Air show season in Ireland is quite short, but nevertheless, it is an opportunity to see and photograph aircraft that are not usually seen here, or are not normally seen outside of an airport setting.

In July this year we three opportunities to do air to air photoshoots with some of the aircraft that were taking part in the Bray & Foynes Air Displays.

The first photoshoot was with a McDonnell Douglas DC-3 that was visiting from Germany. The aircraft was in Shannon where it was painted in historic Aer Lingus colours, and after painting it relocated to Dublin Airport for media events prior to the air displays the following week. Flying with Gerry Humphreys in his Vans RV-7, we intercepted the DC-3 shortly after it left Shannon, where we flew alongside it en-route to Dublin, finally parting ways over Birr Airfield. The route took us along Lough Derg, the sun really didn't come out to play, but we did manage to get a rainbow in one of the shots as a consolation prize.

The second photoshoot was on the Saturday of the air display weekend (the Foynes and Bray air displays were held on the same weekend, Foynes being a one day show, while Bray was a two day show), and on this occasion we were again lurking overhead Lough Derg, but this time catching the aircraft flying in the opposite direction to the first photoshoot as they positioned from the airports in Dublin to Shannon Airport for the Foynes show.

Flying from Cork Airport in a Piper Seneca from the Atlantic Flight Training Academy, we were joined by four visitors... The Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron MiG-15, the Strikemaster Display Team with a pair of BAC Strikemasters, Patrouille Tranchant flying four Fouga CM-170 Magisters and the Irish Historic Flight flying three De Havilland Canada Chipmunks. The weather was typically Irish, dull and overcast with a bit of rain lurking around, but despite this, the cloud base was high enough and everyone joined up as planned.

The third photoshoot was a short hop on the Sunday of the Bray Air Display in the Executive Helicopters Eurocopter Twin Squirrel flown by Billy Doyle to catch promotional shots of the Aer Lingus Airbus A321 during its display.

A Big Thank You goes to....

Everyone who helped arrange all the photoshoots, including Aer Lingus, the Foynes & Bray Air Displays, the Irish Historic Flight, Patrouille Tranchant, the Strikemaster Display Team and the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron. Thanks must also to the pilots & crew, including Flippie, Noel, Uli in the DC-3, Kenneth in the MiG-15, Mark & Ollie in the Strikemasters, Hugues and the team in the Fougas, Declan and the team in the Chipmunks, Shane in the A321, and of course Gerry, Seb, and Billy who flew the various photoships.