Air to Air over North Wales - 7 August 2026

What a fantastic day! I had put my name down for an air to air photo sortie with the Centre of Aviation Photography (COAP) on the day of the RAF Valley families day. I received a text offering me a seat on a flight alongside an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon. I was over the moon, but nothing is certain until you are in the air and pointing the camera at the subject alongside you. I arrived in Caernarfon the day before my flight so as to receive full safety briefings and rehearse my position on the aircraft with all associated safety items fully briefed and practiced. I then retired to the Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon and joined my fellow photographers for an evening meal. On the day itself, after breakfast I made my way to Caernarfon Airport several hours before my scheduled flight. As I have already said, nothing is certain and one of the earlier flights was cancelled when the P-47 Thunderbolt went tech. Three of the people booked on that flight had no other flights booked so departed for home, only for a message to come through that the P-47 was now OK and was on its way. The organisers contacted the three that had left to get them back, but only one actually came back (the other two had also been on a flight the previous day, so hadn't left disappointed). With two seats vacant, one was offered to me and I decided to take it. The photo ship was Cessna Grand Caravan G-EELS which I boarded shortly after it had returned from an air to air sortie with a USAF F15E. We took off and headed to the north side of Anglesey and climbed to a height of around 5,500ft. This would be an open door flight, so once we had attained level flight, I walked to my position in the doorway and a retaining strap attached to my harness. The P-47 joined us and I managed some very nice pictures of it, my favourite being the one with the Great Orme in the background. After the P-47 we peeled away and headed back to Caernarfon where the aircraft was refuelled prior to departing again for the Typhoon flight. As we taxied out, one of the organisers said to set our shutter speeds slow for propellers??? It turned out that the aerobatic team known as Team Raven were due to leave just before the Typhoon, so they delayed the Typhoon slightly so that Team Raven could join us for a very pleasant and productive fifteen minutes or so. Some of the passes had the team in formation with smoke on heading out to sea; they looked absolutely stunning. Eventually they peeled away and as we turned along the south coast of Anglesey I was tapped on the shoulder and told (by pointing) to look behind us and below, and there was the unmistakable sight of a Typhoon climbing towards us. As it came alongside, it was obvious that the pilot had no problem matching his aircraft's speed to our Cessna. We were treated to some great pictures as we flew over the south side of Anglesey, over the Menai Strait and along the Welsh coast. There were breaks to the left, breaks to the right (which passed beneath our aircraft) and some great positioning against the backdrop of Snowdonia. After several circuits, we struck inland near Caernarfon and went low level through Snowdonia down to a point between Bedgellert and Porthmadog. During this pass the Typhoon looked simply stunning against the Welsh Mountains. Finally, the Typhoon's pilot, Flt Lt Tom Nation (2026 Typhoon Display Team Pilot), stuck the aircraft vertical and disappeared and we turned and headed back to Caernarfon. There was much whooping when we landed, it had been a fantastic flight. I stopped for a KFC on the way home and it went cold half way through eating it because I just could not stop going through the pictures on the back of my camera.