Foreign Visits

Capital Event

In this day and age with Air Forces shrinking and world events, airshows aren't as common as they once were. However, whilst this has become apparent, a few bases have taken the initiative and have begun organizing photocalls for enthusiasts. Iain Thomson reports from the 2007 Photocall at RAF Northolt near London, all photos copyright of author.

Routinely, Royal Air Force Northolt is home to 32 (The Royal) Squadron whose job, as the name suggests is carrying both members of the Royal Family and other important decision makers to their commitments. The station also handles a fairly large amount of civilian business jets due to it's close proximity to London and, famously, Heathrow.

One of the most common complaints about airshow static parks from enthusiasts is the positioning of barriers and other people getting in the way and therefore ruining shots, not to mention the funfair attractions creating a somewhat “colourful” background. The Photocall is organized solely with the enthusiast and photographers in mind, so gone are the barriers and the funfair, and the people wandering around are kept to a minimum or are non existent.a

This year’s event proved to be more popular than last, with the organizers managing to attract a larger number of aircraft than last year. Like 2006, the aircraft were parked on the northern ramp, spread out very well with ample opportunities for different angles and allowing for a good wander round and look at each example (although this was frowned upon by most people!). The organizers also provided sets of steps and ladders, allowing elevated views and photographs to be taken. The number of ladders had increased from the previous year. The only problem that many enthusiasts had to overcome was making the decision whether to attend Northolt or the Cosford Airshow being held the same day. 

The Brits

The organizers excelled themselves again in inviting a varied selection of aircraft and, but like all modern events there were going to be cancellations and declines to invites. Invites had been sent to many air arms including the Greeks, Hungarians, Bulgarians and the Ukrainians, but they all declined for various reasons. The aircraft that that did manage to attend included ‘star’ attractions of a pair of A-10A’s from the 52nd FW at Spangdahlem, a pair of Polish M-28 Bryza’s - an Air Force and a Naval example. Other foreign visitors included a Dutch AH-64D Apache; a Belgian Sea King Mk.48 in Anniversary marks and an A.109; The Irish Air Corps sent an example of their PC.9 and an EC.135 and the Germans sent over 3 Bo.105’s. The A10s were over in the United Kingdom as part of the detachment deployed out of their home base at Spangdahlem in Germany, to RAF Lakenheath, whilst runway work is in progress

The RAF sent a few examples of their fleet, including the 13Sqn special Tornado GR.4, a 56[R]Sqn Firebirds Tornado F.3, 4 Hawks attended including the 100Sqn 90th Anniversary example, and of course the home team, 32(TR)Sqn was present with an Agusta A.109 and Bae.125 CC.2 out on display. Other RAF machines on display included a Chinook HC.2, Puma HC.1, Harrier GR.9, and Qinetiq were kind enough to send one of their Lynx from the Empire Test Pilot School. A few ex-military visitors were present including a Westland Wasp and Jet Provost T.3, the latter coming from the Newcastle Airport based Newcastle Jet Provost Group.

Once again the weather did not spoil the proceedings, resulting in a glorious day for photography and also for a nice tan! The one obstacle that the weather did provide was the sun and photography from certain angles resulted in shooting directly into the sun.
Next year is looking to be better still and I’m sure that the enthusiasts will once again be out in force, perhaps photographing even rarer aircraft that the organisers may attract.