Category Archives: photo

Walking the Waterfront in Liverpool

I have only previously been to Liverpool once before. That was for an appointment back when we lived in Lancashire and it was pretty much an in and out visit. I never saw the city itself. I was finally there in September as it was the starting point of a charity bike ride I was participating in. I got there the day before we started and had some time later in the afternoon to walk around and explore with some of my fellow riders.

The Albert Dock was something I was familiar with from the time when it was the location for a breakfast TV show. Everyone knows the Liver Building. Other buildings along the water tell the story of how important Liverpool was as a trading port. The docks also include some old boats as a part of the tale of the city’s history.

It wasn’t like I had a ton of time to explore the city in depth but it was nice to see a bit of it on a lovely afternoon. The following day, I got to see a lot more of the area as a whole as we started our ride across the country. Lots of parks and old architecture hinting at what the city has to offer but no photos of those because I was busy riding!

A Pair of Edwardians in Gorgeous Light

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The great conditions for Shuttleworth’s Festival of Flight Sunday show meant we got to see a lot of the more fragile types fly. Later in this section of the show, we had the Bristol Boxkite and the Avro Triplane take to the sky. I know they are both replicas but that doesn’t make them any less rare or vulnerable. They flew around for quite a while and, since they are not speedy aircraft, they can keep it all close in front of the crowd. The light was definitely at its peak during their display. Here are a few shots of the two of them putting on a show.

Hoodoos on a Smaller Scale

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Many years ago, we visited Bryce Canyon in Utah. It is famous for its rocky pillars known as hoodoos. I was slightly surprised to see signs about hoodoos in Banff when we were staying in Alberta. We took a diversion along the road to the overlook for these hoodoos. They are down on the slopes towards the river, and the overlook is some distance from them. Clearly not the same number of them than you get in Bryce but still just as interesting a formation. It was a worthwhile diversion since it didn’t take us far out of our way. To be honest, the view of the river valley was the more impressive element of the visit.

A Hawk With Many Guises

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In the days when the old Hawker plant at Kingston/Dunsfold was still around, products like the Harrier and Hawk were generating plenty of revenue and opportunities. The company would build its own demonstrators for use outside the scope of the core client – the RAF. A Hawk airframe was company funded and it was registered G-HAWK. It was originally built as a 60 Series jet before having modifications to reflect the airframe shape of the 100 Series. It also had a COMA serial of ZA101 added at some point.

This aircraft moved to Warton when Dunsfold closed and continued to be used for all sorts of development work. I was long gone from Warton by the time its use ended. I was, therefore, pretty pleased to see it again at the Brooklands Museum. It is in the BAe house colours, but the nose is not a shape I recognise. I guess it did something interesting that needed another nose to be grafted on. I photographed this jet at various times over the years (although very little when I worked at Warton and could have seen it frequently!).

Ozzy the Bull

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I travel through Birmingham New Street Station a lot these days. It is a connection for a bunch of my journeys and sometimes a destination in its own right. The station had a major rebuild a few years ago and one of the features in there now is Ozzie. Ozzie is a huge mechanical bull. It is such an imposing device and I do find it cheers me up. If you are ever heading that way, do find the time to check it out.

Is This Wildcat Carrying Enough?

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RIAT was visited by a number of AW159 Wildcats for the show. The Navy and Army brought examples with the Navy showing theirs as part of the Black Cats team. Midway through the show, another Navy example showed up. Unlike the others, this one was carrying external stores. The original Lynx looked heavily loaded if it was carrying four Sea Skuas, but this one really did look like it was ready for anything. I’m not sure if this is the Martlet missile installation or something else but, whatever it is, there was no shortage of capability on display.

Coming Across an Old Car Meet While Out on the Bike

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As part of my prep for the long charity bike ride I undertook in September, I was doing some longer rides from home to get some miles in. On one of these rides, I headed from home to the coast. To be honest, I had planned the route on the computer, and I didn’t really know many of the places I was going through. A lot of it was countryside but I did come through some towns. As I was heading out of one of them, I passed a bunch of people and cars parked in a car park.

I stopped and went back to see what sort of vehicles these folks had brought along. There was quite a selection of old vehicles and some that weren’t so old. However, I guess it is a question of perspective because some of the cars that were there seemed recent to me until I thought of when they were registered. Then it was obvious that they were now rather old – just like me! Yes, we had some more familiar “vintage” vehicles but in the background of one of the shots you might spot an Austin Metro! I didn’t hang around too long because I was on a mission, but it was a fun break and rather amusing!

Before the Atlantique, There Was the Atlantic!

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I posted recently with some shots of the Dassault Atlantique that was at RIAT. However, that got me thinking of the history of the Atlantique. It was actually an update to a previous generation plane. This was the Atlantic. Operated by France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Pakistan, the Atlantic design was updated to create the Atlantique and the Atlantics were retired. I knew I had seen some of them for real and that was likely to be at Mildenhall when the Air Fete was able to attract a wide variety of operators and types. Turns out it was the French and German versions I got to see. Here are some shots of them.

Rose Garden in the Park

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I had to make a trip to Lyon for work earlier this year. It wasn’t exactly an in and out trip but there wasn’t a ton of spare time while there. However, my hotel was on the opposite side of the park from the central part of the city where we were going to be dining. Since I had the time, I chose to walk across the park to meet up with everyone. There was an old house near the top of the park and, in front of it, there was a rose garden. Since it was a pretty hot day, I was in no hurry to rush across the park and taking the chance to stop and look at the roses on the trellises gave me an excuse to avoid getting too hot and bothered.

An E-3F For the First Time for Me

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The early 90s had both the RAF and the French Air Force buying new airborne early warning aircraft in the form of the E-3. Unlike the USAF and NATO jets, these included the upgrade to the CFM56 engines which improved endurance and performance. I saw the RAF’s jets on many occasions but never encountered a French jet until this year – after the RAF jets have been retired and not long before the French ones follow suit. I’m not sure how much longer they have but seeing one arriving and departing the show was a nice result. I was pretty happy that I happened to be at the arrival end when it came in which was a bonus.