Patrouille de France

we did catch Patrouille de France on Saturday - about 5ish they were on. Their display was great, and standing where we were, it also felt very, very personal - those jets are whooshing by like there is no tomorrow.


I believe from this picture you can see why we mistook them for red arrows on Friday - there are eight of them (Red Arrows fly eight when one pilot is not available, and that's what happened on Saturday), the outlines of the jets are not dissimilar, and the colors of the smoke they trail are the same. And sure there are differences, starting from the color of the planes, but in the distance you can't really see that at all.

I read up on them a little bit and was very surprised and pleased to find out that the team is headed by a woman - Virginie Guyot

And of course I do have a shot with them doing a very similar curve to the previous picture, but I think there's enough curves for a bit.

Duxford air show today

ever impressive red arrows display over Duxford museum today. They are going to kick off the display tomorrow at two, apparently, so there is still a chance to catch them over this w/e.


Yesterday a jet team was doing a display very close to our house. We immediately assumed that they were red arrows, except when they flew really low, I saw that the jets are in fact blue. I was somewhat perplexed, but decided this was a new look for red arrows (Blue is New Red, you know). They did some figures that I didn't ever see the Red arrows do - a heart pierced by an arrow was one.

Today it transpired that what we saw yesterday was French aerobatics team - Patrouille de France, and they will perform today only. Problem is, nobody seems to know what time. We are assuming they'll close the show at about 5, so we are heading back to Duxford soon.

fly away

today was very clear and very cold. Well, not siberian cold, but I am a) not from siberia in the first place b) tended to dress according to the weather when I lived in Moscow. Not now. I would gladly put on something truly warm, but I don't seem to possess such items any more. When it gets cold, I just put more layers on. It kinda works, but not completely - I am still fully aware of the cold.

Anyway. The contrails (did you know that's what they are really called? I didn't up till today) were all over the sky. There were quite a lot of unusual bird activity too, probably because the usual hunting, grazing or simply hanging out grounds are under snow or frozen over. But I don't know my birds, and I do know my planes (as in "it's a plane, innit?"). So here is a picture of one. Cheers to that