• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Anyone else like Birds AND planes? (2 Viewers)

I've just realised I haven't supplied the promised photo-reports on RIAT and Flying Legends (it has been a busy summer!)

So here they come. RIAT first: ominous clouds during the morning gradually becoming white and fluffy and clearing during the display.

Danish F-16A in the static
B-52H Stratofortress showing some hard miles
Belgian F-16A D-Day commemoration
Belgian F-16A "Vador" - solo display aircraft
Patrouille de France in their Alpha Jets.
 

Attachments

  • 20190720 (19)_E-191_General_Dynamics_F-16A_Fighting_Falcon.JPG
    20190720 (19)_E-191_General_Dynamics_F-16A_Fighting_Falcon.JPG
    248.3 KB · Views: 33
  • 20190720 (58)_60048_Boeing_B-52H_Stratofortress.JPG
    20190720 (58)_60048_Boeing_B-52H_Stratofortress.JPG
    168.7 KB · Views: 42
  • 20190720 (66)_FA124_General_Dynamics_F-16A_Fighting_Falcon.JPG
    20190720 (66)_FA124_General_Dynamics_F-16A_Fighting_Falcon.JPG
    122.8 KB · Views: 25
  • 20190720 (82)_FA101_General_Dynamics_F-16A_Fighting_Falcon.JPG
    20190720 (82)_FA101_General_Dynamics_F-16A_Fighting_Falcon.JPG
    144.9 KB · Views: 19
  • 20190720 (84)_Patrouille_de_France.JPG
    20190720 (84)_Patrouille_de_France.JPG
    150.7 KB · Views: 26
RIAT Part 2 (No more F-16s, promise - but they are the backbone of a lot of European air forces):

Swedish Saab Gripen - a light fighter but very manoeuvrable - grey on grey, though....
BOAC retro-schemed BA Boeing 747-436 with the Red Arrows
Romanian MiG21MF Lancer - a real rarity in Britain and much appreciated by the spotters in the crowd
British Army Apache gunship
Pair of Spanish Navy Harrier IIs, definitely rare and possibly even more appreciated by old and hairy spotters who remember the glory days...
 

Attachments

  • 20190720 (119)_39268_Saab_JAS_39C_Gripen.JPG
    20190720 (119)_39268_Saab_JAS_39C_Gripen.JPG
    114.9 KB · Views: 31
  • 20190720 (127)_G-BYGC_Boeing_747-436_and_The_Red_Arrows.JPG
    20190720 (127)_G-BYGC_Boeing_747-436_and_The_Red_Arrows.JPG
    110.3 KB · Views: 29
  • 20190720 (150)_6824_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21MF-75_Lancer.JPG
    20190720 (150)_6824_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21MF-75_Lancer.JPG
    117.5 KB · Views: 35
  • 20190720 (216)_ZJ181_Westland_Apache_AH1.JPG
    20190720 (216)_ZJ181_Westland_Apache_AH1.JPG
    160.3 KB · Views: 22
  • 20190720 (232)_VA-1B-37_and_VA-1B-24_McDonnell_Douglas_EAV-8B_Harrier_II.JPG
    20190720 (232)_VA-1B-37_and_VA-1B-24_McDonnell_Douglas_EAV-8B_Harrier_II.JPG
    110.8 KB · Views: 32
RIAT Part 3 (last, honest: its hard to distill down eight hours of flying display and about 150 aircraft static!)

The Red Arrows and Patrouille de France each celebrating the Anglo-French Concorde with their own formation versions of the double-supersonic airliner. I still miss the thunder.
RAF F-35B Lightning (I know, MJB, there's only one Lightning and this isn't it....)
Finnish FA-18C Hornet
2 X Ukrainian Su-27 Flanker - huge fighter, 2 feet longer than a Lancaster, hugely powerful and impressive as it rips the sky apart.
 

Attachments

  • 20190720 (250)_Red_Arrows_and_Patrouille_de_France.JPG
    20190720 (250)_Red_Arrows_and_Patrouille_de_France.JPG
    118.2 KB · Views: 21
  • 20190720 (262)_ZM146_Lockheed_Martin_F-35B_Lightning_II.JPG
    20190720 (262)_ZM146_Lockheed_Martin_F-35B_Lightning_II.JPG
    114.9 KB · Views: 26
  • 20190720 (284)_HN406_McDonnell_Douglas_FA-18C_Hornet.JPG
    20190720 (284)_HN406_McDonnell_Douglas_FA-18C_Hornet.JPG
    114.8 KB · Views: 24
  • 20190720 (313)_39_Sukhoi_Su-27_Flanker.JPG
    20190720 (313)_39_Sukhoi_Su-27_Flanker.JPG
    125 KB · Views: 30
  • 20190720 (314)_39_Sukhoi_Su-27_Flanker.JPG
    20190720 (314)_39_Sukhoi_Su-27_Flanker.JPG
    102.7 KB · Views: 29
Meanwhile, at an airfield somewhere in England....

