RAF Mildenhall, 27th July, 2021

After my successful trip to Mildenhall and East Midlands at the beginning of June, I decided to do a similar trip at the end of July.

Like the month before, the trip started at Mildenhall. However, the weather was very different to my earlier visit, the hot, sunny weather was replaced with low cloud cover and - for lunchtime - rain. However, the good news was that it was much busier.

I arrived at Folly Road at 0830, and this wasn't a moment too soon, with 16-5850 taxying out to the runway for departure. However, it spent over an hour at the threshold waiting to take off as REACH1031:

However, during the wait, several other aircraft took off. It is always good to see a civilian aircraft at Mildenhall, and ABX Air 767 N312AA left for Ramstein while the Hercules waited, having arrived from the US earlier that morning:  

Another very interesting aircraft that crept out under the gaze of the Herc was ZZ331. MADRAS29 was operating from Mildenhall as a consequence of runway problems at Brize Norton. Its return to Mildenhall was delayed by heavy rain, but when the Voyager did finally make an approach, it was good to get a shot of it with one of the based KC-135s:

And the great thing about the Folly Road location is that there are always a few Stratotankers to admire while you wait for the next movement:

As the afternoon became evening, it became apparent that the action was over for the day, so I left at 1745, hoping to reach East Midlands before it got dark.

Here is the log:

08-0049 Bell/Boeing CV-22B Osprey                 USAF - United States Air Force

09-5713 Lockheed Martin MC-130J Hercules USAF - United States Air Force

11-0059 Bell/Boeing CV-22B Osprey                 USAF - United States Air Force

16-5850 Lockheed Martin MC-130J Hercules USAF - United States Air Force

58-0100 Boeing KC-135R                                 USAF - United States Air Force

59-1464 Boeing KC-135T                                 USAF - United States Air Force

59-1513 Boeing KC-135T                                 USAF - United States Air Force

62-3540 Boeing KC-135R                                 USAF - United States Air Force

62-4138 Boeing RC-135W                                 USAF - United States Air Force

63-7999 Boeing KC-135R                                 USAF - United States Air Force

63-8878 Boeing KC-135R                                 USAF - United States Air Force

63-8887 Boeing KC-135R                                 USAF - United States Air Force

N312AA Boeing 767-223(BDSF)                         ABX Air

ZZ331 Airbus A330-243 Voyager KC.2         RAF - Royal Air Force