Air -To-Air Refueling

I flew on a refueling flight earlier this week with the 19th Air Refueling Group from Robins Air Force Base.
This is one of the most amazing things to me, two aircraft linking up at 300 miles and hour and "passing
gas" as they fondly say. Just Incredible.

I have done this a few times, the first couple of times using film, and the las t two digital. Miss the
wide angle full frame of the film camera. The money shot is back in the boom operator's pod, laying
alongside the boom operator, about two feet away. The ideal photo shows the operator, his controls, and out the window you see the refueling taking place.



On a bright sunny day, this is a hard one to get. The operator is in shadow, and the plane being refueled
is in bright sun. You have to balance the exposure to light the operator and not blow out the aircraft outside the window. You only have a short time to get the photo, because you have other media folks waiting to
have their turn.

The photos show a JSTARS aircraft being refueled. We were supposed to meet with some F-15's but
did not get to refuel them. So I only had one chance to make this work. Came close, but not near perfect.