The busy aviation week 2013

Frecce Tricilori singleton

It has taken some time, but this blog post is about that period in July that I look forward to every year: the consecutive weekends with the Flying Legends airshow at Duxford, followed by the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford.

I won't put very many pictures in this blog - there are just too many. But I've put sets on Flickr:

Flying Legends on Flickr

RIAT 2013 on Flickr

Mustang Heaven: Miss Velma, Princess Elizabeth and Nooky Booky wait before taking off to participate in the final Balbo at Duxford Flying Legends 2013. 8 overlapping images sticthed into a single panorama. Click for the original size image.

For my taste, some of the biggest draws have been the special imports, such as the P-51C Princess Elizabeth and P-51D Moonbeam McSwine, or the unique formations that have been flown specially, such as the new A380 or A400M with the Red Arrows. And on top of that was my favourite team display of all at Fairford, the Italian Frecce Tricolori.

Princess Elizabeth

Moonbeam McSwine at Duxford Flying Legends

Fairford this year really showed the effects of the continuing economic difficulties throughout the world, with the consequent downsizing of air forces resulting in smaller numbers and less variety of aircraft than previously. The biggest reflection of this derives from the budget problems in the US which have led to the process of sequestration, meaning that no American aircraft from either the US Air Force or Navy have been made available this summer. In the past, we've had big ticket items from them such as B-52, B-1, F-117 or F-22 at Fairford, but not this year.  But a good turnout of fast jets at Fairford made up for that, for the most part.

The Red Arrows fly in formation with a British Airways A380

A400M in formation with the Reds

Polish Mig-29

Rafale goes upstairs

Something I have always done - and I find it a growing interest - is to photograph not just the aircraft but the people at shows as well. It seems to me that there are two subjects at any airshow - the aircraft and the people - and if you put the two together, there are a lot of interesting possibilities.

For example, the Vulcan is a huge draw wherever it goes. While it taxied past during RIAT, people ran to the fence and waved or took pictures using anything that came to hand, including iPads.

The Vulcan and its fans

Serious photographers are always interesting as well. People will stand on anything to get a good view over a fence and grab pictures of aircraft taxiing or taking off.

Photographing the Reds on takeoff

On the other hand, you can't always retain interest. A big Airbus maybe impressive, but it does not always draw spectators attention.

Sometimes a drink is more important than an approaching aircraft

Finally, the Frecce are always hugely appreciated - even the paramedics standing by the taxiway applauded as they rolled in after their display, at least those who were not otherwise engaged with an ice cream.

Frecce slide and flip: composite from a single burst of images

The Frecce singleton climbs past the main formation: composite from a single burst of images

Applauding the Frecce

The busy aviation photography week: Part 3 RIAT

Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet on a fast pass

RIAT is the big one of the year for me: several days of having my ribs rattled by high performance jets screaming over just above my head. I always take far too many pictures, which I never really finish editing. Anyhow, of those I’ve looked at so far, I've posted a gallery of this year's pictures on Flickr. (FWIW pictures from several previous years are still on Pbase).

This year's show was great, in terms of the aircraft and flying. Great variety, with some types (like the Osprey) that I've never previously seen. But the weather this summer has been miserable, with the jetstream stuck in the wrong place, directing cloud, cold and rain at us, and only rarely letting the sun through. Great flying, but grey skies don't make for attractive backgrounds to pictures. I was there from Thursday afternoon to Saturday, as I'll recount below.

Arrivals: Thursday

This year I was able to get there for the Thursday afternoon of the arrivals. Yay - it was hot and sunny! For the Thursday afternoon the weather relented, and I joined Graham (Flickr:nacl1) in the field at the end of the eastern end of the runway.

There was a wonderful selection of aircraft arriving of the sort that you never normally get to see, including some of those truly garish paint schemes that come up each year at RIAT.

The Atlas Arrives

 The A400M is the new military transport, now named Atlas. A huge monster.

Tiger Tornado

 I did like the look of this Tiger Tonka.

Etandard

The skies were starting to cloud over when this Super Etandard Modernisé arrived. Bearing in mind this year's anniversary of the Falklands conflict, this type has a pertinent historic significance.

Al Fursan stack

Black Eagles T-50

Several teams went up for practice, including Al Fursan from UAE and RoKAF Black Eagles. The Black Eagles, in particular, put on an excellent display culminating in drawing a yin-yang sign against the blue sky -- unfortunately I only had the 200-400 mm lens on at that point, and the sign was too big to capture with that lens.

All in all, a glorious afternoon with some wonderful flying.

Practice: Friday

The weather on the Friday was simply and straightforwardly pants. There's not many pictures to show from that day, even though we did get a little bit of flying. I spent most of the day in the car sheltering from driving rain, while the occasional aircraft went up to see if there was room under the cloud base for practice. I was most impressed with the way that the Korean Black Eagles went up to probe the cloud base: they disappeared at about 400 feet, but nevertheless kept looking to try to put on a display, but in the end had to admit defeat. Later, the team captain came on Wings Radio, the RIAT FM radio station, to apologise for the “inconvenience”. We were all slightly gobsmacked about such a wonderfully polite apology, when we thought we should be apologising to them for our ghastly weather.

Bell Boeing MV-22B Osprey of VMM-264

 I did at least get a sighting of the V22 Osprey: I've never seen one before. Most impressive.

Dutch F16 in the gloom

One practice that did get going at least was the Dutch F16. The pilot, Stitch, very bravely went up late in the afternoon to try a practice display. The light was so awful that his burner stood out brightly against the dark grey sky. At one point, he appeared out of the clouds and found himself still heading down at very low altitude: his wings wobbled as he pulled up as hard as he could. For a moment we all thought he was  going to end up in the pond by Rhymes Farm. As I understand it he was immediately given a red card by the controller and had to land. The Dutch team tweeted about it later. In the field, we were all joking about Stitch having to go off and land so he could change his trousers after that.

Display day: Saturday

Arriving for the day, I was worried we will get no flying at all. The cloud was again low and the rain was coming in. However midmorning, the Ospreys started to move and I got some nice vapour pushed down from the rotors. Later on the sky transiently showed some blue stuff, when the clouds got out of the way: not often, but once in a while.

Osprey with vapor

After that displays came up one after the other, although mostly they had to run a low rolling display. The Korean Black Eagles again did a wonderful job, and I hope they come back soon.

Black Eagles Burst. And I haven't desaturated the sky: just increased contrast with an L channel curve. It looks like colour popping, but isn't. The sky really was that grey!

I'll just put up a couple more pictures here to illustrate the changeable nature of the weather.

As a contrast to the previous picture: blue sky greeted the Vulcan

Likewise, the RAF Display Tucano got plenty of the blue stuff

But the grey gloom returned for the Typhoon

It was one of those days when I was quite happy to leave a little earlier than I might have, just to avoid the worst of the mud. RIAT is always a great show every year, but this is now twice in just a few years when the weather has really let us down. In 2008 the weather was so awful and the car parks were reduced to impassable mud that the whole show was cancelled. Nevertheless, three days of enjoyable displays, and types I would never otherwise see.

Roll on next year!