Airbus Beluga XL - Bristol

[Cessna954]

A series of shots of the new Beluga XL (A330 on steroids) making a flypast of Bristol-Lulsgate during its UK tour this afternoon.

Airbus Industries Airbus A330743L Beluga XL F-WBXL by Neil D. Brant, on Flickr

Airbus Industries Airbus A330743L Beluga XL F-WBXL by Neil D. Brant, on Flickr

Airbus Industries Airbus A330743L Beluga XL F-WBXL by Neil D. Brant, on Flickr

It aint going to win any beauty contest!

Neil

[LondonEye]

Absolutely stunning. Well done.

Pete.

[Mike]

The 2nd one is a contender for winning the POTM competition, wonderful shots.

[niallsaviation]

Cracking Shots
I was lucky enough to catch this last year (just about)

And I agree a def contender for POTM
Its already got my vote

[Cessna954]

Thanks for the kind replies.

I went to Lulsgate to photograph Easyjets and Ryanairs on runway 09, as there was an easterly wind fortecast and the backdrops are great. Well, as it was thick fog for much of the morning they were on LVR CAT3 rules which required using 27 despite the tailwind. All academic as you couldn't see them pass by 160m away on the runway.

I had hoped to get a distant view of the Beluga doing its photoshoot over the Severn Bridges, the tops of which you can just see from Lulsgate. Great when the pilot of the Beluga ran through his briefing with Bristol Radar and it included a fly through of runway 09, then an eastern circuit of the City to position for an east to west pass of Airbus at Filton and onwards to the Bridges. A real unexpected bonus, just like the old days.

Neil