December is a month of festivities – trees, decorations, presents and the Classic Flight Night Runs! Held on Saturday the 10th at the Flight’s Coventry base, the temperature on the night was absolutely perishing, with a slight breeze playing its part in bolstering the chill. Luckily it stayed dry for the event – in fact, I’m still waiting for the year we all get snowed in and have to take refuge in the hangar for the night! Nightshoots are always a pleasure in that there’s no need to get up at the crack of dawn as you would for an airshow, so it was mid-afternoon before myself, Elliott Marsh and his brother Greg trundled leisurely up to the Midlands, chewing the fat as we went.
After checking in at the hotel just round the corner, we drove the short distance to Airbase – spying the Meteor T.7 through the fence on our way in, a moment which built up the excitement somewhat in the ‘red mini’! Each year I’ve attended, the entrance to the venues has improved, progressing from a gate, to a portacabin and now the new Airbase Visitors' Centre - complete with its own shop. It’s great to see such progression and not only of the actual aviation side of things at Coventry. Stepping out of the new entrance I was faced by a plethora of classic types strewn about in an airpark style arrangement; across the tarmac, some on the grass and even with some standing on gravel. A quick gander around the hangar also revealed a rather nice Yak-11 in amongst the other Classic Flight aircraft.
This event has always tried to develop and improve and this year saw the organisers build on last year’s format, with a great deal more taxying from the participating aircraft. As the sky developed a cold twilight hue, the crowd barrier was set up in front of the hangar doors, with a line-up of lighter types spread along the other side including the de Havilland Chipmunk, Chrislea Super Ace and two Percivals, namely Proctor and Prentice. The Prentice run was topped off by the rising, and recently eclipsed, moon – making for some atmospheric photographs as it glowed brightly with some light cloud drifting across it. The airpark layout of the aircraft behind however did clutter the background somewhat from the photographer's perspective.
With the first part over there was a small interlude to allow for reviving hot drinks and soup to be consumed in the café before the next set of runs took place on the southern ramp, which was even more exposed to the elements unfortunately! Air Transport Command C-47 KK116 made its night run debut, following in the footsteps of the Air Atlantique and red-schemed machines that have appeared in previous years, strutting its stuff along with the Anson and Dragon Rapide. Soon though it was time for the first jet to appear, undoubtedly one of the stars of the evening, in the shape of immaculate Gloster Meteor T.7 WA591. After first flying on the 14th June of this year, the jet made its display debut at Duxford’s Autumn Air Show and this was of course its first appearance at a night event.
In 2010 we got to see the Meteor NF.11 at this event and, due to its darker camouflage scheme, that jet blended into the darkness rather well. In contrast, the gleaming silver T.7, resplendent in her new RAF markings, stood out vividly from the inky black – it really did shine like a star! The jet efflux warmed us up a bit too....!
Rather than having one line-up of aircraft with each running up in turn, the ramp was left empty to allow aircraft parked elsewhere to start up, taxi and manoeuvre, stopping numerous times and then taxying off again – leaving the stage clear for the next act. I thought this plan worked very well as you generally got more angles on each of the subjects.
With the action on the southern ramp complete we moved back round the corner to where the barriers had been repositioned for the Vampire T.55 to start up, with the jet between us and the hangar, similar to the set up for the Venom in 2010. I chose a viewpoint towards the rear ¾ to try and catch the start-up flames, which did develop to an extent, but it was just a shame the jet had the brightly lit hangar as its backdrop, so they didn’t stand out especially well. They actually closed the hangar doors at that point last year, which was a great help in terms of lighting.
In previous years, the mighty Douglas DC-6 has proved itself as the big star of the show but, for the night's finale this time round the baton was handed over to the Avro Shackleton for its first appearance at the event, although it is sadly without a No.2 engine at the present time. The scene was perfect though, with a bomber's moon hanging overhead and the Shack’ shattering the silence, those massive contra-rotating propellers swinging to life and making both the ground and air vibrate impressively. The crew wore their oxygen masks, as did an observer in the nose, which was a nice touch, and though they were probably neceesary for the engine run and not solely for the photographers' benefit, they still looked good.
The group maintaining WR963 ‘Rosalie’ has put in a tremendous amount of effort to get the airframe to this point and there are big plans afoot, such as getting her taxying by the end of 2012. Definitely a project to support and watch in future.
If you would like to discuss using any of our imagery or feature content please contact us.