The "boys" are 85 aircraft, 22 ships, 3 submarines and assorted land units of the UK military and 12 invited NATO and Allied Nations taking part in the exercise Joint Warrior.
Since we live between two air bases the past week has been... NOISY, but exciting. They even managed to set off our one car alarm at about 2:00 am on Saturday, probably by scaring some poor cat or bunny into bumping into the car on his escape from the BIG NOISE.
Last week we took a drive down to Findorn Bay and tried to get a few photos. I discovered that trying to photograph fast moving planes is not easy, but we had great fun anyway. :-)
Here's my first attempt, from the parking area...
Then we walked down onto the grassland around the bay and I took this French aircraft coming in to land across the bay. Sorry guys, I'm not sure of the name. It was a very chic Navy colour, if that helps.
Two French aircraft in formation...
Close up...
Taking photo a bit too soon...
Taking photo a bit too late...
Really nice long shot of a small plane coming in to land...
A lovely picture of the bay taken almost from directly below the flight path in to Kinloss. That canal marks the way. If you click on this one for the enlarged shot as then you'll see the vapour trail of another plane to the left of this one...
:-)...
The small plane was probably our Canadian contribution. (Hangs head in shame)Just a little sarcasm. We do not do nearly enough to keep our forces with up to date equipment. That was a great opportunity you had.
ReplyDeleteBogey, you can lift your head up, the small plane was an RAF Kinloss Trainer. It did a couple of circuits between the landings of the fast jets. I Can say that there is a Canadian presence in this exercise, according to the write up in the paper, there are aircraft from Canadian maritime squadrons involved.
ReplyDeleteThe planes are very impressive. In Chicago, they have the Air Show in August where we see Air Force planes flying in formation. What's really something is they rehearse the Thursday before the show and a lot of people working in downtown CHicago get to see them.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it was fun to see all those planes. The yellow bushes or trees or whatever they are sure are pretty. I know you were taking a photo of the plane, but I just thought I'd mention how much I liked those. :D
ReplyDeleteWhile I read this post, I kept thinking about bird watching. The skies in the photos are so blue. I love the blues.
ReplyDeleteBogey
ReplyDeleteIt is great fun living so near to air bases, I must admit.
As for out dated... I'm originally from Africa, where all the planes are hand-me-downs from Europe. Hubby (Sandy aka A Frost) was amazed when he saw the planes we had flying about Africa... even more amazed when he saw some of the cars. LOL
A Frost
Hi my love. Nice seeing you on my blog for the first time. :-D
Mike
Thanks. :-) Hope you're keeping ok.
Hi Vince
I've only ever seen one real air show. I must have been about 13 and it was amazing.
Daisy
The yellow are gorse bushes. they are incredibly thorny, look gorgeous though. I'll dig up some more gorse photos for you. I love it when it's flowering. The flower heads are sweetpea-shaped and smell... unique. I've tried to descide what gorse smells like and the closest I can get is vanilla and new plastic (you know how some plastic products have that slightly perfumey smell?). It's an odd scent that can be a bit much on a hot day. I can't ever decide if I like it or not, but the colour I just love. That yellow glows. :-)
Orone
You reminded me - the area is also a bird anctuary where ducks and other water birds nest. It's a very beautiful area. :-)
Planes schmanes, I'm more interested in that gnarly bit of dried up wood in the second photo! I'd have stolen that and put it in my yard! It was lovely.
ReplyDeleteI don't have enough testosterone to appreciate planes and jets and things, but I do love the NOISE they make! Might not feel the same if they were, directly or indirectly, causing my car alarm to go off.
LOL
ReplyDeleteGenie, my mom said the same thing. She looked at it and said "We could use that in the garden!" but I shiould point out it was a gnarly dried tree, not a branch! It would take a tractor to haul it off.