Commemoration

 This might look like something of a photo dump but I have been trying to find time to sort through my shots from the recent 80th Anniversary Commemorations of the Battle of the Atlantic at Liverpool at the end of May, and now I have done I wanted to share the best of them.

On the day there were flypasts from a small selection of aircraft; an exceptionally rare  Supermarine Seafire, a version of the Spitfire designed for flying from aircraft carriers, a Fairey Swordfish which was a submarine hunter that would fly low and slow before releasing its torpedo ( a tactic that left the crew very vulnerable). My grandad worked on these planes when he was in the Fleet Air Arm during the war. And then of course the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight consisting of a Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane and an Avro Lancaster, always a magical sight to see these legendary aircraft in the sky.

Flying High

 

Over the August Bank Holiday Weekend I was able to enjoy the Air Show at Rhyl and one of the attractions was the ever popular RAF Display Team the Red Arrows. I was lucky because the weather was perfect and the sky almost totally cloudless. The flying display was superb and luckily for me the team got to complete the full display, the following day it was cut short due to a bird strike smashing the cockpit of one of the jets although fortunately no one was hurt and the pilot was able to get back to base with one of his colleagues providing an escort.

I have lots of images of the Red Arrows on the day so narrowing it down to just a few is incredibly difficult. I will share some over the next few days showing different manoeuvres, and while the still image doesn't really do justice to the skill, the drama and the overall spectacle they are still pretty cool.

Given that these are famed as the Red Arrows and the planes are bright red you might wonder why the first image I have included in todays post is black and white. Well the answer is simple I was experimenting, and to me at least the image works really well. By increasing the contrast slightly I have been able to emphasise the speed of the turn and I think it highlights the swirls in the smoke trails to great effect.

The next two images are more traditional colour shots which look great but of the three I think my favourite is the first image. Let me know your thoughts.

An Air Display Just for Me!

 

I waited some time for some action but I was ultimately not disappointed. This pair of Qatari jets took off in formation and flew right above my head, breaking just above the perimeter of the airfield. As they flew overhead I didn't know which one to follow but I got a real buzz as they thundered above me.

Over the next 20 minutes these two did several low level fly pasts before coming back to land and then taxiing past me. More pictures tomorrow so if you like these do come back