Warbird Heaven!

 

Last weekend Sywell Aerodrome hosted their first full airshow - and it became apparent from when they first started releasing information about the participating aircraft that they were going all-out to make this a success. A group of us decided to go along - some for one day, and a few of us bit the bullet and committed to both. Tickets were reasonably priced, standard parking was free, and the participating aircraft looked good - generally a pretty solid basis to assume that a show will be a decent one! 

So it proved - and the weather joined in as well to make things even more of a success. Sunshine with a light cooler breeze on Saturday, and Sunday was even warmer, with sunshine pretty much right through the day. We even got airshow favourite clouds scudding across the sky too which from a photography point of view is a winner! 

The show opened with the formation above - it’s always a bit of a coup for a show to get an F-35 to fly with anything else, and the two warbirds alongside (a P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang) were just such a good pairing - I think we were all a bit stunned after several passes to be honest! We weren’t given much time to gather ourselves though before the P-47 joined up with iconic B-17 Bomber “Sally B”

How stunning! We weren’t done with USAF types either, a formation of Mustangs was quite something to see, sparkling and gleaming in the sunshine…

These frequently have “bare-metal” type schemes - wonderful to watch, but a bit of a devil to photograph…a bit like the incredible Flying Bulls B-25 Mitchell. 

You can literally see the countryside around reflected back from the immaculately polished fuselage! The Flying Bulls are a bit of a rare sight in the U.K. although they do occasionally appear, I’ve seen them just a handful of times though so their participation was extremely welcome and keenly anticipated. They didn’t disappoint either - displaying the Mitchell above with a P-51 Mustang (already seen earlier in the show both with the F-35a and in formation with other mustangs), a Corsair and another rarely seen type, the P-38 Lightning. 

Comedy moment of day 1 was undoubtedly the arrival of the Oil Spill Response Boeing 727 which took the commentary team - James Holland of the We Have Ways Podcast, alongside Mike Ling, best known from his time spent with the RAF Red Arrows both as a display pilot and as Red 10, safety supervisor, and also now an accomplished warbird pilot - by surprise. Their astonished reaction elicited an audible ripple of amusement throughout the crowd line! 

Another absolute highlight for most of us was the stunning wing walking display from 46-Aviation, a Swiss based (I think?) husband and wife team. The most frequently heard phrase during this one was “well she’s clearly just utterly bonkers isn’t she!” - not surprising when you realise that their finale was this…

Absolutely incredible to watch - she had the entire audience gripped throughout I think, not always the case with wing walking displays. I for one would be delighted to see these guys make more regular UK appearances! 

The main display on day 1 ended with a massed Spitfire formation. This is always an incredible treat to see - and indeed hear! They did a few passes in their group of 9 (albeit with one aircraft on day 1 tending to hang back off the main formation a bit, making it tricky to get in shot) then moved to line astern formation to engage in a lengthy tailchase display which was stunning to witness. 

Day 2 was much the same as far as the majority of  participants were concerned. No F-35 to start, and the display closed with a Red Arrows display after the massed spitfires.  

This year’s Reds display is an absolute cracker - without question the best for a fair few years, in fact. The return of the famous Diamond 9 formation after several years of the team flying reduced numbers for various reasons is fantastic to see - and they are flying the above version of short diamond with all 9 jets streaming smoke which is a bit of a nod to this being their Diamond Anniversary year, I think. 

There were the usual synchro passes - and I even managed to track the right jet on some of them which was handy! We’d decided on a far more chilled day so were sat a good way back, but of course that doesn’t matter much for a display like the Reds. It’s also nice being able to see and hear the crowd reaction along with the noise of the jets too - the ooohs and ahhhs at Synchro’s close passes, and always a ripple of delight when “Tornado” makes an appearance too. 

All in all this show was an absolute winner. A great range of aircraft flying, including stuff rarely seen in the U.K. something a bit “different” too - it’s always great to have something a bit unique to point the camera at! They did a great job with the car park too - staggering the departure times by adding the evening display on Saturday made leaving straightforward, but even on Sunday when a lot of folk were leaving directly after the Reds it was easy - in the car and straight out, barely even stopping. The large shows that have been doing this for years could learn a LOT from their approach! 

