On this Sunday we went down to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) at Illawarra regional airport at Albion Park Rail. That will eventually have a gallery of its own on these pages, but that's for another time.

Looking through the images I was reminded of why I really need a wide angled lens. The problem (aside from money) is that the Olympus 7 to 14 does not accept filters which is extremely limiting, but also makes the lens vulnerable since you can't put a protective filter over the glass. However the 12 to 40 really isn't wide enough to be able to photograph aircraft up close and personal. I'm posting this image in December, during which Olympus was offering a $200 rebate on the 7 to 14 (which still didn't make it exactly cheap) but I ended up passing on that because of the combination of cost and the filter issue. I'm not all sure what to do about that.

However the 12 to 40 was quite suitable for capturing this particular curiosity. This is the nose of a retired RAAF F111C, technically on loan from the air force (it's not like you can have still potent fighter aircraft in just anybody's ownership) but for all intents and purposes retired to the HARS museum. For some reason this little pink piggy was mounted over the nose probe. I have some doubt that he would have been there when the F111 was flying at Mach 2 or 100 metres off the ground on a low-level strike mission.

Still, he would have had a good view if he was.