This weekend was the annual Royal International Air Tatoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and I went for the first time, I hadn’t pointed my camera at a military aircraft since September last year when I went to the Selkirk-Moffat pass until I attended RIAT so it was nice to see/hear/take pictures of them again. It is also the first time I have taken pictures at a normal airshow as the only other airshow I have taken pictures at was Windermere airshow which was more like low level photography than an airshow as i was shooting down onto the planes. I found it very difficult panning the aircraft as they were flying above us as I have never really panned anything at that angle. Rather than head on base where it would be very crowed and wet with the rain that was forecast we headed to a field which was pretty much under the display line which meant we were far closer to the aircraft and had different photo opportunities, the place that we went to was called Rhymes Farm.
When we arrived in the morning it was raining and everything seemed dire but the weather forecast suggested that it would clear and it did by 12, though this meant that the start of the airshow was delayed by two hours which caused a few aircraft to have to cancel their displays which was unfortunate, but the main events for me all still happened which was great as I really wanted to see the Vulcan, Typhoon, Rafale and BBMF.
I was really surprised by the Chinook display as I didn’t think it was possible to do what the pilot did with such a big helicopter and was the joint highlight of the day along with the French Rafale which was just full of fast and low manoeuvres. Though only closely behind was the Vulcan as it is an aircraft I have been wanting to see for two years now but just hadn’t got around to it until now and it was just amazing.
Comments