2009 Blog Entries

Sywell - The Blades Workup With Sammy on Easter holidays from school and the weather being pretty good, we decided we'd head over to Sywell for an hour or so to see what was going on.

The "Big Stick" Visits Portsmouth Much to the delight of the UK aviation enthusiast fraternity, nuclear powered US Navy aircraft carrier, CVN-71 "USS Theodore Roosevelt" docked in Stokes Bay, Portsmouth, on its return journey to the US after a six-month operational tour in the Persian Gulf. I took a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) ride out of Portsmouth for a look.

Tangmere Military Aviation Museum Located at the site of the former RAF Tangmere, Tangmere Military Aviation Museum was founded in 1982. The rich history of the airfield began in 1916 and in the ensuing years it served as one of Britain's frontline fighter bases of World War II, and latterly acted as the home of the world speed record breaking aircraft of the High Speed Flight.

Bwlch Exit - LFA7 Geoff Hibbert and myself elected to spend the day in Wales yesterday with the promise of crystal clear skies all day. As is always the case with these things, that's not quite how it worked out.

RAF Northolt - "Nightshoot II" Having been in the States for the first of Phil Dawe's Northolt Nightshoots, I simply had to be around for the second one, especially so since it was billed as being a dedicated helicopter event.

London-Heathrow With Northolt's "Nightshoot II" taking place in the evening, it seemed sensible to spend the day at Heathrow, especially so given the easterly wind. It was my first opportunity to try out shooting topside departure shots of the heavies, and despite the haze I managed to get a few salvageable images.

RAF Cottesmore With a couple of squadrons back at home I thought it was about time I took a trip to my former second home - the 22 end at RAF Cottesmore. As it turned out it was a lot quieter than I'd hoped, but I think what I came away with would have to go down as being some of my sharpest Harrier shots to date.

RAF Lakenheath Once again the promise of clear blue skies and the potential for (albeit light) easterly winds tempted me to Lakenheath in search of those elusive topside '06 departures. Aside from the fact that the wind was so light that 24 was still used, the omnipresent "'Heath Haze" also played havoc.

RAF Holbeach Having wasted a morning at RAF Marham (where gliders and GA soared) word reached me that a few items were booked into Holbeach during the afternoon, so with nothing better to do, that's where I headed.

Cad West When my friend Morley Lester announced this date as being the last opportunity he'd get to go out for a while, thanks to the impending arrival of twins, Geoff and I just had to join him.

Coolidge, AZ, USA - a visit to International Air Response The last stop on our journey back towards Phoenix, and ultimately home was at the well out of the way airfield at Coolidge. After the Sat-Nav had taken us across some of the most scarcely used tracks anywhere in the world, we finally arrived at the airfield and were made extremely welcome by the guys at IAR.

Marana Regional (Avra Valley), AZ, USA - a visit to ATW AViation Following our visit to the airfield two days early when we undertook our AMARG and Pinal Air Park overflights, a follow-up visit occurred on our way back to Phoenix when we had an appointment with ATW Aviation, who specialise in military type and aerobatics aircraft maintenance and restoration.

AMARG - Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA - along the fence at sunrise and a repeat of Pima Air & Space Museum bus tour Driving back to our hotel last night we felt that we'd somehow missed a trick by not shooting the items in AMARG down East Escalante Rd, which, unlike the ones we were shooting then didn't have a big bank of earth in front of them! The only opportunity available to us was a sunrise shoot the next morning.

AMARG - Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA - along the fenceline at sunset Our AMARG association continued after we'd shot some DM arrivals from the other end. With the prospect of a genuine sunset for the first time in our three evenings in the area it would've been rude not to have taken advantage of it, so we drove down E Irvington Rd and bagged some shots of the C-141s, F-111s, A-6s and P-3s.

Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA With the AZ ANG Vipers at Tucson ceasing their flying activities at 1500, we took the opportunity to head back to DM for an hour, before hitting the fenceline at AMARG.

Tucson IAP, AZ, USA Having missed the first wave of departures we happened to find ourselves in exactly the right spot for the recoveries. Electing to shoot topside turning in shots we took a chance on one of the residential areas a little way from the airfield itself. Naturally some aircraft were further away from us than others, but I think we were all more than happy to settle for what we got.

Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA Upon arrival in the States, the provisional plan had been to spend this day at Tucson IAP, however, having spoken to Jason Hyatt Mesa-Gateway, we were informed that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the main arrival days for AMARG, so we elected to switch the two over. As it turned out this worked out perfectly as the runways at each respective base were 'wrong' on the days we had planned to be at them.

Marana-Pinal Air Park, AZ, USA - from above Pinal is the civillian equivalent of AMARG, the place where commercial aircraft go for storage at the end of their careers with various airlines while they await their long-term fate, be that a return to action with someone else, or scrapping.

