A lot of you knew about my little air-to-air photography trip I had lined up, and I’m sorry it’s taken so long to actually putting a thread up!
To cut a long story short, about 9 months ago the editor of a German magazine called Planet Aerospace contacted me to buy a photo. After this we stayed in regular contact, and he subsequently bought photos off me for almost every edition since. Several months ago he mentioned that he’d like some nice photos of his own aircraft, a Piper Warrior, and after a few hints from me he invited me to Germany for some air-to-air, to get the shots he wanted of his own aircraft! So I booked up on Air Berlin, and finally the time came last month. Here’s bascially a little story of my trip…
I started off from Stansted, and I was flying to Munich via Dusseldorf. My first flight was on D-ABBN (the ex-Dreamliner) and here’s a quick shot form the cabin…
I then had a very quick connection in Dusseldorf, where i was happy to see that the shceduled 737-300 was now a Fokker 100. It turned out to be D-AGPG, and here’s 3 shots from that flight…
Firstly, the wingview. It was great being able to see the wingand engine all at once.
Next, a look inside the cabin. It was extremely comfortable, with soft leather seats and a very generous leg room.
And then the cockpit, after arrival in Munich…
He met my flight, and we drove off to an airfield called Landshut about 30 miles away where his aircraft was based. He said he just wanted to show me the plane before we attempted air-to-air the day after, but he asked if I wanted an aerial tour of Munich and of course I agreed.
We took off and headed otwards Munich. Enroute he told me that if we were lucky, Munich ATC will occasionally let light aircraft transit over the top of the international airport. He asked, and 5 minutes later they replied that we could! Munich airport has 2 parallel runways, with the terminal etc situated in the middle. We flew straight towards the terminal, over the top of the first runway. It was surreal, watching large aircraft takeoff underneath us. We were just over the top of the terminal and the tower said we’d have to hold over the top, as there was traffic landing on the second runway. Yes, just what I wanted! So we flew in circles for a few minutes allowing me to take a couple of interesting overviews…
We were then allowed to continue and we buzzed around Munich for a while. On the way back, we flew over this airfield, Oberschleissheim, which is the oldest operational airport in Germany and has one of the World’s very first passenger terminals..
The next day we planned to do the air-to-air, but the Cessna 152 we had to hire wasn’t available til 5pm. So we had to kill time, and had a great idea. We looked for an airfield on the map that looked very small, and was unlikely to have much traffic. We settled for one called Dingolfing, just a 20 minute flight, and flew there. The reason for this is he wanted to drop me off, and then show-off with a bit of an airshow. So we arrived at the airfield, and tiny it was. There were 2 other aircraft on the ground, and a few guys just chatting at their clubhouse. The guy in charge agreed it was ok for me to stand on the runway for some action shots, and so I walked off while my friend got back in the Piper and took to the skies.
He then did a bit of a private airshow, with me literally standing on the runway..
This was him coming back to land, and I was quite worringly close to where he came to a halt!
We then headed back, with a quick overview of the little airfield as we left..
We landed back in Landshut, then had 2 hours to to wait until we could get our hands on the Cessna. The rest is coming right up…
By: Deano - 20th September 2010 at 22:30
Civilspotter, the rules apply to you as well.
Please do not open threads that are more than 6 months old, as per rule 9 of the CoC.
Rgds
Dean
By: civilspotter - 20th September 2010 at 22:25
This topic is over 3 years old but I think it is a phantastic photoreport.
The air to air is brilliant and I personally like the take-off shot from the Dusseldorf terminal, makes me realise how massive the building is.
kind regards
EC
By: wannabe pilot - 9th September 2007 at 21:03
Cheers guys, thank you very much! Really glad you liked them all, I’ll see if there are many more worth editing/posting. You’ll probably see lots more GA shots from me now as I have a job in operations at a local airfield. Today I acted as ‘ballast’ on a Piper Seneca pleasure flight over London, which was a pretty damn fun way for me to be earning my wage! 😀
By: tomfellows - 9th September 2007 at 15:46
Another excellent photo thread by you, Dan. 😀
By: RIPConcorde - 9th September 2007 at 15:17
Awesome mate, as I’m sure I’ve already said, lucky *******. 😀
By: Newcastle - 9th September 2007 at 14:53
Truly stunning pictures mate. Would be interested to know what lens/lenses you used for them if you dont mind 😀
Regards
By: Ren Frew - 9th September 2007 at 13:20
Great thread Dan, and the GA stuff is fantastic too…
By: B77W - 9th September 2007 at 12:56
All Superb…but the first wing view..and he GAs!
😀
By: Old Git - 9th September 2007 at 10:02
Best pictures and report I have seen on here for quite a while. Excellent.
OG
By: Si Jones - 9th September 2007 at 09:12
What a fantastic oppertunity Dan, the images are just fantastic, have you anymore air to air shots you could post? BTW the first Munich overhead shot has my vote.
All the best……..and post some more!!!
Si
By: KabirT - 9th September 2007 at 08:22
very nice stuff.
By: gatwickjosh - 9th September 2007 at 08:20
Wow dan! Those shots are amazing. I was tempted to make the second air-air one my desktop background. but i cant as this is my mums laptop 🙁 Looks like you did your job well then.
By: PMN - 9th September 2007 at 04:19
You already know my opinion of these shots, Dan, but I’ll say it again. Absolutely superb! It’s nice to see a few from your flights there and back, too!
Paul
By: DJ17 - 9th September 2007 at 03:21
First class report and pics 😎
By: EGNM - 9th September 2007 at 00:27
Wow – stunning!
By: adamdowley - 8th September 2007 at 23:31
I don’t quite know what to say. You have surpassed yourself, Dan. You’re also incredibly lucky! The shots from above MUC are spectacular! 🙂
By: wannabe pilot - 8th September 2007 at 23:09
When we got back I took some photos of the other action on the airfield..
After a little while my pilot for the air-to-air trip arrived and introduced himself. We discussed how we were going to do the shoot etc and finally took off around 1730. The plan was to fly North to a large telephone mast about 10 minutes way, meet my friend in his Piper, and then do the shoot from there. Once we met up and were flying side by side, I opened the window on the Cessna. It was incredible windy and loud, and I started getting the camera set up. I have ot say, it was extremely fun, and was quitean adrenaline rush hangingout the window at 5000ft, flying alongside another aircraft. However, it was extremely difficult! I was aiming for the slowest shutter possible, around 1/160th, so as to get the prop blur. This combined with the howling wind blowing my lense around, and me being strapped in to the seat of the Cessna, made for a very challenging situation. It all worked in the end though, and here’s just 2 out of hundreds that I took (I can’t get away with posting too many, as its strictly not airline images!).
Here’s a shot I took just as we were about to land back in Landshut..
Unfortunately, it was all over too quick and the next day I had to fly home. Again it was via Dusseldorf, and I was pleased yet aain to see a Fokker at the gate. It was D-AGPJ, but I think I exhausted Fokker shots from the previous flight. On arrival in DUS I had an hour to kill, so I ran up to the terrace and got a few nice close-up shots..
I then departed home to Stansted on D-ABBN (again, my third time on that bl00dy aircraft!). I had a very nice overview of the terminal was we climbed out, followed by an interesting shot of our shadow as we broke the clouds..
Finally, to finish off quite an incredible trip, I had an excellent overview of Stansted whilst on short finals.
I hope you enjoyed my report/photos, and I hope Grey Area forgives me for the General Aviation shots!
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September 8, 2007 at 10:52 pm