2021 New Year and still in lockdown due to the CoVid Pandemic

2021; still in lockdown

The year started with us all still in lockdown and little to look forward to by way of going out locally or out of the United Kingdom. For the first few months we couldn’t travel between major or minor conurbations and certainly not to the airfields and airports we wanted to.

Our hobby (passion) was confined to the few aircraft that we could see flying over our locality within the U.K. Some people call it “dot spotting” as the aircraft fly high and are barely visible to the naked eye, this is where good (powerful) optics come into play as one can clearly see the aircraft and by the use of Virtual Radar it can assist to identify the over-flying aircraft.

In April certain restrictions on travel were lifted and we were able to venture out to airfields and airports. Towards the middle of the month I was able visit RAF Mildenhall and see several helicopters from the US Army (Europe) that had been used during the visit of the US Secretary of State for Defence.

At the end of April I met up with my friend Mark (Rourke) and spent the next twelve hours in his company looking at and photographing the visiting USMC F-35 Lightning II’s of VMFA-211, Yuma Arizona and waiting for the arrival of five more of the same type. The arrivals were “due” to arrive between 19-19:30 local but actually arrived at 21:25 when it was pitch black in the field I / we were standing in. Still we got to see all five so our day was complete.

Plans are in the pipeline for a visit to Malta for their International Air Show due to take place on the last weekend of September, however comma and there’s always a however travel out of the U.K. is still restricted so no concrete plans can be made.

I’ll update this as and when the U.K governmant make a decision / lift restrictions on travel etc. For now, thanks for stopping by, stay safe and stay well.

Addo