Well done Sywell - if you run again next year I will be straight in the queue for tickets! 

Robyn. 

First taste of freedom...!

Monday 29th March saw the much awaited first significant easing of Lockdown in England, with the “Stay Home” rule being dropped, and recreational travel allowed once more. As always, word of mouth reporting and “he said/she said” rhetoric has caused some confusion, with individuals claiming that there is still a rule in place that people must stay local and that this is not due to change until early April. In fact the government website makes it clear that further to Monday there is no further easing of travel restrictions to be made - the only further significant change of this type being the ruling that you can stay away from home with your household from 12th April - something we are planning to make good use of, but more on that another time! 

“The Jurors” artwork - Runnymede

The rule change meant that Wednesday saw me able to head down to Runnymede in Surrey. The Red Arrows were making a flypast over the Air Forces Memorial to commemorate the Centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force and I decided that the National Trust parkland down there would be nice to combine a bit of a walk and an explore of an area I’d not visited in years, with a sighting of my favourite little red jets! The weather sadly wasn’t the best, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable few hours wandering round, looking at artworks and memorials, climbing hills and finally getting a quick look at the jets as they roared overhead. 

Thursday was another trip out - this time my first visit to a Scampton in almost 6 months. Thinking about it, I reckon this is my longest gap between visits since February 2014! The weather, again, didn’t quite play ball, although the third flying slot in the afternoon did finally deliver a snippet of blue sky here and there... 

“Flat heart” - spot the 3 jets! 

...one fully flat and two at least part rolling displays though, and frankly I was just delighted to be out in the open (and it must be said, quite cold!) air, to see Claire for the first time in an age, and actually get some quality time with my camera, too! 

And of course, this view just NEVER gets old! I’m trying to work on some new techniques for shooting the individual jets like this - but it will require a bit more time to really work on I think - hopefully might lead to some different perspectives from the shots I have got previously once I’ve spent some time working through angles and methods though!

It feels so nice just to be back to actively planning things again - after a full year and more of having been reluctant to really plan much because of the near certainty of disappointment when cancellations happen, starting to get some dates in the diary again feels great! 

Robyn 

We’re going....hopefully!

Finally got to my shots from Tuesday’s Reds Display practise at Scampton - not too many that I’m happy with, but allowing for the grey overcast conditions I expected that. I did get the shots I wanted of the two jets running in for the Gypo Pass though - and one of those is above.

Back at home, we’re starting to prepare to hopefully get to the Hebrides before all that much longer - ferry tickets are now booked thank goodness, and circumstances actually mean we get an additional day and a bit over in Uist this year as well - our usual ferry crossing is not available, and because of the limited capacity on the ferries at the moment we decided we’d make “plan A” the day earlier, rather than running the risk of actually losing a day or more of our holiday. Thankfully the booking went smoothly, and we have secured accommodation for the additional night also - wonderful! I really feel as though this trip is needed now - although I’ve been furloughed from work since April, and MrEH has been working from home, we’ve not actually taken any holiday time at all this year yet - everything that we did have booked was cancelled of course, so a few weeks away will be just perfect.

I also plan to get back into the habit of regular running again before we go away - I have another virtual challenge coming up and plan to run an 80km month later in the year - more than I have done for a while so I want to get back to the routine of it beforehand to prepare. I also hope to do some of that mileage in the Hebrides too - I love going there with a challenge to work on as it’s such a fabulous place to run! I went out today for the first time in a couple of weeks - just 3 miles, a reasonably paced first mile, a far slower second one, and then some speedwork mixed into the third for good measure - I’ve not done speedwork in a fair while so that was long overdue. The plan is to try to throw some in once a week from now on - but we’ll see how that pans out! For now, it’s back to the old routine though - 3 runs a week, that pattern works. Time on feet, build the miles up gradually. Time to make it happen.

Robyn

Friends, and beers, and Little Red Jets!

