By DrSoda 
One of the things I look forward to now is the bi-annual Nightshoot at RAF Northolt. Organised by Phillip Dawes MBE and running every March and October, the aim of the Nightshoots is to raise funds for the wartime buildings on base and also for the wellbeing programs ran with the RAF personnel.
Recently the RAF Northolt Sector Ops Building has recently been finished being restored and attention has now moved on to restoring other preserved grade-II listed buildings.
Each Nightshoot gets a a mix of aircraft turn up. Sometimes this can be a fair few and others can be quieter. It really does following the main rule of military plane spotting, turning up is the good bit, anything extra is pure gravy.
Nightshoot XXII earlier in March, ended up having a theme around helicopters especially the Puma as it was retiring later that month. This time round, we were treated to a Royal Canadian Air Force CC130J Hercules, which for an extra treat had to leave by 2100L, so we got to see the engine start up and it taxi out for takeoff. We also had a pair of Phenom T1 aircraft from RAF Cranwell, a Dassault Falcon 900EX from the French Air & Space Force as well as some local residents in the form of a pair of Envoy IV CC1 of 32 Squadron, RAF and two of London Air Ambulance Airbus H135 Helicopters.
These Nightshoots are excellent and incredibly well organised, not to mention excellent value for money. If you’re on the fence regarding attending these Nightshoots, then I really recommend you try and get yourself on, especially with the confident words of the new station commander who has committed to future Nightshoots and hoping to give them themes for the aircraft invited to be involved. The future of these does look quite exciting.
