We took a trip to Buttermere while up in the Lakes. Buttermere is not a huge lake so provides a nice walk around its perimeter. When we got there, it was still quite misty, but the sun progressively burnt through, and we were treated to some lovely views along the shore and across the water. Here are a few shots I took while we walked around the lake.
My Voyager ride with 101 Sqn ended back at Brize Norton and we pulled into the line with some other Voyagers. This included Vespina, the jet that is painted in national markings rather than the usual grey. We hung out on the ramp to get a group photo before heading back to the terminal. I got some shots of the Voyagers on the line while I was there (including the jet that we had just been in).
The first day of the charity bike ride I did across the UK took us 74 miles starting in Liverpool to end up in Huddersfield. The first sections of the ride were really pretty flat, and we made good progress. However, the second part of the route took us up into the hills as we crossed from west to east. After leaving Oldham, we headed up onto Saddleworth Moor. I have driven across this way on the M62 more times than I can recall when work used to need me to head across to Brough. This was the first time I went across under my own steam. It was quite a climb. Of the group I was riding with, a couple of us were the ones that were the slowest. Just a long steady grind up the hills. You might not be surprised to note that I wasn’t stopping to take pictures. However, when I reached the summit before the long descent into Huddersfield, I was able to grab a couple of images of the b leak beauty that is Saddleworth.
I was editing my images from RIAT recently and culling those that were never going to see the light of day. As I was working through the images of the Gripen E demonstrations, I noticed an array of sensors on the fuselage of the aircraft. There were also a bunch of markings that looked quite similar. The sensors seemed to have a specific shaping to the fuselage to align them with where they needed to face whilst the markings just seemed painted on to both the fuselage and the pylons. My assumption was that these were tracking locations for stores separation tests, but they were different to what I have seen used for this previously. I can’t tell for sure whether one is designed to distract you from the other! I have no knowledge of the systems fitted to the Gripen and will have to do some research but once you see this array of sensors, you can’t help but notice them thereafter!
I was walking through the Swiss Garden at Shuttleworth prior to the air show getting underway. In the pond was a family of coots. The parents were diving under for food while the “kids” were hanging around on the surface and making a ton of noise! Normally baby birds are very cute. However, I don’t think that same can be said for baby coots. (Is there a specific name for a baby coot?) They might not have been adorable, but I couldn’t help but get some photos of them.
Back to a time earlier this year when I made a trip to Heathrow for a brief bit of shooting. Most of the time, I was offset from the approach path to get shots of the jet as they were on short final approach. However, I did walk along to the approach lights to get some head on shots. While there were more about getting a tight angle on the jets and some underside shots, it did also allow me to look back up the approach and see a number of jets on the glideslope or turning to line up. Heathrow is a busy place so there always seem to be jets on approach.
Nancy had been to Sizergh Castle before but, for some reason, in all the time we lived in Lancashire, I had never been there. We rectified that during our recent trip to the Lake District. When it comes to places like this, we are not terribly interested in the interior of the buildings. The exterior and the grounds are usually what we want to explore. Sizergh was a nice enough looking building, but the gardens were excellent.
A Cedar of Lebanon tree is always going to get my attention because I love the layered effect of the branches. They have one very close to the main building. A walk through the wood brought us to a Japanese garden which was very attractively laid out and only open to walk through on certain days. This meant thee weren’t people getting in the way of photos too often!!
Back near the house was a more structured garden. This included a lot of acers, and, at this time of year, they had turned a delightful colour. One of the staff at the entrance had said they shouldn’t be missed and he wasn’t wrong. I was glad I had brought along my polariser. I have no idea why I hadn’t made the effort to visit previously but that omission is now rectified.
A brief encounter with an Embraer Praetor one weekend at Paine Field for today’s post. I like the Praetor/Legacy jets but one sitting at the threshold might not normally be worth a look. However, this one was painted black and I have a weakness for black painted bizjets. That’s it!
One slightly overcast Saturday, I dragged Nancy along to a museum that I was keen to see. The Brooklands Museum is one I had been to a couple of times before we left the UK. I first went there in 1990 when it wasn’t actually open to the public. I was doing some research for an exhibit that were were putting together in the Department of Aeronautics on Barnes Wallis’s Swallow project. The archives at Brooklands had a lot of material that we could access. The next time I went, it was when I worked in London and we had a team meeting at the museum which then included the chance to have a look around.
A lot has changed since that time, and I wanted to see what it is currently like. The museum sits on the site of what started out as the Brooklands motor racing circuit and then became the Vickers Weybridge factory. The museum reflects this extensive history. The racing circuit had banked curves and, while much of the circuit is now built over, there is still some of the original banking in place behind where the museum is located. The banking does not look that steep either in pictures or even when looking at it from a distance. However, when I was there on the previous work trip, we were allowed out on the banking, and my work shoes couldn’t maintain any traction on the concrete. I just slipped back down when trying to walk up the slope. On this visit, they strongly discouraged any walking on the banking.
The museum has three core elements. The first is the racing history of Brooklands. The infield infrastructure is nicely maintained with old garages for the tenants along with the clubhouse and associated buildings. There are car exhibits as well as bicycle and motorbikes. Apparently, road racing of bicycles was illegal in the UK for many years so races on the track were the only option. Motorbike racing was an obvious option if you were a car racing circuit, so the collection of old motorbikes made sense.
The second element is the aerospace history. The factory was heavily involved in manufacturing aircraft in the Second World War with the Wellington being possibly the most famous product. The site then moved into airliner production post war with the Viscount, Vanguard and VC-10 being well represented. Weybridge was also central to the development of Concorde and one of the pre-production jets is also on show. There are also Hawker jets on display, and I have covered them separately in other posts. There are also some test facilities that are rather unusual including the stratospheric chamber which will get its own coverage in due course.
The third part of the museum is a collection of buses belonging to the London Bus Museum. This is included in the admission, and I was not even aware of it before we got there. Aside from plenty of buses, there are lots of exhibits about the supporting elements of bus operation from years gone by. It was a pretty interesting collection, and I was surprised how much time I ended up spending in there.
The museum proved to be a really interesting day out and I think Nancy, while maybe not quite as enthusiastic as me, also found it reasonably worthwhile. The collection has expanded significantly since I was last there and it is able to provide a full day out if you want to check it out. Here is a selection of images from the day. It won’t surprise some that know me to find out that there are way more images from the day than I have included here!
Before you think I am being ridiculous, I am not referring to the profiled wood that will come back to you but the plane. In fact, there is more than one plane called the Boomerang. A Rutan design called the Boomerang was a one off which I once saw on the ground at Oshkosh. However, it was also the name of a piston fighter built in Australia. I had never seen one of those before. If I am being totally honest, I still haven’t since the one I saw was a replica built but it is a pretty impressive replica so we shall let that go.
It was brought to the Festival of Flight that was held by the Shuttleworth Trust at Old Warden in the summer. Having an old type with an unfamiliar shape when you can get blasé about the various Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mustangs etc. is a nice change. It had a great paint job, and the tighter confines of Old Warden allowed it to be displayed nice and close to the crowd line. Certainly, one of the more notable things I got to shoot this year.