Yes, the observant amongst you will notice that the photo is NOT a little red jet....I’ve not had time to process those yet! Allowing for where I am tonight though - the photo above is somewhat fitting...

A not so early start this morning and a drive up M11, A14 and A1 to Scampton to see the Reds practising this afternoon. Summertime practises always feel like a real luxury - winter training tends to demand 5am alarms and freezing cold muddy fields, but this time of year things tend to be later in the day - so a leisurely start, and if we’re lucky some nice warm sunshine. Not quite so much of that today, but still warm enough. Once flying was complete, back to Claire’s for a brew and then for me, back to Scampton to meet my pal at my accommodation for the night - a house just outside the wire of the base, available to friends and family of those working on camp for a very reasonable rate, and handily within walking distance of the rather excellent pub in Scampton village... A good natter and brew with Fletch, then Claire turned up (also staying here tonight) and shortly afterwards it was time to head to the pub for dinner.

The Dambusters Inn at Scampton is probably my favourite pub anywhere. The food is excellent, they always have a range of beautifully kept beers on, and almost invariably I go there with brilliant people - nothing not to like there then! Tonight was no exception - steak and all the trimmings, followed by Lemon Tart and ice cream - delicious! Washed down with several pints of Rudgate Brewery’s Ruby Mild - a beer which won the prestigious Champion beer of Britain award when we served it on our bar at the Great British Beer Festival some years ago, and as such still a firm favourite of mine. Good company in the form of Claire and Fletch, plus a chap I’d not met before but who works with Fletch. Greg, Steve and the team at the pub have clearly worked hard to ensure that they can safely reopen under the new Covid-secure guidelines - tables inside are reserved for those eating, and well spaced out, while people just wanting drinks use tables outside - also very widely spaced. Having all table service and not going to the bar feels a bit strange, but very pleasant nonetheless. Above all it felt safe  - something which I was a little concerned about having not sat inside a pub for quite some time - and I will be extremely happy to return again any time!

The best thing about today was it just felt normal - aside from the inevitable topical references which you would expect, it didn’t feel that different to pre-Covid times. We ate, drank, exchanged gossip, traded banter and talked of plans for the future - and it felt wonderful to *have* positive plans for the future too. There may not be masses of air shows on the horizon, but as ever we have proved that we can still have fun, regardless - and that counts for a lot!

Robyn.

(The relevance of the photo above? RAF Scampton was of course the home of 617 Squadron and where the famous Dambusters raid launched from during World War 2.)

Red!

Leaving you with this shot for today. It's been a long and tiring couple of days - mentally and physically - and I really need my bed and the hope of a decent nights sleep tonight after last night's anxiety-head-whirl.

Lots of laugh out loud moments with good friends today helped though. Don't they always?

Robyn

Day 87...

So, it rained ALL through last night. At one point it sounded as though the worlds biggest bucket was being emptied right outside the windows. It carried on raining for most of this morning as well - sometimes deluging, sometimes just a drizzle. We popped to get MrEH’s newspaper and got home mildly damp. Rumours abounded that the counterpart flypast in Paris in the late morning was being cancelled because of weather - not true, in fact Paris had glorious blue skies!

We left home to drive into London just after lunch - it was still spitting but - a literal glimmer of hope - the sun had started peeking through... by 3pm we were walking along the Embankment from a Tower Bridge with some incredible cloud formations above - some clearly still threatening some rain but importantly all nice and high, so unlikely to disrupt the actual route of the flypast. The 2 teams had made it across to RAF Brize Norton to refuel but reports were that the weather there was still pretty dreadful, it wouldn’t be the first time that a Flypast was scuppered by weather either at the operating base, or between that base and the target, frustrating for all concerned but can’t be helped.

By 4.15pm we had recced all possible locations and I had decided on plan A - Waterloo Bridge - giving a view which could - depending on the precise line taken by the jets - include the London Eye and the Thames in one direction, and the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and the city skyline in the other - just so long as a bus didn’t draw up at the wrong moment! Better still though, those superb cloud formations were hanging around, particularly in the St Paul’s direction. 4.40pm - takeoff time and we started picking up snippets of radio transmissions on the scanner confirming that 18 jets were in the air and heading our way...

