Birmingham Airport - Picture Thread

[Kevin Farnell]

I managed to get over to BHX for the inaugural A380 service.
A few of my photos follow -

Regards

Kevin

 

[Ray Finkle]

Fantastic pictures, thanks for uploading them

 

[Ray Finkle]

Again, apologies that they're a bit grainy the sun wasn't quite above the horizon.

Qatar Airways 787 A6-BDA

Thomson 787 G-TUIE

A few on the ground.

Lufthansa A320, Qatar 787 and departing Flybe Embraer.

Two 787's.

 

[nwoody2001]

great Pics Ray, thanks

 

[jfy1999]

As I live across town it was actually the first time I'd been to BHX this early and I was stunned by the huge number of early morning departures. Often there were three or four aircraft lined up on Taxiway Sierra with more being pushed back from their gates all the time. It was also the first time I saw a water cannon salute, although the Blue Air water cannon looks much more likely to make an impact on the Anna.aero FTWA leaderboard.

I stayed for the A380, but the movements pretty much dried up between the Thomson 787 departure and the A380 arrival, although it began to pick up again around lunchtime. Hopefully I can get to BHX on another Wednesday when the summer flights are in full swing and United and Air Transat are in, but the long stay car park prices are

My friend Nathan's_Bracken has all the photos, but I've been having lots of trouble uploading pictures from my iPad, so if he sends any to me I might have to email them to a moderator to get them on the site.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I love being there early morning for the peak rush, same in the afternoon

There's always a lull mid morning and mid afternoon which is why they're trying to get the like of Vueling, Wizz and Norwegian to offer away based flights outside of the peak times. Summer weekends are possibly better for movements as it's busy most of the day.

If you want to avoid the parking charges there are two choices. Park at either Marston Green or Hampton-in-Arden railway stations and get the train one stop to the airport, it's only a couple of pounds. If you're too early and don't mind a 15 or so min walk, park on Elmdon Road then follow the footpath alongside the railway line and head through the terminals. It's a great little walk past the apron if the weather is okay.

If you have problems with the pictures any of us will try and help.

 

[wolfheze]

Got delayed in Coventry this morning and gave up on the A380, however it came across Bickenhill lane as i turned off the roundabout. quite a few cars parked around that area. Is parking free at Hampton station?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I was told it was free but having checked it appears there is a charge.

I'd bet it's cheaper than BHX though.

 

[Elmdon80slad]

Some sublime and brilliant pictures folks - sure is a little different to old Viscount / 1-11 Elmdon of the past.

E.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

A few more from Sunday.
Nothing out of the ordinary (and in no particular order), but I did get a couple of the inaugural Iberia Express service...

Unfortunately, the photos won't be around for too long, as Virgin Media are closing my webspace allocation on the 28th of April. I've used this for years, to upload and hotlink my photos to various websites/forum over the years, so am on the lookout for a new host. One thing guaranteed, it won't be with GoDaddy, who Virgin have teamed up with, as this will cost me over £60 per year

Kevin

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Some sublime and brilliant pictures folks - sure is a little different to old Viscount / 1-11 Elmdon of the past.

E.

Elmdon80slad, I remember those days well. Don't forget the 737-200's of Britannia and Aer Lingus along with highlights such as JAT 707 and 727 arriving together and SPANTAX CV-990 Correnado's

Kevin

 

[wolfheze]

And the Air Anglia Navajo Chieftan!

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Elmdon80slad, I remember those days well. Don't forget the 737-200's of Britannia and Aer Lingus along with highlights such as JAT 707 and 727 arriving together and SPANTAX CV-990 Correnado's

Kevin

The Air Fungus pigjets as we used to call them. Not forgetting the BEA Trident which would do 5 trips to Paris every day.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Qatar 787 A7-BCI

Emirates A380 A6-EOP

 

[Kevin Farnell]

A6-EOP, over my house about two and a half hours after Ray snapped it.
I live just north of Cambridge and so it would have been at about FL250. I'm used to the 777's going over and I can hear them in the house. I can barely hear the A380 when I'm outdoors.

Kevin

 

[Ray Finkle]

Great pictures. So clear considering the distance.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Great pictures. So clear considering the distance.

Thanks, Ray.

Yes, it's been a really nice day here in the east of England.
Also, it must have been warm up there, as there were no trails.
My poor old camera was working it's socks off to get those shots. I always shoot in 'RAW' mode, which gives much greater range in changing settings such as exposure level, contrast, shadow/highlight protection etc using Nikon's Capture NX-D.
A little more cropping was carried out with Photoshop.
Stupidly , it never crossed my mind to look out for the Qatar flight.

Kevin

 

[Ray Finkle]

I keep saying that I'm going to treat myself to Photoshop but haven't got round to it yet.

Which version do you use?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Hi Ray

I have Photoshop CS5.1. To be honest, I don't use it that much. As said previously, I always shoot in 'RAW' mode and do most of my editing in the Nikon software. I only really use Photoshop to clean up e.g. the Spot Healing Brush and cropping.
I don't like that Photoshop is now subscription software, but CS5.1 will not be compatible with RAW files if I upgrade my camera from my very old Nikon D200.
Adobe Lightroom or Elements may well be worth looking at as they're cheaper than the full Photoshop.

Regards

Kevin

 

[Ray Finkle]

I always shoot is RAW also, it's so much better.

I've looked at Lightroom and Elements but to be honest I can't tell the difference. I've no idea which to get. More research needed I think.