OK, back with just a little time to spare before the afternoon activities kick off. These were all shot yesterday at both RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. First image was made noon with the last captured about eight-thirty.
C-130J from Little Rock, Arkansas. This is the first active-duty Air Force squadron to fly the new J-model into combat areas. The J-model has six curved propellors instead of the usual 4 square-tipped variety found on other Hercules and it has a sound all to itself. Kind of like those many-bladed room fans, not as cool as the old 3-blade jobs.
These two images were the surprise of the day, a pair of Italian HH-3F Pelican SAR (search and rescue) helicopters that stopped over for the evening. I had just climbed over a fence and they came around the trees causing me to go "WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!" and discovered the top of the fence has barbed-wire on it. Dang close to being dark, no tail numbers on these.
And the reason I was crawling over a fence and into a cow field? Strike Eagles doing night-ops. I scouted this location out a few days ago and just happened to be in the right place at the right time so off I went. The pair of lines in the distance is the first of a four-ship formation jumping into the sky with full afterburners.
Similar situation but now it's REALLY dark. It was at this point the herd of cattle decided my orange jacket tasted good and I spent the next 45 minutes shooing them away as I waited for the jets to return for the last planned shot of the night.
Which is this one, Strike Eagle coming in to land. Luckily they were only using the low-intensity approach lights. The group after this used the "high beams" and strobes which is just something I will have to work with another time.
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