A YORKNIGHT (well afternoon)

[burnsy133]

Hi All,

After spending three days in the lakes waiting for the Swiss to treat me to a flypast, I decided with two days to go that I might need to take the Mountain to the Swiss, as they seemed reluctant to come anywhere near me whilst climbing various points around Thirlmere. So passport in hand I made the journey over to the White Rose side of the country and wasn't disappointed.

Arriving at about 9.30, it was overcast and a little nippy, the sound of silence only broken by the touch and goes of the 564 based Grob's (note that there might only be 5 there, but they made themselves known, making use of the clear pattern for most of the day).

Around 1 pm, the cloud started to Break, and so returned the Grobs, I had started to think that they were not going to go away until I pointed my Camera at them....so i did..

This is what resulted, a fine beast, wouldn't you agree ??

G-BYXE (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

About half past one and the Hawks sprung into life, with two of them departing for a flypast darn sarf for some Qatari big wig, its must have been a decent flypast, as the bloke bought another 12 Typhoons the next day.

Salesmen of the year in ZB132 and ZB137, making a pairs departure off Runway 16.

ZB137 ZB132 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

Shortly followed by ZB139, who as far as I know went to RAF Coningsby.

ZB139 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

Soon after this we were treated to the sound of some F-18's starting up, word travels fast in this hobby, and as soon as the Swiss heard that i wasnt on Thirlmere, they decided to Launch 6 aircraft, 4 of which went to the Lakes !!

First up were J-5025 and J5011.

j-5025 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

j-5025-1 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

Followed by J-5017 and J-5008

j-5017 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

J-5008 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

J-5017-1 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

About 1 hour later the first pair returned, with the light fading....

Recovery (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

J-5015 (1 of 1) by Rob Burns, on Flickr

And with that 1 hour flurry, YORKNITE was done for me.

Thanks if you got this far.

[awesome3]

Awesome read, superb photos, really interesting
Thanks for sharing

[Dave934]

Gutted for you mate regarding the low fly, but I'm glad you got some lovely shots of them on base. I think this has been the worst year for their low fly, normally you are garanteed to get two go through most days,weather permitting. Try again next year, you'll get them !!
Dave.

[Headcase6969]

Very frustrating the swiss this year,I tried 3 times this year,all no show on the days I went to dunmail,saying that the last 3 years I've only managed to get them twice,once on dunmail the other time they pulled up B4 smaithwaite,boring anyhow,go about 30mph and barley turn,nice read anyhow from you

[nashwa]

Thanks for sharing, big fan of the shot of the hornets in the break!

Also I haven't heard anything about this new Qatari typhoon order? Is it new airframes or old RAF Tranche 1s?