The Victory Show, Cosby

The weekend of the 1/2 September saw the annual trek to Cosby for the popular Victory Show. After last year's debacle with the flying display, this year was near perfect with formations of WWII fighters a parachute drop from a C-47 and great weather.

The question of the display line and overflying the golf course and housing etc. had been eloquently resolved with a curved display line rough from the north western end of the field to the southern and south western end. This made for better lighting for photography when the sun was in south east and east.

Here is a selection of pictures that shows the variety of WWII aircraft took part, some seen before, others their first appearance. The most surprising appearance was not an aircraft but a person flying an aircraft. Maurice Hammond who had a crash in his P-51D Mustang Janie made his first flight away from home (Hardwick) after his recovery. He has already sold P-51D Marinell prior to his accident so he arrived in the next best thing, his Harvard "Fools Rush In".

Despite there not being anything large (aspart from the C-47), i.e. Lancaster (scheduled for the Sunday), B-17 of even a B-25 this was a very good show and the new display line a great success for the golfers, the house owners of Littlethorpe as well as the many photographers at the show.

Theo Claassen

29 September 2018

RNAS Yeovilton Photo Shoot

Friday 6 July 2018, a very warm day at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton for the pre-air show photoshoot. the format for which had been changed since me last visit, when we spent all day there from about 09:30 till 20:00, but this time the time slot was much shorter from roughly 11:00 till 15:00 and with the gates opening late I missed the first arrivals, at least from a photography viewpoint. Facilities were unchanged with drinks, food and ice cream on hand and unrestricted access to vehicles.

As in common with a number of air show locations in the UK the display area/runway is to the south of the crowd line making photography that little bit more tricky and adding to that the tremendous heat haze coming up from the concrete images of aircraft on the runway would always be a big haze. The following pictures a roughly in chronological order showing the diversity of visiting aircraft with a very strongly contingency from France in evidence.

Belgian Air Force F-16MLU Fighting Falcon

Lockheed P-3C Orion Bundesmarine

Lockheed C-130J Hercules of the Royal Canadian Armed Forces

NHIndustries NH-90 of the French AeroNavale

Airbus Helicopters AS350B3e Ecureuil operated by QinetiQ 

Dassault Rafale M of the French AeroNavale

Grob 120 operated ed by QinetiQ

Hawker Sea Fury T20 Royal Naval Historic Flight

Westland Wildcat of the Fleet Air Arm

Boeing P-8A Poseidon of the US Navy

Boeing C-17A Globemaster III of the USAF Air Mobility Command

The Royal Jordanian Air Force Falcons

NHIndustries NH-90 of the Royal Netherlands Air Force

Mig-15UTI operating out of North Weald

Mil Mi-17 Hip of the Lithuanian Air Force

Morane Saulnier MS-760 Paris in French AeroNavale colours (privately operated)

Potez Fouga CM175 Zephyr in French AeroNavale colours (privately operated)

The last four pictures of the RCAF McDonnell-Douglas CF-118 Hornet, which gave a great display rivalling the previous Hornet display by the Swiss AF. Also a great colour scheme celebrating 62 years of the RCAF. 

RNAS Yeovilton is always a good day out, be it for the photo shoot on Arrivals Day or the air show itself. It always seems to have a surprise or two up its sleeve.

Theo Claassen
15 July 2018

Lightning Reunion at Bruntingthorpe

On Saturday 23 June 2018 a reunion took place at Bruntingthorpe based Lightning Preservation Group for ex- Lightning aircrew. The weather was kind and there were four Lightnings on show, three belonging to the LPD, the fourth being on temporary loan for the weekend and moving down to Cornwall after the event.

Here are some image from the day, that included cockpit tours of the static Lightning F3, access to the QRA hangar with LPG's two "operational" Lightning F6s and a close look at the "visiting Lightning" that was probably better viewed from a safe distance due to its wings having been but for removal and assembled as best as possible.

The fast taxi run was carried out Jake Jarron and  the last picture contains all four Lightnings.

It was a great day for Lightning enthusiasts and ex-professional alike and for meeting some very interesting people who where all too keen to tell their stories.

Thanks to the LPG for organising such a wonderful event.

Theo Claassen

30 June 2018