Farewell Leuchars, it has been a privilege

Well that’s my September treat past and sadly there will be no more airshows at this historic airfield. Air Officer Scotland, Air Commodore Gerry Mayhew, who is the Leuchars Station Commander, took the time to come and meet us to tell us personally what the future would (or would not) hold for the airshow.  He also confirmed that although 1 and 6 Squadron were moving to Lossie, the air show would not be as the local infrastructure and the A9 could not handle the influx of visitors.

It was genuinely appreciated by us all that he took the time to come and see us and, in my opinion, he is a real gentleman.  Nothing was too much trouble and he fielded awkward questions well and without hesitation.

Anyway, to the show.  Friday was not blessed by photographic friendly light so some of my pictures are disappointing.  We knew what was happening as we were given a timetable of aircraft expected landing times.

The Catalina, BBMF and a few others were already on site but there were regular aircraft arrivals as you will see in my photos.  As always our RAF hosts looked after us as if we were VIP’s.

Anway enjoy some of the day 1 photos, too many highlights to mention but a number of firsts for me.  Danish F16’s, T28 Fennec and the awesome Voyager which is based on the Airbus A330 and is the largest aircraft ever in the Royal Air Force.

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There are lots more which I will pop on my Flickr page but hope you like these.

As always thanks for reading and part 2 will be posted shortly.

Best wishes

Neil 😉

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Did you think I had forgotten about Kirkwall

Thought it was about time for me to bring things up to date.  Kirkwall has been very busy and we have had a number of new and unusual aircraft in.  In a previous post I told you we had a visit by a beautiful King Air registration M-FIVE.

I got a chance the next day to take a few further pics as the pilot was very hospitable so I am now able to say “and the inside”

We had a visit from SE-DJH, Citation

And a fleeting visit from G-PDGR, obviously a squirrel

It was a pleasant surprise to find Andrew Brown back in Kirkwall with his wife, in this case G-WIFE, his C182.  I had to take a second look though as she now is the proud owner of a 3 blade prop.

Last week saw a visit by LX-JFO, a TBM850 from Luxembourg, A first for me and a seriously fast single engine plane.

It was a pleasure to catch up with some old friends when PH-RID, owned by Cartier came in piloted by Captain Morgan Beret and First Officer Alex Balcells.

We also had a couple of bizjets in today, first of all M-CICO, Falcon 50

And another first for me, HB-JRV, a Geneva based CL60

That’s about it for now apart from what I heard on the news tonight.  It seems “Mr Loganair” Scott Grier who has made Loganair what it is, has decided to retire.

He is an amazing man and is well known in Orkney.  I believe he is going stay on for the next two years in an advisory capacity, however, I and I am sure everyone else wishes him the very best.

This is Scott on the right with the local engineering team as you have probably never seen them before taken 6 years ago at the formal opening of the hangar.  Yes!!! 6 years ago.

That’s it for now, as always thanks for taking the time to visit

All the best

Neil 😉

Olympic Flame comes to Orkney

No new aircraft for you, however, as the title suggests the Olympic flame arrived in Orkney this morning and was witnessed by thousands of people as it passed through the town.

The Saab carrying the flame arrived just before 0830 in an aircraft piloted by an Orkney pilot, Captain Dave Miller.

Each photo is self explanatory so I won’t bore you with a story.

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Well done to all who took part

As always, thanks for taking the time to read

All the best

Neil 😉