Always a pleasure to see RAF Lakenheath’s 48th Fighter Wing low level in Wales with their F-15s. These C models, callsign GATOR 11-14, were from the famed 493rd FS ‘The Grim Reapers’. Interesting to note the Sniper Pod on the lead jet.
The 493rd Fighter Squadron, the Grim Reapers, paid us a visit on the 7th July in the Mach loop with their F-15Cs. These guys really are impressive at low level, and this was the first time I managed to capture them in The Mach Loop.
A Kalitta Air Boeing 747 (C/S CKS9457) freighter N741CK makes an early morning arrival into RAF Fairford to transport parts and supplies back to the U.S. after Baltops 2017.
Shortly following the B-52 on the same day, and just after 6am on a chilly summers morning, the regular dawn chorus of rural Gloucestershire was accompanied by the sound of two B-1Bs (85-0084 BONE01 and 86-139 BONE02) out to a Baltops mission somewhere out in the Baltic Sea.
These aircraft come from the 34th BS United States Air Force at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota.
Just after 6am on a chilly summers morning, the regular dawn chorus of rural Gloucestershire was accompanied by the sound of 8 × Pratt & Whitney TF33s powering this mighty B-52 Stratofortress (60-0002 callsign BUFF01) out to another Baltops mission somewhere out in the Baltic Sea.
This aircraft comes from the 2nd BW United States Air Force at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
These two jets screamed their way into RAF Fairford on June 1st 2017 under the callsigns MYTEE96 and MYTEE51. They were indeed mighty! 96 arrived from the Middle East, while 51 made its way to the UK from the United States via Northern Europe.
This C-5M (callsign RCH965 – 87-0036) had just offloaded its cargo at RAF Fairford before departing to a local airfield. I was expecting a flat, slow climb out, and set myself up at the 09 end of Fairford’s runway. As you can see, this particular aircraft was clearly light, and by the time it got to the runway threshold was at least 1,500ft.
This was a stunning landing in what were marginal crosswind conditions for this notoriously difficult to land aircraft.
This particular jet is from the 9th RW at Beale AFB in the USA, and was flying with the callsign DRAGON21. In this video you can hear the chase car talking his colleague down, which is standard practice in U-2 ops. Fantastic to hear some personality coming across the airwaves too! ‘Good Job Dragon, Welcome to England. The wind was a bit dodgy up back there”!
Apologies for the text overlay titles. I’ve had to add it since some people have been ripping off my work on YouTube and elsewhere. If you want to use any of my footage in a project please just ask.