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Pictures Of The Week
Week 48, November 2011
Clockwise from top left:
Taking pride of place this week is a cracking topside shot of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 performing a flypast at the recent 2011 Aviation Nation Airshow at Nellis AFB. In the clear skies over Nevada, the MiG once again faced it's nemesis - the North American F-86 Sabre - as they both flew in formation during the Korean War Era display.
Image © Frank Crebas
Canon EOS 1D MkIV + Canon EF 400mm ƒ2.8 L lensMaking a rare outing outside of its hangar at Cosford for a special photo shoot with a selection of Bristol cars is the unique Bristol 188. Designed as a supersonic research aircraft in the 1950's by the Bristol Aerospace Company, the 'Flaming Pencil' was to be a Mach-2+ testbed to aid in the development of the Avro 730 bomber and reconnaissance aircraft for the Royal Air Force. Making her last flight on 12 January 1964, XF926 now resides at the Royal Air Force Museum at Cosford allowing the public to appreciate her futuristic lines, as captured in this photo.
Image © Peter Reoch
Pentax K20DAnother great capture from Sion, Switzerland. This is a picture of the wingman of a PC-9 flight called "Chuck". He's the only pilot of the Swiss Air Force that still uses the old white-painted Swiss-modified DH-151 Helmet. Photographer Philippe has known Chuck since he was ground crew on 6 Squadron where they both served in the mid eighties.
Image © Philippe Rey
Nikon D300 + Nikkor 300mm ƒ2.8 & Nikkor x 1.4 TeleconverterA glorious image taken during the "Golden Hour" at Michael's homebase of Nörvenich, Germany (JaboG 31 "Boelcke") capturing the last sortie of the day. This is one of six Eurofighters returning from a late mission, on finals for runway 25 during a stunning evening sunset.
Image © Michael Balter
Canon EOS 1D MkIII + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensLooking smart in her Empire Test Pilots School raspberry ripple paint scheme is Lynx AH7 ZD560, nicely captured at the Everleigh Drop Zone on the Salisbury Plain training area. The aircraft is used for a variety of exercises on the rotary wing test pilot and Flight Test Engineer course at ETPS, based at Boscombe Down.
Image © Liam Daniels
Canon EOS 450D + Sigma EX 70-200mm ƒ2.8 lensUsually in aviation photography, favourable weather and aeroplanes don't turn up at the same time but Rich has got lucky with this super rainbow shot of a hovering Royal Navy Lynx HMA8 ZD262 of 815 NAS. With a door mounted .50cal machine gun on the starboard side our intrepid photographer did well to get this close!
Image © Richard Pittman
Return of the 'Pink Pig'. Taken from P&V West at Fairford during Friday arrivals for IAT91 is this historic photo of RAF Tristar ZD951. One of two 216 Squadron Tristars to receive the hastily applied desert pink camouflage for the 1991 Gulf War (the other aircraft was ZD949), the Marshalls Aerospace applied ARTF scheme earnt the two tanker aircraft the nicknames of 'Pinky and Perky'. I'm sure I speak for many on UKAR when I say "more golden oldies please"!
Image © Darren Chant
Nikon 401 + 70-210mm lens
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 47, November 2011
Clockwise from top left:
Conservation in action! After months of preparations and planning, the East Midlands Aeropark finally got their prized asset - a recently retired Nimrod R1 - into the museum grounds from the adjacent Airport. With assistance from the DHL handling team, the aircraft was towed into position at the museum and plans are afoot to open the aircraft up to the public. As a volunteer at the Aeropark, Ben will keep UKAR readers up to date on all the latest with this exhibit, so it's worth keeping an eye on this thread for more than just his excellent photos!
Image © Ben Montgomery
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF-S 10-22mm lensNext up is one from Lakenheath. With a handful of Swedish Gripens over for a week, there have been many threads posted from the Suffolk base recently, but Nigel Blake has excellently captured the resident Eagles as building work at the base provided a rare photo opportunity. Nigel explains that the usual 'last chance' arming area is being resurfaced, so the holding area on the north side of the airfield is being used instead. This has given the opportunity to get some much closer shots of the aircraft with ground crews working on them, which the photographer has used to his benefit with this excellent slow-shutter (20-30 seconds, which makes the sharpness even more impressive!) night shot of an F-15E preparing for takeoff.
Image © Nigel Blake
Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII + Canon EF 600mm L lensSpending a sunny day at St Dizier last week, Chris took this top-notch shot of a Mirage F1CR which came in for a fuel stop as a two-ship, both sporting the new Mont de Marsan 118 codes after their recent transfer from Reims.
Image © Chris Lofting
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 70-200mm ƒ2.8 L lensA very rare visitor to UK skies, this KC767 of the Colombian Air Force was carrying President Juan Manuel Santos to the Civet Nations talks, dropping him off at Heathrow after landing on the airport's 09R runway. A great catch in fine weather.
Image © Rick Ingham
Canon EOS 1100D + Canon EF 300mm ƒ4 L lensEven with the airshow circuit seemingly saturated with aircraft display teams, there surely must be room for one more - especially as one as good looking as this. Chris was at the 2011 Dubai Airshow to capture the first public display by the UAE's 'Al Fursan' (The Knights) since their formation in 2010.
