A few images that I managed to snap today at the Helsinki International Air Show and Malmi airport. I don't have a telephoto lens so these were mainly taken at 55 mm and then 'zoomed in' on iPhoto. Click on them to see bigger images.
Finnish army NH-90 Transport Helicopter. A big meaty helo, but the pilot could make it dance.
The Finnish Air Force's "Midnight Hawks" fly by Malmi Airport control tower
The Midnight Hawks.
And again...
And again. The Midnight Hawks were great, but who ever picked their display music that was blasted over the P.A. should be shot - some truly godawful Nightwish.
Condensation streams off the top of a Finnish Air Force F-18 as it blast into a fast climb. The F18 pilot had far superior music taste with Green Day being played in the back ground. But then you could hardly hear it anyway over the delicious scream of the afterburners.
Finnish airforce F-18 - the whole neighbourhood knew it was in town! Large numbers of people had ear protectors on or ear plugs in. I didn't think to bring any, but having grown up under an RAF and USAF low level flight training path, my ears are pretty used to it.
Not what you normally see over Helsinki: an F18 deploys chaff
(update: note from the comments: this should probably be flares not chaff) and rolls out.
A second chaff deployment. Malmi must be becoming a really lousy neighbourhood if shoulder launched ground to air missiles are deemed likely! :-)
Finnish army NH-90 Transport Helicopter. A big meaty helo, but the pilot could make it dance.
The Finnish Air Force's "Midnight Hawks" fly by Malmi Airport control tower
The Midnight Hawks.
And again...
And again. The Midnight Hawks were great, but who ever picked their display music that was blasted over the P.A. should be shot - some truly godawful Nightwish.
Condensation streams off the top of a Finnish Air Force F-18 as it blast into a fast climb. The F18 pilot had far superior music taste with Green Day being played in the back ground. But then you could hardly hear it anyway over the delicious scream of the afterburners.
Finnish airforce F-18 - the whole neighbourhood knew it was in town! Large numbers of people had ear protectors on or ear plugs in. I didn't think to bring any, but having grown up under an RAF and USAF low level flight training path, my ears are pretty used to it.
Not what you normally see over Helsinki: an F18 deploys chaff (update: note from the comments: this should probably be flares not chaff) and rolls out.
A second chaff deployment. Malmi must be becoming a really lousy neighbourhood if shoulder launched ground to air missiles are deemed likely! :-)
Shouldn't that be called "flare"? As I've understood it, flare are those hot flares that attract heat seeking missiles, while chaff are metal strips that attract radar tracking missiles.
ReplyDeleteYou are almost certainly right - perhaps making such a rather obvious mistake saves me from being a total plane spotting geek (and there were quite a few there!). :-)
ReplyDelete