Loud Tonkas, and even louder Strike Eagles

It's many years since I went to Holbeach Range, a real sign of changing times this was too, once upon a cold war time it was non-stop action here, now its a long wait for very little to happen, however the straffing runs by a Marham Tornado GR4 certainly blew the wax from the ears!

Lakenheath however was about as busy as normal, after very many visits here I was in search of shots that were way different to usual so I got right under the final approach path and used a 20mm lens, the clouds on the day really invited this tactic, I am very happy with the images, but not so happy that I had left my ear-defenders in the car!

Oh no civvies!!!

I've had a couple of visits to Pinewood and Longcross studios regarding a possible movie job, as these places are a stone's throw from Heathrow it seemed like a good idea to avoid the queues on the M25 and shoot some airliner images, I enjoyed it so much I also had a trip to Luton airport as well!
With the ongoing defence cuts civvie stuff might soon be all thats left for us plane spotters to photograph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ospreys at Mildenhall

I have been out and about photographing aircraft quite a bit but have not been able to update this blog for a while so this is a bit of a catch-up posting.
First up is an RC135W that visited Mildenhall, it's an electronic intelligence gathering aircraft that I suspect was here as part of the effort to solve problems in Libya, at around the same time a US Navy PC3 Orion visited, it's late afternoon departure made for some great full-circle propeller blur with the low sun glinting off the blades.
By far the best visitors and big crowd pullers though were the 4 Bell Boeing CV-22B Osprey tilt rotor aircraft of the 20th SOW (special operations wing) from Cannon AFB, a little frustrating to catch up with them flying, but generally about 20-30 minutes before sundown was when they took to the air!
82 more shots of the Ospreys here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/sets/72157626240782571/detail/

Eagle sunset!

About six weeks either side of the shortest day there are a few days when the sun sets in line with the runway at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, after many years of trying and seeing great sunsets and no aircraft landing and/or lots of jets but clouds blocking the sun I finally got the shots I was after on Monday, over 400 of them in fact, afterwards I viewed the pictures on the back of my camera, it was a Tourettes moment!

The last days of a legendary jet

For 3 days in December I headed up the A1 with a heavy heart, they would be the last days in service of the iconic Harrier; for 40 years this quite astonishing aircraft has, in it’s various versions, been one of the RAF’s most versatile jets, leaping into the air from conventional runways, ships decks, rough fields and well just about anywhere!
The defence cuts spelt the end of it’s career here in the UK, so on the 13-15th of December 2009 the most faithful of British plane spotters gathered to freeze in the winter wet and wind at RAF Cottesmore to pay homage as the crews rehearsed and displayed to mark this sad occasion.
The Monday (13th) was such a slow day, grey weather, low cloud and rain meant delays and at times looked like no flying would happen; however at lunchtime the sky cleared and the whine of Pegasus engines warmed the cold crowd! 17 aircraft taxied out a 2 seater with a photographer in the back seat and the 16 ship formation flight; fortunately they managed to overfly all the sites that the last flypast would entail as the weather on the big day (15th) would be dreadful.
For those of us gathered on the fence the return of the Harriers to Cottesmore could not have been more fitting, a spectacular sunset being the finest of backdrops to see them against.
The 14th and 15th were just as cold, the Harriers flew both days, but sadly not able to do the 16 ship flypast at their home base on either.

Harrier

Rumour has it that the Harrier will cease flying operations on or about the 16th of December, what a sad day that will be; with such a time limit set to see them in air I have spent as much time as I can photographing their unique and amazing flying capabilities at RAF Cottesmore, I hope to get them low-level in Wales again before its just a memory!
So here are a few more of many of the shots taken in recent weeks, plus a shot of a French Navy Embraer Xingu that stole the best light of the day when I wanted Harrier sunset shots!

Harrier

Another of British aviation's finest is now heading for the scrapheap. The Harrier is nearly as old as I am, but it's still a very formidable aircraft, probably one of the best close air support platforms ever and I do not comprehend the logic behind scrapping it!
Design started in 1957, I was 2 and it entered service when I was 14 years old; ever since then it has wowed everyone, not just aviation enthusiasts, a real crowd pleaser, this 'jump jet' and the Vulcan was what my now departed dad always wanted to see on the airshow list.
I remember being totally gobsmacked seeing Harriers for the first time at Farnborough, they just rose up out of the trees at the far side of the airfield during an airfield attack to see off the marauding Sea Vixens (Simon's Circus, 890 squadron display team I think). I am still just as impressed seeing them screaming through the Mach loop in appalling weather piloted by the RAF's finest. I have also spent long hours at various bases photographing them.
RAF Cottesmore has been their home since the departure of the Tri-national Tornado training unit in 1999, I have been there many times and not always seen much activity, so it was joyous that this weeks 'pilgrimage' was like a private airshow for the above average number of spotters gathered for another sad-eyed fix of a favourite jet.
It was the best day I've had at the base, 9 aircraft flew including a 2 seat T10, all the pilots gave a friendly wave before deafening us, the smell of burnt kerosene tingled in my nostrils and a few tears rolled down my cheeks too, my dad would have loved that day as much as I did!