Once again, the elements and tasking priorities caused a few issues for this nghtshoot. The French Securite Civile S-2FT Tracker in anniversary markings was re-directed to support firefighting activities in Corsica, whilst the Sea King HU5 from the Royal Navy at Culdrose was socked in by fog! The planned Hawk prototype from ETPS had a technical issue, as did the Lynx AH7 and the Armee de L’Aire contingent cancelled due to tasking priorities.
However, the ETPS stepped up to the mark and sent one of their QinetiQ Alpha Jets and a surprise visit from an Army Air Corps Apache AH1 on a night training exercise from 663 Squadron at Wattisham made up for some of the missing items.
Combined with this was the presence of the OV-10B Bronco belonging to the Bronco Demo Team and piloted Tony de Bruyn, who I’m pleased to say has fully recovered from his incident at Kemble in July 2012. Tony delighted the gathered photographers with his engine runs and smoke generation, although he did give me some issues when he turned on his landing light, creating some summer dresses unwanted lighting effects on an already rain spattered lens!
All in all a good evening, with the added attraction of fireworks celebrating Diwali to give some nice backdrops to the images.