At bang on 5pm the coloured smoke appeared over the roof of the Ministry of Defence building - I fired off a couple of shots with my 10 - 18mm lens on the Canon 80D, then hastily switched to the 7DMk2 hanging over the other shoulder ready to shoot the remainder with the 24 - 105mm as it became apparent the wider angle wasn’t going to give quite the composition I was hoping for. As the jets roared over I dashed across the pavement, hopped onto the barrier and framed up ready to get the departing shots with the Cathedral - massive thanks to the lovely van driver who held back as long as he could from blocking my view! The whole thing was over in around 45 seconds - which actually feels like quite a long time photographically, although people watching always feel it is over in a flash!

As always looking around and seeing the reactions of the people around was a definite highlight - a flypast puts smiles on faces, all the more so for those who didn’t know about - and weren’t expecting - it. People continue to stand and watch for a few moments more as the lingering red, white & blue smoke drifts across the sky - before carrying on with their day. You can imagine the conversations around dinner tables that evening “Wow - guess what I saw on the way home!”

Robyn

(To reiterate from yesterday - in London it is still being requested that public transport use is for essential travel only, and had I needed to use the tube, or buses I would not have made the trip in. As it was we drove as far as Bermondsey, just under an hour, parked there and walked the rest.)

Day 86...

A chunk of today has looked a little like this. Tomorrow, the Red Arrows will be performing a Flypast with the French national aerobatic team thr Patrouille de France over central London, and MrEH and I will be heading in to watch/photograph it. I like to plan stuff like this in advance to give myself the best possible chance at getting a shot I’ll be pleased with and frankly a good old fashioned map and ruler are about the best way of doing this when it is a straight-line route as tomorrow is. I combine that with Google streetview to confirm the view from the various locations I am considering, although to be honest local knowledge helps a lot on this one too. I know the route, and know the landmarks I would ideally like to get in the shot. I have two possible locations in mind and will size up both when we get into London tomorrow to see which will suit best. After that, everything else is out of my control, but at least I have given it my best shot!

A friend asked me earlier if I was excited about tomorrow - I am, but as I said to her, I get nervous for flypasts too. Displays are different - there will be another one, very possibly in the same location, another year, and often if a particular shot or shots I want don’t come off at one show, I can try again the following week, or month, or season, and hopefully nail it that time. Flypasts are different though - they are unique, for a start. Quite often a Flypast is for a never-to-be-repeated event, and sometimes they take a never-to-be-repeated format as well - when the Reds flew with the Vulcan at Southport in 2015 for example, we knew that was the last time we would ever see those aircraft together again. Tomorrow is a good example - it’s not unusual for the Reds and PdF to fly together - indeed they did so at Air Tattoo last summer, but add in some of London’s best known landmarks, AND that London rarely sees two national teams combining like this, and this is a pretty unique event. Then throw in variables like weather - rain is forecast for tomorrow, and sometimes you can get wind affecting things too - it blows the coloured smoke around and can even blow the formation slightly off course and it can all impact on getting the perfect shot.

Check back tomorrow to see how things turned out...or not!

Robyn

Airshow season - half way already!

We've reached the mid season point in the UK airshow season and what fantastic weather we've had for it so far!

My season this year started at Shuttleworth in May - I was getting itchy feet and when someone mentioned the first of their "evening airshows" I couldn't resist getting started! As well as the usual Shuttleworth residents there was also a visit from this beauty:

A few blank weeks after that as we headed off to Lundy with a big group of friends for a week (there is a blog post half written on that, to!) but our return to the mainland tied in nicely with the lovely Torbay Airshow - having attended their first show a couple of years ago it's become a bit of a favourite of mine so I was pleased to be able ton get there for a day again this year. It was also my first time this season seeing the Red Arrows display:

A lovely day in the sun with Maxine watching the flying, chattering lots and making the most of access to cheap ice cream!

