An Evening at Brize Norton

[paullangford]

Big Thanks to all involved

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DSC00542 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00550 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00573 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00594 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00603 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00617 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00630 by paullangford..., on Flickr

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DSC00639 by paullangford..., on Flickr


Thanks for looking

Paul

[AMB]

Thanks for sharing Paul. Shame about the barriers being found necessary and the fact that the Skyvan pilot seems to want to get his own back on the flootlighting by dazzling the photographers! Also the 70 Sqn. special Atlas wasn't made available. The best shot for me is the 47 Sqn. special Herk - lovely shot.

[paullangford]

Thanks for sharing Paul. Shame about the barriers being found necessary and the fact that the Skyvan pilot seems to want to get his own back on the flootlighting by dazzling the photographers! Also the 70 Sqn. special Atlas wasn't made available. The best shot for me is the 47 Sqn. special Herk - lovely shot.

Thx Adrain.
I didn't mind the barriers as there were gaps between them.....much better than orange fluorescent cones and tape flapping about in the breeze.
A good evening though, enjoyed it immensely.

[Brizeman]

The 70 Sqn A400 was due scheduled servicing and was hangared on Friday. ZM406 had been requested but unfortunately operational needs are more important then being made available for photocalls especially as the A400 squadrons are busy working up to operational capability.

Regards
John

[Stagger2]

Paul, you have done well to capture the subjects in detail....BUT, this was a photo-shoot....right??
Could the organisation have made a bigger cock of it? So much junk & miscellaneous buildings in the background. 'Air-show Access' only to a single shot-angle. A/c parked too close to each other. No sunset shots possible (even if there had been a sunset!) No reflection on your ability, just poor effort on behalf of the 'photo-call' team. Compare that facility to recent Northolt & 'through the fence' night-shots @ the ACPV, Coningsby? It's not about money, it's the opportunities that matter.
The best shot for me is the last one, facing west to a Voyager which I assume was not actually a subject a/c?
PS: ZM406 Atlas spcl mks flew virtually every day last week...& then gets hangared for scheduled maintenance the day before the scheduled photocall? P-up & Brewery spring to mind!

[Brizeman]

Stagger.
I am not going to get into a full blown argument over the Night shoot last night but I think that a few points should be raised. The first is that on a very busy operational base like Brize you are very limited where you can hold such events. Where the other voyagers were parked is an operational apron and not available to the organisers. Secondly the aircraft were parked as far apart as possible so that it was possible to shoot each aircraft without another appearing behind it. When you are dealing with large aircraft in a limited space you have to do what you can. Phil at Northolt does a brilliant job but he doesn't have to deal with aircraft the size of a Voyager. Thirdly there isn't very much that you can do with buildings in the background. Unfortunately they were there long before some of the aircraft. Lastly whilst ZM406 did indeed fly a lot last week its maintainence is still due on a set date and that is determined by Airbus Military.
p..s up and Brewery don't enter into it. I hope that answers all of your comments.

John

[fideaux]

Again I'm staggered....Some contributors never fail to deliver!! Ho Hum.

[bite11]

I'll just add my two-penneth worth to Brizeman's reply to Stagger's staggering comments........
It's an operational RAF base not a museum....it's has buildings and hangars on the site...I suppose they could have demolished the buildings and spent the whole week removing ancillary equipment and, while they were on, perhaps they could have built a new ramp with the sun behind it so that we could have got sunset shots if there had have been a sunset...which there wasn't........that ramp is the only one available as, presumably you saw, the others are operational with work going on preparing aircraft for their next missions........besides, you could still get shots of aircraft in that area......the location is what it is and that's the same for everywhere and I dare say it took hours to position such large aircraft in such a position as not to overlap any other one.........
I for one thought it was an excellent night with plenty of opportunities to get different angle shots in differing light and conditions, such as engine runs, of all the aircraft made available...the only downside was ZM406 which avoids me like the plague, however, it's a working aircraft, not a museum piece to be dragged out for people to photograph it and as such requires scheduled maintenance and if that coincides with a photo call then so be it.....
I want to extend my thanx to all who gave up their time to organise and police the event.........very well done Brize.

[AMB]

Has the the '50th Herk anniversary special C-130J had its markings removed yet? If not, where was it? Also did the red Chipmunk run its engine up floodlit, as that would have looked superb?

[tankbuster]

Paul, you have done well to capture the subjects in detail....BUT, this was a photo-shoot....right??
Could the organisation have made a bigger cock of it? So much junk & miscellaneous buildings in the background. 'Air-show Access' only to a single shot-angle. A/c parked too close to each other. No sunset shots possible (even if there had been a sunset!) No reflection on your ability, just poor effort on behalf of the 'photo-call' team. Compare that facility to recent Northolt & 'through the fence' night-shots @ the ACPV, Coningsby? It's not about money, it's the opportunities that matter.
The best shot for me is the last one, facing west to a Voyager which I assume was not actually a subject a/c?
PS: ZM406 Atlas spcl mks flew virtually every day last week...& then gets hangared for scheduled maintenance the day before the scheduled photocall? P-up & Brewery spring to mind!

