While visiting the Island, we had gone to our hotel to check in. Earlier in the day, we had seen a few planes climbing out of the airport at Bembridge off in the distance. As Nancy was getting settled in, I made the short trip across to the airport to see if anything was still around. There were a few planes taxiing out. My guess is that people fly into Bembridge, walk across to The Propeller Inn for a spot of lunch and then head home again. Given the time, I suspect I was at the back end of the post lunch crews. Nothing seemed to be arriving. The wind meant the runway in use wasn’t so favourable for photos but some of them had gradual climb outs, so it wasn’t so bad. A few light aircraft shots before returning to the hotel!
Category Archives: aircraft
Alpine Helicopters – Alberta Edition
In a previous post, I had shared some images of Alpine Helicopters from when we were in Kelowna. Our trip to Canmore in Alberta brought me close to another base for the company (assuming it is the same company rather than just a common name for operators). This base was providing pleasure flights for visitors heading up in to the mountains. The base was about a mile down the road from where we were staying so, one afternoon, after we had finished our plans for the day, I popped down to see if anything was moving.
The location is not ideal for photography. The base is on the side of a hill and the parking lot is quite a way below the area from which they operate. There is a viewing area for those that are waiting to go flying but I was outside the fence so had to see what shots I could get. There was a movement of a helicopter from a parking space to the pick up zone and then there was the departure of a flight. Things were not great for getting shots but they did curve around on takeoff giving me some views of the climb out. I needed to head back so I didn’t wait for the return.
Canadian Hornet Visits BFI
Digging back through some stuff from last year and I came back across a surprise that I got at BFI. A Canadian Hornet had been visiting – presumably an overnight stop. It was heading off to its next stop and I have no idea whether that was back over the border or further into the US. Its presence had clearly attracted a fair bit of attention. There were loads of people out on the Modern ramp when it taxied out.
Hornets can get off the ground pretty quickly and I was hoping that the pilot would not be very high by the time he came by. With all of those people on the ramp, it would be nice of him to keep it low and he didn’t stay on the deck but still made a good effort. As he passed the perimeter fence, he pulled up a bit harder and was a bit too distant for a good shot of the vortices forming on the LERX, but I managed a hint of it.
Recovering a Fence Shot
In an earlier post, I had shared some images of and A340-600 operated by European Cargo that I saw at Bournemouth. What I didn’t include in that post was any images close to the rotation point, despite me having been well positioned for that. When I say well positioned, I omit one key element which is that there was a fence between me and the plane, and I wasn’t able to photograph above the fence. Shooting through it was the only option.
I tried a couple of things to mitigate the issue with the fence. First, I was as close to it as possible to take the fence wires as far out of focus as possible. I was also shooting wide open – again to try and throw the wires out of focus. The last thing I tried was to go with a low shutter speed to smear the wires as I panned. With this combination, I was hopeful that I wouldn’t really have the wires in the shots. I was wrong.
When I took a look at the shots, the fence was very obvious. I did start to wonder whether it would have been better to have the wires well defined as maybe that would be easier to remove. However, too late for that as the shots were done. Now to see if there was anything I could do to recover them to something usable (and by usable, I mean that might be shareable but nothing that was going to be a great publishable image).
I tried some of the healing tools in Lightroom to see if that would work. I was getting nowhere fast – possibly a sign of how little I understand the capabilities of the tools or maybe they are just not the right thing. Then I decided to try something else. Because of the way I had shot the image, none of the airframe was obscured. There was just the grey overlay from the fence. That made me think that it was more like a darker area of the shot. I decided to use the brush tool in the masking panel and draw some lines that were heavily feathered across the lines that the fence wire created. Having made a grid of these, I then bumped up the exposure for the mask.
The result was surprisingly effective. However, I then ended up with some overly bright areas at the edge of the mask. A rework of the mask to change the size and the feather amount and this time the result was pretty good. There were a few areas that were still a touch dark and I used a large, soft brush to address those parts. If you know what the original image looked like, you will probably spot the remnants of the work. If you had never known before, it’s possible that you might not notice how much work had been done on this.
