Five favourites...

OK, after the action of last week, I couldn't resist doing this one...so here we go with five favourite Aviation pics...

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Wings and Wheels, Dunsfold - 2013. I have history with these guys - firstly pretty much every time I see them anywhere one or other of the planes gets broken shortly beforehand, so actually seeing the Lancaster AND a Spitfire AND a Hurricane together is a bit of a rarity. Then to add to that it's damned difficult to get all three planes nicely spaced in a shot, with decent lighting and exposure. And that is precisely why this shot makes me smile!

Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team the Red Arrows - Dartmouth Regatta 2009. A completely unique display viewpoint up on Jawbones Hill overlooking the river valley and looking down on parts of the display. The more usual backdrop for air display photos is without question sky, but here you can get trees, fields, and even, as in this shot....houses, cars and people. Fab! 2014? Yes, I'll be climbing the hill again!

Ahh....Duxford 2013 - or "The Red Arrows Display that really shouldn't have happened" - just 10 minutes before the scheduled start time we were sheltering in the car from a torrential downpour. The majority of people left from where we were standing as it seemed certain that they were going to turn back to Scampton. In fact they delayed their departure slightly, and by the time they appeared only slightly later than planned the rain had stopped, the blue skies reappeared, and the conditions were just perfect for a really special display.

Harrier - Southend 2006

I won't get on to the ridiculousness of the government's decision to scrap these incredible planes - aside from to say it's a travesty. I will say that I saw this display many times at airshows, and I never failed to see it bring a smile to the face of all those who witnessed it's "bow" before departing at the end, and never failed to see at least one small child scream and cover their ears as it came down low at crowd centre in an awesome (and very noisy!) hover. For that memory alone, Harrier, I thank you...

This is The Blades. We saw their first ever public display in 2006, have seen them numerous times since, and they're still super-impressive now. I like this photo on a lot of levels - once again it shows the advantage of the fantastic viewpoint at Dartmouth, it also shows the brilliant paint-scheme on the team's Extra 300 planes. Possibly the only aerobatic team I've seen that can display after the Red Arrows and still look good - but then as they're all ex RAFAT pilots maybe that's not so surprising?

Robyn

Waiting for news...

It's an exciting day today in the world of Red....and Blue, in fact! Today is the day that the Red Arrows find out who will be flying in which position for the 2014 display season, and at the same time their support/engineering chaps - known as the "Blues" due to the distinctive royal blue flying suits they wear during the season - will hear which of them have been assigned to the prestigious "circus" positions. "Circus" is the name given to the chaps who each have a specific plane/pilot to take care of - they fly in the hawks to and from the display sites (although not during the actual displays, they do take part in flypasts if these are conducted as part of transit rather than as specific events).

We know that these two chaps...

Synchro pair 2012

Ben Plank & Chris Lyndon-Smith - flying as the Synchro pair, Red 6 & 7 - seen here flying at Dartmouth Regatta last year, will be departing for pastures new - Planky's done rather well having had 4 years flying with the team, and seems hotly tipped to make a return in the future as Red 1 too. Pilots usually fly with the Reds for 3 years, so each year sees 3 new pilots come onto the team, however difficult circumstances over the past few years have dictated that the regular pattern has been broken. This year will see just 2 new arrivals from the shortlist of 6 that went forward earlier in the year during Excercise Springhawk - they will fly in the front half of the team - Reds 1 - 5. It's likely that one of the 2nd year pilots will move to Red 7, Synchro 2, with this year's Red 7, James McMillan - moving forward one space to become Synchro Leader.

Red 7 2013

With the exception of Red 1 - "The Boss" - who stays in his position for his three years with the team (and will also have flown with them earlier in his career also) everyone else finds out today which role they will be performing next year, and the 2 new pilots will also be announced to the public. The news is likely to be broken first on the Reds own website and I will edit this post later on to include the new lineup once the press release appears. You can also follow several of the chaps on Twitter - Red 4, Martin Pert, was tweeting the other night about a likely change in his Twitter name!

Is anyone else waiting for news today?

Robyn

Meanwhile, up on the hillside...

Yes, once again I staggered up the bloody great hill overlooking Dartmouth to take in some of the air displays. It was warm enough to make walking up a hot, red-faced, sticky business, but knowing it as I do I figured it would be less warm by the time I reached the top, so I took layers! (I also took a fruit bun and a pot of pineapple chunks, and very nice they were too!) Reached the top in gorgeous sunshine, so settled down to wait while aimlessly taking photos of surrounding countryside...

...and others looking down into the town...

