Aviation Photojournal x Aviation PhotoCrew - Special Issue 7 - Collaboration in the Sky Special Issue 7 (Issue 30) - Summer 2023 | Page 13

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Day 1

While Arizona has a reputation for bright blue skies and unlimited visibility, Murphy's Law dictates that when you're making your debut in the skies above North America for some air-to-air, this wouldn't be the case for us. While we did contend with clouds, some recent rain provided us with some colorful backdrops across the desert landscape. When life gives you lemons...

While the approvals for our plans of flying with some military jets were taking longer than expected, we were very fortunate that civilian contractors do not need the same level of approval. We were excited to learn that our longtime friends at Top Aces would be happy to fly with us. Top Aces is a civilian contractor that  provides advanced airborne training to the world's leading air forces.  Top Aces performs this training mission in style, using the only privately owned F-16s in the world. In November 2020, Top Aces negotiated the purchase of 29 early-model F-16As from the Israeli Ministry of Defense for approximately $3-4 million each. Luckily for us, they maintained the original Israeli Air Force paint scheme and added red stars to each aircraft to indicate their aggressor role.

With our plan in place, we took to the skies to meet with Top Aces pilot ‘Billy Bob’ who showed up behind our photoship Skyvan right at the agreed upon time. Hanging out behind the slower Skyvan was barely a challenge for 'Billy Bob' as he skillfully demonstrated the F-16s slow-speed handling characteristics and flew with us for a full 35 minutes covering every possible angle and manuever. We're looking forward to many more opportunities to work with Top Aces in the future!