This week a friend from Japan, a fellow aviation photographer, came to visit me. One of his goals was to see some of the last operational German F-4F Phantoms at Wittmund, Germany. We set out for Germany with my car on Monday evening and stayed overnight at only 1 mile from the airbase. Tradition has it that the QRA is launched just after 08:00 AM, so we made sure to get there in time.
The weather was fabulous for photography, and the day opened as expected. Two QRA F-4F Phantoms took off at 08:10 AM, shot by us from the middle of the runway. Just before they returned a pair of Flight Systems A-4N Skyhawks took off for a target towing mission over the Northsea. Two more Phantoms were launched for a morning sortie, including one with large special markings (on one side of the aircraft only). During the day a German Navy Sea King and Luftwaffe C-160D Transall visited Wittmund shortly.
Just after noon the QRA Phantoms launched again, catching us by surprise. Being in the wrong position for take off, we scrambled to half way the runway, only to miss take off by a lousy 30 seconds. Bummer ! At exactly 2:00 PM another pair of Phantoms took off, returning 75 minutes later. This time we set up in front of the runway in order to get some smoke shots.
Below is the photographic report of this day. When working on the photos I suddenly realized that all of today’s aircraft were at least 35 years of age. A true dinosaur day ! I hope you like the results as much as I do.
Cheers,
Iwan
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