I watched the Red Arrows "Red 10" fly in and land at the Britannia Royal Naval College in his little Squirrel helicopter, and I also watched their band marching up and down playing (could just about hear them too!) - don't think that was anything to do with Mr 10's arrival though - think they were just practising! And eventually, after a short while of pleasant sun-basking, I watched The Blades who were the first airborne event of the day! As ever they were excellent - it was the first time I'd seen them down in Dartmouth and on reflection I think their display lends itself slightly more to being seen from the ground than from up a bloody great hill. Being that high up did mean I got some shots like this one though...

...If you look carefully you can even see the people standing down there looking up! I do love the different perspective you get on an event from a completely different angle - some bits were more impressive than the usual - they do a move where they basically spiral in the air, essentially around one wingtip - very clever and I always find myself wondering how on EARTH you make a plane do that! No pictures of that, but quite a lot of other bits of the display...

After them came the Typhoon - a proper "boys showing off" display this - lots of noise and the glow from the jets looking all the more impressive from the level I was at.

It was at about this stage that I started to notice that the sun had gone in, and in fact, horror of horrors, there were CLOUDS appearing. Not the pretty white fluffy ones that had been around previously, but the sort of heavy grey ones that meant that the Typhoon got to finish his display with the rather natty trick of just heading up into the sky and disappearing....quite odd, that! Also quite alarming given that the Red Arrows were due to be displaying in just 30 minutes! We waited, much nervous conversation broke out on the hillside about the weather and what it might mean, and it was looking certain that we weren't going to get a "full" display, but instead it was likely to be the same "Rolling" show we'd seen at Dunsfold the week before until suddenly - at 6.25pm, the cloud lifted slightly, and some chinks of sunlight appeared....we held our breath, and then, there they were!

We found out afterwards that until literally seconds before they arrived with us, it was going to be the rolling display, Red 10 had actually introduced them with his usual "Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome the Royal Air Force Aerobatic team for 2013 - The Red Arrows!" and then added that he had JUST had confirmed that they would be doing the full show! Sadly though that brief chink was as good as it got, and by two-thirds of the way through visibility had again fallen dramatically. To set the scene for the photographically minded - at one point I checked my settings and realised that in spite of using ISO800, F4, I was getting speeds of just 1/200th/sec - rather slow, to say the least, for photographing fast jets!  Quite how they completed the display we haven't a clue - it must have been right on the boundaries of the conditions they can fly in I should imagine. The show was as good as ever though - faultless throughout and great fun to watch, even is photographing it was a bit challenging! In the end I opted to concentrate on trying to get some "different" shots including the local countryside, rather than close-ups and high speed action that I'd usually focus on from that vantage point.

Within a few minutes of the end of the display the rain had started falling - a sign of just how close we'd come to the show being aborted, and I only hope they got an idea of quite how delighted everyone was that they had managed to give us such a great 21 minutes of action!

My final sight of The Reds for this year will be from my usual "field with a view" near Duxford on Sunday afternoon - so please send all sunshine in that direction, if you would!

Robyn

Another high-speed weekend!

Thursday night saw us jumping in the car and whizzing off to Devon - to Mr EH's hometown of Dartmouth, for the final few days of the town's annual Royal Regatta. we fairly did whizz down there too - under 5 hours actual driving time and that included the time it took to get down round the M25! Lovely to have such a speedy journey when you're looking forward to seeing people! traffic behaved itself well - with the exception of a load of hay-bales which had fallen off the back of a lorry (no, not like that, ACTUALLY fallen off!) and landed on the A303 even that though did almost nothing to slow us down and on we sped, arriving in Dartmouth at 11pm just in time for a cuppa and a natter before bed.

Saturday started out grey and drizzly - with a fine mist-like rain falling on us as we assembled for the fun events which start the day - the "Waiters and waitresses" races were up first - great fun for all involved and an amount of local pride at stake too as all the local restaurants and hostelries compete to take the prize. MrEH and I usually help out at these events, as well as me taking some photos for them as well, so we were kept busy running up and down, and shaking cans of lager or cola ready for the competitors to enjoy the challenge of pouring...

Then comes the Barrel Rolling event - two teams of 3/4 people per heat roll the barrel from one end of the course and back again, the barrels having previously been half-filled with water which makes them wonderfully unpredictable and tending to scoot off in odd directions if rolled with too much force...

My favourite event this one - I love the expressions of determination on the racers faces!

