Culdrose 1975 International Air Day

[Basilisk]

Thank you all for your replies and kind words. They are scans (actually digitized with a DSLR camera) of Kodachrome 64 slides. This allowed me to eliminate the yellow colour cast the slides had and "enhance" them the way I wanted them to look.

I went to this show and after making a long overnight journey from London was dismayed to arrive under a grey sky and rain until about lunchtime. The afternoon however was a different story as your photos show. I took a few photos but nothing like the variety you did. I remember the show opening with a massive helicopter formation flypast, too big to photograph without a fish eye lens.
Great post, thanks for sharing.

I can't recall seeing the massive helicopter formation flypast (but I did see pictures from it) as I most likely arrived after that event. I spent the previous day at RAF Brawdy and travelled over night by train to Culdrose - these were the days!

I just realized that the linked pictures from my free flickr account are limited to a size of 1024 x 684, even though I uploaded them at 1400 x 933. Spending a lot of time working on my scans, it was time to upgrade to the pro account so the linked pictures can be seen at a better quality. By the way, I used code MFY25 when upgrading my account to pro which reduced the cost by 20% for a two year subscription.

[mancman]

Superb quality images. I spent a few weeks holiday in Cornwall in 1975 and remember seeing the Pakistan Sea Kings at Culdrose on my visit so it's really great to see photos of them in situ.

[starfighter]

Wonderful

[KevinJ]

Amazing variety but what stands out is the quality of your shooting as an 18 y/o and your scanning editing skills. Tremendous stuff!

[herbert]

Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing them.

[AshBailey]

I don't have the superlatives to do justice to the theme, or the photographs! Thanks so much for posting - my highlight is the HMS Tiger Sea King...

[Willid1]

Thanks for posting these - as they led me to your Flickr account and all those fabulous images.

There must be a few stories to tell about how you came to be in such a diverse range of places taking aeroplane photos.

The Indian Mig-25 images are brilliant !!

David

[roughcutter]

Peter, the more I look at your scans, the more fascinating I find them. Not just for the subject matter, but more at the image quality, they are intensely sharp and condensed, absolutely phenominal (cerainly as good as any digital image and indeed have even surpassed a few on here).
I hope you don't mind me asking you this, which editing programme do you use to get these amazing results?
Initially like yourself, I scan my slides using a 100mm macro lens with extention tubes/lighting attachment, coupled to my camera (EOS 1D mk.4), full raw setting.
And then use the Canon software to obtain satisfactory results, but feel that they could be enhanced further. The film on my slides is Fujichrome (couldn't afford Kodachrome).

[scramble1]

Peter, fantastic quality picture, out of interest what slide copying kit did you use to copy your slides before using software?

[Pippie123]

Fabulous

[Basilisk]

Peter, the more I look at your scans, the more fascinating I find them. Not just for the subject matter, but more at the image quality, they are intensely sharp and condensed, absolutely phenominal (cerainly as good as any digital image and indeed have even surpassed a few on here).
I hope you don't mind me asking you this, which editing programme do you use to get these amazing results?
Initially like yourself, I scan my slides using a 100mm macro lens with extention tubes/lighting attachment, coupled to my camera (EOS 1D mk.4), full raw setting.
And then use the Canon software to obtain satisfactory results, but feel that they could be enhanced further. The film on my slides is Fujichrome (couldn't afford Kodachrome).

I don't mind at all. Unfortunately, there isn't "the one" software which does it all in one click. I use five different tools, and it takes me around 30 minutes for each slide. As others are maybe interested in this topic as well, I may start a post in the Photography Q & A sub forum to go through my workflow.

Peter, fantastic quality picture, out of interest what slide copying kit did you use to copy your slides before using software?

This could be another post for the Photography Q & A forum. I use dedicated film scanners (Canon CanoScan FS4000 US and Nikon CoolScan 5000 and lately a DSLR camera. They all have their strength and weaknesses, but I can get great results from any of them if the slide is correctly exposed.

[NickB]

As others have said, what a stunning set of images from what was my local air station (I grew up in Helston).

I probably attended this air show, but was too young at the time to remember. I have vague memories of the Drakens and references to this air show when they came back again in 1982. Although I remember the 1982 air show very clearly (post-Falklands), sadly most of the types featured here had been retired or moved to the RAF by that time.

[Bucc67]

As everyone has said wow what a tremendous set of photos and an amazing collection of aircraft at Culdrose Airday!

NickB and I grew up together in Helston and I must have been at the Airshow. I can definitely remember being in the viewing enclosure the day before and seeing the Drakens ‘bang’ in to land with pools of tyre smoke and the amazing Frecce Tricolori putting on an awesome practice display. Wow memories!

[Snoop 95]

What a superb set! First thing that strikes me is how smartly turned out the aircraft are, unlike today's matt grey, which is usually grubby. Thank you also for the extra detail you provide about the aircraft's life, really appreciated.

[RS2]

Wow, what a post, stunning images of a great variety of aircraft. Love these old open day / airday / airshow posts. We always talk about the good old days, and the same I suspect will always apply as we moved forward with time, but the variety of types and numbers available for shows during the 60s/70s and 80s was just stunning. I also love the less common airshow types, often to do with based formation flights such as that Sea Prince formation. Great post, thank you.

[TheCamilion]

Goodness me...
What a set!
Fantastic images!

Can't help but ponder that RIAT now is equivalent to a average (not really but still) RN air day...

[Pune]

It's all been said, absolutely superb post, stunning quality, thanks for sharing..
Cheers
Pune

[bertieb]

Thanks for sharing these photos. Culdrose was my local show and is sorely missed. I was at this one and it’s one of the standout shows in my memory; it really was international that year. You picture Sea King XV673/44 from HMS Tiger flight (826 NAS, I think), which is now a gate guardian at Culdrose in 771 squadron colours.

[phantom6]

Hell thats a cracking set ,those Bucc,s are something else Brilliant