Tag Archives: helicopter

Hats Off to the Chinook Demo Team

The final display of the Cosford air show was the Chinook demo. I have always enjoyed a Chinook display because it is a very agile helicopter despite its size and it can be thrown around which impresses. There is also the wheelie that it can do which has a unique feel to it. However, I wasn’t prepared for just how much I enjoyed the display.

There were a number of elements that made it so good. First, it was at the end of the show, and the light had come around to be more favourable for photos. This could have been even better because a bit of cloud cover rolled in. A little while after the display was over, this cleared and the warm light was so nice. It would have been great to have that on the helicopter during the display. Let’s not focus on the negative though, when there is so much positive.

They started the display carrying in a couple of underslung loads. Showing off the lifting performance of the helicopter is a great way of showing what this capability is all about. They had a howitzer and a truck on lifting lines using two of the three pickup points that the Chinook has. A bit of manoeuvring with that before dropping it off on the airfield. The gun crew then came out and set the gun up. They proceeded to fire off a few blank rounds.

Then it was back to throwing the helicopter around for a bit. A helicopter display always has an advantage in that it can keep things in front of the crowd, and some tight turns certainly achieved that.

However, I haven’t yet highlighted what really made the display great. The commentary was top notch. You might think that a military display narrator is going to run through a staid list of talking points but that was not the case here. Sure, they did highlight the capabilities of the helicopter and the helicopter force as a while but there was so much ridiculousness thrown in to keep you amused throughout.

Whether it was pointing out that one of the crew had both of his friends in attendance or describing the vertical climb and pointing out it has no operational benefit but it does look really cool, the lines kept coming. They were delivered in such a normal way, though, that you needed to pay attention to spot when the serious bits had been superseded by the more flippant lines. Top stuff and hats off to the team. Great flying, great performance and excellent writing!

Who is Holding Who Up?

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The Royal Navy contribution to the RAF Cosford air show was a great combination. They brought a Leonardo Wildcat in partnership with a Fairey Swordfish. This is right up there with the odd combination that I have seen at air shows over the years. A rotary airframe and a fixed wing has happened before but often the fixed wing is really struggling to go slowly enough for the helicopter. In this case, the helicopter has the speed advantage on the Swordfish. It is not a speed demon.

They did a pairs takeoff which was really interesting and then commenced their display with a flypast in tribute to the lost crew from the Merlin crash that had occurred not long before the show. They then carried out a sequence of passes before splitting for individual performances. The Stringbag is a beast of an aircraft, even if it isn’t fast. I got some other shots of it that will probably show up at some point.

What a Difference a Bit of Editing Makes

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I will put together a post soon about the Chinook display at RAF Cosford. It was a great display. However, this post is not about that. Instead, it is about editing. Lightroom Classic recently had an update to the masking tools and the subject select process is now way better than it used to be. I used to spend a lot of time refining the selection to get something usable but now the process has become a fair bit quicker as a result of the starting point being more accurate. Not perfect, but better. Anyway, I include a version of the image almost out of camera and then the result when working on the airframe and sky in separate masks. It is a lot more how the thing looked at the time and a significant improvement in my mind.

A Very Famous Chinook

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Parked in the static at RAF Cosford’s air show was a Chinook. Nothing too special, you might be forgiven for thinking. However, this is a Chinook with some history. Known broadly as Bravo November, despite having worn many markings over the years, this aircraft was delivered to the RAF in 1980. In 1982, it was one of four that went south to the Falklands on Atlantic Conveyor. It was the first to have its blades fitted and flew off the ship shortly before it was hit by an Exocet. The other three Chinooks went down with the ship.

As the sole Chinook with the task force, her lifting capacity was in high demand. There were missions when she was seriously overloaded compared to what the release to service might have said. Some rapid leaps forward were possible by carrying way more troops than would have been the case in peacetime. There was also one flight when the crew got too low and hit a lake. As they skimmed across the surface, water sprayed up towards the engines which began to spool down. A chunk of collective pulled them up and, without the water hitting them, the engines were able to come back up to power. Amazingly no serious damage was done, and she served throughout the remainder of the conflict.

The Falkland’s conflict was 1982 and there were then decades of service in all sorts of operations – both peacetime and conflict. Finally, the airframe has come to the end of its life and now it is on the ground at Cosford. Plenty of visitors were checking out this historic helicopter. Towards the end of the day, the sun came around nicely and it looked great.

The Belvedere Looks Amazing

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I am far too young to have seen the Bristol Belvedere in flight, despite what some might think! Given how old it is, it really does seem like quite a large helicopter to have been developed and operated. I bet it looked pretty cool when it was flying. Even now, when see in a museum, I think it is still quite a beast. The example at the RAF Museum in Hendon was there when I first visited in the late 80s and it is still on display. Getting shots of something this large in a relatively confined space is tricky but worthwhile. Do you think it looks as good as I do?

Set Up Publicity Photos for Helinet

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Having done the ride along with Alan Purwin of Helinet during the filming of Transformers, Alan was interested in getting some publicity shots of the helicopter to use for their own marketing material. He asked if I would be interested in doing the shots and I was more than up for it. What I wanted was to have a high enough vantage point from which to shoot. You want to be looking across or down on the helicopter to get some real context to the work.

