Hi everybody,
Last Thursday I visited Wittmund for the very first time, partly because of the annouced new fence. Flying was good (three waves of up to nine aircraft each, until 16.00 hrs), and so was the weather.
For photographers the coming week(s) may be crucial if you want to do some good Phantom and Skyhawk shooting on line-up, take-off and roll out with chutes. The new fence will definately obstruct you from walking along the runway in the future, as can still be done now.
The bad news is that the new fence has been almost finished on the western part of the airbase, but the (temporary) good news is that you can still drive around it as the ring is not fully closed yet. Last Thursday no construction works to the new fence were observed, which may be caused by the holiday season. But most likely work will resume within days, maybe weeks, and many perfect photo spots will disappear forever.
So if you want to do some good German Phantom photography, you better hurry up as it may be your very last chance ever.......
In order to explain the situation, I have drawn a map to show you where to go. The light blue line is a trimmed grass strip of about 3 meters wide. This is the best way to get to the right spot by car, for line-up and touchdown shots. The grass strip is a bit bumpy, but it's better than the (unmarked) trimmed grass strip along the old fence, which can only be accessed through an enormous deep muddy pool near the middle of the runway (next to radar site). Everybody advised me to park the car AWAY from the old fence in order to avoid discussions with military police and even Polizei ! If you park inside the new fence, you may want to do it next to the parking spot outside the fence so your car "blends in" with other spotters vehicles.
The new fence is about 50 cm higher than the old fence, and has barbed wire that curves towards you (old fence was a straight up fence, new one has wires that extend towards you at the top). You need about a 5-step ladder to get a completely clear shot from over the barbed wire, or a 2-step to shoot just over the fence and under the wires.
I hope this message will provide you with enough information to get there before it's too late. I will upload some photos in the photo-section later this weekend.
Good luck,
Iwan