Some Buccaneer Details
Older jets were designed with some more brutal approaches to functionality. Modern fighters have a focus on fit, and finish and stealth/drag considerations will result in blemish free surfaces. The Buccaneer comes from a different generation. Wandering around then pair that were on show at Kemble, I did enjoy looking at the little details on these old jets. Here are some shots that caught my eye.
Fat Albert Takeoff and Video of Return
When I was up the tower at Boeing Field for Seafair last year, I got to play around a bit with what I shot of the Blue Angels C-130, Fat Albert. The takeoff was a straightforward as it was departing in our direction so photographing it as it left the ramp and then rotated and climbed past was the obvious choice for me. However, when it came to the return to landing, I was wondering what to do.
The threshold is a long way from the tower, so any shots of the landing were going to be quite distant and, given the heat haze, unlikely to be that good. I figured I might try video and, with the 200-800 having such good stabilisation, thought this might be practical. It turned out surprisingly well with the original video being pretty stable. I did apply a little extra stabilisation in Resolve afterwards. The worst elements are down to operator error where I had a few moments where I ended up moving the camera very jerkily and there is nothing that the post-production can do to fully disguise that! Shame I didn’t plan ahead enough and avoid having that happen when near the flare!
This is Further Away Than I Expected to See an Air Canada Max
During my brief visit to Heathrow, I got a bunch of long-haul departures and loads of single aisle types serving destinations closer in. However, I was caught off guard slightly by one 737 Max 8. It belonged to Air Canada. I’ve seen a few of those including when they were on test, but I hadn’t anticipated seeing one in the UK. However, the longer range of the Max means that Air Canada is using it serve Halifax from London. I guess that is not really much longer a flight than plenty in Europe, so it makes sense and is probably more efficient. I just didn’t expect to see one of their narrowbodies there. Given that the A321neos are now becoming so prevalent, this is likely to be a regular thing for other airlines too. JetBlue is already doing this so others will be too.
A Visiting Spit While We Wait
During the Buccaneer event that I went to at Kemble, we spent some time in an enclosure out near the taxiway. This would be good for the first part of the event, but I was out there quite a while before things were due to kick off. While hanging around, the purr of a Rolls Royce Merlin came to my ears and, downwind there was a Spitfire. It flew a nice curving approach and touched down before taxiing in quite close to where I was standing. It was a two-seat example and presumably had come to provide rides for some enthusiasts. I didn’t see it head back out, so I don’t know whether it was a brief visit or whether it did some rides and then left. Interesting markings on it, though.
A Hot Air Balloon Near My Evening Stroll
One evening while wandering through the fields near our house, I saw a hot air balloon in the distance. When we lived in Woodinville, the balloons were a regular feature of the summer months. Morning and evening flights were common. I didn’t know that flights around Winchester were a thing and, given the proximity to Southampton Airport, I thought it might not be practical but apparently, I was wrong. I was hoping that they would continue to drift in my direction, and I would get a closer look. Then I noticed that they were dropping out of sight quite quickly, so I headed through a tree line to see them drop behind some trees off in the distance. The vent on the top of the balloon briefly opened as they touched down but then closed up almost as quickly. I guess they weren’t in a rush to rapidly deflate. I wonder whether I shall catch any more flights in the future.
Bournemouth Aviation Museum
I posted some shots of the Chichester Miles Leopard in another post and some of the Vulcan cockpit – both exhibits at the Bournemouth Aviation Museum. I haven’t shared some more general shots of the museum, though. I stopped over there late one afternoon. They weren’t due to be open for too much longer, but I did have some time to wander around. Being the end of the day meant it was quiet, so I was able to have a bit of freedom taking shots of the planes on display.
There is an interesting mix of types on show will military and civilian types to see. Some are full aircraft while others are fuselage sections that have been saved when the whole plane was being disposed of. The cockpits of many were accessible. Planes like the Jaguar have a soft spot for me so I liked taking a look at them. Others were less of interest but still worth a peak. I did like seeing a Cri-Cri – the world’s smallest twin (at least when it came out in the 80s).
Some of the types have a connection to the flight testing that this part of the country is associated with. Bournemouth is not far from Boscombe Down which has been the centre of UK military flight test for many decades. The BAC 1-11 is an ex-Boscombe asset. Others are just interesting types. If you are in the area and like planes, do swing by. Don’t make a significant detour specifically for it but do check it out if nearby.