East Midlands Aeropark Evening Shoot 2019 - Cody Froggatt

The 1st of August 2019 marked the second of the three evening shoots at the East Midlands Aeropark, at East Midlands Airport, hosted by 'Jet Junkies'. This was my first time hanging out with these guys and also my first time at the East Midlands Aeropark.

Firstly, when you arrive, you are greeted by the volunteers who run the Aeropark and some of the 'Jet Junkies' guys too. Throughout your visit you're allowed to freely walk around Aeropark, looking at the aircraft that are a part of their collection, or going up to the mounds of earth that create hillsides, which make good viewing areas along the runway. There are two major mounds, the first one is when you walk in the main entrance, which is near the threshold of runway 09 and the other hill is situated more towards the middle of 09.

There are many different types of aircraft that are in the park including an Avro Vulcan, English Electric Lightning and a Blackburn Buccaneer, just to name a few. It's an interesting place to go with many great historic aircraft to view and photograph. However, the main focus was on a sort of more relaxed version of what BBC Four's 'Plane Spotting Live' was - we were just sitting, waiting and watching all the different civilian aircraft come and go.

A Boeing 737, 767 and 777 came in or departed while we were there. This was a proper friendly and chilled out evening, my only quibble was that we didn't have a schedule of what was flying in or flying out, which I would have liked. But at the end of the day, if one can't be obtained then so be it, it's not the end of the world as I use my scanner, so I can quite easily listen to East Midlands Tower.

So overall, I quite enjoyed this evening, three to four hours passed by quite quickly while photographing. The 'Jet Junkies' guys were really inclusive and thanked everyone for coming, while also offering out free goodies. So of course, my thanks to East Midlands Aeropark and the 'Jet Junkies' guys for a wonderful evening. I would add a recommendation that if you're interested in looking into 'Jet Junkies' third and final evening shoot on the 22nd of August 2019, checkout Jet Junkies Facebook page and website for more information.

Review and photograph by Cody Froggatt.