I thought it was time to start putting up some of the special events Kirkwall has hosted over the last decade. 2008 saw the 75th anniversary of the inaugural passenger air service to Kirkwall started by Captain Ted Fresson. This event saw a large turnout of vintage aircraft and was well attended by the public.
Enjoy them, I can’t see this happening again for some time.
Doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself. Time to get myself in gear and get my typing fingers going. So what has happened since my last post? Very little GA wise but been seriously busy at work.
The good news is there will be another airshow at RAF Leuchars this year. There are some who have moaned and groaned at the standard of the 2011 show but what a day out. I do not believe there will be another so if you want to get up close and personal, keep logging into www.airshow.co.uk .
I only have a couple of pictures for you and a couple are pretty poor but finally on November 18th, Kirkwall Airport had its first visit by Eurofighters. They did not come low nor fast and the light was poor but that did not reduce their majesty as they announced their arrival.
And they were gone
The thing about these aircraft is their ability to be gone before I have time to get my camera out. More RAF came to visit us when we had a short stopover from ZE701.
The holidays were over too soon and it was back to work. Our first international charter came in from Haugesund on the 5th of January with crew change for the Subsea Viking which is now almost a local. Unusually it was their King Air 350.
All it will take is a lottery win and I will have one as well 🙂
Finally today our first RAF visitor and this one was from Leuchars;
And a visitor from Perth, I wonder who got home first?
That’s it for now, thanks for reading and once again Happy New Year, I hope 2012 brings you everything you wish for. A transfer to Buffalo Airways in Yellow Knife would do me fine as I have been watching Ice Pilots. It may be hard work but that style of life would suit me down to the ground. It would mean coming back to Orkney to top up my tan though:)
All the best
Neil 😉
Each day brings a surprise and I was wondering what the subject of my next post was going to be until today. While in the course of my normal daily routine, I was aware that there was music in the terminal, which was strange as the christmas CD’s are not playing yet.
A quick look at the check ins and I was aware of singers, very good I might add. singing “You raise me up”. Sadly I only caught the last minute but here are the Husnes Brothers from Grimstad in Norway. The video does not do them justice but still worth a listen.
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrTGvkDLwDA
All the best and thanks for visiting 🙂
Neil
I finished work just after 1430 with Children in need well under way. So where does the title come from? Skip and Lyndsay started a sweepstake where certain “volunteers” would be chosen, votes would be cast at a cost, and the person with the most votes would end up getting their legs waxed. The thing is, all the “volunteers” were male.
Wind ups followed all morning and some worried looking faces including mine with the impending sense that my legs would be silky smooth by the end of my shift.
Sure enough, the time came to count the votes and it ended up a tie between Richard Gorn, Supervisor with Loganair and myself.
Then along came my fairy godmother in the form of The Loganair Inter Island Team. MIchael Bain came and cast the final votes and luckily for me the tie had ended meaning Richard Gorn would shortly have the pleasure of beauty treatment courtesy of Lyndsay.
The photos take it from here:
Well done to the ladies for working so hard and full marks to Richard for being such a good sport.
The girls were around the £500 mark when I left so here’s hoping they beat their record.
That’s all for now and thanks for reading
All the best
Neil 😉
I mentioned in a previous post that I had the pleasure of working alongside a number of top blokes in the RAF based at Kinloss,
To name a few
Justin, Jim M, Steve, Dave I, Roxy, John, Terry, Dave B and Keith,
All of them made me feel welcome and spent time and effort with me showing off what is now the last Nimrod MR2 in Scotland and if I had my way, it would have been the last complete MR2 in Scotland but that is sadly, unlikely to happen now,. The SDSR put paid to our RAF maritime assets and this book highlights what can only be described as a rushed decision with far reaching consequences that we may not see for some time.
The SDSR succeeded in putting 1000’s out of jobs, closing RAF KInloss and ultimately Leuchars but hey! The American aircraft industry got a huge boost as it is highly likely we will eventually have american P8’s guarding our shores. There is a pattern here did Germany not get a huge contract to build trains for the UK resulting in 1000’s of redundancies from Bombardier 😦
Must get off that soapbox, anyway, I got to know them while working on a project connected with my interest in all things RAF, in particular RAF Kinloss and the Nimrod MR2.
Justin has been working on a project which has just come to fruition in the Form of a new book . Nimrod Rise and Fall. This book is written by Tony Blackman about the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod from its beginning to its end, 978-0-9553856-7-4. NON-FICTION, with the appendix written by Justin from a flightcrew perspective.
I was delighted when a number of my photos were used to illustrate this book, Also I have been sent some fantastic pictures by JIm Mailer which I hope to show here at some point.
Now you know what to get your other halves for christmas. Buy it, you will not be disappointed.
Thanks for letting me know about it Justin, great book. Find more about it at www.blackmanbooks.co.uk
Till next time
All the best
Neil 🙂
Who is definitely not an oldie but qualifies as a goodie. I started looking through some of my older photographs and thought I would start posting them up in batches. Amongst them are pictures of aircraft we no longer see including Highland Airways and British Airways.
Hope you like them
Part two shortly. Thanks for taking the time to read.
Neil 🙂
It’s that time of the year again. Things are being prepared at the terminal for next weeks children in need under the watchful eye of Co-ordinator Skippy (Susanne Carter) and Lyndsay Robinson.
They have been working hard preparing raffles, home bakes and sales and I would not be surprised if they have their best ever year. Here are the Dynamic Duo.
