Royal International Air Tattoo 2009, Fairford, UK
RIAT this year was a bit of a washout! Not the show itself, but the weather!! Saturday was fair but Sunday was wet. However, it made for some interesting photography - especially take off's. This was my first time seeing the Vulcan - which was an honour. It is such a beautiful aircraft and seems to handle like a fighter more than a bomber. One very nice touch was the B52 flying over the Vulcan which was lined up on the runway. Awesome.I was one of the lucky few to be invited to take pics close up of the Vulcan and we got some great shots of the two crews - the B52 and Vulcan crews. And again, thanks to the rain, it made for an interesting shot with the reflection on the tarmac.
The usual array of jets and prop aircraft were present and as usual, RIAT was just brilliant. We had 8 teams present - the Red Arrows, the Freece Tricolori, the Swiss Air Force, the Breitling team, Team Guinot wing walkers, the Black Cats Lynx team, the Royal Fordanian Falcons, the Blue Eagles which is the Army Corps helicopter team.
Great flying, great airshow. Shaun and I had a good time and had several beers with Frans Dely in Meysey Hampton - little did we know that it would be the last time together in that part of the world......