That is totally uncalled for. It's an operational base and the team did brilliantly. I though it was a great night and I send my sincere thanks to everybody involved in setting up such a brilliant event.

[McG]

The 50th Anniversary Herc is in Zhuhai supporting the Red Arrows on their tour of China.

The red chippie did indeed run under the lights.

[Pringles]

Whilst poorly and unnecessarily rudely put across, Stagger has a point. It is out of the hands of the organizers that there is limited room for such large aircraft, and that the background is cluttered, so it is unfair to hold it against those that worked hard to organise the shoot, but it did affect some of the photos IMO. I did not attend last night's event, and seeing some of the photos from the shoot, I probably won't attend if there are future shoots at Brize. I'm more tempted to save up and spend more on a Timeline Events event, which means I won't see some of the aircraft available at Brize, but this is the choice we are all able to make.

This is by no means a criticism of the organisers as they did a great job to secure the aircraft that they did (there were more types of current RAF aircraft on display there than there was at this year's Cosford airshow I believe ) Top marks for effort, but not one for me.

(Impressive photos Paul )

[paullangford]

I understand some people took away some positives, and maybe some took away some negatives from the evening.

I can only speak for myself obviously, but for me it was a privilege to be allowed onto an operational RAF base to take photos, and then it was my privilege to contribute to the John Egging Trust in return.
I've enjoyed the privilage to be allowed to shoot at RAF Northolt as well in the past, and for me this was just as enjoyable.
The challenge for me is to work around whatever situation presents itself on these types of things.
I've had harder times trying to shoot statics at RIAT, with cones/ tape/ policemen/children/ground equipment/ & other jostling photographers elbowing and getting in the way.

I hope they do another, if so, sign me up

[CJS]

Nice shots; obviously it's rather a different type of shoot to Northolt, which hardly needed explaining but has been, for the benefit of those bereft of common sense, very succinctly in other replies.

The Atlas is my pick I think, nice one. Thanks for sharing them.

[paullangford]

Nice shots; obviously it's rather a different type of shoot to Northolt, which hardly needed explaining but has been, for the benefit of those bereft of common sense, very succinctly in other replies.

The Atlas is my pick I think, nice one. Thanks for sharing them.

Thank you CJS, much appreciated

[AndyXH558]

great pictures paul, you even got me in your first picture you swine :lmao

[paullangford]

great pictures paul, you even got me in your first picture you swine :lmao

Ha !........I made you famous !.....thx for the nice comments anyway

[AndyXH558]

That blasted skyvan. i got on the deck to take pics, so it moved, I then thought well im in a good position for the herc or so i thought and they moved us forward, I then suddenly found myself on my own on the lying on the deck and everyone shot forward. so funny. the herc and the atlas pics standout to me by the way. I think i spoke to you but will make sure i do next time.

[paullangford]

That blasted skyvan. i got on the deck to take pics, so it moved, I then thought well I'm in a good position for the herc or so i thought and they moved us forward, I then suddenly found myself on my own on the lying on the deck and everyone shot forward. so funny. the herc and the atlas pics standout to me by the way. I think i spoke to you but will make sure i do next time.

Yep, I think we spoke waiting for the A400 to start up.
Looking forward to see your photos

[boff180]

Nice selection there Paul. Been busy this afternoon working on our review and processing my shots....

[Brizeman]

knott68
Airbus Military are very much the engineering authority for the aircraft and bearing in mind that the second line maintenance is carried out by FlyBe then the reality is that if Airbus say it has to have maintenance at a certain point then there is nothing that can be done to release the aircraft for an event such as the nightshoot. I realise that may have disappointed some people and certainly none more than me when I discovered on Saturday morning that we would be getting ZM400 but things like that are out of our control. I hope that the A400 ground run compensated for the loss of ZM406 in some small way. I should point out that four of 70 Sqns pilots gave up their evening including the Squadron boss just to run the aircraft.

John

[IP1960]

Some nice shots there Paul, allowing for the clutter in the background . As others have said, I do think those comments were overly harsh but each to their own opinion.

As I have said in the main thread, I thought it an excellent evening and full marks to all involved. The number of aircraft movements while we were there was testament to how busy an operational base it is

I should point out that four of 70 Sqns pilots gave up their evening including the Squadron boss just to run the aircraft.

John

Yes and again as I said elsewhere the Sqn Ldr was very keen to chat and listen. If it is run again I will be there again.

[boff180]

I should point out that four of 70 Sqns pilots gave up their evening including the Squadron boss just to run the aircraft.

The flight crew I spoke with (not sure if it was the boss) was very keen to receive constructive feedback.

[paullangford]

Nice selection there Paul. Been busy this afternoon working on our review and processing my shots....

Thanks Andy