Steve Nation

[Chris L.]

Does anybody know what happened to the photographer Steve Nation? He was uploading photos to this website since around 2005 and he stopped in 2012. Did he move on to another website? Did he stop taking photos of airplanes? This topic sounds pretty funny but he has a lot of great pictures from many different airports from a long time ago, and I have some questions to ask him about his pictures.

Thanks!

[Doug Robertson]

I noticed that also. We communicated quite frequently early on this site when there weren't many photographers. He a school teacher near the bay area in California. Recall he had a son living in Port Hueneme, CA. Not much to go on, sorry. He took some photos at SZP, but we never did meet in person.

[Chris L.]

Hmmm interesting. I also asked all the airport operation guys at RHV if they knew or heard of Steve and none of them said they ever did. It would be nice to get in touch with him.

[Doug Robertson]

I don't know that Steve was ever an aircraft pilot. But his was a comprehensive interest and knowledge of aircraft and so captioned his photos exceedingly well, before this site put a character limitation on captions.

[Chris L.]

I agree with that. He provided a lot of information in his descriptions for each photo from RHV, and you can clearly see how the airports have evolved since the mid 2000s when he took most of his photos.

[Doug Robertson]

After 9-11 in America many public GA airports fenced themselves and added security with gate access limited, making those on-airport photos much more difficult to obtain.
You might try a web search for Steve's name around the Bay area-San Jose comes to mind. I landed just once at SJC to meet a friend, my brother's father-in-law around 1967, who then suggested I fly to RHV to tie down closer to his place. So, that was my only RHV logging, and no photos taken then. Recall the approach to Rwy 31 was over a golf course at the time. I stayed at pattern altitude after takeoff vectored direct to RVH by SJC control tower. That logbook lookup indicates the flight was 3 January 1967 and a note of new FAA tower at RHV then.

[Chris L.]

I Googled Steve's name and all I came up with was his profile for Linkedin or some website was that. Sadly, his profile was empty. The approach to runway 31R and 31L had a gold course for the longest time, until a mall was built decades ago. Nearly every year someone in the mall posts a picture looking up with a plane crashed through the roof. There are some weird pilots who haven't figured out theres a 50 foot tall mall in the approach path I guess... Well it's good to see you have a flight logged into RHV. Cool little airport.

[Doug Robertson]

Thanks, back then the legendary Amelia Reid, CFI was still alive as I recall. I don't recall though, any RHV landing or overnight parking fees then. Reid-Hillview named after her. My prior flight training in Minnesota at ANE, soloing at -11 F, -builds character!

[bayareaaviation]

i've always loved steve's photos. i agree with you doug, he captioned his photos so well. great photos back from the mid 2000's, makes me feel like i'm going back in time.

hope to see him back soon!

[Doug Robertson]

Steve Nation is back, and I welcome his return!. He recently uploaded some aircraft photos, but they were older dated.

[Chris L.]

Yes! I saw Steve uploading more photos, and they are dated. But hey, the dated ones are the ones I love to see! Makes you feel like you're going into the past. Always good to see what the airports were like when I was too young to go there...

Thanks Doug for your help and Steve for uploading more fantastic photos!

Cheers

Chris