Here is my selection of another great flying season, as I don’t have too much time for posts I made it one bigger collection
The year started with the very iconic Vulcan, amazing aircraft really and very impressive to see it approaching the Skyvan photoship as close as 10 meters! Hopefully another go in 2012.
Many of you went to Izmir in june for the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Turkish Airforce, my involvement in the airshow & spottersday brought me a reward I will remember for the rest of my life
we set up an ‘airshow formation’ for a unique photoshoot over Izmir. While I was in the backseat of an Alphajet of PAF, there was a cameraman in the Turkish F-5B for a live! Broadcast on TV!!
Unfortunately the Red Arrows would only arrive one day later, the Thunderbirds loved to but had other commitments, but the real miss was the Pakistani F-16 & JF-17 who could not participate only because of crewrest regulations…aaargh; but the photo below is exactly what I had in mind.
Always a pleasure to fly with the Swiss guys, and their F-18’s gave us a nice ‘Top Gun’ style photoshoot prior to the landing at Koksijde airbase to attend the Belgian Airforce airshow. More Swiss action awaits us in the new season.
Tony de Bruyn and his immaculate Bronco over the French coast of Calais, in the coming years the Bronco Demo Team will complete there collection of three!! Bronco’s in flying condition.
A unique chance for us was one of the few flying Meteors, always a precious moment to have one of the ‘classic’ jets behind the Skyvan photoship.
Is there any photographer out there who does not like warbirds
if you can get those aircraft for an airborne photoshoot you can’t go much higher ( in my opinion ) Having two perfectly positioned with Dover Castle as a backdrop you will understand why all photographers flying with us that day were smiling, smiling, smiling….more Red Bull action in 2012!
Our first Typhoon encounter was ‘hoffmeister’ who showed us every side of the aircraft. As a goodbye move he just trottled up and flew right underneath the Skyvan hihaho!!
The openingflight of the 2011 Air to Air Academy brought us a premiere, for the first time we had an opportunity to catch a real airliner, certainly will not be the last! It was one of the most succesfull video/photoshoots of the year and new airlines & types will pose for us in 2012.
The light kinda sucked & much haze in the sky, but I will never say ‘no’ to a chance to catch 4 T-28’s in one formation! I was in the backseat of the 5th T-28 and for the 2013 edition of the Photoflying Days we’ll go for a 7-ship
The warbird photoflights were an absolute highlight for many of the photographers, a try-out for us but quite a blast to see a T-6, Nanchang, Mustang, P-40, Skyraider & S-38 in one shoot….next year we’ll expect to have a great number of warbirds attending the Photoflying Days, as many pilots really appreciate our photos.
Yes, this was thé star for sure of the 2011 Photoflying Days ( event is free for the public, always welcome ) the sole flying S-38 in the world. She is flying here in golden evening light, and we are very happy to know she’ll be back with us in 2012!
Around the Leeuwarden Open Days we had the opportunity again to fly with a number of participants of the airshow, the weather was with us ( well, almost all of the time ) resulting in some stunning backdrops high over the cloudbase. Here the RNAF C-130.
But we did bigger, at this moment the biggest aircraft to date to pose behind the Skyvan is the KC-10 tanker….next year we’ll break the record huhh
The Turkish guys were very eager to fly for us, as some of the photowork will be used for their promotion and calendar 2012, Solo Turk first!
This photo shows that you can do a lot more than a typical head-on shot from the Skyvan, with every flight we try to expand our photo possibilities. Spare F-16 for Solo Turk.
Aaaargh, it was really freezing up there, almost 9000 feet and our highest photoshoot with the Skyvan so far, but the light was sooo brilliant….I don’t think we can do much better than this, when you freeze your nuts off you must have a good reason
Italian Typhoon, good looking airplane from this angle!
We will never ever get enough from the classic heavy smoker, hmmz those Phantoms do rock!!
A bit of creative flying give you this result, taken from the ramp. For everyone who tought it would be our last-ever chance to see the F-4’s….I’m happy to say it’s not
And here is my 21st Airforce to pose for airborne photos, the Finnish F-18, we tried some new manoeuvres with them and the results are really stunning, in this photo we fly at an angle of 45 degrees….
…..but that was the beginning; starting at a higher flightlevel flying a spiral turn of 60! Degrees and + 2G’s : the F-18’s are keeping position behind us pulling vapour, it was Top Gun for real! The pictures shows the real angle with the horizon. And no, none of the photographer fell on the ground or something that style, all I heard was click,click,click,click x 100
Three years on the wishlist, three attempts and here he comes..Mr. Iceman ; long story but we finally got him. And a lot more Mig action to come in the new season ( grr why is wintertime taking so long?? )
My final flight of the year brought me at FL 260 at 300 kt ( no, that’s not the Skyvan
) for an encounter with the Luftwaffe in beautifull evening light, Tornado first;
And to end some of thé best heavy metal still flying out there……
2012 will see some very new challenges for us, as we get cristalclear clean windows in the Skyvan, expanding our photo angle from 160 to almost 300 degrees. I hope to bring my number of Airforces to at least 25 and finally we should get the heavy Russian stuff as well whohoow
I wish all the photographers out here a great 2012 photoyear
!*sorry for the photobucket quality, all photos seem pale in colours, can't help it pppft*
Greetz, Eric
Great shots of some unique and impressive angles, thnks for sharing!
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That's quality!
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