As the winner of this contest, I am extremely grateful for the foresight Atlantic Flyer had in providing the ultimate grand prize.
Thank you, thank you. See you next year.
Sincerely, Jack Tyson
