RAF Spadeadam Wed 23 Nov: Hercules ZH877 LZ threats & Apache
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2016 7:53 pm
A beautiful sunny winter's day, clear blue skies and very little wind ... in fact, an ideal photo day that I've often ended up rueing for lack of low level aircraft! Luckily, after a worryingly empty morning, a check in the late morning on virtual radar showed RAF C-130J Hercules ZH877 Ascot 161 leaving RAF Brize Norton airspace and heading directly north to Spadeadam.
It spent an hour on site, working against various threats including some wheels down, Landing Zone approaches, with threats then meaning evasive manoeuvres and chaff. I've never seen undercarriage down, landing zone approaches at Spadeadam, so it was great to catch these unusual shots - for those not aware of RAF Spadeadam, although there is occasional reference to an airfield, it is just a target area and does not have any landing strip for any aircraft to use.
A couple of runs brought it very close to my position near the end of its mission (big thumbs up to the aircrew) but a lot of its training was some distance away where even big lenses struggle for range, so many of these photos are 'an aircraft in the landscape' type images! I wonder if the nosewheel cover area of the Herc is muddy or if it's something else?
As it was due to finish a lone AAC Apache Longbow appeared (presumably from Leeming) to make a 30 minute recce of the whole of the range area, so only a few photo opportunities. Apache were heard later on over Hexham, when it was dark, so I presume that this was a recce for the night Ex.
Camera details: Olympus E-M1, MC-14 teleconverter & mZuiko 300mm Pro
Chaff to start with
Chaff & beacon flash
Undercarriage down, LZ approach
Muddy nose wheel cover?
Chaff
AAC Apache Longbow arrives from RAF Leeming
Hadrian's Wall in the background
A good day in the end, and pleased to try out the Olympus prime lens.
It spent an hour on site, working against various threats including some wheels down, Landing Zone approaches, with threats then meaning evasive manoeuvres and chaff. I've never seen undercarriage down, landing zone approaches at Spadeadam, so it was great to catch these unusual shots - for those not aware of RAF Spadeadam, although there is occasional reference to an airfield, it is just a target area and does not have any landing strip for any aircraft to use.
A couple of runs brought it very close to my position near the end of its mission (big thumbs up to the aircrew) but a lot of its training was some distance away where even big lenses struggle for range, so many of these photos are 'an aircraft in the landscape' type images! I wonder if the nosewheel cover area of the Herc is muddy or if it's something else?
As it was due to finish a lone AAC Apache Longbow appeared (presumably from Leeming) to make a 30 minute recce of the whole of the range area, so only a few photo opportunities. Apache were heard later on over Hexham, when it was dark, so I presume that this was a recce for the night Ex.
Camera details: Olympus E-M1, MC-14 teleconverter & mZuiko 300mm Pro
Chaff to start with
Chaff & beacon flash
Undercarriage down, LZ approach
Muddy nose wheel cover?
Chaff
AAC Apache Longbow arrives from RAF Leeming
Hadrian's Wall in the background
A good day in the end, and pleased to try out the Olympus prime lens.
Love the C-130J chucking the chaff out 
