Some NATO snippets, Cardiff, September 2/3/4

[DaveSheffield]

Afternoon all, thought I'd better get round to doing these. A few bugbears with the week, not least the sending of some of the "poorer" nations (Bulgaria, Armenia, Ukraine, Poland) into Bristol! Absolutely no need for it as Cardiff has handled far far more than this in the past.

Also sadly the weather was murky to say the least for the most part. Nevertheless, a few historic movements at the local, plenty of photos taken and a lot of good company up at the flying club for the week!

The first movement was this G550 which had staff from General Dynamics who signed a big contract for something or other as part of the summit.
Gulfstream AerospaceGV-SP (G550) GLF5 N855G by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

The JetAirFly 767 was a welcome movement, bringing in various journalistic types;
JetairFly Boeing 767-38EER OO-JAP by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Next up was this Tarom 737 bringing in some Romanians
Tarom Boeing 737-78J/W YR-BGI by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

There were sufficiently high numbers of traffic for the schedules to have to be moved from their usual parking spots;
OO-VLP, OO-VLR, OO-VLJ, Cityjet Fokker 50s by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

This has visited before but was a welcome dose of colour in the gloom
Dutch Royal Flight Fokker 70 (F28-0070) PH-KBX by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

This was a nice first visit, operating a Thomas Cook flight because LY-VEN had gone tech (again)
Travel Service Hungary Boeing 737-8CX/W HA-LKG by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

And then things started happening:

Heralded by the arrival of this beauty, OM-BYO of the Slovak Government Flying Service. She even managed to land in some brighter, almost sunlight!
"SSG001" Slovak Government Flying Service Tupolev Tu-154M OM-BYO by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

"SSG001" Slovak Government Flying Service Tupolev Tu-154M OM-BYO by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

She later positioned out to Stansted, but not before backtracking down the runway (once on landing to be able to get to it's parking spot, and once on departure because they couldn't swing it around in-situ due to a lack of suitable tow bars!);
"SSG001" Slovak Government Flying Service Tupolev Tu-154M OM-BYO by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

"SSG001" Slovak Government Flying Service Tupolev Tu-154M OM-BYO by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

I'm not sorry for so many photos of that one, she's beautiful. "SSG001" Slovak Government Flying Service Tupolev Tu-154M OM-BYO by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

From here on in the good times rolled, even if the weather fluctuated;
Di Air Podgorica Learjet 45 4O-SEV by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

You would not believe the calibre and quantity of vehicles that met this. I didn't realise it but by god Azerbaijan is oil rich nowadays;
DSC_5825 by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

The line up on Friday morning: DSC_6311 by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Very conscious of this being civilian aviation but I think I can get away with sneaking this one in here? The first bit of history, the first ever A340 to visit Cardiff (we were all slightly amazed as that fact dawned on us!) with Angie Merkel on board.
German Air Force A-340-313 16-02 by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

And then there was this lovely surprise. I was expecting a Turkish A319, but instead this beauty dropped in. Brought into service 3 days before after a two-year cabin refit in America...
Turkish Government A-330-243 Prestige TC-TUR by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Turkish Government A-330-243 Prestige TC-TUR by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Turkish Government Airbus A330-243 Prestige TC-TUR by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

The night before, this Sun Country had dropped off American journalists following POTUS from Tallinn;
Sun Country B737-8 N818SY by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

This was one bit of history, first visit of this type to CWL, waiting to pick up King Hussain;
Jordanian Government Gulfstream AerospaceGVIGLF6 VQ-BNZ by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Jordanian Government Gulfstream AerospaceGVIGLF6 VQ-BNZ by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

And that's about all I have on the civvy front! However I'll be cheek again and drop this in here;
East meets west by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Boeing C-40C, 02-0042 / 20042 US Air Force by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Boeing C-40C, 02-0042 / 20042 by djwilliams1990, on Flickr

Thanks all for taking the time to look, there are plenty more including Ospreys and Typhoons and A310s and various other military bits on my flickr page. Hope the output was worth the three days off work and the hours of sitting round nursing cups of tea waiting for some kind of movement!

[marpleman]

Great set there!

Despite it being a reasonably frequent visitor to these shores, the Czech 154 is awesome.
Surprisingly limited photographic coverage of this event, considering how high profile it was, and I think this is by far the best set I've seen

[Avtur]

Excellent set, well done, thanks for sharing

Particularly like the TU-154, lovely smoky take off and noisy no doubt

Best Regards
Geoff

[IndiaEcho]

A very interesting set - thanks for posting.

Neil

[AeroPics]

Nice to see some comprehensive coverage of the NATO movements at Cardiff.

The Slovak Government Tupolev is undoubtedly the highlight of the set for me. Excellent to see that still in service and hopefully it will carry on for a few more years yet!

[Radleigh]

Nice selection but the 154 is the best of them all!

[DaveSheffield]

Thank you all for the kind comments, it really was a great week with some excellent movements we'll probably never see again in Cardiff!