FighterControl

The two main scrapyard areas at DM are along the Southern and Western perimeters, fairly close to the Pima Museum. Several companies operate in these areas, fed by aircraft disposals from AMARG, and although i didn't have any hostility to my polite requests for access this time, there are differing attitudes towards aircraft photographers etc (and have heard of some unpleasant encounters). Shooting through or over some fences will get some results if all else fails, but thankfully the request to one of the largest yards was granted this time, after a long chat with one very friendly old gent.
While 'walking the fence' around AMARG is mostly better early AM, probably the best time for scrapyard photography is late PM up to sunset for the best light, with some very nice sundown shots possible. Wasn't quite sure where to put the AMARG shots, but as most of the types found in the scrapyards now are out of service, i'll post these here...



















































This fine piece of 'yard art' guards the gate at one scrapyard!..


















































Cheers, Kevin

Hi Kev

That is a scrapyard with a capital 'S'

I don't think I have seen so many skeletons in one post before

Thanks for taking the time to post

Paddyboy

Cracking post, thanks for sharing.
Regards N.

Very nice and enjoyable ,bet you where running about ,
At the end of the day , to make the most of that lovely
Evening light.Good work sir and thankyou.
Steve.

Great post, many of those airframes have been there since the 1980's. I guess there is still a market for them as museum pieces. Those evening light shots are fantastic, many thanks for bringing back memories.

Cheers chaps
And yes exactly, Steve, the old guy in the yard was laughing as i ran around, with some of that best light only lasting for around 5 minutes!

Nice shots! It looks like those C27's haven't lasted 5 minutes!!!

Thanks Jon
These are the original C-27A's (modified G.222's) in the yards now, which are around 25 years old. Most were retired here after less than 10 years of service with the USAF in Panama, with a few then escaping for a period of service with the US DoS, again mostly in Central America, before a second (and final) time at AMARG.
The much newer C-27J's within AMARG are the controversial ones, after being withdrawn very early from service. Of the 21 aircraft, some with less than 500 total hours on the clock, 14 are going to the USCG while the other 7 are going to AFSOC.

Lovely shots and great post, thanks

Some may remember 42814 (first shot) when she used to visit Northolt!

Martin

Like Jazz I am surprised/dismayed by the sight of the C-27s in the scrapyards. I am sure they would have been useful to some allied nation.

Fascinating pictures though. When I visited the scrapyards in 1999 there was a C-7 still smith South Vietnam Air Force markings.

Thanks for the replies, chaps
Herbert, the US C-27J program has been a huge debacle, and to answer your point, Alenia warned that it would not provide support for US C-27J's if they were re-sold to international customers (and so in competition with the manufacturer)! So, in the end, another US department had to be found to operate them. A bit of reading on it all...
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/new-air- ... d-1.245554
http://www.defensenews.com/article/2012 ... -27J-Sales

That is possibly the best set of photos that I have seen from a scrapyard in a long long time.
Thanks very much for posting them Jaz, you've made me happy to see them and sad to see so many old aircraft in disrepair but that's life at MASDC... as it was in my day!

Jaz,beautiful,just beautiful.That evening/sunset light so atmospheric,one of the best sets i have seen for a long time.Makes wrecks look interesting and sculpture like.
Cheers from Aberdeen.

Thanks for the kind words gents. Cheers

Great tour of the boneyards, thanks for sharing. Particularly liked the low-sun shots, wonderful light.

Kevin another excellent set of shot's i can look at images like this all day thank you for posting if you have time to put some more up i will be looking.
Chris

Fantastic shots one and all; they bring back great memories of when I visited there in the late '80s. Hope to dig out the shots I took (including a wrecked C-46 and a couple of F-8 carcasses) an get them scanned and on this site soon.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but what camera equipment were you using? The quality of the shots is as good as the subject matter.

More power to your camera!

Cheers,
M

What a stunning set of images.
Those low light / sun set images are very atmospheric.
Thanks for the detail with regards to gaining access, very useful.
All the best
Andy

Thanks again guys
Chris, i still have one more batch of shots to post from DM/Pima...
Mustang, i use the 5Ds body. Any vintage AMARC shots will always be welcome on here!