In July an Irish Air Corps Pilatus PC-9M appeared in the static display at the Yeovilton Air Day, and had an opportunity to photograph it air-to-air as it returned home to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel.

The weather in the photo area was perfect... clear skies, with a relatively calm sea providing a completely blank background that would make the aircraft stand out even more than it would have over land.

I have photographed many aircraft in an air-to-air setting over the years, everything from A-10s to the Vulcan to an A380, but finally getting the chance to photograph an Air Corps PC-9 was something special, they are the home team after all.

As with all things to do with aviation, there are many things that can go wrong to cause delays or cancellations, and air-to-air photography is no different. With that in mind, it's not an air-to-air photoshoot until the subject aircraft is tucked in behind or beside the photoship. To say I breathed a sigh of relief when the PC-9 was in sight and closing in on the photoship, a Shorts Skyvan, is an understatement.

There's not much more I can say really, the rest, as they say, is history, the pictures speak for themselves. The PC-9 was expertly flown, the lighting and the setting was just beautiful, see if you can spot a copy of An Cosantoir in one of the pictures.

A big thank you of course has to go to Eric Coeckelberghs and the Aviation PhotoCrew for the invite to join the photo flight, and of course the Irish Air Corps for giving permission for the PC-9 crew to take part in the photoshoot.