Frecce Tricolori over Warsaw

I'd read on a Polish aviation website that the Italian aerobatic team, the Frecce Tricolori, would be paying a visit to Warsaw airport on their way to Moscow. The wind being from the south today (a sure sign in summer of fine weather), they approached Okęcie from the north west. But they took off over our house.

I was on my bike, some 15 km south-east of the airport, on the other side of Konstancin. I knew that the Frecce were due to take off some time after 14:00 local time, so when I heard the almighty roar of 11 jet engines in the sky, I knew it would be them! With the 80-400mm lens ready and extended, I caught the team, in formation, heading out towards Moscow. By now they were at several thousand feet, but with an adequate lens, two reasonable pics (top one shot into the light a bit flary, the lower one cropped too tight so I lost one aircraft).

A propos, I've not seen the US Navy's Blue Angels, but I have seen most of the European teams, and for my money, the very best is the RAF's Red Arrows. Here's a pic I took at the Radom Air Show four years ago; the Reds will be back in Radom this month for the Air Show on 29-30 August.

Red Arrows over Lincolnshire

Flying from Amsterdam to Manchester on Monday morning, I observed several parallel plumes of smoke rising vertically up towards our aircraft. What looked like a battery of surface-to-air missiles turned out to be the Red Arrows aerobatic team practising over their home airfield of RAF Scampton. This must be a rare photo - looking down from 32,000 ft over the Reds practising their manoeuvres! The picture was taken with the lens extended to 200mm, equivalent to 300mm for a 35mm film camera; this gives an indication of how far down from our aircraft the team was.

The map of the area that comes with Microsoft Flight Simulator (excerpt below), shows a Restricted Area around RAF Scampton extending to 9,500 ft. So although the flightpath (marked with a yellow line) crosses into the area, we're cruising well above it.