RAF Leuchars - Air Force Day - Battle of Britain Anniversary

[Gary Stockton]

So I was fortunate enough to get tickets to go to the annual Air show at RAF Leuchars near St. Andrews, a short 90 minute drive north of home, over the stunning Firth of Forth bridge. Well, it should have been a 90 minute drive, but we’ve had torrential rain and some of the routes were flooded out causing massive tailbacks, and to add to the misery some guy on a motorbike tried to overtake the tailback on a blind rise and got taken out completely by oncoming traffic. So after a 4 hour wait in the traffic jam I got to Leuchars just as the Red Arrows were in their stride, at 14h30 instead of the 10h15 I had planned on. Pity, because I missed the Vulcan supersonic bomber, and the Army display parachute team as well as the helicopters ...

The Red Arrows ...

Anyway, it turned into a stunning day – the huge thunderclouds dropped some of their rain on us and then went away, leaving a stiff breeze but sunny skies.

With this being the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain (lots of stuff on TV about that) we were treated to an extra special display – the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight of Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane and Avro Lancaster bomber ..... a humbling, inspiring sight ... and the sound of those piston engines just awesome ...

And some individual stuff from the Hurricane and Spit:

And the Lanc:

Then we had a Saab Grippen – mind blowing stuff – hauling ass down the tarmac to take off really quickly with full after-burners going – clearly visible against the dark skies.

And straight into a Cobra !!

So for next year, I’ll plan on getting there the night before and camp, and by then Father Christmas will have delivered my Sony Alpha 580 dslr, so all my big Minolta lenses will be reused ? Just not enough lens yesterday. Some of the camera kit on display was as awesome as the planes ?
The static display was impressive – the Vulcan, a B52 – fantastic stuff, USAF KC130 refueller, Hercy-bird, RAF VC10 refueller ....

The Dam Busters were there too ...

Just not Lancasters anymore ?

And some helos on display – the mighty Chinook ...

An awesome F-16 ...

Chucking out chaff..

Cobra ...

The B-52

It’s just too damn big to get decent pics of ...


The noisy-end of a Phantom ...

More static displays..

The Red Arrows parked up ...

The Grippen:

The humble Yak:

Then, for me, the highlight – a flight of Hawker Hunters – what an awesome, memorable flight – brought tears to my eyes, and a fond remembrance of the Rhodie Airforce Hunters doing their thing ....

Closing off with some nice G3 Typhoons

The Red Arrows saying farewell ...

And the Spit and Hurricane ..

Farewell from the Typhoons

Found them parking up...

I wasn’t able to get any decent pics of the Harrier G4 doing its reverse flight and bow – was amazing to watch though!

So sorry for the pic quality – I still managed to take some 420 photos though – the joys of digital!!!

 

[Ecoman]

Cracking photos mate
particularly love the 2nd Chinook pic. Top work.

I was planning on going to Leuchars Air Show but I went to look at an 80 series for sale up in Turriff. Wish I had done the air show now to be honest

 

[Crispin]

Lovely stuff.

 

[TonyP]

Thanks Gary, some nice pics there.

 

[Gary Stockton]

And before an eagle-eyed plane spotter, those are not Typhoons but Tornades ...

 

[Chas]

And some helos on display – the mighty Chinook ...

The ultimate off-road vehicle?
Some fantastic pics there Gary .
Chas

 

[sae70]

There's some great photos there but for me that first Chinook pic is fantastic