Archived Photography – 2011

Archived Photography from 2011 featuring the retirement of the RAF Dominie, Ex PASHTUN DAGGER and photos from the Mach Loop.

Ex PASHTUN DAWN

9th August 2011

Ex PASHTUN DAWN, a Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRX), began on the 24th July 2011 and will be made up of three 9 day Field Training Exercises (FTX 1, 2 and 3). The MRX is supported by Merlin, Sea King (Royal Marines), Puma, Lynx (Army), Apache and Chinook helicopters from the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) under Ex PASHTUN JAGUAR.

The PASHTUN exercises are brigade sized pre Afghanistan training for troops that will deploy a month after completing the training………..

Read the full article: Ex PASHTUN DAWN

Mach Loop

14th July 2011

Whilst just about every other photographer in the UK went to RAF Fairford to shoot the arrivals and practice for RIAT 2011 I decided to head to the Mach Loop instead. I was overdue a return, the forecast was good and who knows I might get some traffic due for RIAT.

The day didn’t deliver much in the way of aircraft and absolutely no Hawks at all (a rare occurance!) but I did get a Beechcraft T-6C as compensation but the main event of the day was the two Tornados, especially…………

Read the full article: Mach Loop 14th July 2011

Yeovilton Air Day 2011

9th July 2011

The RNAS Yeovilton Air Day isn’t an air show I usually attend. With a date sat between Waddington and RIAT I’ve always opted to take a break the weekend it is on but this year the line up was too good to miss. The announcement that the French Navy were proving a Rafale and Super Etendard for a role demo had caught my attention and I was starting to look into attending when the Polish MiG 29 was added to the flying programme. That was it decided! It had been far too long since we had Russian fast jets on a flying programme…………

Read the full article: Yeovilton Air Day 2011

Waddington Air Show 2011

2nd July 2011

After the poor weather in early June that caused me to cancel my plans to attend the RAF Cosford Air Show I finally started my air show season with the RAF Waddington Air Show. This year’s show was the first year with Paul Sall in charge. The retired Squadron Leader takes over the role of Air Show Director from Colin Reeves and he has a tough act to follow after the success of the 2010 show where Colin Reeves had managed to respond to the criticisms aimed at the 2009 show by producing a very enjoyable line up both in the air and with almost 120 aircraft on the static line…………

Read the full article: Waddington Air Show 2011

Nimrod R1 Retirement

28th June 2011

On Tuesday 28^th June 2011 for the last time a Nimrod R1 landed at RAF Waddington. The dedicated airborne signal intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft has been withdrawn from service after a small extension to the planned out of service date of 31^st May 2011. Unlike the Harrier and Dominie the Nimrod R1 was not a victim of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). The out of service date was decided back in 2008 under Project Helix which aimed to make an assessment of whether the Nimrod R1 fleet…………

Read the full article: Nimrod R1 Retirement

RAF Leeming RTP

14th June 2011

Since the Tornado F3 shares a lot of common components with the Tornado GR4 that is still in service the F3s are undergoing spares recovery. This is where they strip the aircraft and remove the parts that are in high demand by the GR4 fleet. This is phase 1 of the process. BAE Systems have been contracted for this and are producing between 800 and 1200 parts per airframe. BAE have added a phase 2 where they recover further parts that they believe would be useful as spares. This has been done at their risk and the RAF is currently looking at the lifespan and demand of…………

Read the full article: RAF Leeming RTP

RAF Coningsby – 03/06/11

3rd June 2011

A visit to RAF Coningsby to catch up with the Typhoons and hopefully catch the 41(R) Sqn Tornado GR4 special tail painted for their 95th anniversary. I got lucky when the second flight of the day was the 41(R) Sqn special tail departing as RAFAIR 7008 to Letecký Den (Airshow). It returned 18 minutes later with a problem and the aircrew swapped over to another 41(R) Squadron Tornado GR4 (ZA611) and departed succesfully. I also caught Typhoon ZJ947 marked up in 6 Sqn markings and wearing EI as its tail code………..