From June things start getting busy as a rule - although I had made a conscious decision this season that I was going to step things back a bit simply because there are just too many things I want to cram into my summer" - still, Cosford was up next - one that I'd previously ummed and ahhed about doing, but this year the line-up made it an easy decision.

So many highlights it's tricky to know what to pick out but seeing these guys do their full landing display is also good:

Mid month was the first Great Yarmouth Airshow - and I debated long and hard about whether to go or not. In the end I decided to judge it based on the weather, and as the date grew nearer the forecase wasn't looking great. Then a few days before a couple of this year';s Red Arrows Circus chaps started encouraging me to head up to Norwich to see them at the airport which was what I decided to do in the end. I was very glad I did too - thanks to the lovely Caz, and the kind chaps at Saxon Air, I ended up spending a full day airside with the team and the jets - which of course meant that this year's "Circus At Work" project is very much on!

Another trip to Shuttleworth followed - warbird heaven! then into the "big" shows again with Yeovilton arrivals and the show itself. The arrivals day there has proved to be a really nice chilled day and for its £15 price tag, great value too, so friend Gary & I pitched up on a blazingly hot sunny day before being joined by Kim & Jade the following day for the show itself. The absolute highlight for me was finally getting to see this for myself:

My much loved and missed Uncle Bob's name on the tail of RAF Red Arrows Hawk XX322. Thanks to the fundraising "Names on a plane" scheme Bob had been whizzing around the skies of the UK and beyond since last season but for various reasons this was the first time I'd got to see it up close. There was a shriek, and then a tear or two when I realised it was visible - very emotional indeed and I just know how excited Bob would have been at this!

Flying highlights were probably the Belgian Air Force F16 display I think - with their stunning "Dark Falcon" scheme complete with the additional of flares for this display:

The following week was of course the biggie - The Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford - a great three days of incredible displays but most of all the years best chance to catch up with oh-so-many great friends that you simply don't see enough of! So many highlights on the flying front - the RAF BBMF's incredible "Trenchard Plus" display where they got all the toys out of the toybox to fly:

Awesome is a much over used word but this really was. See also "emotional". Very very special indeed - I'm incredibly glad to have seen it for myself. Another "Special" was a 617 Squadron Formation with the BBMF Lancaster, the Panvia Tornado and "new kid on the block" the newly arrived to the UK Lockheed Martin F35b Lightning II.

Spectaular and another great tribute to both the #RAF100 anniversary and the anniversary also of the Dams Raid, of course.

This end of the season got wrapped up with a visit to Farnborough. Now this is a show I've never been sure about visiting - tickets tend to be on the expensive side and the public days at the weekend are often said to be not great. However, the draw for me was that they had secured a Spanish Navy Harrier jump jet - and this one was going to be FLYING! The decision was made and I duly met up with another pal - Simon - shortly after bacon butty time for a good old wander about the show. We found the prototype model of the newly announced RAF jet the Tempest which was interesting, then  separated for a bit to find our chosen spot top watch the star of the show:

What a star it was, too! I'd forgotten how unbelievably loud these are! Thank goodness for earplugs - they really were much needed! She flew, and she hovered and yes I confess that it must have got quite dusty as I definitely had something in my eye! In spite of not being greatly impressed with the rest of the show, this was actually well worth the ticket price, for me. Probably not a show I'd got back to though, on the whole.

So next up for me after mid season break will be Eastbourne - this is one for the "usual suspects" gang - Claire, Anthony and I are all in the same hotel I believe, and Tom & Alysha are staying elsewhere in the town. Lots of other friends will be about as well so it's going to be a sort of combined mini holiday and big get together, hopefully! Planning is happening apace and we're all thoroughly looking forward to a great few days! Bring it on!

Robyn

More challenges...

I seem to be determined to push myself out of my comfort zone this year so far! I've mentioned the "Spitfire Challenge -100k in 100 days" I'm signed up to for the RAF100 celebrations I think - that challenge is being run by the RAF Museum and I've already committed to the idea of running the distance for that one. It should be relatively achievable for me, looking at the mileage I've run so far this year, so long as I can continue running my standard sort of distances and at my current sort of frequency.

