Regular FlyPast contributor Darren Harbar has been ‘shooting’ vintage aircraft for many years. It’s a challenging but rewarding job and as he explains here, a dream come true
I am often asked how long I’ve been taking air-to-air images, how I got into it and how it’s done. It is an interesting set of questions that makes me smile when I reflect on the past few decades of my career. The first thing I must say, is that I feel incredibly privileged to be given the chance to fly alongside and photograph so many wonderful classic aircraft.
As a teenager, I wanted to fly. Joining the RAF was my goal, and to that end I joined the Air Training Corps and became involved with 6 Air Experience Flight at RAF Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Initially gaining flight staff cadet status, I eventually became a civilian instructor, and latterly a Volunteer Reserve (Training) commissioned officer on the unit.
This gave me the opportunity to get plenty of flying time in Chipmunks, and in the latter years as an adult instructor, I was able to sit in the back seat on many a formation sortie. I had always been a keen photographer and attended airshows with my father from a very young age. It therefore worked out perfectly th…
