B52 over East Northants!

[LotusOmega375D]

Heading West a few moments ago.

[LotusOmega375D]

B52 spotted heading NE at 10.30 this morning whilst I was washing the car. A few minutes later I saw a Spitfire overhead waved and he did a barrel roll for me! I guess he liked the Evora GTE.

[LotusOmega375D]

B1 overhead a few minutes ago. Heading in same NE direction.

[LotusOmega375D]

B1 again this morning. Same route, but I was prepared this time and got the binoculars on it.

[LotusOmega375D]

B52 heading outbound North-East at 7.15h this morning.

[LotusOmega375D]

B1 at 06.45h today. Same heading. Nice and loud.

[LotusOmega375D]

One B52 westbound heading into Fairford a couple of minutes ago.

[LotusOmega375D]

One just heading out East to play. Got the binoculars on it this time.

[LotusOmega375D]

2 more B52s just now heading East. One just a few seconds behind the other.

[LotusOmega375D]

Two singletons today also. Does anyone know where they go and what they do?

[LotusOmega375D]

Two in close formation directly over our house this morning and a third a few minutes behind.

For anyone wanting to see them take-off at Fairford, it seems that between 10.00 and 10.30am is the sweet spot for activity, if you happen to be passing. I'm not sure if this repeats at the weekend though.

[LotusOmega375D]

It's that time of the year again folks! One just headed East a moment ago.

[LotusOmega375D]

Just gone over again. Same route. He opens the taps a bit after he passes us and belches out 8 lines of dirty exhaust smoke.

How many are stationed at Fairford at the moment?

Edit: well there's at least two here, because another has just flown past. This one made a lovely turn as he went past and also belched out the smoke. I got my binoculars on this one so I need to correct my above statement: it actually makes 4 trails of smoke, since the engines are mounted in close pairs.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Thursday 13th September 09:34

[LotusOmega375D]

Have the Buffs arrived at Fairford yet?

[LotusOmega375D]

Just answered my own question. One's just gone straight overhead here in east Northants inbound towards Fairford!

[LotusOmega375D]

Yes one headed East two hours ago and just spotted a second one now.

[LotusOmega375D]

It's actually been very busy overhead today. I've spotted 3 x B52, 2 x A400M, 1 x C-17 and the first Spitfire of the year (invasion stripes livery) doing an impromptu mini air display.

[LotusOmega375D]

I've just realised that after 3 years of keeping PH and the Russians up-to-speed on the movements of these B52s, that I have never taken a photo of one. Well I was ready and primed with my camera this morning and sure enough two of them have already flown over. Now I only have a 55mm - 200mm zoom lens, so the aircraft don't actually look that big 100 miles or so into their flight. Anyway I did what I could and have digitally enlarged the image, so it's much grainier but, what the hell, it's a B52 after all.



Here's a shot of the third one over today.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Monday 25th March 11:05

[LotusOmega375D]

They must be back at Fairford. Just had one overhead.

Followed 60 seconds later by a pair of low flying Ospreys going the other direction. Just a happy coincidence though.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Tuesday 17th September 10:05

[LotusOmega375D]

Just spotted him coming back home over our house, so a mission of about 6 hours or so today.