Read the full article: RAF Coningsby – 03/06/11

Vulcan Photo Call

28th May 2011

With the Vulcan making a return to Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome for its first appearance at a Cold War Jet Open Day since it returned to the sky a photo call was setup with some of the other British classic aircraft from the Cold War Jet collection and other lodger teams. The Vulcan had taken off from its new home at Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) and performed a display at Southend before heading to Bruntingthorpe. With Martin Withers at the controls the Vulcan was kept low and popped up over the tree line at the last minute………

Read the full article: Vulcan Photo Call

Jaguars At RAF Cranwell

23th May 2011

A return visit to DCAE Cranwell to catch the last operating Jaguars in the RAF being was meant to give me another attempt to shoot them against blue skies after the mixed weather of my previous visit in August last year. Sadly the weather was worse! Thick cloud cover and a wind that was over 40 knots greeted me when I arrived. This was the final week of the Aerosystems (AS) training course for RAF Engineering Officers and there was due to be a number of simulated sorties. The first sortie of three Jaguars got………

Read the full article: Jaguars At RAF Cranwell

USMC HMX-1 Support Obama

20th May 2011

Ahead of President Obama making his State Visit to the UK the US Marine Corps’ Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1) arrive at RAF Mildenhall (a USAF base located in Suffolk). HMX-1 are tasked with providing helicopter transport for the President, Secret Service, Whitehouse staffers and VIPs. They do this using either the VH-3D or VH-60 helicopters to transport the President and the CH-47 Sea Knight to transport cargo, security personnel of VIPs (only the President travels on the VH-3D or VH-60, this rule…….

Read the full article: USMC HMX-1 support Obama

Vulcan XH558

2nd May 2011

With Vulcan XH558 now a lot closer to me than when it was at RAF Lyneham I decided to pay it a visit this Bank Holiday weekend and take advantage of the temporary viewing area that had been setup.

The aircraft was moved from RAF Lyneham (which is closing) to Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, to give it its full title. Robin Hood Airport is not a stranger to the Vulcan as the airport is built on the former site of RAF Finningley which operated the Vulcan and XH558 itself was based…….

Read the full article: Vulcan XH558

RAF Mildenhall – Osprey Hunting

18th Apr 2011

Another trip to RAF Mildenhall in an attempt to catch the USAF CV-22B Ospreys that had deployed there. The four are pictured above and that’s how they stayed all day so I spent the day shooting some of the local assests.

The Special Operations Squadron were flying again with the MC-130H Combat Talon II on the left hand side and the MC-130P Combat Shadow on the right hand side. At first glance they look similar but they are different and…….

Read the full article: RAF Mildenhall – Osprey Hunting

USAF SOG AC-130s and MC-130s

24th Mar 2011

The USAF Special Operations Group (SOG) have been busy of late and my visit to RAF Mildenhall (USAF base in the UK that hosts the 352nd Special Operations Group) demonstrated that well with two AC-130U Spooky gunships in along with two MC-130H Combat Talon II Hercules. Both AC-130Us departed under the call sign SOAP Four One to nearby RAF Lakenheath (another USAF base in the UK) possibly to arm the aircraft. The AC-130 is in high demand in Afghanistan due to its long loiter time and the almost unbelievable firepower it can provide to troops on the ground…….

Read the full article: USAF SOG AC-130s and MC-130s

The Mach Loop

7th Mar 2011

My first trip out to the Mach Loop wasn’t what I expected but then with an exercise in the Tactical Training Area (TTA) and the recent cut to students from 208(R) and 19(R) Squadrons I wasn’t expecting a busy day. I had gone to open my low level account for 2011 and with hopes of catching something a little rarer in the Loop, like a Chinook HC3. The Met Office had forecast that there would be light fog in the morning that would clear by 9am on the Saturday before and then upgrading that to no hill fog at all when I checked again on the Sunday. Of course, they were wrong…….

Read the full article: The Mach Loop

JHC’s pre-Afghan deployment exercise on the SPTA

28th Jan 2011

Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) started a Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRX) on 24th January 2011 to support 3 Commando Brigade Battle Group’s final Field Training Exercise (FTX) for their deployment to Afghanistan as part of Op HERRICK 14 in March.

Six thousand troops will take part in the 3 Commando Brigade Battle Group under Exercise PASHTUN DAGGER with the support exercise from JHC featuring 17 helicopters and 437 personnel from all three……..

Read the full article: PASHTUN JAGUAR

RAF Dominie Retirement

20th Jan 2011

The end of 2010 saw the retirement of a long serving aircraft for the RAF as part of the restructuring of the armed forces under the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). The aircraft of course was the Harrier. With the arrival of a new year another long serving RAF aircraft is retired. The Dominie T1 flew its last operational flight on Thursday 20^th January 2011 from RAF Cranwell.

Both the Harrier and Dominie were British designed aircraft……..

Read the full article: RAF Dominie Retirement