USAF Viper Demo Team with new paint scheme | Quinte International Airshow 2024 

Very much enjoyed the show and thank you for flying for us!

Absolutely 💯

The pilot was Commander Taylor Hiester

In order: 1) I know it has plenty of fans, but the USAF F-16 demo isn't my cup of tea. This isn't a criticism of the piloting; it's the routine they're given to work with and the regs they fly to. I'd summarise it as having fewer manoeuvres (and less interesting ones) in a 15 minute demonstration than the European teams pack into 10 minutes. The most notable differences are the lack of use of the B-axis and 45 degree lines, meaning less variety and longer repositioning manoeuvres, and the absence of any high-alpha high-energy manoeuvres such as loaded rolls, or negative-G pushes. Instead, as can be seen in the video above, numerous simpler and less attractive manoeuvres like the hesitation roll and flat fast pass are repeated anything up to three times. Things I like? The dedication pass and this year's paint scheme. 2) I didn't notice any substantial difference between the 2018 and 2024 CF-18 routines. Just a few minor tweaks like turning the Quad 270 into a different (but equally pleasing) sort of hesitation roll. 3) Yes, thank you! More than I expected to on the basis of the line up; nice skies and favourable light do the world of good.

Thank you! The answer is a good tripod with multiple pan handles and a handle-mounted zoom control and lots of practice.

@@ThisisFlight Did you find it hard to maneuver and rotate your body around the tripod when filming? I know that many people avoid using tripods because it is too restrictive and especially if there is a lot of people crowding around your space too.

There is a technique to master, yes. Feet and hands should stay still at all times, all the movement is in the body. A forward facing pan handle and a remote zoom control are both essential. It can get uncomfortable at times, and yes, it is physically harder than filming handheld - but once you master it, tripod filming can yield far better results than handheld cameras. For a professional grade camera, there's simply no choice but to use a tripod. This is the sort of thing I spend a lot of my time filming with and it simply can't be used handheld for obvious reasons. yt3.ggpht.com/loxdiExSd5MELbPzUhjen-nIJeDw33W4e71GdRIekDPAghsV20Y7y9krEssZG36dwV8MXCgesLLN=s640-rw-nd-v1 (That's me filming at the Air Tattoo a couple of years ago. The tripod is a £1500+, 20kg Vinten Vision 20). The particular video you've just watched was just me filming with my handycam on a leisure trip, not a professional job. However, the same techniques still apply, so I bring a small tripod with me. For pleasure trips like this one, I use a Manfrotto 504 with a few airshow-specific customisations. That is probably the most portable and inexpensive tripod that's usable for high-quality airshow filming.

@@ThisisFlight Thanks for letting me know about this and all your tips and strategies. Which camera did you use to film this video? I was in trenton as well, but visited on saturday when the weather was horrible.

Bad luck with the weather! I stayed in the hotel on Saturday... The camera used for this video is a Panasonic HC-X1500. The image stabilisation is not good enough at all to be usable handheld at an airshow, but on a tripod, it is a brilliant airshow camera. It is capable of 4K/50p recording, has a 30x zoom, and full manual controls. There's nothing else of a comparable size, price or weight that can do all that.

It's new in lots of ways. Newly-painted (just 6 weeks old). Technically, a new design (it's not exactly the same as the original prototype scheme - this was inspired by the prototype, but it's not a perfect copy). And new for the demo team, who've never flown anything like it before. Here's the USAF themselves, also calling it "new". www.edwards.af.mil/News/Display/Article/3783489/the-f-16-viper-demonstration-team-releases-new-50th-anniversary-paint-scheme/

It was enough of a challenge for the team to get this paint scheme approved even without tampering with the internal systems. If the team asked to remove the radar and paint the nose cone, the answer would have been a straight no.

The demo plane has to remain in such configuration that it can be ready for combat on short notice.