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First flight of a magnificant flying machine

Sometimes a project that has been quietly simmering away comes to a head and you have to drop everything!

This happened on the morning of 27th January when I got the call from Peter Teichman of the Hangar 11 Collection that his newly restored Hawker Hurricane MkIIB would be taking to the skies that afternoon. With emails cleared I packed my gear and headed around the M25 to North Weald Airfield, a place steeped in aviation history and atmosphere. The sense of joy was palpable when the aircraft powered down the runway and leapt into the air for the first time in 46 years... and many held breaths were released!

As an assignment the main brief was to capture the aircraft in flight, and document the activity leading up to it. Luckily the weather was great with perfect, clear winter sunshine adding a warmth to the light and giving nice blue skies for the flying shots. On the ground I used a wide angle zoom lens to give flexibility and tried various heights of shot down to ground level, taking in a range of detail and general views.

With the pilot strapped in it was time to start the engine. I used a polarising filter to boost colour saturation and cut down the light. With a shutter speed of 1/10th of a second set I was able to get some good shots of the exhaust gases and the whirling discs of the propellors as the Rolls Royce Merlin engine warmed up. With chocs away and everything in the green I switched to my second camera body with telephoto zoom lens attached to get some shots as the aircraft taxiied past. Then it was a short hop in the jeep to the runway for the main event! Once the flight shots were in the bag it was back to the hangar to record the celebration before a quick sprint back round the M25 to get an initial edit done as a selection of images needed to be on the client's website that evening.

With this finished it was time to reflect on a good day where flexibility, in both time management and shooting style, was the key. As an added bonus I was able to get great coverage of the flight in the editorial sector, with words and images appearing in magazines across the UK, France and Germany.

To see more pictures from the shoot please visit www.aviationphoto.co.uk