The Red Arrows, who had worked very hard indeed at RIAT: 747 flypast, "double Concorde" flypast and their own full display - provided a display at Flying Legends, Duxford airfield, Cambridgeshire. Whinges from purists that Legends is supposed to be all piston..... the Red Arrows clearly are legends in their own right as a team, but the purists are right IMHO...

Airco DH9 - recently restored, but old aeroplanes break often and it went tech so I still haven't seen it fly. The old car beside it has a Hucks Starter on it - a chain driven shaft that rotates the propeller so a human doesn't have to swing it, and a clever gadget so that the connecting dogs fly off from contact and the shaft retracts when the engine catches.

Achtung.... five Me 109s - all right, Spanish built Hispano Buchons, that is 109s with Rolls Royce Merlin engines.

One of the Buchons getting airborne.

The real show opener: twelve Spitfires at once. The sight is amazing - I wish I could give you the swelling roar from the approaching engines.
 

Attachments

  • 20190713 (20)_The_Red_Arrows.JPG
    20190713 (20)_The_Red_Arrows.JPG
    103.8 KB · Views: 31
  • 20190713 (28)_E8894_Airco_DH-9.JPG
    20190713 (28)_E8894_Airco_DH-9.JPG
    166.4 KB · Views: 29
  • 20190713 (35)_Buchons.JPG
    20190713 (35)_Buchons.JPG
    146.4 KB · Views: 28
  • 20190713 (78)_White_5_Hispano_HA-1112_Buchon.JPG
    20190713 (78)_White_5_Hispano_HA-1112_Buchon.JPG
    132.4 KB · Views: 20
  • 20190713 (81)_Spitfires.JPG
    20190713 (81)_Spitfires.JPG
    88.6 KB · Views: 28
Flying Legends Part 2

The Few.... in the face of 12 Spits, 3 Buchons go up to do their best... sorry, wurst!

Classic Formation: the only display team with four airliners in it, as far as I know: a DC-3/Dakota leading three Beech D18S. They are very good, as well as being very shiny.

Not one of the twelve, Duxford has more Spits than that.... a Mk Ia (one of three, all extra to the show opening formation) getting airborne for the Battle of Britain segment of the show.

Four assorted Curtiss Hawks: two radial engined early versions, a pre-war P-36 in silver and a camouflaged Hawk 75 such as the French used in the Battle of France; plus an Allison-engined P-40B (also silver) and a classic desert camouflaged Merlin-engined Kittyhawk.

Half of the Ultimate Fighters foursome on later, during the middle part of their show, doing what comes naturally when one of them has a Spitfire and one has a 109.
 

Attachments

  • 20190713 (97)_Buchons.JPG
    20190713 (97)_Buchons.JPG
    86.6 KB · Views: 19
  • 20190713 (113)_Classic_Formation.JPG
    20190713 (113)_Classic_Formation.JPG
    84.2 KB · Views: 30
  • 20190713 (116)_X4650_Supermarine_Spitfire_Ia.JPG
    20190713 (116)_X4650_Supermarine_Spitfire_Ia.JPG
    99.6 KB · Views: 34
  • 20190713 (118)_Curtiss_Hawks.JPG
    20190713 (118)_Curtiss_Hawks.JPG
    94.2 KB · Views: 35
  • 20190713 (143)_Achtung_Spitfire.JPG
    20190713 (143)_Achtung_Spitfire.JPG
    110.4 KB · Views: 49
Last part of Legends:

The other half of the Ultimate Fighters, the bulky Thunderbolt and next-to-supremely elegant (Spitfire wins that one too) Mustang continuing with excellent warbird aerobatics

The Ultimate Fighters back together - Spitfire, Buchon, Mustang, Thunderbolt - and me making the best of difficult light

One of Eisenhower's choices for war-winners of WWII: three examples of the Dakota commemorating the air assault of D-Day.

Duxford's ace-in-the-hole finale: the Balbo. Named for an Italian air force general who led a formation of flying boats round the world, they put up every fighter that's still working and has a pilot in a formation for a series of flypasts before elements separate and break into the circuit to land.

