Since the demise of spottersblog.com I have hunted around and never quite found what I have been looking for until now! Please bear with me as I get to grips with this but wordpress is looking promising. I have already integrated my other blog dedicated to the Spitfire Event on June 2010 and some of my most recent ramblings.

Please update your browser if you follow the posts as it is likely my blogger sites will be scrapped shortly.

Thanks for bearing with me

Neil

🙂

>Had a visit from “The Pub Landlord” the other week.  What a nice person as he took the time to chat to anyone who wanted to meet him.  Here’s a pic of Al Murray for you.

>And now for a mystery photograph.  My mum and dad own a bit of land which had become a bit of an eyesore.  I think I mentioned before my house is on the site of a wartime ballon site/camp called Caldale and the bit of ground I have been tidying up is where the MT was where they serviced the engines for the ballons and the vehicles.

We moved here in 1970 and the ground was always covered in earth until a couple of weekends ago.  While I was tidying up I noticed what appeared to be lettering written in the concrete and once it had been swept there was no doubt.

Here is the photo, intriguing.  I would love to find out what is underneath but do not want to destroy it.

I love a good mystery

Here is a link to Caldale Air Station on the ARGOS website, and no not the chain store, the Aviation Research Group Orkney and Shetland.

http://www.crashsiteorkney.com/page13.htm

🙂

>I was looking through some of my photos last night and thought I would share a few of my favourite photos from RAF Leuchars which I make an annual pilgrimage to.  The first year I attended, I had a normal ticket but am fortunate that each year I have been successful in getting an enthusiasts pass.

It is 6 x the cost but worth every penny as you get hosted by the RAF for the 2 days, the pre-show day where you see the arrivals and the rehearsals and the show day where you get the advantage of not having to fight with 50,000 others to get in a position to take photos.

I will not describe each photo but I am sure you will recognise each and every aircraft, hope you like them.

>As I said previously, years of my blog posts were wiped out when spottersblog disappeared and while I can never re-write my thoughts at the time, the photos survive.  I thought I would do some catch up and I will start with an event I was proud to be involved with last june.

It was the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain last june and with help from Derek Mowat, Anthony Hodgson and his Spitfire, Neil Geddes and his replica SE5A, Jim McTaggart and his Starduster and Dai Heather Hayes and his Pitts Special, a 2 day event was put on for the people of Orkney.

This event was particularly fitting as I work at what was once RAF Grimsetter but the main idea of the event was to honour the heroes who gave their lives and also those that survived.  To honour them it was arranged to do a low approach at RAF Skea Brae which finally closed in 1948.

I was put in touch with a retired pilot, Lt Cmdr John Moffat, who was the pilot respponsible for crippling the rudder of the Bismarck, allowing her to be sunk shortly after.  I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with him and he remains a friend to this day.

Anyway here are some of my favourite photoss of the event;

“The Battle of France is over, I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin”

At the end of the battle he said:

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

He was right on both counts, I hope between us that we have done something to honour their memory.

Thanks for visiting, hope you like the pictures

>No new photos this week but have added a couple of links to the site.  Sadly we have stood the Nimrod Heitage Group down to allow a local chap, Mark Mair to bring his ideas forward.  IThe Moravia Aviation experience is a bold concept and I wish him well and will give him all the support I can.

The RAF at Kinloss have a proud history and a long association with Orkney and it has been a privilege to work with serving and retired individuals over the last 10 months.

I spoke to Mark last monday and discovered he is the mainstay of the Search And Rescue Trust fund in Moray.  He has single handedly raised a lot of money and the trust itself is of particular interest to me as in my day job, I fully appreciate the important and dangerous role of SAR.  Ironically Mark also needed the support of the very people he raises funds for as he was badly injured at sea and required SAR to take him to hospital

Many Orcadians owe there lives to the brave deeds of the Coastguard and the RAF SAR helicopters, not forgetting the top level cover provided by the crews of the Nimrod MR2, so the link is on the right hand side of this page.  Please visit the site if you have a moment.

Finally, a big thank you to a dear friend of mine who has recently come into my life.  David Morgan, a journalist and aviation expert has worked alongside me every step of the way.  I also wish to give thanks to his wife Rhona, who kindly gave up her husband to the cause for the last 10 months.

Sincere thanks to the both of you and I hope you get the boat launched in Oban tomorrow.

Till next time

Neil
🙂

>Hello and thanks for dropping by if you are reading this.  Since my last post we have had a few new aircraft in, I have bought myself a new Leica bridge camera and my all singing all dancing DSLR has been disposed of via ebay.

Still getting used to it but at least nearly all photographs are truning out first time, so no complaints.

We had our first Twinstar in a while drop past to drop some pax off for a long weekend in Orkney.  I still can’t get used to how quiet they are.  Anhyway here is G-DJET

At around the same time we had a Cessna T303, G-DOLY,  in for a visit.  I never managed to get close so her is a long distance shot on take off.

The first two pictures were taken by my trusty Fuji whih has been with me for a couple of years.  The Leica is about twice the size and just about every control is manual but the proof of the pudding will be when I go to Leuchars in September http://www.airshow.co.uk/

G-CHCX, Super Puma dropped in for a refuel so it was my first opportunity to try the zoom.  Here is the before;

And the after

>

Firefighters from Kirkwall Airport set off this morning to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

The team are all members of Kirkwall’s Redwatch.They will attempt to conquer Snowdon in Wales, Scafell Pike in England, and Scotland’s Ben Nevis, in just 24 hours, starting at 5pm this evening.

Undertaking the challenge are  left to right, firefighters Neil Robertson, David Hamilton, Greig (Acker) Rorie, Andrew Rendall, Scott Milne and Neil Tait supported and driven by Airport manager, Davie Berston.

For further information, or to sponsor Red Watch, visit www.justgiving.com/redwatch-3peaks-challenge.

>Before I get to the snow pictures I thought I would post a c;ose up of a Tucano.  They are now regular vistors to Kirkwall and it is very common to be asked “what kind of plane is that” or “did I see a spitfire”

So here is ZF205 when the better weather is here

We also had a visiting Citation G-WAIN

>We became RAF Grimsetter again for a couple of days.  First of all we had a visit from a couple of Tucano’s from Linton on Ouse.

What was special about these ones was the Orcadian connection.  The pilot of one of them, “Wildy”, was the son of Chris and Julia Wild who are the owners of Craigies Taxi’s in Kirkwall.
Thank you for the low flypast in formation on 14/32, everyone enjoyed themselves.  It was a pity the light was so low but hope the photos are OK.  Chris, the photos will be with you tonight.

At 7am this morning my phone rang.  It was my colleague Ian who was at work and had been informed that a Nimrod was going to do low approaches at Kirkwall at around 0915 this morning.  Almost in disbelief, I woke up immediately and remembered that XV249 was at Kinloss this week prior to going on detachment abroad.

I made sure my batteries were all charged in my cameras and was at work in good time to prepare for this exciting event.  I had never seen an R1 before so with the help of the new Airport Manager, Davie Berston and the new Airport Fire Manager, Graeme King, I managed to get myself in a prime possition in time for the approach.

And here are the pics, you will never see this again!