'The ground shakes': The ups and downs of a plane spotter's life

It's the rumble in the pit of your stomach you feel first as the nose of the distant fighter jet pokes over a bump at the far end of the runway. By the time you see the whole aircraft, it's too late: the supersonic plane is already airborne, pushing past the 200mph (320km/h) mark.

If your camera isn't poised, you've missed the moment. Such is the plane spotter's lot.

But for the dedicated group of aviation fans gathered here at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, there may not be much of a wait before another ear-splitting take-off because the base is currently at the centre of a major international military exercise.

"You can feel the ground shake," says 18-year-old Jack Robson, whose huge smile says it all as an F18 Hornet jet dramatically streaks off the runway, banks left and vanishes out of sight.

Jack is one of about 50 plane spotters braving the cold at Waddington on this early March afternoon, standing on their step ladders against the hedge line at the end of runway 02. They are all holding down their camera triggers and hoping for the best.

The teenager cycled from a nearby village to see the planes arrive in the skies above Lincolnshire from around the world on Wednesday. He proudly shows me the photos he took despite the awful weather.

"It's to see all the planes," he explains to me. "Yesterday, I saw the Mirage come in with the tanker."

The Mirage he mentions belongs to the Indian Air Force, one of several countries whose pilots are taking part in Exercise Cobra Warrior - a large-scale international meet hosted at Waddington by the RAF until 24 March.

It is far from being an organised air show, nevertheless the range of aircraft coming in draws big crowds.

"It's like a football match, three-deep in places," Paul Rista says, talking about the masses of people who turned up on the edge of the RAF station earlier in the week.

He braved the sleet and wind to see some rare arrivals, but today he feels he would be lucky to see much aviation action at all.

As I arrived at Waddington earlier, four jets from the world famous aerobatic Red Arrow team whipped overheard before I had even managed to get the camera out of my bag.

When I asked Paul what all the plane spotters gathered here actually do, he just laughs: "Sit and wait. I've sat at an air base all day and seen nothing."

Paul lives in nearby Lincoln and tells me where he regularly gets a coffee from to keep warm as he waits to see what activity there will be.

"Petrol station down the road with a Costa. I'm quite particular," he smiles.

Meanwhile, RAF Waddington first-timer Keith Buckley has come prepared, with a flask of tea in the car and a camera around his neck.

The former Rolls Royce worker admits he has "a bit" of interest in watching the planes, which clearly means he plans to spend hours on the grass verge of the A15 nearby.

As he and Paul chat, the topic soon turns to other places they would like to visit.

Paul has just come back from watching air shows in the US and now hopes to head to France, Belgium and even Japan to catch the action in the skies - and on the ground.

"You take the bullet train into all the bases in Japan. It's so expensive, though. It depends how happy the wife is to see me go - she might chip in."

Aviation enthusiast Sam Eagling says he optimistically hoped to be one of the first people at the fence at RAF Waddington this morning.

After sleeping through several alarms, he travelled with his friends for more than three hours from Brightlingsea in Essex to Lincolnshire.

So far, he has only managed to see the Red Arrows, but is enjoying the day out with his girlfriend Lauren and their friends Alex and Andrew.

"Normally, we've been quite lucky. We thought we might get some luck today," he says.

Sam's day job is selling mobility scooters, which "aren't as fun as fighter jets", he laughs.

He explains that the trip to RAF Waddington has been planned for some time and follows his visits to other bases across the UK in the last year.

An obvious fan of things plane-related, the 22-year-old is the expert in his friendship group, but it is unlikely they will trust him behind the controls of a real aircraft any time soon.

"I've got a flight sim on the Xbox and they like to bully me at my attempted landings. I can take off and fly, but my landings are a bit more tricky."

"You're normally upside down," Andrew laughs.

At Waddington, Sam hopes to see the French-built Mirage, a plane he has flown himself - virtually anyway, on his own flight simulation game.

"I realised quite early that all the instructions are in French, so I've only just worked out how to start it," he says.

"It might take me 45 minutes. I'm having to redo my GCSE French, but I'm getting there."

The pals' plan is to stick it out at RAF Waddington for as long as possible before they get too cold and go home.

As the low temperatures begin to bite, the biggest group of people can be seen huddling around the burger van in the car park.

Co-owner Christine Robinson is firmly part of the plane-spotting community and lives nearby. Despite her van not pointing towards the runway, she can tell what aircraft have just taken off by the noise they make - and how much her tomato ketchup bottles have rattled.

"I've grown up with aircraft. When they had the air shows here we used to sell the tickets for them," she tells me.

After a busy shift the day before, she seems happy to just chat with visitors who have made the trip to see the exercises at RAF Waddington.

"It's lots of fun, lovely people, and it's really good for business."

Our chat is interrupted as the lights at the end of the runway begin to flash red, stopping traffic from driving underneath where the planes are to take off.

The sound of car doors slamming interrupts the traffic noise as people run from the organised car park across the road and point their long-lense cameras down the runway.

Silence falls across the group and chatter from air traffic control can be heard on a distant radio scanner propped up against the wooden fence.

"It's the Belgians," someone confidently says, seemingly straining to hear the engine noise at the other end of the airfield.

The cameras click again as the F16 fighter pulls skyward and over the heads of the crowd, people turning to follow the silhouette disappear into the distance.

"Another one," someone shouts, pointing back down the runway before a second violent rumble rips through the air.

The clustered groups disperse again as the jets are heard fading into the distance. The wait for their return could be minutes - or, more probably, hours.

"I love it," Christine says, as a small line starts to form at the van again. "It's not just spotters and enthusiasts who come up. We have a lot of veterans, too. It is a big community."

Rolling up his sleeve to show me his plane tattoo, Sam adds: "I love seeing the planes. We've only done it in the last year, but have loads more trips planned now."

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