gary1701

Hi Gents, Never trust the UK weather forecast! The two flying days over Christmas/New Years were the 28th and 29th, and both were forecast to be days of freezing fog here in the South East so I thought that nothing is going to fly in that weather, which was a shame as one of the guys on here was over for Christmas and was planning on visiting the bases yesterday. I didn't go over, partly because of the weather and also because I'd caught the Christmas bug that's going around. I gather yesterday started off okay at Lakenheath so they launched, then recalled them all as the fog rolle

Hi, Interesting read that, especially as I'm one of the guys who photographs from the fence. I remember being on the 24 approach with my trusty old film camera one afternoon during the early 90's when one of these delivery flights was due. It seemed a bit odd to have a flight of four, two F-15I's for Israel and two F-15S's for Saudi in the same flight. If I remember rightly the damn cloud came over and messed the pics up. As usual, they all carried roughly applied USAF insignia. A flight of Saudi F-15SA's went through only a couple of weeks ago and carried USAF 'star and bar'.

Thanks for the kind words gents. One I missed, KC-10 landing on a Sunday afternoon at Mildenhall about a month ago. Gary

Gents, There hasn't been many pics recently due to not getting out, but here's a selection from a couple of weeks ago here in the UK when I spent two days out and about. Actually timed some winter holiday with some bright weather for once. I started off Monday morning with the 48th FW at Lakenheath. I knew they would be coming off towards me as I was in the usual spot at the end of runway 24 and they would be on 06. Unfortunately the old style low banking pics seem to be history as most departures seem to be high now. Real shame as over the years you could get some crac

Thanks guys and Hi John. I hope they're similar, I was standing right beside him when he took them! I was actually down the other end in the unofficial carpark and was about to call it a day and make the three hour trip home when it suddenly dawned on me that the sun was coming out of the bottom of the clouds as the final flight called up inbound. I knew at this time of year it pretty much sets directly on the centreline so I dashed from one end to the other, pulled into the empty layby and saw a small van pulled onto the roadside further up. I dashed up the side of the road (ladder in tow!) t

Hi gents, First post on the new forum so it's a bit of a test for photo attachments. I haven't made many recently because I've not being able to get out with the camera. Did a run yesterday though to take advantage of some nice Autumn light here in the UK. If you want to get some close aviation images then for action there's not really a better place in the UK than RAF Coningsby, home to the Southern half of the UK's Typhoon force. As expected it was a little quiet as one of the frontline units is away and the Evaluation unit is doing it's usual late in the year trip to the US on weapons

Hi Andrew. We're still about, although not so much of me nowadays due to poor work hours and working in the opposite direction. The 'mound' is still in use, the mound of earth that over looks the runway 29 end, in fact I first used it in the mid 80's, I remember shooting tiny prints of SR-71s from there and nothing has changed. The other end is quite good as well, from where the C-17 shots above were taken. Normally anything climbing off that end I would go back a bit from the perimeter fence, and stop beside the road a good fields length back so I'm not underneath. As I did with you many yea

Hi Gents, My camera kit has pretty much fallen into disuse recently but I was able to shoot a sequence over at Mildenhall on Monday evening, a bank holiday here in the UK. The driver is a fellow diecast collector who gave me a heads up about the trip a few days before hand, so we could meet up for a chat. Arrival pictures were terrible due to no light and humidity on the Sunday lunchtime, but departure on Monday evening in some lovely light was worth a trip over specially. Even got a gentle wing waggle as he climbed out. Gar

Hi Gents. Same here! I watched the first trailer with interest and was waiting for this second one to appear and I'm liking what I see. This unashamed Star Wars and Star Trek fan has had to suffer that damn JJ Abrams put his stamp on both franchises. Please, of course I want action and good CGI, but is a coherent script without plot holes the size of the Death Star really too much to ask for? It never used to be beyond film makers. So, I like what I see so far and hope that this 'gritty' take on Star Wars isn't dumbed down before release. Gary

Hi Gents, Around about the 2008/9 mark somebody doing the decals up at RAF Coningsby was having a bad time. Note 3 Sqn's 'QO-Y' has the wrong decal for that side, when compared to the aircraft behind. It flew like that for ages. Then 'QON' missed the '.'. Finally, although I can't find a picture of it at the moment, 'QO-A' flew as 'Q-OA' for a while. Somebody at Coningsby really had it in for 3 Sqn! Gary

Hi, Not sure where these guys are at the moment but they're not at Lakenheath. They went to Leeuwarden for Frisian Flag and have also been to Bulgaria and Estonia. A det has also done the NATO policing role in Iceland. Gary

Hi there, I don't know if you saw my photo post from a couple of weeks ago from the 95th FS deployment to the UK, but from the seven airframes I photographed on the left hand side (from twelve deployed), two (04-4080 and 05-4086) carried either bomb or mission marks that were marked very faintly. I believe some of the other airframes were also marked. I can't be sure that they were Syrian mission markings but can't think what else they would be. Links below if they are of any help. http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=292785 http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php

From above.. That was the morning taken care of. Late afternoon meant a move around to the other side, a area that traditionally makes the security forces rather nervous but for now it doesn't seem to be a problem. Unfortunately the departures were mostly lost due to the F-15s parking directly in front of us on the hold when the F-22s departed, covering everywhere with heat haze. So only managed to recover one departure. By the time they recovered haze and high cloud was becoming a bit of a problem but a few landings caught some light.

next batch... This example looks really patched up. yet more below...

