RIAT: departure day, 20-07-2015

**Anton Homma** · 2015-07-26, 01:54 PM

Hi everybody,

every year the Royal International Air Tattoo is being held at RAF Fairford (or US Air Base Fairford). The last time I visited this event was 1998, so it was time to return. I was, however, not able to visit the airshow itself. Luckily the RIAT is a multiple day event, including a day called "Departure Day", which is always the Monday after the air show weekend. During the timeframe of 9.00 till about 14.00 most of the aircraft that participated depart the show. To being able to photograph and see all this aircraft the RIAT sells special "Park & View" tickets, which lets you park the car en view the action from two special cordoned zones alongside runway 09-27. Here's my impression of the day in 24 pics, all taken at P&V East. In total more than 140 aircraft were photographed!

1. Absolutely great colors on "Zeus", the demo F-16 of the Hellenic Air Force:

F16CJ-HAF-523-FFD20jul15-2 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

2. Nice to catch several Italian Tornado's, like this MM7072:

Tornado-ITAF-MM7072-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

3. Slovenian Falcon 2000 L1-01 dropped in for about two hours:

DA2000-SLO-L101-FFD20jul15-2 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

4. Transall R208 of the Armee de l'Air is showing its age:

C160-FAF-R208-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

5. A very colorful Bo105 of the German Army is this 86+49:

BO105-GAR-8649-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

6. Three Hawk T1W's of the RAF turning onto runway 27:

Hawk-RAF-ZK026-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

7. Definitely the best looking Typhoon of the RAF flying around is this ZK349:

EF2000-RAF-ZK349-FFD20jul15-2 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

8. CH-47D D-890 of the KLu gave the public a proper rotorwash!

CH47F-KLU-D890-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

9. Cessna send over this Scorpion jet, which could also been seen earlier this year during the Paris Air Show:

CEE530-TEX-N531TA-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

10. A common visitor to the RIAT is the Royal Jordian Air Force with one of their C-130H. This time it was 347:

C130H-RJAF-347-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

11. Nice Polish M-28 1115:

M28B-PLN-1115-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

12. Not seen often out of Spain are the SF-5's, like this SF-5BM AE.9-027:

SF5BM-SPAF-AE9027-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

13. Cold War beast; Su-22M3K 310 of the Polish Air Force:

SU22-PLF-310-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

14. The Brits also brought their newest toys, like this A400M Atlas ZM402:

A400M-RAF-ZM402-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

15. This RAF 14sq centennial Tornado (ZA461) tried to take-off, but aborted twice and returned to the hangar:

Tornado-RAF-ZA461-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

16. Another Polish Cold War delight; MiG-29A 40 is taxiing onto runway 27:

MiG29-PLN-40-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

17. The highlight at RIAT 2015; the JMSDF P-1's, like this 5507:

P1-JMSDF-5507-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

18. The US Navy brought their newest maritime patrol aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon. This is the 167956:

P8A-USN-167956-FFD20jul15-2 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

19. Vulcan G-VLCN (XH558) is set to retire and its appearance at RIAT was its latest. Such a shame! They lack the funds to continue the flying operations, which costs about twenty million pounds a year...

Vulcan-PVT-GVLCN-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

20. Second visiting P-1 of the JMSDF, the 5504, is seen here turning onto runway 27:

P1-JMSDF-5504-FFD20jul15-2 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

21. There were quite a lot C-295M's present from Poland, Finland and this Spanish one, the T.21-07:

C295M-SPAF-T2107-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

22. The Qatar Emiri Air Force brought this C-130J-30 212/A7-MAI to the RIAT:

C130J-QTR-212-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

23. Another new RAF-toy; Voyager KC2 ZZ341:

A332-RAF-ZZ341-FFD20jul15-3 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

24. I'm ending this selection with this Mi-35 Hind 3370 of the Czech Air Force, which sports a special WW2-livery:

MI35-CZAF-3370-FFD20jul15 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

I hope you liked it! If you want to see the whole set, please click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeli...80600081/page1

Cheers!