I've also now entered a second "RAF 100" related challenge - another virtual one, meaning that you cover your chosen distance within the timescale and then submit your evidence to receive your medal. This one is a little different though as rather than setting you a target to aim for, this asks you to set your own challenge. Harder in some ways as it comes down to striking a balance between something that is a challenge, but still should, with a push, be achievable. It was further complicated for me by me wanting to do something around the "100" years of the anniversary, but not wanting to make it so tough that I stood a chance of injuring myself and mucking up my chances of completing both.

In the end I have settled on making that second challenge a combined walking/running distance - and the target I have set myself is 100 kilometres total distance covered in a 7-day period. 100 Kilometres = 62.137 miles - and the furthest I've ever managed to cover in a single week in the past is 53 miles, so make no mistake, this IS a proper challenge! I'll be counting all my time on my feet walking or running throughout the week, and will be using my FitBit to count distance covered - as much as possible I will track walking by using the Fitbit > Phone GPS connection to try to keep it accurate - however, where I forget, or choose not to for any reason, it will actually make my task harder as my Fitbit currently underestimates the distance I cover when I walk if it's not tracking via GPS! Running during that week will be tracked by Strava or my running watch and all running will also be counting towards the Spitfire Challenge. I've very deliberately said "a 7 day period" too as this gives me some flexibility with fitting in one long walk that MrEH and I have planned which if we can complete it would give me around 15 miles on its own.

I said I wanted to challenge myself this year and so far I really feel that I am. It feels exciting to be doing new things, and to be doing things I never imagined I would be able to - At the weekend I clocked up my fastest mile running so far, running it in a pace of 8.47 minutes and knocking a hefty 16 seconds off my previous best time over that distance! That's not fast by the standards of serious runners (A friend routinely runs 5k distances in well under 20 minutes!) but for me it felt like a massive achievement. At the point at which, about half a mile in, it got tough, rather than giving up as I might have done previously I reminded myself what I wanted to do and dug in a bit deeper. I'm trying hard to, rather than making excuses about what I can't do, to work at the things I can.

Aims for April now then are to complete the walk/run challenge, and to get as many miles in the bank for the Spitfire challenge as I can. I'd also like to start to increase my running distance a little - with a possible thought of aiming towards a 10k distance run towards the Autumn. I'm intending to get to some more parkruns, and want to do at least one more organised chip timed 5k - possibly back at the QE Olympic Park, possibly around another (and rather older) London Park - so watch this space for news on those.

My running/walking for the two challenges will, in the light of recent events, be done in memory of Corporal Jon Bayliss of the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team The Red Arrows. Jon sadly lost his life in an incident at RAF Valley last week, an incident which also left Red 3 from the team - Flt. Lt. David Stark - in hospital. I'm currently trying to work out whether I can do any fundraising around the two challenges and will update further on that when I've established what is doable - the entry fees for both already involve charitable donations however so I'm unsure of what more I am allowed to do. 

Robyn.

No Words...

Sending thoughts to the whole RAFAT family following the events at RAF Valley today. Sympathies to the family & friends of the "Blues" engineer lost. 

Whizzy Red Jets...

It's been a funny winter on the weather front - lots of very grey days forecast have lead me to cancel several planned trips up to Scampton although ironically had one of those gone ahead I'd have had a day of wall to wall blue skies - the moral of this is clearly "never trust the Met Office" but there you go - you can only work with the information you're given. Suffering from a nasty case of "I want to see some flying-itis" I switched my working arrangements around and committed to heading up last Monday - regardless of forecast!

The disadvantage of a Monday rapidly became apparent with more traffic than I was used to on the way up and a combination of that and managing to set my alarm 15 minutes later than I should have done meant I screeched to a halt in the car park with just a minute spare on the time of the programmed first flying slot - thankfully with a heavy frost and light dusting of snow on the ground it seemed unlikely that they'd take off on time and so it proved. The slight delay also gave time for  my companion for the day to arrive from his drive across from Derby - and we convened at the fence as the jets were crewing in. A 6-ship duly taxied out shortly afterwards and we quickly realised that the runway in use was at our end which meant this:

...they don't often use that end so that was an unexpected treat! 