Finally the "fun events" are wrapped up with the "International Trolley Grand Prix" an event where teams of 2 have to keep their "fuel tank" in the trolley (buckets with strategically drilled holes) filled with water in order that the trolley may be pushed around the course. Our job at the end was to stop those whose fuel tanks were empty when they reached us - they have to wait for their "mechanic" to return with a "fuel can" full of water to top up the tank, and off they go again. This would be as easy as it sounds if the fuel cans didn't also have liberally drilled holes. *grin* Those who've done it before know that the trick is to slap your hand over the top of the container once you've filled it, and invert the whole thing onto that hand to run up the course with it. Getting wet is an essential part of the fun, and for any of the adults who aren't quite as wet as MrEH things they ought to be by the last lap, he has a bucket ready to help things along. oddly enough, his bucket doesn't have the holes drilled....!

Also going on over on the river while all this mayhem breaks out on land is the local rowing finals - and two of my Brothers-In-law were kept busy all day with those, including rowing in dinner jackets, as you do....

...they were rewarded by being placed in several of the events, and also by being given an award for being the most dedicated rowers of the Regatta, something which is voted for by those who know their subject supremely well, which meant a lot to them.

Regatta is fantastic fun and such a family event for us too - always great to catch up with everyone and spend time playing with the niece and nephews, and chatting with Sister-in-Law Terri too. Friday afternoon saw a host of flying displays taking place - those will get a separate post all of their own as I'm not walking all the way up the hill to NOT get my moneys-worth out of the shots! Saturday is a lovely laid-back day, much wandering about, watching things randomly, and sitting in the sunshine before heading to the Royal Avenue gardens in the evening for a big group picnic with family and friends and then - the last real event of the Regatta - the fireworks display, set to music and always impressive! The town seems very quiet once Regatta is over - by the time most folk venture down the following morning the fair has packed up and left, traffic flow around the town is back to normal, and the bunting is taken down and stowed away for another year. Someone arriving by midday on the Sunday would barely know anything had happened. All this can happen thanks to a band of dedicated volunteers, aided and abetted by those who diligently drop their contributions into the collecting tin each year. Fantastic, isn't it!

Robyn

Looking back at 2012

Been quite a year hasn't it? I thought a quick look back on what we've done, where we've been, and what I've achieved in the past 12 months might be quite fun - we seem to have packed an awful lot in....!

The year itself seems to have been quite busy for us - there was a reasonably quiet start to the year then the rugby team trip to Barcelona of course -

 great fun, and excellent to be standing in baking heat and bright sunshine watching a rugby match when it was piddling down at home! Easter was spent exploring the Lake District ...

...and then onwards for a flying visit to Edinburgh where we stayed in a wigwam. Great fun and quite a relief when we got up in the morning and found it was snowing - a tent might have been a bit chilly!  Then there was a cheery trip to Brighton of course  before whizzing off for the annual fortnight in the Hebrides - where once again we were fortunate enough to have stunning weather while the South East drowned. The poor Queen got wet celebrating her own Jubilee (and missed poor Prince Phillip, no doubt, who was taken off to hospital in the middle of it) and everyone else got wet watching her - we, meanwhile, had a fortnight of sunshine, and spent a fair bit of time without shoes & socks on...

Our long awaited return trip to the Farne Islands finally happened in July - although once again we had our plans to visit both Inner Farne and Staple Island scuppered as the wind was wrong for boat landings. We still had a great time though and MrEH even got dive-bombed by a Tern - they left me alone, thankfully! As usual these little guys stole the show....

July of course also saw the London 2012 Olympics and what a triumph it was! To all those who said London would blow it, well you can just get stuffed - it was by general acknowledgement one of the greatest Olympic Games EVER, and a time to be rightfully proud of being a Londoner!  We dashed into London on the first saturday and saw the Cycling Road Race and then during the Paralympics made a visit to the Olympic Park & Stadium which was absolutely fantastic and I wouldn't have missed for the world!

August started for us with the fantastic Great British Beer Festival returning to it's "Spiritual Home" of Olympia - quite fitting considering the Olympics were in full flow at the time! A successful festival and greatly enjoyable with our lovely hard working team as ever. They really are a fantastic bunch of guys and gals and it's a privilege to work with them each year.  Then a little later in the month I made a quick trip to Clacton Airshow to see the Red Arrows and get my eye in ready for their display  at Dartmouth Regatta - both displays were as good, and as thrilling, as ever!




Then there was a  lovely day in Sheffield meeting up with some cheery friends, visits to Ludlow, Norfolk, Devon again, Portsmouth, an unexpected weekend camping in Suffolk, some work with the local Conservation Volunteers, some falconry  and a ride on a cablecar...

