RAF Cottesmore and RAF Coningsby.....

^^Gord^^

^^Gord^^

^^Gord^^

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Joined
20 Oct 2002
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Location
Nottingham
Spent Monday at a very cold RAF Cottesmore, never have I seen such short battery life! Lots of sun and very little cloud cover meant a hard time trying not to shoot into the sun.

Nothing stunning so just the one photo, click on it to see the rest from the day...



Friday at RAF Coningsby saw the opposite, lots of cloud cover and very little sun. Star of the day was Typhoon 07 and this 'performance take off'. Again, click on the photo to see the rest....

 
Great shots there Gord. Cottesmore is pretty close to me, whats the deal with access then? On the website it says you have to request access from the commander or something? Do you have any more info on this matey? :confused:
 
Thanks guys, unfortunately the server I host my site from has just gone **** up so any new views of this thread may not see the photos. :(

@antc, the bit on the website will be for access inside the station, usually for a media event like the Falklands 25th event for 1 Sqn, that you will need media credentials for.

You are free to stand outside the station and take photos of the Harriers. Cottesmore on the runway 22 end has low fences so you won't need a ladder but if you shoot from a side with high fences then don't rest the ladder against the hence or make a whole in the fence (you'd be suprised how many people do).

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/spotting/cottesmore.html

EDIT:

Been told it's a bandwidth disagreement upstream that has taken the server off the interweb. Hopefully it will be sorted late tonight.

That is a good (although a little out of date now) site for working out where to go.
 
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^^Gord^^ said:
Thanks guys, unfortunately the server I host my site from has just gone **** up so any new views of this thread may not see the photos. :(

@antc, the bit on the website will be for access inside the station, usually for a media event like the Falklands 25th event for 1 Sqn, that you will need media credentials for.

You are free to stand outside the station and take photos of the Harriers. Cottesmore on the runway 22 end has low fences so you won't need a ladder but if you shoot from a side with high fences then don't rest the ladder against the hence or make a whole in the fence (you'd be suprised how many people do).

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/spotting/cottesmore.html

EDIT:

Been told it's a bandwidth disagreement upstream that has taken the server off the interweb. Hopefully it will be sorted late tonight.

That is a good (although a little out of date now) site for working out where to go.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gord,

So you can just turn up pretty much as and when then. Im guessing its pretty busy there most days?

cheers.
 
You sure can, you may have some of the civy station employees like the airfield manager or the birdman (the guys who are employeed to keep the birds away from the airfield) come over to you. They will just be checking you are a spotter and can be a good source of info on what is going on for that day.

As for busy, not as much as some other airfields. There are only three squadrons based there (1, 4 and the Navy Strike Wing). Of those one will be away providing close air support in Afganistan so you will only have two active. Cottesmore has also been doing a lot of night flying over the last two months so you may not see anything in the day time.
It's a lottery. If you want busy then Lakenheath or Coningsby are far better choices.
 
Lakenheath - My god what a terrible website to have to navigate through lol. The contact section isnt exactly obvious either is it unlike the Conningsby and Cottesmore sites!!

Coningsby - Looks pretty good as well, as you say a lot more seems to be based here than at Cottesmore.

Thanks for the info on those 2 Gord. Maybe we could meet up some time to shoot these awesome planes!
 
Host is still down so here are the photos posted on photobucket. A few tasters, the rest linked below.....

IMG_1374.jpg

IMG_1458.jpg

IMG_1052.jpg


Cottesmore: http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee265/g0rdcom/Cottesmore/
Coningsby: http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee265/g0rdcom/Coningsby/
 
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