6-ship sorties aren't the greatest to photograph as generally they are a bit "unbalanced" looking but we made the best of it and the weather certainly did us a favour early on with skies like this...

With just 6 jets on the line at the start of the day and all 6 having flown that meant we had a pretty solid idea of the time of the second flying slot so I seized the chance to head off and get some much needed diesel in the car and grab a sandwich before heading back in time for slot 2. Lo and behold another 6 ship - and in not quite such good skies sadly...some nice clouds though...

...and the rare use of the runway at our end meant scope for some shots of the jets on approach to land too...

Finally slot 3 gave us a coveted "Gypo" sortie - the 4 jets at the back of the formation which of course include the Synchro Pair. Annoyingly by this stage the sky had gone to a dull, flat grey, but the beauty of the dynamic flying you get from Gypo is that there's still options for shots even in those circumstances - particularly if you have a fairly solid grasp of where you need to be for the various different manouevres - and on this occasion I spotted them pulling round to practise the Gypo Pass and a quick dash up the fenceline netted me this series of shots...

Sometimes a day in the cold and nearly 6 hours of driving is worth it! We Pretty much gave up shooting after that - the light had gone, the sky was flat, and the final session of the day was a 3-ship repeating the same formation over and over , plus the temperature had dropped dramatically and it was making a determined effort to snow on us. I'll be planning another trip up shortly and will be hoping for more jets, more blue sky and more degrees centigrade too!

Robyn

Blue skies & Red Jets!

So FINALLY last Friday I got a day up at Scampton garnished with blue skies and sunshine. I'd been up a few times previously this winter hoping to photograph some flying, but on the first occasion the weather didn't clear for the whole day - we spent all day sitting in the photo section office drinking tea and gossiping. Second time round wasn't much better either - a single sortie got flown, but mostly up above the clouds. More tea, more gossiping.  The third attempt was a little better but still not those glorious blue skies that look so wonderful in pics. This trip was FAR better - the forecast had looked good all week, so it was just a case of crossing fingers that it didn't change - and for once the Met Office didn't let us down!

For a change the wind was in the right direction for the jets to be using the runway nearest to us - always nice to see them taxi out...

First up we had the Synchro pair practising their "Heart" - first time they'd done it this year, and I think you'll agree it's already looking good...

                    

Then "Enid" section took to the sky for some lovely looping passes and rolls - always nice to watch, and photograph!

For the third and subsequent slots we relocated to one of our favourite spots - lovely and quiet and peaceful, well until this happens...

We had the Heart overhead again - later with Synchro being joined by Red 8 who will be "spearing" the heart this year. Masses of close passes overhead - some of which were too close even for the short end of my 100-400mm lens. The best bit though? The slightly elevated position we had chosen giving us fabulous views of the jets running in over the Lincolnshire countryside...

Always a pleasure to watch! Work-ups are going well - in the course of the last few days the team have flown their first "9-Ship" practises of the year and it's all now starting to come together. A few more weeks of getting it all together here before they head to Greece for "Exercise Springhawk" which should hopefully culminate in them being awarded the coveted "PDA" - Public Display Authority which allows them to go from performing "practises" (as they currently are) to "Displays" in front of the public in the UK and elsewhere. They then return to the UK in time for their first public displays at Torbay Airshow down in Devon at the beginning of June. Can't wait!

Robyn

And finally...

...that's the UK airshow season at a close for us. I spent yesterday at RAF Scampton for the Reds final ISP's (In season Practises) of the year - then on Thursday the jets and Circus depart for India on the first leg of their tour. The other Blues going as part of the support crew will also be heading off but their departures are staggered over several days throughout the week between now and Saturday. The next time I will see the jets fly now will probably be in the New Year, which in itself feels odd as normally this time in the year we're looking forward to winter training and all the fun and games that go along with that.

