More zero six departures

I think I need a change of scenery, although they are some seriously awesome aircraft, and it looks like the Cs and Ds will be back in the air very soon after Christmas.

Fire in the sky

A collection of recent images from Lakenheath, the F15 C and D aircraft may be grounded, but the F15Es are still flying very regularly, it was good to see some dusk launches, frustratingly some didn't stay low enough or keep the burners on long enough when the colours in the sky were at their best, but it was still pretty awesome!!

Lakenheath

A Belgian F16 visitor was a surprise this week, the E's were quite busy, it was good to get them on the base leg turn again, and even better to get them departing from zero 6 with a nice blue sky and good light!

More Eagles

In search of some different angles I walked miles on the blue cycle track around Thetford forest, the light was perfect and I found a great place where the F15s turn on the base leg. All taken with Canon EOS 1Ds MkII and 600mm f4 IS.

Thetford forest thunder, F15Es

An early start with a promise of fine weather from Dan Corbett on the telly; my target for today being the Snow Buntings and Lapland Buntings at Salthouse on the north Norfolk coast.
The routes I take generally pass either Marham or Lakenheath, today I headed up past "little USA" and there was loads of action on the tarmac at 'the Heath' it was just to good to miss.
After it all went quiet at about 11:45 I headed up to Salthouse, lots more flying there, though nowhere near as noisey. At Salthouse there were several hundred Lapland and Snow Buntings, often just a few feet away, posing to be photographed, 18 gig later I headed back home and passed by Marham on the way, a few Tornados arrived in the last light of a very productive day

Tornados again

Another visit to RAF Marham today, not a lot of movements but great light and a few more images.

Tonka toys

Gagging to get back in the hills for some low-level, but the short days and long distance make it a bit hit and miss at this time of year. I have been concentrating on 'work' photography, but the trips out and about have meant that I have been past RAF Marham a few times. Usually when I am near Marham its less active than a morgue, I have struck lucky recently though and seen a few Tornados, a couple of Tucanos and a Dominie, pretty good as the F15s at "the Heath" have been inactive after a tragic crash in the USA lead to them being grounded for structural checks.

The Vulcan has risen!

This is an old picture scanned from a slide, but today is a special day in aviation history because after 14 years on the ground the big aluminium triangle is back in it's rightful place, long may she ride the skies! Congratulations to all at TVOC you deserve this day for all of your fantastic efforts.

Another fix for a low-level addict

Its been a few weeks since I managed to get down to Wales, and with a one day window of opportunity and a pretty good forcast yesterday (10th Oct 07) seemed like it would be a good day. Sadly you can't trust the weather man, and the blue skys and 17C weather failed to materialise. The action was a bit slow to happen, but the day turned out 'not bad' with a couple of passes from the display Hawk XX205, and a couple of GR9s, took about 70 shots and kept over 50, and I'm looking forward to another visit soon!

All images taken with Canon EOS 1Ds MkII and Canon 600mm f4 IS lens hand held, 320 and 400 ISO, RAW conversion Breezebrowser pro, levels, resize and sharpening with Adobe CS 3.

Little Gransden, a grand day out!

A fine airshow at Little Gransden on Sunday 26th August, well done to the organisers for getting a fine and varied collection of aircraft together for the show, the CP140 Aurora being the big crowd pleaser, plus some nice old 'Warbirds' and the Cambridgeshire 'Copper chopper' all added interest to a lovely sunny day.

Low level highlights

A few days on the top of Bwlch in very sunny Wales this week, at times it was a long wait between aircraft coming through, but well worth it, I got a tan as well!