Outside the Wire 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.