TVCS and Boulder squadrons participated in an unfunded mini-SAREX at FNL. 4 aircraft and 2 ground teams attended. The majority of the exercise aircraft practiced photo missions for Homeland Security training. One aircraft and the two ground teams practiced DF, ground to air coordination, and a surprise medical scenario when the ground teams reached the beacon site.
A general debrief and photo critique was planned at the end. All the photos were to be loaded on a laptop computer and shown via projector, to compare and critique. Also provided at mission base were 2 state of the art printers which take the memory flash cards directly and print the results on 4x6 paper in full photo quality. Thanks to Joel Larner and HP for providing the equipment! Multiple technical issues occurred with camera memory cards unable to be read by the printers, or cameras having formats we could not read at mission base. Details in the After Action Report.
The Boulder aircraft had to depart early but the rest of us enjoyed the critique and technical discussion on the merits of various types of cameras, and the incredible software capacities Joel demo'd. Details in the After Action Report.
Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture (~200k 800x600). The full-size photos (some up to 2.5Meg) are available here.
Misc Pictures of Mission Base
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Joel shows Mike the printers while John helps Ed sign in | |
Mike debriefs Ken and the 49H crew |
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Just before general briefing | |
Printers and cameras brought and demo'd by Joel. Nice toys! |
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and the rest of the crew | |
The Venables inspect the nice glossy 4x6 photos printed out. |
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SAR Mouse rides on the yoke of N182H, picture has way too much glare and too close in | |
Ground Teams debrief. Man those orange shirts are bright! |
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Joel comments on the photos during General Debrief |
The Ground Teams on their Medical Scenario after finding the beacon
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The ground team triages the victims. Notice the jet aircraft crashed in the bushes. Thanks to TonyF for providing the aircraft and victims! |
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The perimeter is guarded while the victims receive medical attention. |
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Close-up of the crashed USAF jet that had 3 on board. The subject in black was dead. |
N9849H crew Ken Anderson, JennyN, and Mike Wermuth DF the beacon and lead in the ground teams. They also got photos of Jack Rabbit airstrip.
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Practice beacon area. Photo taken from the south at 1000' AGL. |  |
Jack Rabbit airstrip. Photo taken from the south at 1000' AGL | ||
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taken from the west |  |
from the north | ||
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from the east |  |
from the east. Low sun angle. Note reflection of CAP patch. | ||
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from the north |  |
from the west | ||
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Ground Team, vehicle #1 | ||||
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Ground Team, vehicle #2 |
N9513G crew Joel Larner, Dick Hamilton, Shane Brown and Ed Carr photo the dams on Horsetooth Reservoir (one pass, no loitering!), the Cement Plant NW of Fort Collins, Christman field, and a private airstrip by Crystal Lakes. Photos taken with a ?? HP camera with 8x optical zoom (wow!) Photo Resolution:
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Looking west, the south-most dam on Horsetooth |  |
Christman Field, CSU's private strip |
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next |  |
looking west |
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and the next dam |  |
looking north |
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north most dam, looking south |  |
looking east |
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Cement Plant NW of Fort Collins |  |
dirt strip by Crystal Lakes / Red Feather |
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Nice details |  |
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further back, notice the detailed ones have no sky showing. |  |
N4976N crew Marvin Straus, Sol Engel, and David Straus photo Bellmore airport (N of FNL), Burnham airport (by Owl Canyon), the town of Carr (note proximity of railroad tracks), and Rawhide Powerplant.
<pictures coming soon>
N182H crew Sue Wolber and Steve Venable photo 2 private airstrips, an antenna, and 2 oil fields. Pictures taken with an HP 216 with a 3x digital zoom. Photos taken from 1000' AGL. Note in some cases, 3x optical zoom is not enough.
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Cass Airport, dirt strip |  |
Antenna a few miles E of Briggsdale |  |
Shawo dirt strip, NE of Briggsdale |
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Just SW of the town of Briggsdale |  |
Looking west |  |
difficult to see |
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looking south |  |
Looking south |  |
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looking west |  |
Looking east |  |
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Pictures of 2 oil fields, NE of Briggsdale |  |
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These are both close together, N of Shawo |  |
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More details are in the After Action Report... but compare the following:
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Here's the Original picture, straight from the camera. Notice the predominance of beige. | |
Here's the color-smoothed one, with a simple program Joel ran. Notice the contrast. |
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Here's an even more stunning one of Horsetooth Dam: the original | |
And the Color-Smoothed one. Notice the removal of the glare and all the details that can now be seen! |