Gents, for some reason I can't post anymore on the other thread so here's another carrying on. And another close up shows, Can't remember if they're '22s or '15s but see the two ship coming in from point 'Charlie' crossing the field for the downwind as the 48th Ops bird lands. One of the 'Grim Reapers' victory marked jets was up. same drill as before...

...from above That's everybody up from the morning wave, now recoveries. As I mentioned on the other post a couple of these jets appear to carry some form of mission mark on their nose. I'm guessing it's from a Middle Eastern deployment as I believe the F-22s have been involved over Syria. It's very hard to see so have blown a couple up. Close up of the nose. Gents, apparently I can't put anymore in this thread so will start ano

...from above The next pair were surprisingly carrying external tanks. more below...

Hi again Gents, After a marathon editing section I've finally completed a decent selection of images to follow the quick post from Thursday evening. It's easy snapping them on a 8 frames-per-second camera when in the field but not so funny when you have to sort through 100's of images! I shouldn't complain though as you rarely get a chance to shoot under these circumstances and a few weeks ago when I screwed up photographing one of the four ship flights arriving I was pretty fed up with aviation photography in general. Things change quickly as originally I doubted I was going to be

Thanks gents. I'm still working through the images as time has been a little short late this week and it's a massive task to select and edit probably 50ish pics from over 1500. One thing I have just noticed and will show on the next post is that their appears to be mission markings on the nose of a couple of these jets. The contrast is so low that it's very difficult to see and is only visible when the light strikes them at a certain angle. I'm not sure as to be honest I'm not really that familiar with F-22's. I wonder was the 95th FS deployed to the Middle East recently? Hopefully have someth

Gents, This is a quick rough and ready teaser post of todays trip over to Lakenheath to photograph what was probably the final flying day of the Tyndall F-22 detachment that has been here for about three weeks, flying locally here in the UK, and also into Europe with a flypast in France and also a quick day visit to Romania. I will put a far larger post up in the next day or so once I've sorted and edited the best of over 1500 images shot today! I thought a quick preview was in order as I'm quite pleased to finally get them as it looked like I was going to miss them entirely due to work.

Hi again, Here's a couple that have been scanned from prints, although they have been on here before. I'm not sure how my scanner/printer combo compares to some of the modern equipment but it seems reasonable considering the source is small 6' by 4' (got the size on the previous post wrong) prints from the mid 1980's. Gary

Hi Gents, Thanks again for the kind words. It looks like every photographer in the UK has been over to Lakenheath to get some F-22 shots in the last fortnight except me. Rumour is they're here for maybe another fortnight so there is still a outside chance I might get another chance. Sorry, but much to my regret in the old days I never did slides. As a kid I shot loads of RAF F-4 pics at the nearby base of Wattisham but only kept little 5' by 7' prints as I didn't have projection equipment. I really regret it now as other guys have slides that they can now digitize to a good quality and I nev

Gents, The results of todays trip over. Some rare stuff around at the moment but mostly a day of missed chances and shots not coming off. Also, I think I'm really out of practise nowadays as I made so many elementary mistakes (forgetting to check memory cards have space, getting fencing in the shots from a ladder...etc...etc) I got rather disillusioned by the end of the day. Anyway, to start with. HMX-1 are back again in readiness for the US Presidents visit this coming week. The three MV-22s are parked so they can be viewed from the outside but at some distance which brings up heat haze. An

Hi, Nice. I remember my 2012 trip to Leeuwarden for Frisian Flag. Looks like you were at the Western end of the field? I don't know if it's changed now but I always remember that corner as being the only active military airfield I've visited that has a high security fence that just stops...allowing you to walk around it onto the runway if you were that daft! Gary

Thanks Gents. I had a go at recovering a couple of the other images I took in the fog earlier on. The first is one of the two base MC-130J's that were doing circuits when the tower would let them due to the visibility. The second was the first ever C-5M I have seen and if only he'd come in a few minutes later the sun would have burst through the clouds briefly. I knew from ATC comms there was a 'Reach' flight inbound but expected to see a stateside KC-135, maybe a C-17 appear out of the gloom so was very surprised when I saw a C-5 suddenly come out of the clag, a C-5M as well. You don't see th