I am also no expert, but here are my observations;

wrote:
I should have said "In my opinion, the picture is a fake".

Save the picture as a bmp and open it with the windows paint program.
Zoom in to 800 scale and take a look. You'll notice:

* areas where "smudging" was performed
* look at the artifacts along the top surfaces of the gliders right
wings only.

The reason we can see the "artifacts" is because the angle of the wings
allows us to see the top portion of the starboard wings, these
"artifacts" appear to be panels and maybe markings on top of the wings.


* Furthest right glider left rear stabilizer has a faint black line
protruding vertically upward.
What is that? Why is the exact same thing showing up on the next
glider to the left in
the very same position? It looks like a poor cut-and-paste
artifact.

I believe that the faint black lines are actually the radio antenna's
protruding from the fuselage and not the stab, the fact that the gliders
are on a similar angle would explain why the "vertical black lines"
appear in similar positions in reference to the stab.

* Look at the tow rope for the second glider from the left, nearest to
tow plane. Notice the
waves in it?

I personally don't see any "waves", however, the tow ropes for the last
two gliders appear "smudged" the closer they get to the tow plane, this
is because the closer they get to the same point the more trouble the
camera has focusing.

* The heading of the second glider from the left is wrong - a collision
is immament.


At the angle that this photo was taken you do not see the horizontal
separation between the gliders, i am willing to bet there is about 50
feet between one glider and the one in front of it, and another 50 feet
between it and the one behind.

I'm no expert, but I've doctored up pictures before and know where the
giveaways in my fakes have been.

Yeah, I know - why waste time on this? Cabin fever..


Jono Richards wrote:

I was just away to put that link on too

I doubt anyone would have gone to that much bother
- theres a good 4 or 5 pics there.

JR