Navy Wings Nightshoot

Aviation PhotographyCurrent MilitaryHistoricWarbirdsNightshootsHelicopters
Written By Jack Goward

It’s another winter month and another Nightshoot, this time courtesy of the Navy Wings team based down at RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset and once again Threshold Aero. Bit of a journey for me so on Thursday 12th October I decided to make a day of it with a wonder round the excellent Fleet Air Arm Museum, followed by a bit of spotting (may do a post on this at a later date) prior to making my way back to the main gate to the meeting point prior to the shoot.

Left to right - Harvard, Wasp, Sea King, Wildcat, Merlin, NH-90

Being on an active military airfield there were various ID checks to take place before a short coach journey onto the station and over to the east side of the airfield to the Navy Wings hangers. Formally the Royal Navy Historic Flight, for me it was a real treat being able to have a look round the facilities they have down at Yeovilton and get a glimpse of some of the current restorations taking place.

One thing is for sure, this was definitely the wettest organised shoot I’ve attended to date. Sadly the South West weather was true to form and the last 45-60 minutes of the shoot were pretty unpleasant – I of course firmed it and continued to click away…

Due to the poor weather conditions, the Swordfish stayed put in the Hanger but all of the other participants were kept outside. I thought that backdrop at Yeovilton was excellent and really gave the feel of being on a military station.

One of the highlights of the shoot included a surprise guest appearance from a Dutch NH-90 which was down at Yeovilton on an exercise at the time, the crew kindly added it to the line-up for the first hour or so of the shoot. Other highlights included the Navy Wings Stinson Reliant and Harvard that looked excellent against the night sky, the Wasp HAS Mk1 with its engine run and it was great to photograph the mighty Sea King painted up in ex Royal Marine colours.

Yeovilton still have a number of old Sea Harriers on the airfield, which we were lucky enough to shoot as part of this event as they were conveniently placed at the end of the flight line. The warm moody tones in the sky made for some excellent contrast with some of the images. Particularly with the Wildcat and Merlin pictured below.

Towards the end of the evening when the weather was at its worst, the visiting Sea King fired up its APU (auxiliary power unit) and unfolded its blades which I though made for quite a cool image. The Navy Wings team also unfolded the wings on the Swordfish that was in the hanger which was a nice touch to close off a great day looking at all things Royal Navy!

Once again props to Threshold Aero for putting on another excellent event and a special thanks to the Navy Wings team for putting their unique collection of aircraft on display for us to photograph!

As always here’s some useful links to the key elements of the above shoot!

 Until next time…

Jack

Jack Goward
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