Just a quick post before I head off to Leuchars on thursday.  We had a visit from HRH Prince Andrew on Tuesday.

He was up for a visit to a couple of renewable energy sites and out to a regeneration site at Lyness which was a Naval base but latterly was a bit of an eyesore.

Anyway for those of you interested in the aircraft, here is G-XXEB, a Sikorsky S76

And for those interested in the Prince, here he is being met by our local representatives on the apron at Kirkwall Airport.

That’s it for now, Leuchars here we come.

Thanks for looking in

Neil 🙂

Just a couple of extra photos to finish the week.  The Subsea Viking visited Kirkwall again for a crew change and I never know what to expect until the day before.

We had a rare visitor to Kirkwall this time by a Dash 8 operating for Eastern but in Air South West livery.  As I understand it Air South West are to become part of Eastern and operate out of Plymouth but will be moving up to Aberdeen soon.

Here it is taxiing up 14 on arrival

The international part of the title comes from the visit of Bergen Air Transport who are regular visitors.  In this case LN-BAA, King Air 200

And finally a profile of G-WOWB.

That’s it for now, have a nice weekend

Neil 😉

Just prior to going on holiday we had a visiting Canadian registered Super Puma on its way to Brazil.  Just looks like any other CHC aircraft except for the registration.

While I was in Stornoway, I did not have much time for taking photos but this one was worth taking time out of my lunch.  I have not seen many Casa 212‘s and I guess this one was on a ferry flight.  Not pretty, but then again it’s a bit like a big Islander so I guess it has it’s charm.  Apologies for the chain link visible in the photo, didn’t have time to get photoshop out.

We had a visit from a nearly new Embraer Phenom 100 which arrived from Germany, while I was down taking the picture, our Firefighters were about to go on exercise.

No pun intended, we had a flying visit from OO-GEA, a Bell 206 passing through from Belgium to Shetland.

And the inside

Back to that Phenom 100 from Germany, afetr the weather brightened up a bit I managed to get a better picture of this aircraft and I have to say it is stunning.  Sadly I did not win the Euromillions rollover on tuesday night so can’t afford one just yet.

And, of course, the inside.  Reminds me of the USS Enterprise

It is becoming more like a virtual word with these glass cockpits.  Look carefully at the screens and you will see they also show the terrain.

WE had a couple of Super Pumas drop by at the beginning of the week as one went tech and another saved the day for the offshore crews. G-CHCN and G-CHCL

Finally a first visit from Cessna 182 G-EFAW.  This was piloted by Martin Petrie, a regular vistor to Orkney and his first with this aircraft.  He was passing through with his wife on their way to the Faroes.

That’s it for now, thanks for taking the time to read, till next time

Neil 😉

It’s amazing how time flies.  Just back off holiday and a few weeks until Leuchars.  Unbelievable a second scottish base is being binned by this government.  Anyway had a vist to East Fortune museum when I was away and have a number of pics to sort before posting them here.

I thought I would post up afew more photos from July when we had visits from a C17.  We had notification that a C17 was going to do low approaches at Kirkwall Airport, so for a few minutes the world stopped.

It was only when I had taken the photographs that I realised it was a completely different aircraft from the previous day.  This particular one is ZZ173 and it hung about most of the day.

And then it was time to go

We had a few other visitors, first of all we had G-WAIN up from Hawarden

And then a vist from an old friend, ZE700 from the Royal Flight

It never ceases to amaze me just how quiet these aircraft are!  The final unusual visitor we had was G-CFLU, an Eastern Saab 2000 up to do the crew change for the Subsea Viking.

As some of you know, I manged to be part of the tribute Spitfire flight last year over Skea Brae.  This year I managed to land there thanks to Andrew Brown and G-WIFE.

The weather was due to turn and Andrew asked if I fancied going for a flight with a view to landing there.  30 minutes later we were in the air.  15 minutes after that we were on finals for Skea Brae

Then we were on the ground.  Another life objective met.  Here is my host for the evening pictured at Skea Brae.  Many thanks Andrew.

And my final 2 pics prior to disappearing to Stornoway were a couple of visiting helicopters, Squirrel G-BPRJ and Eurocopter G-SASA

That’s it for just now, some nice pics from East Fortune to come and won’t be long till I am sifting through hundreds of Leuchars pics.  I have to say the flying program is a bit disappointing this year but wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Thanks for reading and all the best

Neil 😉

ZZ177 has caused a stir amongst the population of Orkney.  Never has a visiting aircraft (Spitfire excluded) caused such a stir.  The light was slightly better today and thanks to Hub, I was in the right place at the right time.

