Some aviation photos...

[MACC]

After spending 2 weeks away in England going to 4 air shows and loads of seperate bases I ended up with alot of photos, and finally saw the Vulcan. I'll add them as I edit them.

After an exhausting 13 hour drive through the night of Sat 4th, we ended up on the other side of the border into a stunning day at RAF Waddington, shattered but excited the sun made my annual return into England a welcome one.

The Reds





Apache, you can't hate it





A couple of follow the leader shots





Classic looking Vampire



FlyNavy100



Saudi marked Strikemaster



Polish team put on an unexpectedly nice display



Home team back after last year no show...







Typhoon



Couple of others

Blades (a must see!!)



Vampire again right over my head



That was all day 1, 15 more left haha, heavy metal is on the way. And for all you F15 lovers, your in for a treat!

Macc

[N35W]

Oh Man that looks so sweet.

I have never seen a Apache at a airshow, I don't know why.

[Weescotty]

Seen the Blades at East Fortune last Sunday, 'nutters' doesn't even come close!

[MACC]

Seen the Blades at East Fortune last Sunday, 'nutters' doesn't even come close!

They are all ex-Red Arrow pilots I am led to believe.

Right, some more including the lovely phantom, you can see just how accurate Nick's model is!



















More heavy metal soon as I take a trip over to coningsby, getting lucky...

Macc

[starlifterfan]

The Phantom is one of the best looking Fighters ever made. All the shots are awesome!!!!....Gotta love the Rhino ......smoke em!!!!!!!!!!, The pic of the Phantom, is that Nicks Ai or is that a real Phantom????, LOL.

[MACC]

Your not wrong there, the F4 is a beauty, but then again, so are Eagles...

Because of the close proximity of Waddington and Coningsby, after all the departures I had wanted to see left, we journeyed over to Coningsby, arriving at runway 25 we were pretty sure we could hear Eagles :biggrin: then a few minutes later, these 4 taxied out...



Stood on a crap heap for these...







however, all did not go quiet and soon 2 typhoons taxied out...



Then, more Eagles started up, which started dawning on us (we didn't know already) the Eagles were heading home and the last 3 of the 7 (I went directly home from Waddington) taxied out...






We were hoping they might come back and just as we were about to position to the other end...wokka, wokka, wokka...


As we got round to the other end one F-15D landed (044) but no others returned




Planning to go to Coningsby the day after we decided Lakenheath instead because Coningsby was pretty much dead.
Macc

[starlifterfan]

My hats off to you, drop dead awesome shots!...The sound most have been insane....Those Eagles look top notch!

[MACC]

My hats off to you, drop dead awesome shots!...The sound most have been insane....Those Eagles look top notch!

The Eagles have one of the nicest start up sounds there is, it's up there with the rafale and the Jaguar, you go to Lakenheath and you sit there at 8, and you hear eagle after Eagle start up. Wonderful...

and Lakenheath's finest, again, in comparison to the NBAI Eagle you can't spot the difference!

After Waddington and Coningsby our next stop was RAF Lakenheath, the sortie started at 8am so when we got there at 9am we could just see the last F15E depart into the mist as we past the 06 end. Shortly after arriving at the forest entrance, an F15E arrived, then another...then another, until 16 had landed (8 492FS and 8 494FS) so no C's had gone up (yet.)





Then we went over to the other side as aircraft started going to the last chance area, 493 FS joined in with this sortie and there was a lot of F15's to be had . We left at about 5 not long after the last landed and it all went quiet.

























and for the last one, a few rays of sun...



Macc

[btaylo24]

Chris

Been watching your pics on UKAR and I must say they are superb
Those lakenheath ones are really nice and sharp

Well done mate

Barry

[MACC]

Thanks Barry.

The sharpness I was surprised about this year, because i'm using the same equipment as last year.

I loved Lakenheath though, non stop action till about then they'd be going up again about 5.

Macc

[N35W]

Chris,

Sharpness, no kidding there. You must have VIP photo rights or really crisp long lenses.

Insane work there Sir. Man, I wish I was where you are, I have never seen all that metal in all my life.

If you are on some kind of air show tour, if you can, get some samples of the unique engine sounds so we can use them in FS would be fantastic!

Thanks for the photo show.

[MACC]

Thanks Jeff, some are airshows, some are outside the fence at a base, as for the lens, cost me £50 but i've got used to using it as i've had it 2 years now.

More from Lakenheath...

Another day at Lakenheath, started off very grim, one aircraft had a big flameout which I missed. I just remember looking and a big white flash and seeing a giant flame come out it's engine after 2 seconds in afterburner. The weather substansially improved and it was non stop action from 8AM till 2PM, took a jaunt off to Mildenhall and saw the Hickam C17 on the ground but no action, so we left.) Arriving back to Lakenheath in time for an evening launch (just E's)

Dull and against dark background made the burners brighter.


Beautiful aircraft...










This C17 arrived the previous morning, was glad to get it go.



Round to the other side for the arrivals...sun!















