Incoming!

[Stoo]

Anyone see the Aircraft formation for Queenie's birthday bash in London?

Nope?

I did.. Mainly because they were forming up over my house!

So, out came the trusty camera for some piccies for you guys, conditions were frankly, crap, with low cloud and a lot of mist making much

photoshoppery an absolute must..

The UV filter made pretty much no difference at all..

Anyway, on with the pics!



Some sort of military transport?


Private jet?


Looks like it..


AWACS from below..


AWACS from below with no photoshoppery - Hazy much?


Valient! pt1


Valient! pt2


Feed Me!


Dunno what this is


AWACS has found some friends..


So has the big thingy..


Tornados sorting out the formation


Private jet thing has found a couple of f16's and a couple of Harriers


Nimrod and friends


AWACS and friends


Hey, wait for me!


I think we lost him...


There we go.. Red Arrows, Shmed Arrows..

Rough commentary:

It all kicked off about 10am here with the Passenger jet thingy and military transport turning up about 20 minutes apart.
They then appeared to do circuits to the north of here, reappearing in the south every 15 minutes, in a holding pattern waiting for the others to

arrive.

AWACS appeared, then the Nimrod, and all four just circled over in the 15 minute pattern, tightening up the formation.

By now it about about noon, and the Tornados arrived in a rough group, and when the other four arrived thay had a few friends with them.
In another couple of circuits the formation was pretty much there, with the Tornados in their very neat and rather tight diamond formation.
By now it was about 12:40, so it was off to London with them in a quick sprint down the coast for the 1pm fly past, where the Red Arrows and a few

others had obviously met up along the way..


Thoughts: *need* a UV filter that works, and a longer lens than the 300mm IS USM would have been nice..

[Stoo]

oh joy.. looks like my web host just decided to make everything case sensitive... *snarl*

[Stoo]

Coped this from the Creative forum, as I thought you guys might be interested as well

[FatalSaviour]

Very cool Were they flying low Stoo...the detail is really rather good on some of the planes there?

[Stoo]

Yeah, quite low, not as low as they have done in the past, and they weren't directly over-head (other than the AWACS, and that private jet thingy) as they have done in the past either, but I guess the low cloud and mist could have made things tricky.

[yamangman]

The 'big plane' is a VC-10. The 'private jet' is an RAF Tristar. The 'Harriers' are Jaguars. The 'F-16's' are Typhoon.

Oh and the first shot is a C-17 GlobeMaster III, although the RAF probably give it a different name.

[GDVS]

Oh and the first shot is a C-17 GlobeMaster III, although the RAF probably give it a different name.

Nope, still a C17 (from 99Sqn at Brize Norton).

[Skii]

Nice shots Stoo

this is what they use the Tristar for, (they replaced the Victor K.2s)

[yamangman]

Nope, still a C17 (from 99Sqn at Brize Norton).

I meant the globemaster III bit

[Gerrard]

Heh, I wish I saw this thread a couple of weeks ago, could have given you the full low-down on what was going to happen. 49 aircraft in all flew over, with quite a few more pottering around the North Sea where they formed up just in case of problems. Probably had a good proportion of the RAF out there that day! Incidentally, the black jet behind the AWACS and the Jags was a Hawk, which were used to fly around the formations to check up on their progress/status, but didn't take part in the fly past themselves. Also no Hercules or helicopters were used in the fly past due to "operational commitments"...

The C17s are still on loan from the USAF I believe. I think we're purchasing them eventually as we don't have anything ourselves that could replace them. Tristars and VC10s are used as passenger/cargo jets as well as tankers for the RAF. I believe it's only the RAF that still use these types of aircraft, but they will replaced next decade some time. Insulation tape and cable ties can only do soo much...

[GDVS]

The C17s are still on loan from the USAF I believe. I think we're purchasing them eventually as we don't have anything ourselves that could replace them.

On lease from Boeing with option to purchase at the end of the lease (an option the RAF decided to take them up on very quickly they were so happy with them).

Insulation tape and cable ties can only do soo much...

Try telling that to a Hercules mechanic

[dinoprime]

we're still leasing the c-17's at the moment becuase we still haven't got any firm commitment to the airbus a400 transport program even tho we have signed a mou with airbus industries

still tho the c-17 is a damn fine aircraft, not long till farnborough

will probable put some shots up when i get back

[dinoprime]

oh btw way i really do like the new lo-vis grey they are using on their valiants these days!

[=TcQi=]

Great photos. As mentioned before - the level of detail is impressive! Although I wonder how much it cost to put them up in the air hehe

Top stuff!

BTW does anyone know when the Tornado's are due to be replaced by the Eurofighter?

=TcQi=

[GDVS]

BTW does anyone know when the Tornado's are due to be replaced by the Eurofighter?

The OCU is supposed to be ready within the next 12 months, actual retirement of the Tornado will probably take a while.

Dino: I thought the lease was 7 years (expires next year I think) and we were going to be buying them at the end of it?

[Gerrard]

The OCU is supposed to be ready within the next 12 months, actual retirement of the Tornado will probably take a while.

Actually, I think it's been running for about 12 months now. It has its full complement of aircraft (minus the 1 that crashed in January ) and the first operational squadron (3 Sqn) was formed in April. I believe they are supposed to take over QRA (Qucik Reaction Force) sometime next year. From then on I think the Tornado F3's (the fighter version) will be phased out for the Typhoons.

The Tornado GR4's (the bomber version) won't be replaced any time soon, although the Typhoon will gain air-to-ground capabilities by 2010 and will no doubt end up being the workhorse of the RAF by then. Also, despite what the papers keep claiming whenever they write about the Typhoon, it will NOT be going on any carriers; that will be the F35/JSF/JCA/whatever they're calling it this month...

still tho the c-17 is a damn fine aircraft, not long till farnborough

It is indeed...until you see the C-5 Galaxy there!