Whilst I was staying at Luton I attended a flying day at Duxford (Photos below) and the summer airshow at Old Warden (Photos in a previous post).
Duxford has some amazing aircraft, but they are always difficult to photograph flying because the flightline is into the sun all day. Here is part of the flight line: L to R P-40F Warhawk, P-36C Hawk, CA-18 Mustang, P-47D Thunderbolt, Casutt Racer and Pitts S-1D
Delayed by bad weather in France, the F-86 Sabre arrived mid-morning, so had no time to practice before the display.
The display was opened by a United States Air Force formation from nearby RAF Lakenheath, An F-15E Eagle accompanied by two F-35A Lightnings.
Next was the Thunderbolt. For a big heavy plane it gave a great display. It was followed by the PBY-5 Catalina and a DC-3 from the Commemorative Air Force in America.
The flying concluded with a display by the F-86 Sabre, a P-51 Mustang and an F-8F Bearcat
The next day I was heading up to Manchester, and went via Halfpenny Green, an airfield I hadn't visited before. A nice suprise was an American registered Cirrus SF-50 jet. In one of the hangars was an Enstrom Helicopter. These are quite uncommon nowadays. Performing flight training was a Varga 2150.
Manchester Airport has two viewing areas, Runway Visitor Park to the north, with a cafe, shelters and some aircraft to look at (Including a Concorde), and an area to the south with no facilities. As the forecast was for showers I chose the visitor park. The forecast was right, but didn't detract from the excelent planes arriving and departing through the day. I saw my first easyJet Airbus A321, a very pretty Juneyao Air Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an Air Transat A321 and a new A321 for Jet2 which had incomplete paint.
The forcast was better the next morning so I headed to the southern viewing area. I hadn't been here before, but everyone i spoke to raved about it. You are really close to the action here, from executive jets to big airliners. The forecast seemed ok, and this PC-24 is looking good, but strengthening winds bought dark clouds and eventually we all got soaked!. I moved back to the shelter, but not before adding a Lufthansa A319, an Etihad Boeing 777, a Polish registered Ryanair Boeing 737 and a Finnair A320 to the list.
The visitor park filled up just before this brightly coloured Emirates Airbus A380 arrived, and emptied just as quickly. Evidently it happens every day! People love to watch this giant plane.
Also seen was a Saudia Dreamliner sporting their 75 years livery, a Royal Jordanian A321, my first Honda Jet, the IndiGo Dreamliner and a Malta Air (Part of Ryanair) Boeing 737.
After visiting Friends in Scotland I headed up to Prestwick Airport. It was the day of Storm Floris, very wet and windy. I lasted a couple of hours, and during that time saw a United States Air Force C-12, a very tatty C-17, an Air China Cargo Boeing 777 and a NEOS Dreamliner.
Next morning I was greeted with sunshine! and the weinds had moderated, so I headed to another new Airport for me, Edinburgh. First in was a United Airlines Boeing 757, then a British Airways ERJ-190 from London City Airport. This Air Canada Dreamliner carries the names of it's Employee Excellence Award winners. this A320 was flown by Iberojet, a Spanish airline I hadn't seen before
More to follow.......
No comments:
Post a Comment