Category Archives: aircraft

Hats Off to the Chinook Demo Team

The final display of the Cosford air show was the Chinook demo. I have always enjoyed a Chinook display because it is a very agile helicopter despite its size and it can be thrown around which impresses. There is also the wheelie that it can do which has a unique feel to it. However, I wasn’t prepared for just how much I enjoyed the display.

There were a number of elements that made it so good. First, it was at the end of the show, and the light had come around to be more favourable for photos. This could have been even better because a bit of cloud cover rolled in. A little while after the display was over, this cleared and the warm light was so nice. It would have been great to have that on the helicopter during the display. Let’s not focus on the negative though, when there is so much positive.

They started the display carrying in a couple of underslung loads. Showing off the lifting performance of the helicopter is a great way of showing what this capability is all about. They had a howitzer and a truck on lifting lines using two of the three pickup points that the Chinook has. A bit of manoeuvring with that before dropping it off on the airfield. The gun crew then came out and set the gun up. They proceeded to fire off a few blank rounds.

Then it was back to throwing the helicopter around for a bit. A helicopter display always has an advantage in that it can keep things in front of the crowd, and some tight turns certainly achieved that.

However, I haven’t yet highlighted what really made the display great. The commentary was top notch. You might think that a military display narrator is going to run through a staid list of talking points but that was not the case here. Sure, they did highlight the capabilities of the helicopter and the helicopter force as a while but there was so much ridiculousness thrown in to keep you amused throughout.

Whether it was pointing out that one of the crew had both of his friends in attendance or describing the vertical climb and pointing out it has no operational benefit but it does look really cool, the lines kept coming. They were delivered in such a normal way, though, that you needed to pay attention to spot when the serious bits had been superseded by the more flippant lines. Top stuff and hats off to the team. Great flying, great performance and excellent writing!

Floatplanes with Mark

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Let’s jump back in time to when we were still in Washington. My buddy, Mark, had come down from Vancouver to visit a friend and had some time to kill so was stopping off in Kenmore to photograph some floatplane activity. I headed over to join up with him since it is fun to see a friend and there is never a bad time to watch floatplanes.

An extra was that Mark knew a spot that I didn’t – local knowledge, huh?? There is a public dock that is accessible and has benches to make hanging out relaxing. It is a lot quieter than the pier at Log Boom Park which, on a sunny day, can get very busy with the local kids swimming. It also brings you in closer to the approach path of the planes which adds some options for the shots. We hung out for a while with a bunch of the usual sort of traffic coming and going. Then we each had places to go. Having a location like this on your doorstep was definitely a bonus when we lived in Woodinville.

Time to Tank Typhoons Again

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Tanker trips are always a great opportunity if they come up and I had another one a while back. Back to Brize and up in the Voyager. This was a slightly shorter trip than the last one as a result of a planned runway closure at Brize that needed us to be back on the ground. While it was shorter than my previous trip, we did have more trade.

The majority of what we got was Typhoon traffic. It is quite a challenge picking them out as they turn in towards the tanker for the join. Sometimes I spot them but often they are behind us before I know they are there. Isn’t that what a fighter pilot is supposed to always do? Once they appear on the port wing, you get a good look at them before they slip into pre-contact position. The forward fuselage is a good spot to be when they arrive and depart but, once they are on the hose, you can only see them from the last few rows of the aircraft and then it is very tight.

Fortunately, they stay on the basket for a while which means that people get a good chance to have a look and get some images. Picking a side for the light depending on which side of the racetrack we are using is handy, but you can also get a change of light if making the turn at either end. When the planes gather on the starboard side ready to depart, I changed my approach this time. I would kneel on the floor because, when they power up and climb away, they go up fast. You need to be low down to be able to track them heading off.

Who is Holding Who Up?

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The Royal Navy contribution to the RAF Cosford air show was a great combination. They brought a Leonardo Wildcat in partnership with a Fairey Swordfish. This is right up there with the odd combination that I have seen at air shows over the years. A rotary airframe and a fixed wing has happened before but often the fixed wing is really struggling to go slowly enough for the helicopter. In this case, the helicopter has the speed advantage on the Swordfish. It is not a speed demon.

They did a pairs takeoff which was really interesting and then commenced their display with a flypast in tribute to the lost crew from the Merlin crash that had occurred not long before the show. They then carried out a sequence of passes before splitting for individual performances. The Stringbag is a beast of an aircraft, even if it isn’t fast. I got some other shots of it that will probably show up at some point.

