Airscene were recently invited to spend a day with the world famous Red Arrows display team.As editor, I of course jumped at the chance, unfortunately my full time day job as a civil servant meant I couldn’t take up the offer myself.

So instead I passed over the invite to one of my intrepid front line airshow reviewers – Dave Briers.

Dave spent this wednesday with the Reds at RAF Scampton – observing the pre-flight briefing, watching the team practice and indulged in his favourite past-time… photography.

Dave’s full report on the day can be viewed here… http://www.airscene.co.uk/a%20day%20with%20the%20red%20arrows.pdf

As a famous brand of lager might say – probably the best airshow in the world!

The Airscene Photographer of the Year competition is back once more.

Already the prizes have started coming on, and there are several more offers on the table.

Southampton based military artist Stuart Brown is offering up another copy of his print “Black Hawk – Special Delivery” towards the first prize pot. Stuart has been busy this last year or so working on commissioned pieces for various army regiments and the Air Force – to see more of his work please visit www.skipperpress.com

Ebury Publishing are providing the prizes for the first two themes… Each winner receiving a copy of the “Boys Book of Airfix” (RRP £20) written by Arthur Ward. For those who may be interested but unable to enter this years competition, more information can be found at http://www.eburypublishing.co.uk/viewbook.asp?isbn=0091928982

It has taken a little while to come up with this years themes but I finally did it. The themes are intended to be typical of the work carried out by a magazine photographer, along with a couple of creative themes thrown in for fun. The popular “Digital” and “Old Age” themes from 2008 have been included again this year.

For further information on this years competition and to take part, please visit http://www.airscene.co.uk/competitions.php

I look forward to receiving your entries,

Good Luck,

Ian

The final results for theme 10 “Hover” are now in and the results table is complete. The judges were almost totally unanimous this month; awarding the winner a total of 35 points. This will be slightly disappointing as that 1 extra point would have tied the winner in 3rd place overall.

Congratulations go to Adrian Glazzard who wins a ThinkTANK Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket courtesy of Snapperstuff.With the close of theme 10, comes the close of this competition, and I am please to announce that the Airscene Aviation Photographer of the Year 2008 is:

Neil Darby 179 points

Neil wins the following:

Limited edition print ‘Black Hawk – Special Delivery’ (UK) (value £85) courtesy of Skipper Press (www.skipperpress.com)

Icom Document Bag, Icom hip flask and Icom Swiss Army Knife (UK) (total value around £76) courtesy of Icom UK Ltd (www.icomuk.co.uk)

20″ * 16″ print of any of your submissions + £25 voucher courtesy of Togsprint (www.togsprint.com)

1 x ThinkTANK Photo Lens Drop in Pouch courtesy of Snapperstuff (www.snapperstuff.com)

1 x ThinkTANK Photo Pixel Racing Harness courtesy of Snapperstuff

1 x ThinkTANK Photo Pro Speed Belt courtesy of Snapperstuff

FREE banner advertising on the Uradnet aviation banner network (see below for details) + Showcase on Airscene

2nd place:

Dean Feltimo 178 points

Aviation History by Anne Millbrooke (Jeppesen Publishing) – courtesy of Anne Millbrooke

16″ * 12″ print of any of your submissions + £10 voucher courtesy of Togsprint

1 x ThinkTANK Photo Bum Bag Pouch courtesy of Snapperstuff

FREE banner advertising on the Uradnet aviation banner network + Showcase on Airscene

3rd place:

Ian Hews 146 points

16″ * 12″ print of any of your submissions + £10 voucher courtesy of Togsprint

1 x ThinkTANK Photo Lens Drop in Pouch courtesy of Snapperstuff

FREE banner advertising on the Uradnet aviation banner network + Showcase on Airscene

3 runners up all win FREE banner advertising on the Uradnet aviation banner network + Showcase on Airscene:

Adrian Glazzard 145 points

Simon Thomas 145 points

Gergely Grosz 130 points

I would like finally to thank the wonderful sponsors, without whom this competition would not have been possible.