AMARG - Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA - Overflight This day had been one of the ones that I'd looked forward to most on the whole trip. Once airborne from Avra Valley we headed straight for Tucson and more specifically Davis-Monthan AFB, home of the 309th AMARG.

Marana Regional (Avra Valley), AZ, USA - flight, ramps and visit to Fighting Classics We arrived at Avra Valley, or more correctly "Marana-Regional" as it's now officially known before 0700 for our AMARG and Pinal Air Park overflights. We were flying with the good folks of Tucson Aeroservice Center and we had two Cessna 172s at our disposal.

Tucson Scrapyards, AZ, USA With the sun disappearing behind a big bank of cloud for what was left of daylight, we decided to use the remaining time to tour some of the Tucson Scrapyards and shoot some of their inmates over the fence. Despite the lack of sun the colours in the sky were rather lovely.

Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA After finishing at Pima we grabbed a mid-afternoon snack before heading down to the DM approach. Temporarily resident were the F-16s of the 162nd FS, 178th FW, OH ANG on Operation Snowbird.

AMARG - Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, USA Currently the only way to see the 309th Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group (AMARG) from the inside is to pay the $7 per head and take the Pima Air & Space Museum bus tour. If nothing else it gives you a chance to start to appreciate the enormity of the facility and marvel at the sheer numbers of aircraft present. According to our guide that figure currently totals more than 4400!

Pima Air & Space Museum, AZ, USA Our first morning in Tucson was spent at the incredible Pima Air & Space Museum, a collection totalling more than 270 aircraft. On top of that, conditions were stunning!

Phoenix-Goodyear, AZ, USA While no commercial airlines currently operate scheduled services from the site, there is always a large number of airliners present. Aero Turbine Inc operates a maintenance, storage and disposal facility on the airfield with many types (predominantly 737s) currently stored on the northside of the airfield. It was these that prompted our visit.

Phoenix-Sky Harbor, AZ, USA Our second morning at Sky Harbor was spent at the other end of the runway, down by Cutter Aviation's FBO. It was good for on the ground shots as well as landers, and then after the runway change it also provided some nice departures.

Mesa-Williams Gateway, AZ, USA After a decent morning at Sky Harbor we returned to Gateway for the afternoon, where we were treated to four VMA-513 "Nightmares" AV-8Bs from MCAS Yuma.

Phoenix-Sky Harbor, AZ, USA Armed with some tips on where to take pictures from at Sky Harbor we headed down to Cutter Aviation, where we'd heard there was a balcony looking out onto the apron. We were informed it'd been closed, so we moved on to the next spot on the list - some elevated wasteland off 40th Street.

Mesa-Williams Gateway, AZ, USA Having had the most bizarre of coincidences at breakfast, whereby Jason Hyatt happened to be seated at the table next to us, we'd been informed that Sundays were no longer the best day at Gateway, we consequently decided to shift our schedule around a bit and spend this afternoon there instead.

Mesa-Falcon Field, AZ, USA Our first morning in Phoenix was rather grey and was spent at the very interesting airport of Mesa-Falcon Field. Aside from a bristling GA community, Falcon Field is also home to a branch of the Commemorative Air Force and several other interesting operators.

MCAS Yuma, AZ, USA With the sand having kicked up at NAF El Centro our decision to leave for an hour at MCAS Yuma on the way back to Phoenix was made all the easier. We ended up having a very good hour here as the sun went down.

NAF El Centro, CA, USA As per the forecast, Thursday dawned pretty grey. By the time we arrived at the airfield the Blues were already airborne and VFA-122 Hornets were already recovering. The T-45s from both units were just springing into life too.

NAF El Centro, CA, USA The plan of action for our second full day of the trip had been clear. Get up, eat breakfast, head to MCAS Yuma, spend the day there and then drive on to our overnight stop-off point in El Centro.

MCAS Yuma, CA, USA By the time we arrived in Yuma it was fairly late in the day. We familiarised ourselves with the layout of the airfield and then found somewhere to watch. Needless to say nothing happened while we were sat there, then when we did decide to move two AV-8s appeared in the circuit...

Gila Bend, AZ, USA The road that runs from Phoenix to Yuma runs right part a pair of F-101 Voodoos, preserved outside the gates to the airport (not the Auxiliary Air Field). We had planned to shoot them that night as we made our way to Yuma, but obviously our plans had changed somewhat!

Buckeye, AZ, USA Driving down the road to the airport we could see this lovely Avenger (N7001C) sharing a sun-shelter with an equally lovely Texan (N8151). A gentleman working in the hangar adjoining gave us permission to take some pictures.

Luke AFB, AZ, USA The first morning of our Arizonan adventure dawned on the ourskirts of Phoenix. It was a new dawn for America too, with the inauguration ceremony for President Barack Obama taking place that morning.