Boeing E-6 Mercury (16-4408)

This is the only E-6 I've ever captured, and I had to get up before sunrise in order to race the 35 miles from my home to RNO to get clicks of it as it was leaving here in the final few minutes before the sun came up over the mountains. I was at home and in dreamland when I received a call that I'd better hustle my butt in to RNO if I wanted to get some snaps, and I was up, dressed and out the door (WITH all my photo gear AND a hot cup of coffee ... courtesy of my lady) in less than ten minutes. I made it to this spotting location just as it was taxiing up as seen here. And the pilots didn't do any loitering ... they had to wait momentarily for an inbound cargo aircraft to touch down and then this big white warcraft was on the roll. I'm glad I was able to catch it; odds are that I'll not get another opportunity to shoot another.

Nice shot of the last adaptation 707 for the military.

This is a great catch here Gary. I'm glad that you were able to get there in time because it would have been terrible to go through all that for nothing. Also, hope you had a great Christmas and have a nice New Year's if I don't get another chance to talk to you before Friday :)

I am shocked. When I posted this shot just nine days ago on Dec 24th, I commented (above) that this was the only E-6 I'd ever caught and that the "odds are that I'll not get another opportunity to shoot another."
Then yesterday, less than 10 days after posting this snap, I beat the odds. Another E-6 arrived here and I snapped it as it was landing just a few feet away from me. It was my last capture of the day after arriving at RNO at 5:30 AM for my annual (and traditional) "New Year's Eve" spotting day. I did 8.5 hours of spotting and clicked a sibling (16-4873) of this one right around 1:50 PM. I'll get a super airborne shot of 16-4783 into the gallery soon.
Happy New Year to everyone at FA and to FA members everywhere. ;-)

Congrats on your capture Gary.
I'm headed out to kbuf in windchill 18 degrees to get the detroit red wings MD81 scheduled. Have a great New Years buddy

Bad *ss Boeing...glad you did not get a speeding citation!LOL!