Five favourites...

OK, after the action of last week, I couldn't resist doing this one...so here we go with five favourite Aviation pics...

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Wings and Wheels, Dunsfold - 2013. I have history with these guys - firstly pretty much every time I see them anywhere one or other of the planes gets broken shortly beforehand, so actually seeing the Lancaster AND a Spitfire AND a Hurricane together is a bit of a rarity. Then to add to that it's damned difficult to get all three planes nicely spaced in a shot, with decent lighting and exposure. And that is precisely why this shot makes me smile!

Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team the Red Arrows - Dartmouth Regatta 2009. A completely unique display viewpoint up on Jawbones Hill overlooking the river valley and looking down on parts of the display. The more usual backdrop for air display photos is without question sky, but here you can get trees, fields, and even, as in this shot....houses, cars and people. Fab! 2014? Yes, I'll be climbing the hill again!

Ahh....Duxford 2013 - or "The Red Arrows Display that really shouldn't have happened" - just 10 minutes before the scheduled start time we were sheltering in the car from a torrential downpour. The majority of people left from where we were standing as it seemed certain that they were going to turn back to Scampton. In fact they delayed their departure slightly, and by the time they appeared only slightly later than planned the rain had stopped, the blue skies reappeared, and the conditions were just perfect for a really special display.

Harrier - Southend 2006

I won't get on to the ridiculousness of the government's decision to scrap these incredible planes - aside from to say it's a travesty. I will say that I saw this display many times at airshows, and I never failed to see it bring a smile to the face of all those who witnessed it's "bow" before departing at the end, and never failed to see at least one small child scream and cover their ears as it came down low at crowd centre in an awesome (and very noisy!) hover. For that memory alone, Harrier, I thank you...

This is The Blades. We saw their first ever public display in 2006, have seen them numerous times since, and they're still super-impressive now. I like this photo on a lot of levels - once again it shows the advantage of the fantastic viewpoint at Dartmouth, it also shows the brilliant paint-scheme on the team's Extra 300 planes. Possibly the only aerobatic team I've seen that can display after the Red Arrows and still look good - but then as they're all ex RAFAT pilots maybe that's not so surprising?

Robyn