It's been another brilliant year - no question about it. From the season opener for the team at Shuttleworth in May right through to yesterday we've had so much fun again. Once again we have people leaving - my friend Nicky has already departed the Squadron having been promoted and posted into a new role. Three of the pilots will be leaving the team when they return from tour - Synchro leader Steve, and Reds 8 & 9 - Stew and Joe. They'll be missed as always when they move on. On the bright side we have a new bunch who will be moving into the coveted "Circus" roles backseating in the jets during next season - including a very good friend's husband so SHE'S over the moon at all the photos she will get of him doing his thing during 2017!

Possibly the best way possible of finishing the season, for us, was this...

...we've waited a while for that. Extra special for having Lingy (Red 10) in there too - and for me also because it's the three of us - me, Claire & Tom - who've done so much and shared so many of the amazing experiences over the past few seasons. It just wouldn't have been quite the same if one of us had missed out. Bloody epic. Smiling may happen for a while yet... ;-)

Robyn

It's started!

Yep, we're flat out into the Airshow season now and once again I've been out and about round the shows watching those whizzy Little Red Jets doing their thing. No big plans this year (2014 was simply to see as many Reds displays as possible in the course of the year, last year was to see them in England, N. Ireland, Scotland & Wales all in the space of the one season) aside from just to get out and about with the gang as much as we can and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. Somewhere along the line there does seem to be a plan to see the boys outside of the UK for the first time (Republic of Ireland, since you asked) and I'm toying with another "display on an Island" too - but that's a work in progress at the moment. ;-)

So far I've done Shuttleworth (sunny, glorious)...

...before our Hebrides holiday interrupted proceedings. Once back it was onto the first Torbay Airshow held in Paignton in June - the weather was mixed but it was a fantastic weekend and the organisers should be rightly proud of themselves. None of the rest of the gang could make it down that far but I had a hilarious weekend with the Reds PR team, regardless. The weekend afterwards saw me make a solo trip down to Folkestone - but a wasted trip also as the weather intervened, the boys were weatherbound at their operating base and unable to get to us. The next day - back with Claire, Tom & Ant and back to Weston-Super-Mare for a day - this one's become a firm favourite of ours over the past few years so this year we decided to try a different viewpoint...

...not the best of days weather-wise again - but that view down on the display made up for that. The following day was Cosford, which once again came with grey skies and rain showers - I'm sure one year we'll get lovely weather for this one but it wasn't to be this year. It's still good though as we get to meet up with some more far-flung members of the gang including Colin, Layna and their gorgeous lad Logan, as well as lovely Aunty Di - it's the social side of the airshows that's as much fun as the flying, in fairness!

The weekend after was the National Armed Forced Day event in Cleethorpes - so Claire, Tom and I piled into Claire's long-suffering Corsa and headed off there - and a thoroughly enjoyable event it was. Although not an "airshow" as such we still got the Reds, Chinook, BBMF and lots of parachutes, and some decent weather to see them all by, also, so we were happy enough with that!

Most recently of all last weekend I joined Anthony for a day at the Yeovilton Air Day - this was one we went to last year but due to a variety of reasons I really didn't enjoy much, but in fairness to it I was well aware it was me, rather than the event itself, hence when Ant asked I said yes to doing it again. I was glad I had too as it felt totally different this year - we arrived earlier and so were able to get a spot at the front (a big deal when, like me, you're 5'1"!) and had a lovely day with THE most fabulously dramatic skies at times...

Next up is Airtattoo at Fairford - three days of wall to wall flying action and more importantly for me, the Reds jets on the ground too so I will be concentrating on my groundshots of the engineers a lot of the time. Look out for the #CircusAtWork hashtag on Twitter (@EssexHebridean) & Instagram (@Robyn_PF) to see those. Looking forward to catching up with a few old friends and getting to know some of the new guys also. We've got the debut of the new F35B fighter there too which will be good - it'll be doing some flypasts with the Reds too which will be good to see.

Robyn