New for 2008 Military Airfield Photographic Guide
By using this guide you understand the following. The information contained in this website is believed to be correct at the time of writing and may change without prior notice. The owners of this website will not accept any responsibility to any loss, damage, injury, prosecution caused to you or by you as a result of you use this website as a guide to UK military airfields/installations. This guide does not give you any legal right to trespass upon private property. Contained in this guide is reference to certain locations where the landowner has given consent to use that piece of land, please not this is current at the time of writing and can or may change without prior notice, so if you are asked to leave a land which is private you must obey the landowners wish at all times. When using private land or indeed any public land also, you must keep within the law regarding, parking, litter and the use of radio scanning. Should you not wish to follow the above advice please leave this website now . All images and Intellectual property contained in this website are the sole property of the website owner and may not be copied or re transmitted in any form without written consent of the website owner.
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Welcome to this military airfield guide, this is brought to you from the people who gave you the low fly guide lowfly.net. When lowfly.net first hit the web in October 2005 it did feature for a short time a small airfield guide to aide the serious photographer in achieving his aim of creating great and memorable images. Although we can steer you in the right direction it is you and only you that can create the winning shot . However as that site took off the airfield guide was pulled, as we thought a full dedicated site was needed in order to give it justice. Now we feel the time is right for the airfield guide to be launched. This site, like its sibling, lowfly.net will start off with a small amount of information and over the full year of 2008 it will grow into the monster it will eventually become. Please keep calling back as updates will be frequent in 2008.
Planned Updates: End of April Coningsby
May Cranwell, Cottesmore
June Waddington
August Mildenhall, Valley
Ok so you are looking to get some pictures of Military aircraft, where do you go ?. The obvious answer is to an airfield, so when you get there what do you do, am i allowed to take pictures, is it a waste of 3 hours travelling to find out that its closed at night time and weekends. After reading this guide you will have a clear understanding of how our Armed forces operate.
In recent years the UK military as had its budget slashed to the point where we are finding it hard to fulfil our commitments world wide and at home. This will be evident if you are a regular visitor to the air bases in the UK, some days will have a steady stream of traffic and visitors and another day you can end up seeing nothing at all. If you arrive at 8:am and nothing's happened by 1pm , nothing may not move at all, even if they are on night flying duties. Most RAF bases go quiet between roughly 12 noon and 1.30pm, this is Lunch hour(s) Particularly at fighter bases.
When you first arrive look for 2 things, firstly see which way the wind is blowing and how hard it is blowing, this is especially important if its blowing across the runway and not down the strip. Aircraft do have operating restrictions and one of these is the types ability to operate safely in crosswind conditions. The other item to look for is a red and white checkered van/motor home, this is called the runway controllers caravan and it usually is parked at the touch down end of the runway. It is not uncommon at some stations to leave it out overnight only for the wind to change direction the next day, and when you arrive at the base and get yourself set up, the damn thing moves.
Am I allowed to take photographs ? In the UK we enjoy great freedom to pursue our interests, many airfields have grown to understand the need to accommodate the spotter. Some airfields are very friendly and have built at great expense dedicated areas where you can park up safely off the main road and view the proceedings, Waddington for example have gone the full monty built a fantastic enclosure complete with shop and tea bar with toilets and a phone box. Having said that you can take photographs it does come as a surprise that we hear incidents of enthusiasts getting bother off the local police or from the MOD police, these incidents are rare but do pop up from time to time. Usually the police and security forces do take the time to talk to you and take interest and occasionally give you some good advice or information.
When is the best time to go. The RAF seem to be the last bastion of the Monday to Friday working hours in the UK. Flying tends to start around 8am on a Monday morning and they clock off around 4pm on a Friday. During the week they may call it a day around 5pm unless they are on night flying training. The larger aircraft bases such as Lynham and Brize Norton are open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year as these see a great deal of aircraft coming or going to all four corners of the world. With the cut backs in defence, the MOD have started to contract out many different routes and it is not uncommon nowadays to see the Big Russian heavies landing at bases like Brize Norton from time to time.
What Camera ? This guide mentions certain focal length lenses, these should be considered that they were taken or in relation to a 1.6x crop body, such as a Canon 10/20/30/40d body. There are many different models of digital Slr made by a number of different companies and have become very affordable. A lens with a maximum reach of around 300-400mm is very useful around an airfield, although you should have a smaller lens in your bag for some bases such as Cottesmore, where aircraft can pass very close to you. For shooting straight down a runway, a lens of 400mm plus a converter would be ideal as these runways are nearly 2 miles long and the smaller fighter types get airbourne very quickly. Plenty of memory cards and spare sets of batteries for your camera and scanner are something that should be taken with you, which should be kept warm especially in the winter. Most of the Photographs in this website were taken on a Canon EOS 10d
Try not to put yourself in danger, by this we especially mean by not getting knocked over by a ten ton aircraft as it comes in to land. One look at the red and white fence at Waddington serves as a reminder of the Mirage that undershot the runway and took the fence down. Be careful when you are shooting in a position near a road, car drivers can be distracted by the aircraft and may not see you, people have been killed in situations just like that. These dayglow High Vis jackets are becoming very popular nowadays and are cheap to buy, you could even buy a large sized High Vis vest just to slip over your coat if you are in a location near a road.
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