Love it – story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east_orkney_and_shetland/10412257.stm

Decent lens on that camera too!

An RAF spokesman said it was a "light-hearted moment" and insisted the crew had not endangered the aircraft.

Wonder if that's what they said to the crew member.

Love it. 🙂

Military in having a laugh shocker. Good grief

Surely a PhotoShop??

Funny. 😆

I hope they don't make an issue of it behind closed doors. Why shouldn't they have a bit of a laugh?

Surely a PhotoShop??

Why would it be? I've seen photo's taken by RAF Phantom pilots in the 70's & 80's holding up bottles of Smirnoff while alongside a TU95 Bear with the rear gunner of the Russkiecraft showing off an issue of Playboy mag, long before photoshopping was invented.

This is just a bit of japery. I can't believe this has turned into a story. This is the equivalent of someone in a passenger seat doing it to a driver.

That's great, if the hand wringers get upset then they just need to get hold of themselves firmly.

no-one else heard of FOD then?

What a waste of tax payers money . . . .

It's only by the grace of GOD that the plane didn't crash into a school and kill 400 children . . . .

etc etc etc

awesome picture. There was one in FHM once taken by the No 2 over the pilots shoulder – showed him reading the mag whilst the speedo(?) indicated a speed of 1500 knots or something mad.
🙂

good photo.

Good pic 🙂

Ain't navigators failed pilots 😉

no-one else heard of FOD then?

Yes, but that generally refers to stuff that's outside the aircraft. If he'd taped it onto the fuselage in front of the engine intake you might have a point.

no-one else heard of FOD then?

[quote]

A hand held sign as large as that, inside the cockpit hardly constitutes FOD. If it was a FOD controlled zone then they wouldn't be allowed to eat, which i'm sure they are on long missions. Nice try though.

Ain't navigators failed pilots

possibly. I went for tests at Biggin Hill aged 15 to see if I was suitable.
I never got the results of my pilot/nav tests as I turned out to be (a) short sighted (b) colourblind and (c) hayfever prone.

imagine 250 ft above ground 500+ knots, achoo bang…

LOL wouldn't be to good 😀

Quite funny, not really news though is it?
That camera man was well on it, I have difficulty believing someone took that picture from the ground, just on the basis of the speed of a Tornado.

Pic is spot on, navs are the brains in the outfit, pilots are just the driver, think I read in another forum the pic was taken at mach loop in wales, the aircrew know where to expect the spotters and often give a wave on the way through, search the web for loads more pics and vids, some stunning stuff out there,
PJ.

The only thing that would lead me to think of Photoshop would be the sheer difficulty of getting a good pic that close up at speed… Not dismissing it, but impressive if it's a real pic. Which it looks like to my untrained eye.

Having looked at the YouTube footage of that spot I can totally believe that the pic is genuine. Those fckrs enjoy buzzing people I swear, i was riding up in Glencoe and they fully sneaked up on me and put the afterburners on and gave me a wee wiggle to show how much they enjoyed seeing me sh1t my pants as they blasted over my head. Twice, second time round i shook my fist and the rear guy waved and gave me the thumbs up, Good to see them enjoying their work - so many people don't,

Now you know why us in the trade lovingly refer to the flight crew as 'growbags' – cos there full of sh*t!

I was a failed pilot!

NZCol,

Those fckrs enjoy buzzing people I swear

Believe me, at 420 knots in mountainous terrain, you're not focussing on individuals to 'buzz' let alone 'sneak' up on them.

There's definately no 'sneak' mode in the average fast jet!!

no-one else heard of FOD then?

I have seen a spanish pilot doing a full afterburn vert takeoff in a typhoon whilst holding his digital camera in one hand filming himself!!!

What's the Forest of Dean got to do with any of this?

Isn't this proof that the British armed forces are the best in the world?
This one makes me smile.

This video gives a pretty good idea of how close you can get to the planes on the Mach Loop. It's a well known spot, the pilots know there are always planespotters there and with a decent camera/lens you can get the shot then just crop/zoom in photoshop afterwards.

Garburn Pass is another good spot actually, I got a wave from a Typhoon last time I was riding up there. Just at the gate above Limefitt Caravan Park, heard the jet coming and it flew past a fraction below my level. Beautiful sight. 🙂

A couple of times when I've been windsurfing on lake Bala, midweek, Tornados and an A10 have come along at low level. That's what you call putting the wind up somebody, quite literally.

A friend of mine spends a good bit of time in Wales shooting on the "loop"

Here is his Flickr photostream

The only thing that would lead me to think of Photoshop would be the sheer difficulty of getting a good pic that close up at speed

If you're both going the same speed, its stationary.

nice pics pacemaker. Would a pilot fly a number of different planes over their career or just stick to one, especially if the plane is superseeded?

pacemaker, your friend has some stunning shots in there, great stuff!

You can see from that video some of the camera equipment used that they can capture top images.
Also amazing how quiet the Typhoon is compared to a lot of other jets.

Cheers for the comments, i will pass them on.
He uses the Nikon d300 and 300 2.8 .

The pilots we come across will fly various planes over there flying career.
(some fly Typhoons and Tornado's but are also "reds" , They are also into flying the R/C jets which is how i know them!)

Would a pilot fly a number of different planes over their career or just stick to one, especially if the plane is superseeded?

I'm on my third operational type having flown 6-8 or so in total. I'm hoping to up that by a good number soon….

Lots of it is down to choice. I've chosen to do different roles. Some prefer to become master of one…..

Some more pictures from the mac loop here

http://www.pbase.com/caeclyd/mach_loop

And awesome they are, you can see the pilot looking right at camera in quite alot of them.

If Machynlleth, Aberdyfi, Tywyn, Barmouth and Dolgellau Taffia ever decide to go to war with rest of the UK then the RAF are well sorted to take 'em down.

Real pics for sure, got a few myself earlier in the week on the way back from the CliMachx.

This was taken with a 200mm lens handheld

For anyone interested have a look at this link which shows some of the sites.