duxford air show may 2016 Red Arrows III. (Please enlarge).

Last Sunday I drove to Duxford with a couple of friends. Duxford is an old, small aerodrome and every year they have an air show. I was disappointed when we arrived as the sky was cloudy and the light very flat and if the sun came out, according to the weather forecast, we would be facing directly into it. We decided not to go to the viewing gallery of Duxford and I drove as far as I could, parked the car and we walked along a small country lane opposite the runway for two hours in order to put the sun behind us. On the way we went through several guarded barriers that warned us that once the air show started we could not go back until it finished. We soon realized that the flight director did not want anybody to be under the flight path of any performing aircraft. The reason for this was last year’s accident at the Shoreham air show when a vintage Hawker Hunter crashed onto the A27 killing 11 people. The pilot looped the loop and he entered the loop at 200 feet, he was licensed to do this manoeuvre entering the loop at 500 feet. Three policemen on motorbikes stopped us and they said carry on until the last barrier. That we did and we ended up miles away from the air field and we sat on a grass verge with a very tall grass fence behind us. The sun begun to come out and blue patches of sky appeared. The photos that you see in this session are massive crops as the performing aircraft were too far away.

Thank you for viewing and any comments would be appreciated.

Your efforts are very appreciated and this is remarkably clear to be a heavy crop.  Well done... Mike

Amazing performances Dimitri.

Gear, photographer ... and pilots.

Splendid series. I'm a fan of the "Feccie Tricolori" the Italian aerobatic patrol, may be the best in the world, so I love this kind of shots!

Great story- wonderful image, nice clear and full of action - love it !

The Frecce Tricolori certainly have the biggest aerobatic team in the world. I admire tremendously all the aerobatic teams. It takes a very special kind of guy to fly like that.They must have instantaneous reflexes and apart of the physical qualities that the must possess in order to qualify they practice almost every day like a TEAM. They give us the best example of team work that the is. I have many photographs of the Italian team that you like and I will post some in the future.

 

Thank you very much for your visit and comment my friend.

 

Best regards,

 

Dimitris.

I will tell you another little story, I have a little radio receiver that it is tuned to the aircraft channel that I take with me to the airshows I go. The Red Arrows were flying straight and level and suddenly the voice of the 'Red leader' came over the airwaves ' BREAK', I tell you Tony the reaction of the pilots was faster than fast.....

 

Thank you for your visit and comment my friend.

 

All the best,

 

Dimitris.

You can twick all elements that make a picture but if the picture is not sharp in the first place, you can do nothing about it :-).

 

Thank you for your comment and compliment my friend.

 

All the best,

 

Dimitris.

Sometimes everything seem stacked against you and no matter what you do, you just can't win!  However in the face of the odds your determination prevailed and you managed to get some excellent shots, albeit from a distance! 

I love the explosion of colour as the aircraft burst onto the scene, spreading out in various directions. Very well captured my friend! 

 

Best Regards 

 

Alf 

Thank you my friend. We got there and we thought we must do something. Anything is better than nothing :-).

 

Kind regards,

 

Dimitris.