Trip Report April 2022

In April I had my second trip of the year with four days in the Lake District, LFA17, in the hope of capturing low flying military aircraft and an opportunity to try out my new Canon R5 mirrorless camera attached to my existing Canon EF 500m f/4 lens, via an EF to RF Control Ring Mount Adaptor.

The weekend preceding my low flying photography trip I visited two air museums.
Saturday 9th - Jet Age Museum at Gloucester Airport, which is a relatively small museum in comparison to the RAF museums at Cosford and Hendon, but still worth a visit, as it has a wide range of aircraft, engines and restoration projects on display. Photographs can be viewed at: Jet Age Museum, Gloucester Airport.

Sunday 10th - East Midlands Aeropark, which is located within the grounds of the East Midlands Airport, near to the village of Castle Donington. The Aeropark has an impressive list of exhibits, notably an Avro Vulcan, BAe Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and BAC Lightning to name a few. In addition, the museum has a large viewing mound positioned adjacent to the airport's main runway, where one can observe and photograph aircraft unobstructed by the airfield perimeter fence.
Photographs will be added to the Aviation Museums ‑ United Kingdom web page in due course.

If one has an interest in the aviation heritage of the U.K. I thoroughly recommend a visit to both museums.

My visit to the Lake District, LFA17, resulted in a couple of firsts for my U.K. low flying photography hobby.
Monday 11th ‑ Oxford Crag, Patterdale. A dry weather day, but a very tiring day trying to shelter from the strong wind. I was rewarded at 14:17 by two Texan T.1 training aircraft, ZM330 and ZM329 from RAF Valley, routing down Pasture Bottom and past my location.

Tuesday 12th ‑ Great How, overlooking Thirlmere Reservoir. The visibility and weather was far from ideal, but my perseverance was rewarded at 11:08 with my first Juno HT.1 training helicopter, ZM529, from RAF Shawbury.

Wednesday 13th ‑ Great How. No aircraft seen and I left the hill after lunchtime due to the deteriorating weather.

RAF F-35B Lightning, routing low-level through the Lake District, LFA17.

Thursday 14th ‑ Place Fell, Patterdale. Not the easiest location to access, due to the steepness of the climb and parts of the hill covered in a large boulder scree. It was a quiet day and looked as though it was going to be another blank (no aircraft seen). At 14:04 this thought was quickly dispelled when I observed multiple aircraft entering Kirkstone Pass. At first I thought they were American F‑15's from Lakenheath, but quickly realised they were four RAF F-35B Lightning's. They were serials: ZM145, ZM142, ZM419 and ZM139 of No. 207 Squadron based at Marham. I have captured low-level images of the F-35 in the States, but this was my first opportunity to capture them in the U.K. Low Flying System.
Photographs from my trip can be viewed at: 2022 ‑ UK Military Low Flying.