Duxford 2016 - Meet the Fighters

[JudgeDredd]

Well, what can I say. This was almost a complete washout. Half the stuff meant to fly didn't and the weather was awful making for difficult picture taking. We were soaked, then dry, then soaked etc, etc, etc. A real shame because tomorrow will be amazing weather.

Thing is, I booked early to get a discount on tickets. I shan't be doing that again because if I'd held off, I could've been there tomorrow...and I saved £6...what's that worth when the weather is rubbish and some of the planes don't fly.

Regardless, I grabbed 1600 pictures (lots of multiples as they flew by) and I'll post them later. Please be aware, I'm not a photographer and I've recently just taken ownership of a Nikon D40X DSLR (my first ever DSLR - I always used a bridge camera) with both a 55-70mm and a 70-300mm lenses...so I'm not entirely sure I knew what I was doing. Sometimes the flash came on, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes I noticed I was on AUTO mode, others I noticed I was on Sport mode and others, some other mode!!

So the images will be the best I could do given a new camera and the bad weather. If anyone has any tips for future bad weather airshows, please feel free to enlighten me.

Pictures to follow. I've got some conversion to do, selection and uploading them - so they may be on here tomorrow.

Here's a preview

[Staggerwing]

Nice pix Judge. I really like the first one. The unusual perspective just grabs you. Definitely frame-worthy.

[JudgeDredd]

Thanks Stagger.

She has some beautiful lines. By far the sexiest bomber of WWII imo  O0

Spits being chased by an Me109

[Staggerwing]

Thanks Stagger.

She has some beautiful lines. By far the sexiest bomber of WWII imo  O0

Spits being chased by an HA-1112

FIFY ;)

[JudgeDredd]

Thanks for the fix. They called them Me109 Hispano Buschon's or something. I have to be honest, I hadn't ever heard that before.

Engine?

I recall being in one of the hangers at Duxford with my wife and kids and I heard a Spit passing by. I led them all outside quick smart Saying "There's a Spitfire"....only to watch an Me109 flying down the runway!! I said "I was sure that was a Spitfire". My kids were like "Good one dad" and looking at me like I knew nothing all of a sudden...then this guy in overalls replied "Well, it is, kind of...it's got a Merlin engine in it"

Kudos returned to father!

[Bison]

Great photos JD.

[Sir Slash]

Very nice. Very jealous despite the bad weather.

[JudgeDredd]

Thx.

Some stunning aircraft. Unfortunately the weather was awful and the Sally B (B17) didn't fly, the Mig-15 didn't fly, the Vampires didn't fly, the mass of Spitfires (about 10 or 12) didn't fly, the WWI biplanes didn't fly....overall, not the best day at the airshow.

I will definitely hold off until I see the weather next time.

The US Hanger is superb  O0

One cool thing they did this year was hold a bomber briefing. We all sat in a room as "pilots, navigators, bombadiers, gunners, rad-ops" and had a briefing on our bombing run that evening. Very cool.

Also, there was a US Marine there who was injured 4 times in the Pacific who got a standing ovation during the briefing.  O0

[Staggerwing]

Thanks for the fix. They called them Me109 Hispano Buschon's or something. I have to be honest, I hadn't ever heard that before.

Engine?

I recall being in one of the hangers at Duxford with my wife and kids and I heard a Spit passing by. I led them all outside quick smart Saying "There's a Spitfire"....only to watch an Me109 flying down the runway!! I said "I was sure that was a Spitfire". My kids were like "Good one dad" and looking at me like I knew nothing all of a sudden...then this guy in overalls replied "Well, it is, kind of...it's got a Merlin engine in it"

Kudos returned to father!

Next time you watch the classic early 70's movie 'Battle of Britain' take a close look at the Me-109s used in the film. They were either purchased or borrowed from the Spanish Air Force. The 'He-111s' used in the film were also from Spain and were actually CASA 2.111s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CASA_2.111). They also used Merlins and looked like some kind of weird cross between He-111s and DH Mosquitos:

[DoctorQuest]

I think you did great with your new camera.  O0

[mirth]

I think you did great with your new camera.  O0

+1 Cool pics!

[OJsDad]

I think you did great with your new camera.  O0

+1 Cool pics!

+2

[JudgeDredd]

Thanks all.

Ok - get ready. There's about 300 pics here.

The Sally B - beautiful






















A beautiful PBY Catalina




There were no boards that I could see on the Flight Line walk, so I may be wrong with some of these
A Bearcat - you can actually proper see the rain pouring down if you look carefully enough


A Hawker Fury


A Harvard


The Mig-15 and Vampires didn't fly, but they did a pass by on the runway. Man - the sound of those bad boys! And the smell of the fuel was gorgeous
Mig-15


Vampires - two different types







Some "arty" shots - I was going to use these to "guess the plane"...but all this conversion, selection, uploading has tired me out somewhat. And besides, they were hardly difficult for you bunch.

[JudgeDredd]

Some Spitfires. Unfortunately, due to the weather, the mass fly-by of these Spitfires (there were about a dozen) didn't happen.


















Some more "arty" stuff








Safety first


Gloster Gladiator - I love this old biplane



Some other biplanes - Hawker Nimrod Mk1 and Mk2, Hawker Fury Mk1 and Hawker Demon (not necessarily in that order)

[JudgeDredd]

A Hurricane




What Staggerwing said...






Yak-3




Acrobatic aircraft - these put on a lovely show. Unfortunately they were doing it in really bad light, so I didn't get any good ones of them flying