Image © Chris Emmerson
Nikon D7000 + Sigma 50-500mm APO DG lensJust another of the smorgasbord of C-130 variants, the KC-130 Harvest HAWK (Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit) gives 'Albert' an Overwatch capability, as well as the ability to offer ground support fire with an array of air-to-ground weaponry. When Tony took this shot at Camp Dwyer, Helmand, it was the only Harvest HAWK in theatre and already making a big difference to the ground troops it was supporting.
Image © Tony Osborne
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 24-105mm ƒ4 L lensHere Andrezej has superbly caught Vulcan XH558 reflecting the summer sunlight as she performs a sporty wingover after taking off from RAF Fairford's runway on the first day of RIAT 2011 back in July.
Image © Andrzej Pilewski
Nikon D300S + Nikkor 500mm ƒ4 VR lens
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 46, November 2011
Clockwise from top left:
This week's picture of the week has a Lakenheath feel to it. The deployment of Swedish Airforce Gripens has attracted a lot of coverage on UKAR. First up is Robert's wonderful image of an F-15 in the last light of the day.
Image © Robert Starling
UKAR staffer Mike Hall shot this Gripen from the forest entrance at Lakenheath on a rare sunny morning with the 06 runway in use. The Gripen belongs to F21 based at Lulea in Sweden.
Image © Michael Hall
Canon EOS 1D MkIII + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensNow back to the 'home team' at Lakenheath with this perfect image of a spirited departure by a 48th Fighter Wing F-15C Eagle.
Image © Adam Duffield
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensSunset season is well and truly with us and Jonathan made the most of it with this image. It was taken on a normal operational day at Deptford Down in the Salisbury Plain training area, Jonathan says "The Chinook arrived at the strip at about 15:45 after operating on the eastern end of the plain for over an hour, we had it for about 40 minutes conducting various approaches to the strip, the down wash was simply awesome."
Image © Jonathan Coombes
Sony A580 + Sony 70-300mm G SSM lensPhilippe had the intention of capturing some sunset shots of the F-5s at Sion, but has come away with something much rarer. Philippe says "The sun was already far behind the mountains when the F-5s were returning to base. By chance, looking eastwards, I saw the moon just appearing, I just needed to walk 50 meters from my position to be well located to shoot the F-5s on their final paths."
Image © Phillipe Rey
Nikon D300, Nikkor 300mm ƒ2.8 lens + Nikkor 1.4x TeleconverterStuart Freer started attending RIAT at the tender age of 6 and his thread in the 'Golden Oldies section is a tribute the wonderful old aeroplanes that used to frequent this event. IAT91 saw the final appearance of an A-3 at an airshow before the VQ-2 Skywarriors were retired from service, caught arriving in very wet conditions.
Image © Stuart Freer
Finishing off this week's POTW is another image taken from the past. The last public Vulcan scramble at the 1982 Finningley Airshow Fred had the good fortune to photograph them on the Friday press preview in beautiful autumn sunshine, unlike in the following days grey and dismal open day weather.
Image © Fred Martin
Nikon FM, 200mm lens + Kodachrome 64 film
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 45, November 2011
Clockwise from top left:
First up week is this dramatic shot of an HH-60G from the 920th Rescue Wing, Patrick AFB performing a role demonstration during the Cocoa Beach Air show in Florida. The waves and the amount of spray being caused by the downwash of the rotor blades really highlight the dangers of search and rescue missions.
Image © Gill Howie (Squadron Prints Ltd)
Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 100-400mm IS lensWith the fall of the Gadaffi regime in Libya the NATO operation in support of the United Nations formally came to end at 23:59 local time on October 31st. Rob Howard was at RAF Marham to capture the emotional scenes as 9 squadron returned home in their Tornado GR4's to be reunited with their families. Flying Officer Steve Morris is seen being reunited with his dog Jezebel the Spaniel.
Image © Rob Howard
F-15C '84-0010' of the 493rd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath is flying over the North Sea. It was one of six involved in an air-to-air refuelling mission with an KC-135R from the 100th Air Refuelling Wing based at RAF Mildenhall. Dirk Jan de Ridder was able to capture this shot when the pilot kindly posed for a short while after the refuelling was completed.
Image © Dirk Jan de Ridder
Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF 24-105mm ƒ4 L IS lensJason Passmore was lucky enough to be at the Osan Air Base's Air Power Day air show in South Korea. This formation flypast by the A-10Cs of the 25th Fighter Squadron "Assam Draggins" from the base opened the show. The show had brilliant weather for this, the last day of the air show season, in South Korea.
Image © Jason Passmore
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm IS lensChris Milne recently visited the visit to 663 Voluntary Gliding Squadron at RAF Kinloss. The squadron flew their two Vigilant T1s throughout the day. The setting sun provided an excellent opportunity on the taxiway back to the pan. Chris had to get down low to take this photo to make sure the silhouette didn't merge into the background and ruin the impact.
Image © Chris Milne
Nikon D80 + Nikkor 18-105mm VR lensBangladesh Airlines recently reinstated their flights from Manchester to Dhaka and Charles Cunliffe was on hand to capture this night time shot of a Boeing 777 getting ready to depart from Manchester.
Image © Charles Cunliffe
Ian Harding captured this 771 Squadron Sea King MK5 landing on a grassed, raised roundabout literally at the entrance of Lands End, Cornwall amusement area. For training purposes, the crew use this area to undertake what is a Confined Area Landing or CAL in event of emergencies. The landing area was certainly tight. The aircraft was marshalled in by a fully trained member of Lands End staff (trained by 771 SQN) who has performed this task for many years.
Image © Ian Harding
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 24-105mm ƒ4 L IS lens