Hope you like todays photos.  Also it is worth noting there may be visiting aircraft over the next week and a half so keep watching the skies.

Thanks for looking in again.  If you want to view video footage.  Thanks to Andrew Rendall in the fire section, you can.  Gind the fottage here

Neil 🙂

I never thought I would end up posting 2 nights in a row but one of our larger visitors passed through today in the shape of a C17 Globemaster. The photos are taken from a great distance and the light was not the best I have seen but no mistaking what I can only describe as a beast. The thing that was surprising about it was how little noise it made as it flew overhead. All of the airport were either outside or at the windows to watch it passing and if it wasn’t for Air Traffic Controller Alan Bews I would have missed it so many thanks Hub. It’s arrival for those that missed it is in the next few pics.

So thanks to the crew of ZZ177 for taking the time to pass through.

All the best

Neil 🙂

One of the things I have learned over the years is to always have a camera with you.  WE had probably the best day of the year 2 sundays ago and while relaxing on Inganess beach, I discovered that aircraft landing on runway 14 pass right over your head, so in anticipation of Leuchars, out came the camera.

First of all G-CKKD, a Kwik microlite and then one of our resident aircraft, G-BCPA Loganair Islander.

All too soon it was back to work and although I only caught it at long distance, G-SARC was passing through.

Shortly after we had a visit from N37172, King Air 350.  This aircraft is owned and operated by Marks and Spencer.

And the first RAF visitor for a peedie while.  You always know when a Tucano is around because they announce their arrival everytime.  ZF448 was up from Linton on Ouse.

And thanks to Peter Henderson at the tower, I got a couple of minutes warning that a Hercules C130 was going to do an approach in a couple of minutes.  I just had time to grab my camera before I saw this in the distance.

And although it is a fair distance away, I clearly can see the numbers ZH887, good job as the phone rang minutes later from a spotter wondering if I knew the tail number.

Thats it for now.  I have been speaking to Tommy Mogren in Sweden who was the owner of the server which contained my previous blog.  He has confirmed that all my previous ramblings are still intact and saved in a file.  He is going to attempt to get the information to me.  Be nice if I can get it all back.

Thanks for reading

All the best

Neil 🙂

The end of another week with a forecast of good weather for the weekend so here’s hoping.   It’s been a busy week so not had a lot of time to take pictures but have had notification of a number of Long Ezees arriving in mid July so will keep you posted.

The first aircraft is A Citation Bravo, G-IDAB.  Slightly different than the previous Citation as the cockpit was glass.  This particular Citation is part of the Air Charter Scotland fleet.

And the inside

And finally a visit from an old friend G-WIFE piloted by Andrew Brown who is a regular visitor to the island and a fellow aviation enthusiast.  Andrew was a major part of the Spitfire event last year.  Lovely to see peedie Rosie again and a pleasure to meet Keith Gray on time off from RAF Kinloss.

Here they are just on final approach on runway 32

That’s it for now, till next time

Neil

🙂

Last wednesday we had a visit from children and parents from Orphir pre school.  It was one of our busiest days in ages and the children were excitedly watching for the planes coming and going.

Luckily enough Colin, one of the Islander Captains had finished his morning rotations and kindly allowed the children to sit inside his plane.

The visit was finished off by the ever popular visit to the Airport Fire Section before returning to school.

Many thanks  to Jackie, Colin and Ryan from Loganair, Graeme King, Airport Fire Manager and Blue Watch who were hosts for the visits.

Here are the pics

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And my post would not be complete without airplane pictures so I have a couple of first time visitors to Kirkwall starting with G-VUEA, A Cessna Citation 550.

And the inside

And finally a french guest who arrived from Fife and headed shortly after for Oban.  This is a beautiful Microlight.

That’s it for now, thanks for reading

Neil

🙂

Hi

I am starting to get to grips with this software so I guess I will stay here, hope you have managed to find your way.  The next group of photos were taken at Leuchars last year.  The days started with torrential rain and then ended up reasonably warm so the light in the pictures change s dramatically.

If you don’t know what aircraft they are , drop me a line.