A lovely surprise was this, missed it at every other opportunity. (Namely sheltering from the hellstorm at RIAT last year during it's practise.)









Nice tight circuit!





Heat haze was destroying most ground pics, so I used heat haze with more heat haze...



















and after the dissapointment of Mildenhall dead, we returned to some returning...








These were launching about half 6, couldn't stay as we had to drive to our hotel for Fairford.











Hope you like.
Macc

[Greg]

Excellent photos there Chris! Looks like you had fun and I really enjoy watching them.

Our Seaking deserves a special mention of course. Good catch

Greg

[starlifterfan]

Those shots are incredible, geez, all i got to see today was a HC-130 takeoff from KCOF today, love those Strike Eagles pics .

[Paul]

This C17 arrived the previous morning, was glad to get it go.

Looks like that C-17 is from my neck of the woods

Nice pics!!!!!!

Paul

[MACC]

Thanks guys.

@Greg, your nation's Sea King was a beauty, nearly missed it because you get no notice of anything coming in from where we were and everything was in. There was also a Falcon 10?/20? came in later the evening, nearly missed it aswell.

@Paul, it was the only C17 I got flying not at airshows, I saw the Hickam commanders bird on the deck at Mildenhall but never got it moving.

Anyways, after we filled the gap days between Waddington and Mildenhall we were off to Yeovilton for some arrivals, however, found out only a C160 and CN235 were due as well as the Freece much later in the day so after the C160 and CN235 we went off to the Fleet Air Arm Museum and it was great.

Shutter speed 1/40th to get the whole disc propeller haha, it made me realise we must see slower than 1/40th because we always see full discs on propellers etc;



Couple of the locals played around during our wait



CN235



Another local



Museum, the blue aircraft you might not recognise is the Fairey Delta.

Sea Harrier FRS.1


Pegasus (Harrier's prototype.)


The wonderful looking Fairey Delta, luckily there were stairs going up to go inside the concorde so I got get some elevated perspective shots.




Buccaneer, what a lovely aircraft!




Lush Phantom..



Sea Vampire.



F4U Corsair?


Can't remember what this was called, maybe it was the sea fire, but i'm unsure.


Sea Harrier FA.2


Next up, the bulk of yeovilton arrivals and a special Triangle .

[starlifterfan]

Great job again, ever think of doing that for a living, you do have the talent, I mean like seriously, great photos.

[MACC]

Thanks again...
well returning back for a second try at Yeovilton...
Well, going back on the Friday, a slow day at times for an arrivals day but it got going. With the company of a couple of mates throughout the day I had a superb time, I would even say it was the best day out of the 16 day trip. I had a few doubts for the day...
The day started off with a surprise Belgian Air Component Embraer 135/145?


Not only that but he backtracked...beauty!


First fast jet arrival was the beautiful Dutch F-16s...


and the Embraer set off home after it's brief visit.


and the Belgian F16's arrived, I quite like it even if it is all grey.


No sooner and 2 of these entered the circuit, and then the two of them turned and burned quite literally all over the shop! Great to see! New Voltige Victor team?


Commando Assault Demo number 1
Apache :drool:




Lovely Winter Camo SeaKing


After the demo, another lovely sea king! :biggrin:


French Navy didn't want to be put in the shadows...


...and neither did the Germans, last time Only one i've ever photographed.


Lovely to see 4 Harriers in one go at one of our own shows


Belgian practise display, it was superb, shame it was the standard coloured bird they put up...


...the Dutch went up immediately and put on a show right over us, I thought we were the proper audience


vapour was common as muck :biggrin:


Burnnnnnn!


Dutch was a heavy smoker...


Got a phonecall to say Alpha Mike Echo formation was on the scanner (thanks Chris) I knew what it was straight away, what a pair of beauties...






end of part 1...

[MACC]

2nd batch now...

Rafales first ever UK display, and it was stunning!
Turn...


Burn...


Push...


Pull...


Quartet Lynx display...




How good does that Sea King look :drool:





After seeing it at the first demo I wanted to get the line of sea kings and when Jason and Mark pointed out to me that the Lynx's were running in I ran to the centre line arriving just in the nick of time -tiring- but worth it...




This guy flew over me to go get the loads still on the runway...


The commando assault involved two of these beauties!!


7.10PM - A ghostly triangular shape over the trees in a shower as it flew joining downwind. At last I would get to see the majestic Vulcan, as she lined up a dark cloud filled the background reducing my shutter speed to below 1/100, she glided closer and then maxed the throttle...the howl was unique. She came round again this time for full stop. She then backtracked after Typhoon arrived and came down the runway to us, a moment I will never ever forget!
A big thanks to Lee for constantly keeping me in the know about the Vulcan, I don't think I would have stayed if it wasn't for the texts. Thanks!





Hoooowl!



Smokeyyy...



Backtracking







Thanks, Chris

[Flyin Illini]

Great pictures! I sure wish I could get to europe to photo some exotic aircraft..

Can't remember what this was called, maybe it was the sea fire, but i'm unsure.

Looks like a fairey Firefly.