Yorkshire Airshow 2006 (long, many pics)

I've been looking forward to today for ages, yesterday the weather was dreadful but today was perfectly acceptable airshow weather.

Highlight of the day was a formation of 3 spitifre in formation. There were several veteran WWII spitfire pilots there and they flew a salute that was returned by the senior veteran. They also flew the missing man formation (3 planes fly past then one pulls back hard and leaves) to commemorate all those who never came back. It's good to see the RAF still remembers and was rather moving.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...on06/spit2.jpg

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...on06/spit1.jpg

The RAF Falcons parachute display team were also there and as good as always. They set out to prove that anything the Red Arrows can do they can do better.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/falcons.jpg

Elvington has it's own Hunter which is pretty cool.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/hunter1.jpg

Next up is the Douglas Dakota, complete with loadmaster waving from the rear door. Apparently in WWII one Dakota pilot won a VC, something of a rarety for a transport pilot. He made the first run drop of paras and got shot badlyy, the plane was also on fire but he went round for the second run anyway. After dropping the equipment and food for the paras he ordered the rest of the crew out and died when the plane crashed. Incredible.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...n06/dakota.jpg

Recently retired (July) from RAF service we have the Canberra, a great aircraft that's been around for over 50 years.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...6/canberra.jpg

Not to be outdone by the RAF, the Blue Eagles were there for the Army Air Corps. Unfortunately their flying (man these guys can fly) was better than my photography so just a shot of the Lynx from their display.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...on06/lynx1.jpg

Last from the pics we have the Blades. These guys are a new aerobatics team and consist of 3 former Red Arrows pilots and 1 world class aerobatics instructor. They are nothing short of incredible, they fly Extra 300s which are VERY manouverable and as one of them is the test pilot for Extra Aviation they know them pretty well. I've seen a fair few aerobatic teams over the years but these guys are something else. If you ever get the chance to see them I'd advise you to take it, you won't regret it.

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/blades1.jpg

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/blades2.jpg

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/blades5.jpg

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/blades6.jpg

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/blades7.jpg

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...06/blades8.jpg

There was more but my back was killing me by that point so I beat a retreat back to the car. Next time I must remember to take a chair! I missed the simulated bombing run by the Dakota as I had a telephoto on not a wide angle. I can tell you that half a dozen barrels of avgas (avpin? avtur?) exploding makes one HELL of a noise and frightened the life out of everyone, more than one kid curled up on the ground in terror! The noise of several dozen car alarms set off by the explosion was also fairly loud :D

All in all a great day out and I'm glad I went.

I've realised that 300mm is really the minimum lens for an airshow and 500mm would have been nice at times but I think I did ok, all pics were taken with the Sigma 70-300 APO.

Thanks for reading this far and I hope you like the pics, as usual any comments/lessons in photoshoppery are more than welcome.

Incredible photos man

Glad to see the Sigma performed well in those conditions. I have been thinking about going to an air show soon.

I went to the York maize maze today (think this is the same thing), and say some helicopters do some stuff like in your 7th pic. This was from a distance though :p.

Your 2nd pic looks like a little toy plane :D.

Wow - some cracking shots there man. You're getting better with the skies, but then they do say practice make perfect!

top shots :) , should of been going to the show aswell but the weather looked so crap over here that it put us off :(

all i want to say is what camera and what lenses :D

Cheers guys, I was rather pleased with those ones :)

Grey M@a: Nikon D50 with Sigma 70-300 APO for all of them. I hate changing lenses outdoors, too many dust bunnies. Hopefully Santa will do a deal with me on part payment towards the Nikkor 18-200 VR2 which will cover pretty much everything except for extreme telephoto :D

Thing is I am a motorsport nut and you can imagine the frustration I go through trying to get a decent photo of a superbike or touring car winging past with a Fuji3500 zoom :'(

I am basically at croft for anything that involves cars and bikes all year round so after a decent camera and lense so I can get close up shots of the bikes/cars. So how much would a decent setup for motorsport cost me *hides in fear of the wallet running off*

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I am basically at croft for anything that involves cars and bikes all year round so after a decent camera and lense so I can get close up shots of the bikes/cars. So how much would a decent setup for motorsport cost me *hides in fear of the wallet running off*

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Define "Decent", you could spend 10k on a single lens if you really wanted to.

Back in the real world, to get pretty much exactly the same setup (minor difference in the Sigma lens) would cost you £509.99 from Jessops. It's certainly enough to keep me happy and enjoying photography.

For some autograss shots with that lens check out this thread.