Theme 9 “The Jet Age” is closed and all results are now in. This one was a tussle between 2 entries really, with Bill Edwards and Dean Feltimo both getting a 1st and 2nd placing from 2 different judges, however Bill came out on top with another of his cracking lowlevel entries and getting himself another 33 points and his 2nd win in this competition. Bill wins a Pee Wee Pixel Pocker Rocket courtesy of Snapperstuff.

Dean Feltimo came in second with 30 points and moves to only 3 points behind the competition leader in what now looks like a bit of a scrap between the two of them. Neil will be a bit disappointed I am sure, as his (almost identical entry) was awarded 8 points less than Deans. Neil and Dean will likely begin celebrating soon, as they will almost certainly scoop 1st and 2nd places between themselves.

Gergely Grosz scored just a single point in this theme – just enough to keep hold of 3rd place for the moment, with 5 entrants hot on his heels and still in with a chance to scoop 3rd place. Gergely could still end up in a draw with Dean Feltimo for 2nd place, but this would take a miracle or two.. with Gergely needing to score maximum points and hoping that Dean scores nil!

So the battle for 1st and 2nd is on, and the battle for 3rd place will sure be interesting. Dont forget though, those not in with a chance of a top 3 place can still win the monthly prize and at the same time provide an interesting spoiler for the scraps at the top.

So the leaderboard now looks like this with just 1 theme left to go:

Neil Darby – 169 points

Dean Feltimo – 166 points

Gergely Grosz – 130 points

Ian Hews – 128 points

Simon Thomas – 124 points

Malcolm Casson – 122 points

Ian Schofield – 116 points

Adrian Glazzard – 110 points

Theme 10 “Hover” is Octobers theme, and another Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket is up for grabs this month. So if you have any photos of Harriers or Helicopters that you have taken and want to cause more upset for the leaders, send in your entry and see how you get on. Note that your entry must not have been taken any earlier than January 1st 2007. Good Luck, and I look forward to receiving your entries.

Theme 8 “aerobatics” is closed and all results are now in. This was a pretty tight affair at the top with the top 3 just a single point away from each other. Scooping this months prize is competition newcomer Chris Harris with 28 points, second with 27 is Darren Chaplin, and my personal favourite of the month came 3rd with 26 points courtesy of Ian Schofield. Chris wins a Pee Wee Pixel Pocker Rocket courtesy of Snapperstuff.A few changes again on the leaderboard as Simon Thomas and gergely Grosz continue their tussle for position only for Dean Feltimo to sneak in behind and position himself in 2nd place. So the leaderboard now looks like this with 2 themes to go:

Neil Darby – 147 points

Dean Feltimo – 136 points

Gergely Grosz – 129 points

Simon Thomas – 117 points

Theme 9 “The Jet Age” is Septembers theme, and another Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket is up for grabs this month. So if you have any photos of jets that you have taken and want to cause more upset for the leaders, send in your entry and see how you get on. Note that your entry must not have been taken any earlier than January 1st 2007. Good Luck, and I look forward to receiving your entries.

Theme 7 “The Public” is now closed and all votes are in. I have had to call in one of my regular Airscene judges as I have been unable to make contact with the planned judge since last week,As this is an aviation photography competition; the themes were picked to try and reflect all aspects of aviation, and I must confess to being a little disappointed that all entries this month were taken at airshows when the theme could have been more widely interpreted.

Despite this there were some outstanding entries, which is evident from the fact that no 2 judges had the same favourites. There could be only one winner though, and this month Robert Scott from Ipswich grabs the prize, after netting a total of 31 points with his entry.

Dean Feltimo almost scooped up his 3rd prize in this competition with 30 points, whilst Ian Hews and Simon Thomas came in joint 3rd with 23 points.

The leaderboard now stands as follows:

Neil Darby 144 points

Gergely Grosz 119 points

Dean Feltimo 114 points

Simon Thomas 114 points

With 108 points still up for grabs over the next 3 themes anything can happen, however it will require a special effort to grab the top slot from Neil Darby who has been in the top 3 four times, and scored at least 10 points in each theme so far – talk about consistency!

