 Joe Cupido has flown in the complete US military aircraft inventory as an aerial photographer the past twenty years or so. He has also flown in various foreign military aircraft and in quite a few World War II-type aircraft. During the Vietnam conflict, he flew helicopter gunships with a secondary function as a combat photographer. More recently, he flew as an aerial combat photographer in Operation Allied Force. He maintains his pilot skills as a private pilot with time in over sixty different airframes.
“My first flight in an F-16 was for a photo shot of an F-4 and an F-16 when the Kansas ANG converted to the Fighting Falcon. The visibility from the F-16 was great compared to the back of the F-4s or F-105s I had been flying. The most impressive part of the flight was going vertical. Compared to the other fighters I had flown, the F-16 did not bleed off airspeed as rapidly as other jets. That gave me more photo time and made me more productive.
"My most impressive experience in an F-16 was in a clean big-mouthed D model on a cool morning. Our ground roll was about 2,500 feet. After rotation, the pilot kept the aircraft at about fifty feet above the ground until the end of the runway. Then he began a four-g pull into a vertical climb that lasted up to 35,000 feet. Most impressive!"
"The F-16 is a great aircraft but not always the best photographic platform. Why should it be? It’s a fighter."
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