In spite of all these things we have continued to overpay the mortgage, and used some "unexpected money" to repair or replace some household items which either died (PC, Television and most recently my beloved camera) or were threatening to (Laptop, kettle) or were simply so elderly that they were probably becoming a health risk (microwave!) all without having to resort to credit of any sort. We have also managed to stash some money into savings, and continued to work on driving down our costs. In terms of this blog I also started the Frugal Friday series which is now being posted in by other bloggers too - exactly what I hoped would happen! That series will continue to run for as long as I come up with ideas for it - I have no intention of it turning into one of those things that simply recycles the same old subjects and recipes on a 7 weekly basis! I have also done something that I had been thinking about for a good while now, and taken up playing the clarinet again - I wanted some form of challenge, and straight study simply isn't for me these days, I have been away from it for too long I suspect. Re-learning an instrument I have always loved though ticked several boxes - wanting something to "stretch" me mentally, wanting a new hobby, and also allowing me to at last do something that feels creative - I'm not great with knitting needles, glue or a sewing machine, but it seems I can still manage to get musical notes in roughly the right order!

So all that remains now is to thank you all for reading, and wish you all a very happy New year and 2013 to come!

Robyn

The Reds & the River...

The end of August sees the annual Port Of Dartmouth Royal Regatta, in Dartmouth, Devon.  MrEH hails from those parts, and as we have family down there we usually find ourself there for "Regatta weekend" and all the fun and games it entails. This year was no exception, with lots going on - everything from the "Sea Fury" plane of the Royal Navy Historic Flight, to the newly introduced "Bungee Rowing" event (yes, it is exactly what it sounds like!). To many though, young and old, the excitement peaks on the friday afternoon at 6pm when the Red Arrows fly in.  The Reds have been heard to say that Dartmouth is one of their favourite places to display, and indeed invariably we get a super display, including one year when one of the planes suffered a mechanical failure on the fly-in from Exeter them taking the unprecedented step to delay the start of the display while the spare Hawk was collected!  The display takes place in the river-valley, which forms a natural amphitheatre and makes the whole thing feel so much more immediate. It also has the advantage that, by climbing up the hill above the town, you can get a near-unique view looking down on the planes. You will of course have guessed by now that this is precisely what I did!

45 minutes before display time I started up, stopping a few times after the steepest bits - we're talking some of the steepest roads you can imagine here - 33% gradients - fancy driving your car up there? No, me neither, but people do! Eventually I reached the end of the lane onto the middle of the hill itself, and just needed to choose my spot. This year I elected to climb almost to the top, most folk who've walked up stay roughly around where the path comes out, while those who have driven and parked their cars in the car park on the far side usually sit on the top.  I chose a spot with some nice dry-looking grass and nobody else around (to complain when I wanted to stand up through the display, not because I was being antisocial!) and settled to wait.

The views are phenomenal - you can see right down on the town, across to Kingswear at the other side of the river, out to Start Bay and the sea, and across to the Britannia Royal Naval College - although only the bits of that which they are happy for you to see, naturally! I'd have been quite happy for a good while sitting just looking at the views to be honest, but before too long the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight appeared - a Spitfire, a Hurricane, and a Lancaster bomber. I have a bit of "history" with the BBMF - rarely managing to see all three planes together, so I was most relieved to see that this time, at least, all were present and correct! The Lancaster pilot seemed to think it was quite entertaining to do low passes over the hill we were sat on, too - believe me, they are pretty noisy at point-blank range!

Then it was on to the main event - and we all waited with baited breath to see the "Reds" appear. It was easy to spot those who are "regulars" up the hill for this display as we were the ones watching out to the right - their usual pattern is to appear over the brow of the hill on that side as they can "creep up" on the town itself that way. Not this time though - instead they appeared from the top of the hill behind us, making us all jump! The display itself was phenomenal as ever - from my vantage point the close-passes from the synchro-pair look even closer and we can really appreciate the precision of the whole thing. Ironically after the difficulties of getting the timing right for the synchro-pass shots the week before at Clacton, this time almost all of them came off perfectly!

Robyn

(This post was written way back in early September, but posting was delayed due to the failure of the old PC.....and then I forgot about it - sorry!)

Nearly the end...

....of the summer, and with it the airshow season. I've not seen so much of the Reds this season as I would have liked - just the three displays at Eastbourne, Dartmouth & Duxford - but as ever they were outstanding on all three occasions. Of the three displays Dartmouth was by far the most special - it always is, not least because I have now got into the habit of climbing up the big hill behind the town and shooting from there - it gives a totally different viewpoint on the display as a whole - at times you're looking down on the action, and at others the trademark red Hawks seem to be coming right at you!

I went into the display season this year wanting to do more shots where the Reds' smoke trails were as much a feature of the shots as the planes themselves - having been caught a couple of times now with extremely bland skies, or the sort of conditions that make capturing the "Red" in the "Red Arrows" close to impossible, I felt that this would be a good trick to master as it would potentially enable me to come away with even those sort of displays with shots to be pleased with. What do you think - has it worked?