I've never tried (serious) airplane photography. It depends on what kind of shots you're looking to get. I don't know locations for it. Just looking at Google maps satellite view should give you some ideas though. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8808723,-93.2137983,6973m/data=!3m1!1e3
Getting a lightning bolt behind a (non-blurred) plane with a still camera would be a miracle. I think you'd be better off taking high-res (1080p+) video at a high framerate/high shutter speed, and just grabbing a frame out of it for a still.