Eagles again

I've not been out to photograph aircraft as much recently, mainly because its a long way to the "Mach loop" and the days are short, I have had a couple of trips down there though, not much traffic and some pretty dull weather, although a couple of Harriers a Tornado and an F15e or two made it worthwhile!
I also had a day at Lakenheath shooting F15s in their own heat haze, that was a good day.

Lysander and sunset.

With my time being taken up by a catalogue shoot at the moment I've not had a chance to get to Wales for a couple of weeks, however I have managed to get a few images of some of the Old Warden aircraft.
The Lysander put on a great display in some real nice light.

Corris and Cad

5 days in the hills (14th-18th) produced a great variety of Images, Monday, Wednesday and Friday being the busy days, Tuesday was a long wait for very little and Thursday was a slow day and what did show up was just a bit too high.
The weather and the USAFE did us proud again, the F15E Strike Eagles from Lakenheath showed up a few times, the passes around Corris on the Wednesday being some of the most spectacular I have ever seen, the moist air produced some serious vapour when the 15's turned.
In all a good mix of jets, some fantastic fast and low Harriers, with the stars of the week being Typhoon's from Coningsby, not seen them for a while, and the Saudi Tonka in a grey paint scheme from Warton.

2 hills, loads of Eagles!

It was a slow day really, a slow arduous climb to Corris with all my kit on my back; just one Herc and then one pass from the LN boys and a long wait for nowt else until 1:15 when I made the move to Cad west. I missed a Grob tutor on the way up, yes I was that slow!
Afternoon was slow too, two F15Es gave a couple of high passes but a GR-4 did the biz screeching through the notch at perfect height!
Then, just when it seemed like time to pack up and go home, the Strike Eagles showed up again, and again and again in awesome late evening light, fantastic!

The Reds at Dawlish

Dawlish is the other "must do" sea front airshow, again to the west there is a high vantage point where you can look (and more importantly photograph) down at the action; what I liked most was the number of helicopters as I have not had many oportunities to shoot low-fly images of them.
The stars of the show were the "Red Arrows" (Dawlish is the number-one place to photograph the RAF's red Hawks in action) and that big tin triangle XH558, the Vulcan!

Don't jump theres an airshow on!!!

There are two "must do" airshows on the UK airshow calendar, usually they are close together at the beginning of August, this is the first of the two; Airbourne at Eastbourne on the south coast is not the biggest of air displays, but its along the seafront, to the west of the town is the mighty "Beachy head" this is a great vantage point!
I was just going to do the Saturday, however the Dutch F16 gave a great show, as did the Red Arrows so I stayed for Sunday as well in order to try shooting from another position, of course there was no B&B available so I slept in the car, but only for about 2 hours at a time in between being woken by either the police or the chaplains that patrol the place to prevent suicides jumping of the cliffs! I drove inland a mile or two to get some peace and quiet!

French visitors in the valleys

The weather looked promissing and there were Dassault Dornier Alpha Jets from the Armée de l'Air (French air force) at RAF Valley, so all the signs were that the Mach loop in Wales was the place to be!
A good mix of aircraft over 3 days, F15E, Harriers, GR4s, lots of Hawks, a Typhoon that annoyingly shot of up Bwlch-Y-Groes, another valley, but the stars of the show were the French; 17 snappy fast passes on Friday while I was at the low shelf on Bwlch Oerdrwwys, they were still below my vantage point!!!
A great time with lots of good mates on the hills, pretty good weather and I came home with some of my best ever Low-level shots, can't want for more really.

RIAT departures

I could not get to the show as my weekend was fully booked with other things, very bad planning! However I did get to Fairford for the departures.
A good day marred by the overzealous security, that was frankly utterly farcical and caused long delays and frustration; the sodding about with parking and the dreadful old manky open-topped busses into the grandstand, a fine example of demonstating how terrorism has won, in that we all have to endure (and pay for, in high ticket prices) the expensive charade.

More low level action

Another few days in the Mach loop produced some great action. The weather was rubbish at times, I got wet and muddy; the thunderstorm late on Tuesday afternoon was scary as hell with lightning striking fence posts around us!
A good stream of jets, more F15E's, once a real bonus catch, but currently a very common sight, I also finally got a T2 Hawk in primer paint, and some lovely passes by Coningsby Typhoons, another good trip in the hills!

Legends

There is no other show on the UK air display calendar that can compete with "Flying legends" the flightline with re-enctors in period clothing is a photographers dream, the flying is awesome; so much going on you don't know which way to look. A fabulous day out. more images here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/sets/72157621472586619/detail/

Eagles in the Bwlch

Another fantastic day of action, a hard walk up to the top at Bwlch with the 600mm and all the other "toys", but it was well worth it when "Mugger" flight turned up.