Raf Retire Their Jaguars

nev · May 03, 2007, 07:49:02 AM

Picked up by Ian, aka IJ(UK) aka The Hunter Gatherer @ 9am, less than an hour later via the best back road in the world we are @ RAF Coningsby surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of fellow twitchers. Clearly word had got round!

The mornings entertainment was excellent, Typhoons constantly in the circuit, lots of touch and go's, formation approaches, breaks, take-offs & landings. We started off right under the approach B)

Got this shot of one about to take off - one of my favourite photos of the day

This one is also a personal fave, and my current desktop wallpaper

I hope the quality is OK - my camera and photography skills aren't the best, and I've had to resize them to make the file size managable.

nev · May 03, 2007, 07:51:14 AM

I went off for a leak behind some trees, whilst I was away, one Tiffie applied the power a little too early on a touch and go, blowing over several panels from the perimeter fence - one of them landing right on top of Ian!! A few cuts and bruises and a damaged ego were his only injuries - plus the honour of being the Typhoon's first kill!

Here we can see the panels being repaired - at one point there were a couple of Rock-Apes with SA80s guarding the breech that Ian caused

After that we moved to a safer spot :whistle: on top of the infamous mound to watch the afternoons departures

nev · May 03, 2007, 07:52:50 AM

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for.......13 Jags coming down the perry track B)

Count the Jags (this is after the first 4-ship had taken off)

They then departed for an hour.......but to keep us entertained in the meantime, there was a 3-ship Typhoon display. Starting with a vertical rotation a la Lightning, they treated us to wonderful close formation display - in fact they repeated the routine several times! Even more admirable considering it was really, REALLY windy that day

nev · May 03, 2007, 07:54:55 AM

The Jags returned, flying down the runway centreline in a 6 formation B)

We then got several formation passes

And another one of me best shots of the day

Finally we were treated to a stream of landings, one after the other with only several seconds in between, and Jags come in for landing fast, so you had to be quick with the camera!

Full marks to all @ 6 Squadron and RAF Coningsby for a BRILLIANT days entertainment. Well done RAF.

Captain Canada · May 03, 2007, 09:22:44 AM

Beautiful stuff, Nev ! Nothing wrong with your camera work, buddy. That will be one day you'll remember for ever, with joy and sadness at losing such an awesome and capable aeroplane !

My two favourite pics are the pair of Typhoons taxiing towards you, as well as the two coming in for a landing. I love those stream landings, really conjure up images of wartime days, be it returning from a mission or trainers in the circuit.

Thanks for sharing ! And be sure to be nice to poor old IHG !

van883 · May 04, 2007, 08:26:00 AM

Brilliant pics Nev-I'm sorry that the Jaguar has gone.

Mossie · May 04, 2007, 08:44:50 AM

Thanks for sharing them Nev, gorgeous pics.

Bye-bye Jag!

Archibald · August 03, 2007, 11:52:10 AM

Holly sh***t !! How did I missed this thread three months ago ? :dum:

Wunderbar !!!

Nothing better than a good Open Day...

Brian da Basher · August 04, 2007, 12:15:03 PM

Those are some gorgeous shots, Nev! I noticed the way the sun glinted off the fuse markings on the third shot looks just like the decals on my builds. What I thought was silvering is added realism!

You're an ace with a camera!

Brian da Basher

anthonyp · August 04, 2007, 01:02:35 PM

Great pics, Nev!

Chris707 · August 10, 2007, 04:22:10 PM

First rate stuff, Nev - it is sorry to see the Jags go, as that's another type that was more or less started around the time of my own origin ;-)

I played around a bit with your wallpaper shot - not a criticism of it at all, but thought that bringing out some detail on the underbits might be useful reference-wise...

Chris
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