Rafale!

[gary1701]

Hi gents,

It seems I've spent more time up at Coningsby in the last month than bases that are far more local to me. When word spread that three Armée de l'air Rafale B's had gone into Coningsby on the wednesday afternoon, plans were quickly made for a trip upto Lincolnshire the following day, espically as the word was that they were out again on friday. It turned out they were in for a flypast over London this morning (friday) and a practise was flown late on the thursday afternoon. The photographers were out in force and the first attempt to launch, as Nev has posted was scrubbed after the Rafale's had been running for ages (apparently one of the Typhoon's broke - embarrassing, although hardly a suprise!) but the delay did mean the light was slightly better when they did launch, although many had left by then unfortunately.

Two of the three launched for the flypast, taxiing from the North ASP, joining two Typhoon's from the South HAS sites.

The flypast of BBMF Spitfire PR19, 11 Squadron Typhoon F2 and EC01.007 Rafale B. Centered on Coningsby's tower, it's right on the limit of my lens!

Returning to Coningsby, we hoped for a nice tight formation but the Rafale's had other idea's!

Spit returning;

Further to follow below...

Edited June 19, 2010 by gary1701

[IrishGreek]

Great Pics!! Love the detail shot of the Rafale's tail. Never noticed the weathering/paint two-toning like that before.

[gary1701]

...continuation from above with Rafale's landing. The angle of attack that these things fly when on downwind and final approach is quite a suprise.

Now, strangely you don't get many reheat 'performance' departure's from residents unless it's a practise display, yet all of sudden when you've got guests, everybodies doing it! One of several who pulled into the vertical directly off the runway Lightning style!

A few others of residents and the odd visitor.

Thanks for staying with me. Nev, so sorry that you missed them - I spoke with several people who were leaving after the first attempt and I kept saying hang on, I did really feel they were going to launch. Apparently all three have left as of earlier today.

Gary

Edited June 19, 2010 by gary1701

[GreyGhost]

Fantastic Shots, Gary !

All of them ...

I never noticed the French Roundels were so far forward on the Rafales, interesting ...

Thanks So Much for sharing these Beauties with us ...

Gregg

[HOLMES]

AWESOME.....

[Stratospheremodels]

They should buy these here for the CAF rather than F-35.

Or PAK-FA`s (we can always dream...).

Stephane.

[Julien (UK)]

They should buy these here for the CAF rather than F-35.

Or PAK-FA`s (we can always dream...).

Stephane.

I vote for them for the RAF as well.

Nice pics Gary.

Julien

[Nev]

Thanks for the pics Gary - I knew you would do much more justice to the day than me

Edited June 19, 2010 by Nev

[gary1701]

Thanks Nev, and all and glad that they've gone down well. It's not that often that it comes together as well as that. They've been re-edited with a copyright mark (I thought it was easy to do that, it took me several hours to figure it out!) as I was alerted that they had been hosted and posted somewhere else by somebody.

Gary

[Pirata]

Nice photos! Thanks for posting! I'm planning on doing a Hobbyboss Rafale someday, so these will come in handy.

Since somebody mentioned the CAF, I've always wondered why they used to fly British aircraft and now they fly American aircraft. Just curious.

[markmarples]

cracking Gary

[ST0RM]

Great photos Gary. Those Rafales are really awesome looking aircraft.

-JS

[Aggressor Supporter]

Looks like quite a day! I really like seeing that one with the Eurofighter, Rafale and Spitfire flying in formation.