Obviously there are others in the background who make things possible and Skip has asked me to thank the following on her behalf:
Margaret Corsie
Lyndsay
Maurice Dawson at the Blue Door
Jackie Delaney
Security Staff at KOI
and everyone else for generous donations and beautiful baking. Not good for the waistline!
Thanks for reading and good luck ladies
All the best
Neil 🙂
I am still looking back over many of my old photos and came across these. On my way back from my summer holidays, I decided to have a coule of hours at the end of the main runway. Nothing happened for a few hours so I called for my Mrs to pick me up. AS she arrived there was the unmistakable sound of jet engines starting and all of a sudden things came to life.
None of the photos have been edited but thought this would bring back memories for some, hope you like them.
AS always, thanks for taking the time to read
All the best
Neil 😉
Quite an unusual title this time as the last few weeks have been varied. The weather has changed to winter. It’s dark, it’s cold most of the time and unusually I have worn a jacket to work. Not something I tend to do in October.
It’s a week to go until my October leave and usually I find a day to stand at the end of the main runway of RAF Kinloss waiting patiently for the next picture. Sadly there is no point this time, however, I may go across to Lossie for the first time, I will have to see how much time I have.
Anyway, since I last typed we have had a number of bizjets in, a crew change for the Subsea Viking (SV) and I have been to Stornoway and Inverness as the pics will show. First of all an Eastern Saab 2000 from Aberdeen with part of the SV crew change.
M-CICO, a beautiful Falcon 50 dropped past for a few days
And a new Citation operated by Gama, here is G-CGUZ
Followed quickly by a Citation Mustang OE-FHA
While I was on my way to Stornoway, I had a couple of hours to kill after arriving in Inverness,and as I saw the sun for the first time, I went for a walk and as always took the camera. NOt much was flying and most of the pictures I took were not from the correct angle but I liked a couple of them.
The first is a view of the Airport with an A319, Q400 and Embraer 195 parked up before departure.
As I was walking back the A319 G-EZAZ had come to life and was getting ready to depart
So where does the sadness come in, look at the next picture and you will understand!
A year and a half ago, this beautiful aircraft, or should I say, what is left of it was protecting our maritime interests at home and abroad. I am glad I have photos of her over Kirkwall Airport but the Mighty Hunter deserves better than being cut up and ending up a museum piece. Heartbreaking 😦
I like finishing on a positive so now to old friends. The Cartier pilots are a sociable bunch and it was a pleasure to see Marco Pierotti for the first time in a long time. Also a pleasure to meet Olivier who was the Captain for this trip. You can just make him out in this pic prior to departure.
And finally PH-CIJ, one of the two Cessna 680‘s they operate and regular visitors to Kirkwall.
That’s about it for now. Thanks for taking the time to read. Will see what the holidays bring but looking forward to having a dram with some of my RAF friends in a couple of weeks.
All the best
Neil 😉
I left Orkney on thursday lunchtime for my annual trip to the RAF Leuchars Air Show. Granted the static and flying program did not appear as full as last year but it really does not matter as the whole experience is worth every penny.
A couple of changes this year to the arrangements, some good and some not but if you know me , I am a glass half full kind of person.
Once I had checked in and the safety brief was complete, it was time to find my shooting location for the weekend. When I arrived there, I was greetd by an old friend who I met last year.
Tony from Montrose is a first class photographer with a great sense of humour and the weekend was spent in his company along with John from Glasgow who took some excellent pics and young Nikita who was out to learn the art of photography under Tony’s watchful eye.
The weather was pretty grim most of the weekend but I had my waterproofs and brolly so no problems.
There were too many highlights to mention them all but the flying displays were fantastic.
Of particular mention are the RV8ors and the Blades. The French display team from the Armee de L’air were a welcome addition and of course the Red Arrows who were displaying for the first time after the death of one of their colleagues.
Flt Lt Jon Egging, 33, from Rutland, was killed when his Hawk T1 aircraft – Red 4 – crashed about 1km south east of Bournemouth Airport afew weeks ago.
Both the Arrows and the Patrouille de France flew their displays minus an aircraft where Red 4 would have been located, very respectful, poignant and fitting as was the moments silence for the loss of a great man.
My particular highlight was seeing a Catalina for the first time and even better when it displayed prior to departure.
The F16 pilots from Belgium and Holland were out of this world and I will look forward to seeing them next year.
Neil Geddes and his replica SE5A put on an outstanding display for the crowd. Some of you will remember him from the Orkney Air Show. A tremendous pilot and a very nice man.
Anyway, some photos, I have not edited any of them but will get around to it, hope you like them.
That’s a selection of the 600 or so pictures I took. Did you notice the picture inside the exhaust of the F16? Very artistic I thought 🙂
As you probably know Leuchars is a casualty of the Defence Review and will close. Bitter sweet as Leuchars loss is Lossiemouth’s gain.
I still can’t get my head round these decisions and certainly don’t agree with them. The loss of the Nimrods was the first decision I struggle with and now Leuchars. It was heartbreaking hearing from the firefighters at Leuchars, some who were being shown the door after 30 years.
And to what end? It’s not the loss of the planes that bothers me, it is the loss of the knowledge and the experience. Maybe I am being thick but by the time we are in the position to properly fund our military, will there be anyone with experience to train the new batch?
Off my soap box. Hope you enjoyed the pics and thanks for reading.
All the best
Neil 🙂
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