At The Mains | Brownout

At the Mains | Brownout
Oil and airbrush on canvas | 36" × 24" × 1.25"

"At the mains" — the crew chief's call as the Black Hawk descends into a dust landing in Iraq. The main landing gear disappears last into the brownout. Half a second from touchdown. No visibility. Just radio calls, trust, and the discipline of putting down an aircraft blind in desert dust.

This painting captures that moment: tail number 23-456, A/4/101st Aviation Regiment, Fort Campbell. A UH-60 Black Hawk in the final seconds of descent, rotor disc barely visible through the atmospheric haze, the dust cloud rising to meet the aircraft.

The light breaks through from behind — that late-afternoon Iraqi sun that makes the dust glow amber and gold while the belly of the aircraft catches warm reflection.

Autobiographical. Firsthand. The view from the flight deck of an aircraft Wes Gale flew, in conditions where precision and training were survival.

A portion of proceeds supports big cat sanctuaries.