Up Close with the Gripen E Pair

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With RIAT having been cancelled for 2026, I find myself looking back at some shots from last year. This was the first time I got to see some Gripen E variants. All of my previous Gripen encounters have been earlier generations of the jet from the prototypes onwards. There was a pair of the jets taking off together at the end of the show. A tight crop on them as they climbed out gave a good look at these new airframes. I do like the Gripen. Nice to see it still finding customers.

RAF Museum Midlands

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A visit to the RAF Museum Midlands was always going to provide a ton of interesting material. Therefore, I won’t even try to squeeze too much into one post. I have already shared images of EAP and some other exhibits may have shown up too but now I shall focus on the museum as a whole. I have made one previous visit to the museum back in the early 2000s. Needless to say, quite a bit has changed since then.

The most obvious change is the addition of a very large building. Not only is this able to accommodate a lot of large aircraft but it is also architecturally interesting too. It is nice that some effort went into making something that looks good in itself. It does allow the collection to have a lot of stuff inside. So much, indeed, that things are rather cramped inside. The large aircraft are right on top of each other. However, they are inside and well protected and that is a big deal. When I came before, much of this stuff was outside and plenty of the airframes from that era did not survive.

The collection includes examples of each of the V Bombers. The Vulcan gets love at a number of locations and Victors are reasonably well represented in preservation, but Valiants are not something you see every day. Having them together is a nice feature. There are a many Cold War types located around them too.

Missiles seem to get a good look in as part of the museum. The Hendon collection also had some interesting missile exhibits, so I guess this is something the museum is keen to cover. You go from something large like a Polaris or a Blue Steel through to an Ikara or Sea Skua. I don’t know whether these are popular exhibits for visitors compared to the planes, but they are as important a part of the preservation story as airframes.

My previous visit had included a lot of time looking at the interesting flight test aircraft. Things like the prone pilot Meteor were there then. There is a hangar of flight test aircraft now and it includes some interesting types. However, I think some of the older ones have gone. Not sure if they are stored locally or have gone elsewhere. It is also possible that I missed them since I was conscious of not missing out on anything happening as part of the show.

When I went to the show, I hadn’t counted on the potential to visit the museum too. In fact, I was disappointed that I would go all the way there and not have time for the museum. The fact it was possible to combine it with the show was a real bonus and I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to check it out. Next time I am up that way, I will plan ahead a bit better!

Summit Skyvans

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When on the ramp at a modern air base, you might not expect to come across a pair of aging turboprop twins. However, on Brize Norton’s ramp, I saw a pair of Shorts Skyvans. They belong to a company called Summit from Canada. I assume they are being used for parachute jump platforms but don’t know for sure. Quite a surprise to see them there.

Strike Eagle Shot I Couldn’t Ignore

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As is often the case, this shot is the result of me looking for something else. While searching through the catalogue to find something, I came across my first visit to the Aviation Nation show at Nellis AFB. I would end up spending a lot of time at Nellis over the years, but this was possibly my first real visit. The USAF F-15E Strike Eagle demo was on the programme, and I had the 500mm on as it took off. By purely good fortune, it rotated at almost the perfect spot for that focal length.

There is a tiny bit of clipping of the airframe, but the dynamism of the shot combined with the favourable lighting means I don’t mind. This then got me thinking of other F-15E demos that occurred around then. On two of them I got the mudhen in an arcing turn at speed with vapour across the airframe. One was in nice light but slightly backlit while the other was in more muted conditions. I figured I would include both of them here so you can compare them yourself.

What a Difference a Bit of Editing Makes

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I will put together a post soon about the Chinook display at RAF Cosford. It was a great display. However, this post is not about that. Instead, it is about editing. Lightroom Classic recently had an update to the masking tools and the subject select process is now way better than it used to be. I used to spend a lot of time refining the selection to get something usable but now the process has become a fair bit quicker as a result of the starting point being more accurate. Not perfect, but better. Anyway, I include a version of the image almost out of camera and then the result when working on the airframe and sky in separate masks. It is a lot more how the thing looked at the time and a significant improvement in my mind.

Some Other Barcelona Movements

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As I may have already written, our return journey from Barcelona was undertaken with plenty of contingency in getting to the flight. Consequently, we had a bit of time to kill waiting for the gate to board our flight. What is a guy to do while waiting at an airport? I guess I will have to just look out of the window. The taxi route from the terminal on the north side of the airport to the southerly departure runway took everything passed us.

Not a lot of variety of angles but a variety of airlines. I think this is the first time I have seen Air Baltic with its A220s. Westjet is not a novelty with a 787-9 having seen plenty and ridden on at least one but seeing them in Spain was new. Transavia planes used to make it to the US when Sun Country would lease them, but I don’t think I have seen them operating for themselves. Add to that Egyptair, Wizzair, Air Arabia and I got some interesting variety.