CBY in some sunshine.

I slept through my alarm yesterday; I had planned on going to Corris in the Mach loop but with such a late start I would not have got there until lunchtime and that is if the traffic was not a problem...... in hindsight I'm annoyed with myself because I now know I missed out on "Shiny two" in the loop, a much wanted aircraft in Low-level!
However it was not such a bad day, I went to Coningsby, not a regular haunt for me, and was lucky enough to get 2 Spanish Typhoons departing, a few other goodies included the Quinetq Tornado F2A ZD902 a couple of Kingairs, several of the resident Typhoons and the BBMF Hurricane, all in nice light as well and without the need to hike up a big hill.

Awesome

Awesome is the word, two utterly amazing days in Wales, Tuesday at Bwlch pass, Wednesday morning at Corris and the afternoon at Cad west, there was of course the usual black painted Hawks whizzing around the loop, but never have I seen so many front line aircraft, Typhoons, Tornado GR4s, Harriers and big Hercules transports all low down in the valley, and in perfect weather and great light too!
Bwlch was a hard slog to the top shelf, but there were a few others at the top, some good company and more pairs of eyes ensure nothing gets seen too late to be ready with the camera. After a few Hawks we were treated to GR4 Tornado, the Saudi Tornado from BAe Warton, six passes from 4 Harriers and a spectacular fly through by a Hercules.
It was my first visit to Corris, many thanks to Garry Ridsdale for guidance up this hill, hard walking with a heavy rucksack full of big lenses etc, but what a stunning view out across Tal-y-Llyn, this lake makes for a superb backdrop if the aircraft are at the right level, two Typhoons within 15 minutes of getting there, followed by some Hawks one of them had two GR4 Tornados on its tail.
The walk down from Corris and climb up to Cad west at lunchtime was knackering, done at a fast pace for me , we managed not to miss any aircraft.
Cad was as usual fantastic, more very low Harriers and then the most amazing two ship Hercules pass, thanks to Simon all the other crews for such a great show.

Duxford spring airshow

The airshows at Duxford are always a great day out, and the Spring Airshow yesterday (18th May) was no exception. Lots of Warbirds, a few 'cold war' jets, and bang up to date with an astonishing display routine a 29 squadron Eurofighter Typhoon, awesome!
Loads more images are here on my Flickr gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/

Two days on a windy hill

Another Low-level fix in Wales, very disappointed to have missed the French Alpha Jets, the usual steady flow of Hawks just to keep the panning technique honed, and a couple of Hercules plus two GR4 s, one of them I missed as after it woke me up I did not have a chance to get a camera on it..... fortunately it was one I have photographed well in low-level before!

Tebay Tucano

I went to photograph the "trip" of Dotterel at the top of Pendle Hill in Lancashire, that was easy, a brisk walk up, nearly tripped (hence the group name maybe?) over the birds and blew away 8 gig in no time, Tebay seemed like a good place to go for some Low-fly action as I was near the area.
The hill by the aerial is a site that overlooks the M6 and I have seen some great images of front-liners taken here, but my near 7 hours in bright sun and howling wind was just unbelievable... one Hawk, missed that as I had nodded-off with shear boredom, and then a Tucano a few hours later; fortunately this was a good deal slower and I had time to wake up and brew a cup of tea between it's first showing and when it passed by, another day that had me questioning my sanity!