2003

My digital camera is pretty old and my scanner’s not up to much so I had a limited choice. However, it was one of my favourite’s for of the year. Had to touch the picture up a bit as the lighting is awful.

I went to the Transport Museum in Gasgow in between Christmas and New Year. I had seen the progress of the restoration at East Fortune’s Festival of Flight, when they opened the restoration hangar, over the last few years. Good to see her complete and back in Glasgow.

Unfortunately they will be moving her to the Art Gallery once it’s refurbished, apparently as an ‘Exhibit of War’ and strung from the ceiling! A few people had posted comments at the museum concerning this, but the Council Museum’s department say they will also use her as a basis to cover the history of aviation in the area. We’ll see!

Originally posted by Robbo
Now I thought that looked like a familiar shot!

I found this in my archive from Legends 2003

Snapper Snapped!

Doesn’t the sun reflect off of the back of his head.

For PhantomII & LesB – posted elsewhere on this forum, but it is still one of my favourites. There were a few shots taken of this moment back at Kemble’s Delta Jets opening day this year:

Phant

Doesn’t the Canberra have a rather unique sound to it (particularly on start-up).

Right! Apart from the rather surprising “bang” of the cartridge start (and the smoke) if you’re not expecting it, the Canberras are infamous for the howling intake harmonics as the Avons spool up, especially if you’re stood in front of them – stereo-phasing (just like the old 70’s rock bands used to use). It’s one of the reasons why thousands of ex-CanMen like me say “What?” when you talk to them. 😉 That’s one way to recognise ex-Can guys, they don’t jump out of their skin at loud noises. Not because they’re used to hearing thousands of Canberra starts but because they can’t hear anything anyway! :rolleyes:

Oh, and you can hear a Canberra in the states, there’s three of them flying over there, all ex-RAF and two in revenue earning service.

This was the only warbird picture I took in 2003 where you can see who the pilot is:)

Doesn’t the Canberra have a rather unique sound to it (particularly on start-up).

Living in the states I’ve only seen them (usually B-57’s) in museums so I haven’t had the chance to see one fly unfortunately.

. . . and finally, guess what! This is my favourite from last year. The number of times I’ve seen Canberras taxi out, well, this pic, for me, brings it all back. :rolleyes: 😀

Then there’s this one. Quite pleased with this as I didn’t think my tele was long enough to get the shot. Again, Cov last year showing Denny doing his stuff.

Don’t usually do this but there’s a whole lot of Spits and stuff here. This was at Cov last year and as it’s not usual for me to take pics of a fan driven this one of SallyB is one of my “favourites” from this year’s bunch. Looks even better at 1280×1024 in full-screen.

Originally posted by PhantomII
Why?

Where’s that Bleinheim going?

Unlikely to be going anywhere for a little while, unfortunately it suffered a landing accident last summer. Thankfully plans are in place to see it repaired and back in the air.

Why?

Where’s that Bleinheim going?

Also, I love that last photo of the four warbird fighters. What a shot!

and finally, a sight we won’t be seeing for a while unfortunately:(

Next… I do like this one, and hope you can see why:)

Here’s three that pleased me:-
First,

😀

This is probably my favourite warbird pic of 2003. Have always liked the Skyraider but never had the chance to see one close up so, that was nice.

This one of the T-6 and T-34 – not a great shot but it sums things up for me:

You asked for ones personal to each of us – well, this was one of the high points of my summer! To fly in a formation of four spirited WW2 advanced trainers, while trying to grab pictures with a lens sticking out into a 120 knot wind, while bouncing around like there’s no tomorrow, and hanging on to the straps just-in-case (!), is one of the most amazing, invigorating, maddening, hair-raising. thrilling and generally enjoyable experiences of my life.

Well, you did ask!

Oh Yak11, just chill out.

I didn’t say the Mustang and Spitfire weren’t beautiful airplanes, but I just find it sad that no one ever talks about anything else on this forum.

You have to admit a little variety isn’t a bad thing though.

For the person who posted the photo of the P-40, Corsair, Spitfire, and P-51, that’s a great photo.

Nice to see the P-40 where it belongs…..right alongside some of the greats of WWII.

Originally posted by aj_march
Aplogise????? For that photo??????

Are you mad????

Well, you know, you get lucky with the lighting on one occasion, post the same shot infinitum and everyone thinks, “ho hum, same old silhouettes again”. 😀

As Damien says, it’s the reason why that’s important, for me the sight of this formation always raises the hairs on the back of my neck. If it wasn’t for the many, many people that paid the ultimate price in these machines, we would be living in a very different world to the one I was lucky enough to be born into.

Some wonderful photos posted here, but for poignancy nothing compares to Mark12s image, it really brings it home.

I prefer my Mustang picture out of my others (and I didn’t take a massive amount of warbird pictures this year for various reasons) because it looks timelss. It’s also a bit different to the normal view.

My best aviation quote of the year (Damien may recall):

“Excuse me mate, could I borrow your Spitfire for a minute please”.