RIAT 2017

[Hagar]

I went to the air show at Fairford yesterday. First visit to RIAT for many years. The last time was at Greenham Common or Mildenhall (can't remember which) back in the 1980s.
Sadly the weather was not ideal - no sunshine with a low cloud base for most of the day. This meant that the display routines were limited, or in the case of the F-22 Raptor cancelled.
Despite this it was a good show with some impressive displays.

Not ideal for photography either as modern military types are grey & drab & don't show up well in these conditions. Enough excuses. Here's some of my more interesting shots.
The first time I've seen some of these.
Note that to comply with the forum limit the average file size of these images is 50 kb .















The last time I saw the Thunderbirds they were equipped with the F-4 Phantom II.










The sprightly "Baby Herc"


half-way through an aileron roll. If conditions had been better it would have performed a loop & Cuban 8.






The last shot of the day before boarding the coach to go home.

[papituwall]

Great pics, many thanks!

[Anthindelahunt]

Wow! What a collection.Great shots.

Love them all.

Anthin.

[Jean Loup]

EXCELLENT photographer you are señor TERRiBLE I wish some of this demonstrations & shows would visit México, the only time I saw a show similar to this was in 1989 at the inauguration of Cuernabalas aeroport. My Skydive instructor & his team were part of this exhibition, he invited me as part of the team: reserve diver in case someone got sick

Sincé we are a very healthy bunch & nobody got sick, I was free to roam around static aircraft & pest pilots with stupid questions. The Confederate Ait Force (name now changed to "Commemorative Air Force" because the Yank's are very very McArthurians & stupid: same thing happened years ago with the Happy Bottom Riding Club & Pancho Barnes) until they invited me to go as copilot in some aircraft: like an Me-108, painted in Luftwaffe livery for some Holliwood films (Texan T-6's were protraying Zeros's in the "Tora Tora Tora" part of that show) and a B-17, were I had a chance to visit the tail gunner CLAUSTROPHOBiC position: one had to take the paracute off & crawl a dark tunnel while the Fortress was doing all sorts of evolutions. I can only imagine when they did that on daily basis & under fire!!

[napamule]

Beautiful. Just beautiful. I have all of those installed....in my mind anyway.

[Rifleman]

Very nice Doug......I see your tough skies to shoot under......I was lucky to have much better blue and puffys to get the shots which I got at a local gathering......

[Hagar]

Thanks chaps. A little but of sunshine would certainly have made all the difference. Fortunately the UK weather is not always like this.
Only at weekends when most events are taking place.

[Flying Trucker]

Nice set Doug...enjoyed seeing them all...