Additionally, Alan wanted the helicopter to be mounted with a different camera mount. He owned a company in New Zealand called Shotover. This was the mount that he wanted on the helicopter for the shots instead of the larger ball mount that had been used during the Transformers filming. I discussed with him where to get an elevated location from which to shoot. He had been staying at the Trump Tower for all of the filming and had developed a good relationship with one of the managers there so got me access to use one of their outside deck areas. This proved to be an ideal spot.

We had a series of runs with the helicopter coming up the Chicago River towards me, pulling up in front of me, hovering close by and making diving runs from the River North area across in front of me to be over the Chicago River. I had a radio so I could call in the next sequence or have them run it again. The weather had become a lot nicer than it had been when I was riding along and so I was really happy with the results. So was Alan and they soon were on the marketing materials for Helinet. No doubt they now have new material, but it was used for a while. Sadly, Alan dies in a plane crash during the filming of a movie in Central America. He was a passenger in a plane that crashed on take-off. He was a super nice guy, and I am sure remains sadly missed.

A Trip Over Chicago in the Cameraship

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In a previous post, I shared some images of the Helinet Squirrel that was used for aerial filming of the Transformers movie franchise in Chicago. When I had been in touch with Alan Purwin about some photos I had got of them in action, he invited me to come along during one of the filming sessions. They were operating from a location in the south of the city – an unusual circumstance because, in those days, Chicago did not normally allow helicopters to land in the city. However, we met up at Midway Airport before heading to the filming location.

Alan was flying whilst David Nowell, the cinematographer was in the left seat controlling the camera installation. They had worked together many times and had a very slick relationship in the air. A producer was next to me in the rear seats. We left Midway and headed into Chicago where we flew around the city a little before landing on the south side. The film crews have clearance to operate at low level and in between the buildings. It is quite a stunning place to be as you slide between the skyscrapers.

The challenge for the team was to visualise what the scene would be. We headed towards the Sears Tower over which an alien spaceship was supposed to be. We were filming the sequences over which the CGI would insert the various elements. These sequences had to be run several times, and each had to be exactly the same so the material could be combined seamlessly. Watching all of this happen whilst seeing the buildings all around you was something else.

I would love to have spent more time with them on the project. I was not part of the regular crew so I couldn’t outstay my invitation but to see all of this in practice when having seen plenty of it from the window of our apartment over the years was something else.

Filming With a Squirrel

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When we lived in Chicago, it was a regular thing to see filming underway for either movies or TV shows. One morning, as I walked to work, I was bemused by someone running alongside a bus banging on the side when clearly another would be along in a minute. Then I realised it wasn’t a CTA bus and there were cameras filming the whole thing. The bigger productions would often involve aerial camera work.

I actually did a number of pieces on this for GAR over time. There was a local operator that would do some filming work with a Twin Squirrel. However, some of the larger film productions had their preferred operators. Michael Bay would use Helinet out of California. This business was run by Alan Purwin, and we ended up spending some time together. During a previous Transformers filming session, I had got some photos of the cameraship and had shared them with him. The plan had been to meet up but an accident occurred on the set and the filming was curtailed.

When another Transformers move came to town, we did get in touch. I will have a few more posts to come that cover this time. For the first post, I am including some images of the helicopter in action filming various sequences around the city. The camera was mounted in a large, stabilised turret on the front of the fuselage while a ballast weight was mounted under the rear to keep the CG within limits. That turret would change later as will be seen in another post.

FAST Museum at Farnborough

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Farnborough sits at the centre of the history of aviation in the UK. From the first powered flight in the country, through the development of key aircraft in the First World War, through the research into aviation that took place in what was originally called the Royal Aircraft Establishment and then evolved through various names. (Oh yes, it also has a large trade airshow every two years.) Eventually the establishment was closed down as facilities got consolidated.

While there had been a museum on site, that collection got redistributed. However, a bunch of volunteers came together to create the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST). This museum is on one edge of what was once the airfield campus. They have many exhibits that document the varied work that was undertaken at Farnborough as well as the nearby Pyestock gas turbine research facility. Apparently, they have way more stuff than they can display so things get rotated in and out of the public space.

Some of the specific exhibits are worthy of their own posts so you will see more of this place in the future. I went one damp Saturday to take a look around. This was not optimal for the planes outside because the light was not great and most of the airframes had covers on their canopies. That didn’t stop me, though. There is a two seat Lightning sitting alongside the gate which is always a good start.

Within the museum grounds are some top types. The recent retirement of the Puma made me happy to see their example which was not built by Westland but was actually from Aerospatiale and provided to Westland to use as a pattern before it became a testbed at Farnborough. The raspberry ripple paint looks good on it.

There are a couple of Hunters including one that had been used for research into night flying using low light TV and infra-red sensors. A Gnat is there which is always fine. A Scout and a Lynx are part of the collection and a two seat Harrier T4 was a particular pleasure. There are also cockpits from other type including a Canberra and a Trident. The museum is free to visit although they do welcome voluntary contributions. If you are in the area, it is worth a visit. More to come…

Qinetiq’s Attendees

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Some of my previous RIAT visits have included a selection of aircraft from the Qinetiq fleet. In 2025 I only saw a pair of aircraft from them. One was a King Air while the other was an AW139. The King Air didn’t look too special other than the raspberry ripple paint job. The AW139, on the other hand, is a helicopter that I think looks really good at any time. The livery suits it well and the crew made a pretty sporty arrival. It was nice to see both of them. Maybe some more airframes would be good next time.