Spadeadam - Day of the Graceful Heavies Mon 25 Feb

[catkins]

What a wonderful day to be on the range - so that's my excuse for posting a few of the days photos!

The day's visit started with two individual USAF MC-130H Combat Talon II of 352SOG/7SOS Mildenhall (callsigns Talon/Mission 71 and Shadow 61, I think), with the first providing some great photo opportunities and the second unfortunately playing to the north end of the range.














Then a fantastic, almost aerobatic, 15 minute display by an RAF C-130 (callsign Ascot ?) which was a fabulous treat to watch let alone photograph.
Awful shot, against the light and at long range, but when you see this coming you start hoping you're in for some spectacular flying














Then to cap off the day came the sight of a very unusual shape at Spade and a first for me, a USAF HH-60 Pave Hawk (callsign Jolly 71) - with a lot of shots against the light I've used B&W for some of these photos.
























A big thumbs up to the aircrew - excellent day of flying provided for the photographers
Regards
Chris

[michael1970]

Lovely images chris, wondering if Mondays going to be the new Friday for the old mc130 and its friend.

[swingy]

Nice work.

[catkins]

Lovely images chris, wondering if Mondays going to be the new Friday for the old mc130 and its friend.

Umm - as we sat waiting for nothing today we were pondering that very question, as well as 'did they get the calendar mixed up?' and 'was there a US Bank Holiday last Friday?'!!

[toom317]

Nice catch with the HH60 Chris.

[Tronk 11]

Very nice pictures. Your a brave fellow heading up to Wylie Syke in Feb! I've done it in June & its still cold. The pictures take me back as I used to head up there in my youth, watching the Mallet Blow & Elder Joust exercises. The down side it was the cold war, but the ups side was LOADS of jets. Looks like the MH-60 was doing CSAR approaches, VERY nice.

[Chris Procter]

Well done Chris.. glad you got a really good day after enduring long sessions of nothing
some lovely images
Chris

[Duane Hewitt]

Ver jealous of the Pave Hawk Chris. Fantastic to see. The first shot of the HH-60, is that out to the west of the range? Can't quite place it and wondering where it is, of if it's just a part once shielded by trees that you can now see since my last visit.

[PeteHemsley]

Great set Chris. The yanks were planned in that day for a CSAR ex. The last time they carried out this ex at spade, they were covered by a10s. Some great pictures fella, you must be chuffed!

[catkins]

Ver jealous of the Pave Hawk Chris. Fantastic to see. The first shot of the HH-60, is that out to the west of the range? Can't quite place it and wondering where it is, of if it's just a part once shielded by trees that you can now see since my last visit.

Hi Duane:
How's life and the job? Been away from Spadeadam for that long?!

Re first Pave Hawk photo: Yep, thought it worth including the first HH-60 shot as I was shooting with the equiv. of a 560mm, so even I was looking at the photo with added interest - it's the Prior Lancy complex with some of the old Blue Streak missile engine test stands and some of the more modern day targets and emitters dotted about the site. Looks like the SA-6 Straight Flush radar on the skyline to the left of the big shed plus two SA6 Gainful (rockets mounted on tank type base) one just below the skyline near the left hand engine test structure, the other immediately to the right of the big shed on the skyline.
It was certainly with some 'excitement' when I realised that it was a Pave Hawk and that it was coming into site rather than just passing by, and they gave us some good photo opportunities, so much appreciated!

Regards
Chris

[catkins]

Thanks one and all for the comments -just wish Spade could be this busy and entertaining all of the time (yes, even in winter as the adrenaline flow keeps all known ailments at bay!), but my visit two days later was a good reminder on life's realities now-a-days.
Good also to have company alongside on both days to compare notes and images, as the banter always helps to fill in the quiet spells.
And I just wish I had a LCD screen as clear as the Canon 5D mkIII - I was panicing until I got back to the computer because the Olympus E-30 screen is so pixelated in comparison! Still Oly is supposedly bringing out a new pro DSLR later in the year, so maybe salvation is at hand for the non-conformist?

Regards
Chris

[Duane Hewitt]

Ha yes, The last time I was there was Tac Blaze 12.1 almost a year ago. The job is going good, getting to some interesting places with it at least. Do you know anything on any upcoming Dutch deployments?

[catkins]

Ha yes, The last time I was there was Tac Blaze 12.1 almost a year ago. The job is going good, getting to some interesting places with it at least. Do you know anything on any upcoming Dutch deployments?

TAC Blaze 2013 is worryingly quiet with no postings obvious on the Dutch spotters sites that I can find. Within the briefing on last year's RNlAF Media Day was the concern about the effects of continuing cutbacks, withdrawl of Cougar and future funding for exercises, and my intial thought was that they might cut back to just the one TAC Blaze in the year. So far, the lack of info re any March possibility seems to imply no visit this winter/early spring, so lets hope that they still make the autumn visit!
But if anyone knows any better, please let me know.