Broke the news while there about NAS Sigonella and went better than expected,so headed off at 8am from Palermo on Thursday the 4th,jesus wept the crumbling roads are not for the feint hearted with 90% of the journey spent on roads built on concrete pillars,seem to be in sections like parts of the M6 ,and you get a clunk every 20 meters or so add to that the Italian driving stlye of cutting you up while overtaking is standard,just grit your teeth and think about p8's is what i did. ,
so arrived shaken not stirred and headed straight for my pre planned spot see yellow x on picture,as soon as got out of car could hear that distintive whistle of a startup,and a hawk drone went up a few minutes later before i could get my camera out ,even though it took off using 10 R i think ,i got to see it do a 360 from the 23 end ,i was convinced i was going to blank so was over the moon with that,,
was about to move to 10 end when i spotted the approach of N783SN MD-11F i beleive from Rota so stayed put for that
Then my lad back in the UK said a P8 WAS an hour out so i headed for the other end,but before i could get in car heard the distictive sound of a Helo so hung around and a couple of what i think are MH60' types went up ,?i know the HSC 28 Ghostriders are based there ?
so got to the other end bit of a fast road the other end but theres a decent layby ,the first place i tried 23 end was a bit iffy,an airfield installation , didnt want to upset anyone but saw a beechcraft type plane come in over a cloudy mount Etna before i got set up ,there are a couple of other laybys that now are fenced off,but stayed where yellow x is ,also the road that runs paralel to the airfield is quite overgrown now a line of trees have grown since previous pictures ive seen so unless your creative (cough)side on shots appear to be difficult.
so then after a short wait169551 P-8A Poseidon showed up and either did a touch and go or go around to my delight as the sun killed me on its first approach,did a lovely short final hoiked it round nice and tight was fantastic,
So had left and the lads on the phone again the Triton drone is on the way back ,so back to the layby and got a lovely vidoe of it coming back .
Sorry im no photographer but makes up for every blank day ive had.
What a day !
hope this helps anyone planning a visit
cheers for looking