A couple of Spitfires drifting in to land post-Balbo. That's all folks. Roll on next July.....

John
 

Attachments

  • 20190713 (146)_Mustang_and_Thunderbolt.JPG
    20190713 (146)_Mustang_and_Thunderbolt.JPG
    156.5 KB · Views: 29
  • 20190713 (149)_Ultimate_Fighters.JPG
    20190713 (149)_Ultimate_Fighters.JPG
    100.2 KB · Views: 27
  • 20190713 (161)_Dakotas.JPG
    20190713 (161)_Dakotas.JPG
    62.9 KB · Views: 26
  • 20190713 (200)_Duxford_Balbo.JPG
    20190713 (200)_Duxford_Balbo.JPG
    85.8 KB · Views: 27
  • 20190713 (203)_Spitfire_Finals.JPG
    20190713 (203)_Spitfire_Finals.JPG
    124 KB · Views: 25
Yep, Lockheed P-38....
MJB

I believe the RAF evaluated 3 taken over from a French order but they lacked turbo-chargers and had disappointing performance. Never served operationally AFAIK. That weird PR chap Warburton who became famous in Malta later borrowed one from the Americans when with them in a non-flying liaison role and was shot down in it. For me the P-38 Lightning is one of those aircraft that looks amazing but doesn't quite cut it, though I know the Americans made good use of its long range in the Pacific, bushwhacking Yamamoto with Lightnings among other exploits.

John
 
I believe the RAF evaluated 3 taken over from a French order but they lacked turbo-chargers and had disappointing performance. Never served operationally AFAIK. That weird PR chap Warburton who became famous in Malta later borrowed one from the Americans when with them in a non-flying liaison role and was shot down in it. For me the P-38 Lightning is one of those aircraft that looks amazing but doesn't quite cut it, though I know the Americans made good use of its long range in the Pacific, bushwhacking Yamamoto with Lightnings among other exploits.

John

Flying Legends 2015
 

Attachments

  • P-38-(50)-800web.jpg
    P-38-(50)-800web.jpg
    151.9 KB · Views: 48
Sadly the Collings Foundation B-17 Nine-o-Nine crashed today at Connecticut's Bradley International Airport. Many people sent to the hospital. I think at least one fatality. It was on it's fall "Wings of Freedom" tour along with a B-24 and B-25.

I've been though this airplane 3-4 times when it visited our local municipal airport.

It appears that the B-17 is a total loss.

First report on what happened I've read so far was that the plane was doing a morning ride with passengers. It took off from the airport but experienced a problem and could not gain altitude. It tried to return to the airport and crashed.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/world-war-ii-plane-crash-connecticut/index.html

Big bad bummer.
 
Last edited:
Very sad news in many ways. I imagine the "Sally B" in the UK will be grounded whilst the investigation takes place. Crucial that many of these WW II airframes are kept airworthy for a variety of reasons.
Blue Skies.
 
Very sad news in many ways. I imagine the "Sally B" in the UK will be grounded whilst the investigation takes place. Crucial that many of these WW II airframes are kept airworthy for a variety of reasons.
Blue Skies.

Last fall when the "Wings of Freedom" tour was at my local municipal airport the B-17 Nine-0-Nine never showed up. It had problems with an engine and the engine had to be replaced. The replacement engine also needed to be replaced. It was on that second replacement. The plane had to skip the rest of that fall tour according to my understanding.

Preliminary reports that the airplane was having trouble gaining altitude suggests a faulty engine. I wonder if it was that same engine.

Once the injured are better and the fatalities are mourned, I hope that the crew can tell what happened.
 
Last edited:
absolutely , there is an airport southwest of us and some times when i'm in the yard a plane comes over quite low and i always wish i had the camera with me .
 
Very sad news in many ways. I imagine the "Sally B" in the UK will be grounded whilst the investigation takes place. Crucial that many of these WW II airframes are kept airworthy for a variety of reasons.
Blue Skies.

Sally B's season is over/nearly over but I doubt other B-17s will be grounded while the investigation takes place. It is rare for a problem to be systemic in an aircraft type, much more common to be related to the specific aircraft's maintenance and usage record. You will recall just how much it took earlier this year to persuade Boeing to ground the 737-800 Max variant.

The investigation will start with the records. Should they find anything likely to be type related, a notice to check and correct any problem is more likely than a general grounding.

Speculation by non-professionals in a fatal accident under investigation is inappropriate so I will leave it at that.

It is very sad.

John
 
The pilot said that the problem was with the #4 engine. They don't know though why the plane crashed on landing with 3 engines still good.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

  • Back
    Top