good thread, when i started attending RIAT Fairford in the mid 90's, most of their fleet attended, been looking back through my personal photo collection, sadly ive very few, wish'd i'd paid them more attention, But, the joy of simming is, i can
We are all at an age that we saw the interesting jets like the Phantom, Buccaneers, Harriers, F104, etc. being replaced by the aircraft which are still operational today (and still considered modern by me), like the F-16, F-15, Eurofighter-2000 (Typhoon for you Brits). I saw Neptunes and Grumman Trackers when they were still operational and even the Percival Pembroke, which was still doing its routine flights from the UK to the forces in Germany. In 1982 I saw one of the last operational C-47s from the Danish Air Force arrive at Soesterberg to be handed over to the Military Aviation Museum. I was in the Royal Netherlands Air Force between 1977 an 1983 and had a decent camera with some pretty nice lenses in those day. I still wonder why I didn't take more pictures in those days as I had the opportunity. It would have been a great document about this era.
Taking pictures at a military airfield was forbidden during the cold war, but everybody just did it... We even had a spotter hill at Soesterberg AB on request of the US forces at Soesterberg to prevent people trying to climb over the fences.
I think we just considered it normal and of course camera's with real films in it were a different thing. But now, like you, I take screenshots of the aircraft I forgot to take pictures of in the past
Cheers,
Huub
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