11:30 on a Sat night and I'm posting on the forum. Is that pathetic or what?

Anyway, went to work this afternoon to clean up the car. Seems that right after I cleaned it earlier this week it rained. Afterwards I shot these pictures of planes taking off overhead. Just finished processing the pics and figured I might as well post them now.

I apologize for some of these pics being less than tack sharp but I'm still figuring out my camera and I didn't want to use to high of a shutter speed because I wanted a little prop blur. It also didn't help that I was using a zoom lens without a tripod, the wind was blowing, and that these pictures have been enlarged and cropped.

The Lancair is suppose to be a homebuilt but considering the kit is 100K USD, the engine (a turboprop in this case) 50-100K and avionics at least 50K; most of these wind up being built in a shop for the owner. The FAA is not too pleased since the owner is suppose to be the builder but the FAA looks away since the shop does a much better job, and this leads to a much safer airplane. If you look closely you can see that the left main landing gear is still retracting and the flaps are down.

I'm not real familiar with helicopters so can't relate much about this one other than that I like the blade blur.

The Warrior pic shows the distinct break in the wing leading edge at midspan. An elliptical wing like on the British Spitfire is the most efficient form for lower speed flight but this wing shape is difficult and expensive to manufacture. The tapered wing on the Warrior has about 90% of the efficiency of an elliptical wing yet is far easier and cheaper to build.

The Bonanza is the V tailed version. Can you believe that the first flight of the Bonanza occurred right after WWII? A sixty plus year old design still being built today. Of course in the late forties one could be bought for $7,500 USD. Today plan on spending at least 400K.

Finally there is the Cessna 172. Think of it as the Accord/Camry of the aviation world, just without the reliability. The flaps on this one are also still extended.