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Doncaster for the IL-62 10 September 2020 - Richard Bowater

I thought my Prestwick visit to see the Antonov 225 was going to be the highlight of the year and possibly only seeing the civil Antonov 22 would match it. There was something else and it was due in Doncaster and thanks to a tip off I was able to go and see Rada Airlines Ilyushin IL 62M EW-450TR.

 The aircraft had landed on the evening of the 9^th of September and parked up for the night on the cargo ramp. As I arrived I noticed the aircraft was in the process of being loaded and made ready for departure. On my previous visits to Doncaster it was ok to walk into the grassed area next to one of the hangars and take photographs from there. I hadn’t got very far and a door opened to produce a scruffy bloke with bad customer service skills and ready to lecture and rant. Rant over I apologised and retreated, another photography spot off the list.

TT-DAB Hawker 900XP was parked outside of the now closed //// hangar awaiting a test flight after a long period of maintenance work. With that photographed it was time to find a spot to photograph the departure of the IL 62.

The South side of Doncaster has a road that runs almost the full length of the airfield with a footpath connecting the two parts. There are various vantage points with the best being a mound which gives good views of the airfield.

I didn’t have to wait long before the familiar start up sound was heard from the four engines and then taxi out to the far end of the runway. The departure was quite black smoke free but as expected a large amount of runway was used.

There was a mix up with the airport arrivals and departures info and thanks to Virgin mobile my phone was out of use, so no means to check. Two Chinese exec jets were due at 14.00 and TT-DAB was due out on a test flight at 16.00, on my list. The Chinese didn’t appear until later by which time I had gone home, but TT-DAB did come out to play.

The local flying schools had the place to themselves only being joined by OY-HOF Aw-169 of Uni Fly from Humberside. The based 727s and friends, two 738s of Tui and stored Tui 787 didn’t move.

 

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