F15 E at LN

Bad Alpha-Jet photo 2 LOL!!

A very bad photo of a French Alpha-Jet taken at LN

The C-130E Turkish Stars 73-0991 taken at Mildenhall

LN visit 18th October 2011

Well, I was impressed enough on my initiation to venture back up to Suffolk on my next free rest day...my Mentor was working mwahahahaha! and had a pleasant surprise too.

I was still to purchase a scanner so went up to Lakenheath kinda blind, but the guys seem a friendly lot in this new hobby of mine and soon up went the shout that 3 French Alpha Jets were inbound to LN...in they came and I bagged my first Armee de l'air kites. Into my note book went tail numbers E-45, E-112 and E-51. We had 8 F15's too a bit later in the morning, all were needed and noted accordingly. 91-0303, 91-0331, 91-0312, 97-0220, 97-0221, 98-0131, 00-3003 and 01-2002. I have learned that each US aircraft has a FY number or Fiscal Year of manufacture.

LN went quiet, so I popped over to the Hall and bagged another 6 needed aircraft, an MC-130H 80195 (FY88), 73-0991 (222 FILO) a Turkish stars C-130E, and 4 new KC135 stratotankers, 38024, 71456, 71488 and 00342.

Saw this on the interweb and it made me laugh...

Well, making progress, I purchased the book recommended by my “Meercat Mentor”. Titled “Military Aircraft Markings” and compiled by Howard J. Curtis. As most of you number crunchers out there will no doubt be aware its a comprehensive list of military serial numbers, laid out perfectly for me to underline once I've spotted them! I would thoroughly recommend this book.