Thats the type of thing I'm after. If I could get that on finance I would be well sorted but after the monthly bills and getting to work and back I couldn't afford £500+ there and then :( Will keep me eyes open though :D

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Originally Posted by GDVS

Apparently in WWII one Dakota pilot won a VC, something of a rarety for a transport pilot. He made the first run drop of paras and got shot badlyy, the plane was also on fire but he went round for the second run anyway. After dropping the equipment and food for the paras he ordered the rest of the crew out and died when the plane crashed. Incredible.

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Flt. Lt. David Lord VC.

The incident occurred during attempts to resupply the 1st Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden; the division had been forced off the designated resupply points, and hemmed into a small enclave surrounded by German troops and antiaircraft guns.

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On Tuesday 19th, while on the final approach to the drop zones and only three minutes away from them, heavy anti-aircraft fire tore into the wave of slow moving supply aircraft. Lord's plane received two hits on the starboard wing and the engine on that side burst into flames. At such a low height there was no way to extinguish such a fire, and so the only real option in such a situation would be to abandon the attempt to drop supplies and bail out before the fuel tanks exploded. However Lord refused to do so, and kept flying true and steady to make sure he dropped his supplies on target. With his aircraft clearly in dire trouble, Lord was singled out for attention by most every German anti-aircraft gun in the vicinity. He continued on his path and reached the drop zone. After completing his run, Lord was informed by his calm and highly disciplined crew (three RAF personnel and four Army despatchers) that two canisters of supplies still remained. Lord turned the aircraft around for a second pass over the dropping zone, still under intense fire. When all the supplies were at last dropped, and the aircraft had descended to the perilously low height of only 500 feet, Lord cried to his men "Bail out! Bail out! For God's sake, bail out!", while making absolutely no effort to do so himself. A few seconds later, the starboard wing exploded and the plane crashed in flames into the ground, just north of the Reijers-Camp farm on LZ-S. There was only one survivor, Flying Officer Harry King, who was blown out of the side door when the engine exploded. King himself landed in no man's land between the British and Germans, but he managed to find the 10th Battalion and stayed with them until eventually captured.

The sight of Lord's crippled aircraft was witnessed by troops on the ground, who were so mesmerized by this single plane that they stood up in their trenches to will it on. They were all highly moved, in some cases to tears, by this tremendous display of courage and self sacrifice on their behalf. With flames licking wildly under the fuselage, many men were pleading with the crew to jump, but they would not, and instead the despatchers were seen to be continually throwing out more supply containers until the wing collapsed.

From the point that the engine caught fire to the moment of the crash, Flight Lieutenant Lord flew his Dakota, steadily while under very heavy anti-aircraft fire, for a total of 8 minutes. For his suicidal bravery and single-minded determination to get the supplies to those who needed it, David Lord was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. The great tragedy of this story was that the supply dropping zones had been overrun by German troops. Due to the radio blackout, the RAF knew nothing of this, and so David Lord and his men gave their lives desperately trying to drop cargo that would end up in the hands of the enemy.

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Fantastic photographs there, well done. :)

Wow, great pics.

Any chance of a high-res version of the first one? Would look good as wallpaper (1680x1050 or higher would be sweet :) )

Cheers,
Stephen

Thanks, never been asked for a hi-res one before :)

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...spit2hires.jpg

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Originally Posted by GDVS

Thanks, never been asked for a hi-res one before :)

http://www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk/image...spit2hires.jpg

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Thanks, looks excellent :)

Stephen

looking at the spitfires always makes my heart well up :cry:

my grandfather worked on them during the war..

Yeah, my Grandfather was with 91 Squadron at Biggen Hill during the Battle. Not sure what he did, although he wasn't a pilot. I think he is mentioned in Geoffrey Wellum's book a couple of times.

There's a Spitfire at Filton airfield near me - I love the noise that Rolls Royce Merlin engine makes.

Cheers,
Stephen

Awesome shots. A proper airshow is one of the things I've been meaning to do for years.

Super Pics, may not be technically stunning, but love the Heli pic :)

some nice pics - not bad prop blur - but really need to shoot @ 1/130-1/160 to get a decent circle

i find some shots are over compensated for contrast and others are really lacking..

over all a good set of pics :)

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Originally Posted by Bobster

some nice pics - not bad prop blur - but really need to shoot @ 1/130-1/160 to get a decent circle

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I tried some at that speed but they were all dreadful unfortunately. More practice needed on my part.

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i find some shots are over compensated for contrast and others are really lacking..

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Still not got the hang of this photoshopping, I do have a better copy of the solo spitifre though where I've brought the shadows up so you can see the side.

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over all a good set of pics :)

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Cheers, I was quite pleased with them.