Another Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket up for grabs this month courtesy of Snapperstuff in them 8 “Aerobatics”, so even if you are new to the competition and cant get to the prize positions, why not try and take this prize away from the leaders? I look forward to your entries…

Hi all,

The final set of results are now in for theme 6 “In Control” and for the first time in this competition our winner has run off with maximum 36 points. Congratultions go to Dean Feltimo of Maidenhead for his win, which also makes him our first winner to win 2 monthly prizes.

The judges had quite a job to do this month due to the sheer variety of interpretations, and I made sure I pushed the judges to base their voting on theme interpretation along with image quality.

In trying to keep variety, theme 7 is entitled “The Public” – this could be Airshow crowd shots, individuals, or waiting in a queue of cars, or perhaps even an airport terminal crowd shot. You may even come up with some ideas of your own, but this is going to be tough and snap shots simply will not do!

The prize for this theme is ThinkTANK Photo Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket courtesy of Snapperstuff Ltd. If you think you are good enough… Good Luck, and I look forward to your entries.

Summer is finally here, and the airshow season is well and truly under way. I’ll try not to waffle on too much, so you can all get back out on those patio’s and soak up this year’s sunshine allocation.

Theme 5 “Civil Aviation” proved to be another difficult theme to judge, with each of the 3 judges choosing a different image as their personal favourite. Tim Knifton came into this competition very early and flooded me with entries for the first 8 themes in about a week or so. A disappointing set of results across the first 4 themes kept Tim right at the bottom of the results table, until this month when he managed to grab 26 points and first place with his entry.

Malcolm Casson managed came in 2nd with 25 points pushing himself up towards the leaders, and Stefan Pankow netted 23 points for 3rd place with his only entry in the competition to date.

The leaderboard has barely changed over the last few months and currently stands as follows:

Neil Darby 104 points

Gergely Grosz 90 points

Simon Thomas 84 points

This can all change, and there are still plenty of contenders for the prize positions as we are only half way through with up to 180 points still up for grabs over the next 5 themes. What’s more I have been given permission to give away 3 more free advertising prizes on the Uradnet aviation banner network, so I shall be coupling these with Showcase prizes on Airscene to make 3 runners up places.

This months theme is “In Control”, and is gonna be tough due to the number of possible interpretations. If you think you are good enough – get your entry in and have a crack.

Good Luck.

Ian

The final set of results are now in for theme 4 “Digital”. Congratulations this month go to Dean Feltimo from Maidenhead who netted 30 points, and wins himself any flight sim product up to £30 in value courtesy of Just Flight.

This theme was perhaps the most challenging of the 10 themes, and I feel this was reflected in the low number of entries.

The next theme is “Civil Aviation”, and is perhaps the least challenging, inlight of the fact that most of us live pretty close to an airfield or airport of some kind.

To find out more and enter this month, visit our competition page. The prize up for grabs this month is a ThinkTANK Photo Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket courtesy of Snapperstuff Ltd.

Good Luck,

Ian

The final set of results are in for the “Close Up” theme, and this months prize goes to Bill Edwards for his photo of a Tornado a valley (presumably in Wales somewhere).

This months voting actually resulted in a tie between Bill and Gergely Groz, and as I only have one prize to give away each month I had to make the final decision. Both entries were technically very good, but Bill’s entry seemed far more interesting and that clinched it for me.

This months theme “Digital” is perhaps the toughest of the lot, and as such carries our biggest monthly prize – Any JustFlight product up to £30 in value (great prize for any flight simmers out there). Closing date for entries is midnight on 30th April. Already has some excellent entries, and a lot of thinking out of the box – can you do better?

A maximum of 36 points can be awarded to any single entry per theme, so with up to 252 points still to be earned across the remaining 7 themes, there is still a good chance of coming in late and landing one of the top 3 places.

I look forward to your entries for this one,

Good Luck,

Ian