A little while ago, I posted some images of the Indian Air Force Rafales that transited through JBLM on their way to Alaska. They didn’t come alone, though. They had some support aircraft with them including some tanking resources. I’ve seen the occasional IL-78 in the past, so this wasn’t a first for me, but they are still a relatively rare occurrence so catching this was a nice result and the light showed up enough to make the images a bit nicer.
The introduction of the Kingfisher to Canadian Air Force service has been a bit drawn out and is not yet complete. This version of the Airbus C295 has some customization which has yet to be fully worked out. However, there are a number of the aircraft delivered including at Comox AFB on Vancouver Island. For the air show, there was one on the ramp and another was up and flying in the morning. It was not performing a demo, but it flew a lot of patterns before the show got underway. Therefore, I had my first exposure to a flying Kingfisher. They should be a more regular sight in the Pacific Northwest in due course.
The US military operates a bunch of Gulfstream jets for transportation of key individuals. One afternoon, I was at BFI and there was a C-37 from the USAF sitting on the ramp. It had the powder blue livery common across the USAF VIP fleet. I was hoping to see it takeoff, but it was not moving while I was there. A little while later, it was joined by a second example. This one was a lot less conspicuous. It had no livery and no obvious markings at all. The USAF has been toning down its planes recently and this was definitely in that style. The lack of a registration might have told you that it wasn’t a civilian Gulfstream but the bigger giveaway would be the array of antennae that were on the fuselage. This clearly could communicate with more than the average bizjet.
The Abbotsford Air Show was also apparently an event that the Aviation Photocrew from Europe had made the trek for. They had arranged for a variety of photo flights associated with the show and involving some of the performers. I didn’t know that this had been set up but, when we saw the Skyvan flying overhead with planes formating on it, we knew what was happening and my friend Mark told me that the same folks were running things. I hope that they got some good shots.
I was working through some shots from my last trip to RIAT in 2019. Amazingly enough, I hadn’t finished editing some of the shots from that visit and I wanted to get rid of a lot of surplus shots to help the old hard drive space issues! As I was working through them, I got to some shots of the A400M displays I saw over the course of the weekend. I think the A400M is a cracking looking jet. Whether it is doing what everyone wanted of it, I have no idea. I just know it looks great and is capable of some really impressive demos.
For some reason, I had been feeling very brave during RIAT when it came to shooting some of the props. I had gone with quite low shutter speeds with long lenses and the results were not necessarily all I would have wanted. There were always going to be blurry shots to get culled, but the number of sharp ones was a little lower than I would have liked. However, all was not a total loss, and I did get a bunch of shots that I was happy with.
Here is a selection of shots from across the show including the official displays by the Airbus test crew and some of the operator aircraft too. The weather for RIAT 2019 was not that great. We did get some nice light occasionally but one of the days was very wet (and I was feeling crappy too) and the others were overcast a lot of the time. Not the most exciting light for a grey painted plane but they had the potential for prop vortices. Will I have big prints of these on the wall? No, I don’t think so. However, it was okay and there will be other times, I hope.
Japan is one of the few countries to order the KC-46 Pegasus tankers for its Air Force. Their initial four jets have been coming through the production line at Everett and I had seen the occasional one when it was on the ground being prepared. However, I had never seen one fly. I finally broke that duck a while back. I was at Everett not only for the departure but the return of a Japanese jet. I thought I was going to miss it taking off because it was lined up when I was getting close to the airfield.
Fortunately, it was doing a high-speed taxi first and then backtracked for the real departure by which time I had arrived. The return was a lot more relaxed from my point of view and I was pleased to finally get one airborne. I doubt I shall have many opportunities to see them once they are delivered.
I could easily have missed this, but my friend messaged me that a Herc was coming in. I was working on some other stuff and would have been unaware until too late. It was not where I was, and I wasn’t moving but the roll out and taxiing back was in lovely light so I wasn’t missing out. They taxied to the terminal and kept the engines running so I wondered if they were going straight back out but it wasn’t to be. They then taxied to a parking spot and shut down. Maybe they were clearing customs? Apparently they stayed for the night but were gone when I came by the following day.
The air show at Abbotsford has the conspicuous backdrop of Mt Baker. For the evening show, the light was really nice on the mountain and I think I have already posted about that. Some of the display aircraft would make turns in front of the mountain. Most are too small to be obvious in a shot but something the size of a C-17 Globemaster is going to show up. The USAF Moose was one of the display and here it is as it reverses course back towards the airfield.
I have had various encounters with the C-130s of Lynden Air Cargo over the years, but they have usually been a relatively normal side on type of shot. I saw one of the aircraft had gone into Paine Field and I was fortunate that the departure was scheduled for a weekend day when I could get up there. I decided at the last minute to make the trip up and, as I pulled up at my preferred location, a quick check of the phone showed the aircraft was already at the hold.
I got set up as rapidly as I could and then they were rolling. The advantage of this location is that the plane will have rotated and is climbing out towards me. The Herc is able to get out of short strips just fine, but it isn’t climbing too rapidly so I knew I should get something different to what I have taken before. I quite liked the front quarter shot but the others were fine too. I was then back in the car and home in a short time. It was almost like I hadn’t been away, but I had got the result I wanted.
Our flight from the Maasai Mara back to Nairobi took us in to Wilson Airport. This is not the main international airport but a smaller domestic airport that is closer to the center of the city. No terminals and jet bridges here. We disembarked from our Dash 8 on the ramp and walked to the building to get out of the airport. The ramp was packed with all sorts of aircraft. One caught my eye immediately as it looked unfamiliar to me.
The marking showed it belong to the Republic of Djibouti’s Air Force which only served to increase my level of interest. It wasn’t something I had seen before so I had to look up the type. It is a Harbin Y-12 which is a Chinese designed and manufactured aircraft. That was quite a turn up for me. Not sure how happy anyone would be about me getting photos on the ramp but no one seemed bothered at the time.