Airliners / Airshow / Yearly Review

A Look Back… Scott Jankowski’s 2016 in Review

by Scott Jankowski · Published January 13, 2017

IMG_2737 (1000x505) A Look Back…..
By Scott Jankowski
As we prepare to welcome 2017 and bid farewell to 2016, I stop to look back on what a year 2016 truly was. It was another spectacular year of time spent at airshows and airports that produced thousands of noteworthy and spectacular images. It is the time of year I like to spend looking back at all of the images that may have been forgotten about at the time.

Three Major Airshows attended in 2016 including The Spirit of St. Louis Airshow, Thunder Over Michigan, and the Annual Pilgrimage up to AirVenture. It was a week at Miami International Airport in March, and countless days at Chicago O’Hare and General Mitchell International Airport photographing arriving and departing traffic. We all have our definition of what goes into a “favorite” photo. It could be the angle, the rarity of the type, the background, vapor, lit beacons we all have our reasons. I have included some of my favorite images from 2016.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” The accompanying photographs, taken throughout the year and in varying locations and conditions each tells a story. It could be the raw power of Air Combat Command’s Viper Demo Team’s F-16C in a vertical climb on takeoff. It could be the Lufthansa Cargo MD-11F arriving into a foggy and rainy Chicago O’Hare from Frankfurt. It could be the Air France A380 “Super” pushed back on a Warm Winter Evening at Miami International Airport beginning it’s journey back to Charles De Gaulle International Airport. I will let the images take the stories from here.

2016 was a great year, 2017 will be as good if not better! Until next time, Blue Skies to All!

Tags: 2016 Aviation Photographer Scott Jankowski

Scott Jankowski

Scott Jankowski - Franklin, Wisconsin Like so many others my love of aviation started when I was young, very young. I was only three years old when my Parents took me to my first air show here in Milwaukee, the rest you could say is “history”. I would read aviation magazines instead of Comic Books. I would prefer my Dad take me to the airport to watch airplanes instead of throwing a Football around. I grew up watching Convair 580’s, DC9’s and 727’s from the terminal here in Milwaukee, no Stage Three noise compliance back then! I started to seriously take pictures in the Mid 1980’s , for my birthday that year I finally had my first decent camera. I would head down to the airport with my pockets full of Kodak Film and take pictures of anything and everything. It did not matter if it was a Air Wisconsin Dash-7 or a 128TH ARW KC-135E if it had an engine I took a picture of it. I would drop those rolls off to be developed and three days later tear into the envelopes to see the results, which to be honest were not that good but there were a few keepers every once and a while. Fast forwarding to today with much better equipment and skills I spend as much time as I can at both General Mitchell International and Chicago O’Hare which are my Hometown Airports. While times and aircraft have changed the excitement is still as great as it was back all of those years ago. It makes no difference if it is 737, P-51, F-16, or Lear 35 I will not pass on any photo opportunity as you may not get that chance again. Even though my primary focus is on Commercial Aviation I still frequent as many Air shows as I can in the short Summer Season. I am fortunate enough to have EAA Air Venture in my backyard only being only an Hour and Half from my home. I routinely attend Air shows here in Milwaukee, Rockford, Chicago, Ypsilanti and the Quad Cities. I am very fortunate to be part of the Photorecon.Net and PHX Spotters Team and am looking forward to bringing everyone some Air show and Airliner action from the Midwest Region!