A morning at Haneda provided a few planes to shoot but the temperature was really oppressive so I didn’t hang around too long. A Gulfstream turned on to the runway for departure and I almost didn’t bother going in to the sun to shoot it. However, habit got the better of me and I was glad I did. It wasn’t a normal Gulfstream but one from the Japanese Coast Guard. It included a large radome under the front fuselage. I hadn’t seen one like this before.
The Exotics@RTC team have a number of special days throughout the season and I figured the Italian Car Special was probably one worth taking a look at. I wasn’t mistaken. Unlike the normal meets that take place out in the parking lot, this one was centered in the shopping mall itself. The atrium was filled with Italian cars of many marques. This even included Lamborghini tractors!
It will come as little surprise to know that the prancing horse was on display in large numbers. The centerpiece of the display was a a pair of La Ferraris – one with a roof and one open topped – with an Enzo and an F40. This was quite a valuable selection to have in the middle and it seemed rather funny how so many expensive cars were barely getting any attention as a result of the focus on this foursome. Alfas were also on show and there were some older Fiats that were clearly trimmed for rally activities.
My wife is a star – well that, or she is a masochist. Our trip to the UK was in three phases. We spend the first phase visiting family. The second phase was my visit to RIAT for a few days while she did things in London and around the south coast. The last phase was our time to tour around East Anglia and relax a little. Our last full day had us up near Cambridge. She suggested I might want to visit the Imperial War Museum aviation collection at Duxford. Since I had taken a chunk of the vacation to do aviation things, I was not going to push anything aviation related for the rest of the trip but she was quite happy to do this. What a star!
I haven’t been to Duxford for ages so I was interested to see how things had changed. What was once called the Superhangar had been rebuilt and had lots of interesting stuff inside. The American Forces section was there last time I went and hadn’t changed a lot. Some of the large airliner stuff outside was familiar but other bits were either new or something I didn’t recall from previous visits. It is a very extensive collection and well worth a visit. I was really pleased to check it out.
I will give a few of the exhibits their own posts but this is a bit of a summary post. Below is a gallery of some of the shots I took as we wandered around.
I have hinted in a previous post that some lifeboat posts were coming, and this is the first. We visited Bembridge, on the Isle of Wight, as part of our trip. Bembridge has had a lifeboat station since the 1800s. For those not from the UK, the rescue at sea system in the UK might come as a bit of a surprise. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity that provides rescue at sea. It is not a government run program and is entirely based on charitable donations. Hard for most visitors to understand but it runs very well. Aside from the engineer that maintains the boat, all of the crews are volunteers. They have other jobs and come to crew the boat when summoned.
We have had family in Bembridge for generations, so I have been going there all of my life. For most of that time, the lifeboat was kept in a boathouse at the end of a pier at Lane End from where it would be launched down a slipway. I shot a launch from the old boathouse many years ago and that appeared in this post I wrote a while after that. That pier and boathouse had reached the end of its life so was demolished and a new pier built to accommodate the next generation of boat. I had been to look at this boathouse as I wrote about here but had not been in the house and not seen a launch.
I looked on the website for the station when I woke up one morning during our stay and was surprised to discover that they were planning on launching not once, but twice that day. The first launch was not that far off so I jumped out of bed and got ready to head down.
The boathouse was already open when I got there. The crew explained that they were planning on switching boats out and that they were launching their boat to take it to Cowes where they would pick up a spare (or relief) boat and bring it back. They would then do another launch that evening. They were ready to go but a school party was coming to witness the launch, so they were waiting for them. As soon as they arrived (late), everything was ready to go.
These are the shots from looking around the boathouse prior to the launch. The launch itself will follow in another post!
While walking along the waterfront at East Cowes, I heard the noise of an approaching helicopter. As it got closer, it turned out to be a Coastguard AW189. I hoped it would come closer and it obliged by flying almost directly over us. What I didn’t know was that another of the fleet would be at RIAT when I was there a few days later so I was going to get a closer look than this. Stay tuned for that!
With the new tunnel open under Seattle, the process of getting rid of the Alaska Way Viaduct is underway. Large sections have already gone and others are in the process of being taken own. From the viewing terrace at Pike Place Market, you can get a good view of the demolition at the moment. The sections that have gone are replaced with a space full of dust and rubble. Meanwhile, heavy machinery is in the process of drilling out the viaduct deck and the barriers. There is more to come on this one.
RIAT proved to be a lot of fun with such a variety of types to see. The shooting conditions were less than ideal but that shouldn’t take away from what was there and the effort that went in to organizing it all – I’m looking at you Tom if you are reading this. Your team did a great job. One of the stars of the show was actually a rather aged type. Romania brought a pair of MiG-21 LanceR jets. The last time I shot an active MiG-21 was at Rockford many years ago and that was privately owned. These were very definitely active.
Their arrival on the Thursday certainly got everyone excited and the display itself was great. The jet is from an era when the current levels of maneuverability had not been achieved but the jet can still put on quite a show. The speed is something to behold, particularly on final approach when it fairly screams in to land. I got to shoot it from a couple of locations including being at the departure end on the Sunday of the show and getting slightly closer to the jet as it taxied out. I understand that they will disappear before too long to be replaced with something more generic – F-16s I think – so it was time to enjoy something old school for perhaps the last time.
On our first 4th July in the Seattle area, we watched fireworks from Kirkland. In the distance we could see the fireworks over Lake Union and we figured at some point we should make the effort to go and see them more directly. We did so this year. We based ourselves in Gas Works Park at the north end of the lake and we had a great vantage point for enjoying them. I took the camera along because the nice thing for me about fireworks is that I can enjoy them and shoot at the same time courtesy of the cable release.
My normal result with fireworks is that I get a lot of shots that are just not that special and a few that I really like. For some reason with this display, I had a far higher hit rate. I am not sure whether it is a function of their sequencing of the fireworks or just good luck but running through the shots I found so many I was pleased with. I won’t bore you with tons of shots but here are a few samples of what was a fantastic display. The coordination with music was great and my only gripe was that the finale was put to a piece that rather peters out instead of having a crashing ending. This seems to be more appropriate to fireworks. However, a minor gripe and a very impressive display.
Departure day at RIAT was a bit overcast, much like the majority of the show. The damp atmosphere did have the positive effect of meaning many of the more powerful prop aircraft were pulling vortices from the tips of their propellers. This was most obvious earlier in their take off runs but you could get a pretty good view of it even head on from where I was sitting in the FRIAT stand. Here is one of the Hercs that was beating the air into submission.
I have made countless trips between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight over the course of my life. Things change but most of the landmarks are remarkably consistent. I was therefore quite surprised to see some very large posts that had appeared in the approaches to Portsmouth Harbour. I knew that there had been dredging work undertaken to allow the new carriers (see this post) to enter the naval base. I suspected that these new large posts might be connected with the same project. Sure enough, some research after our returned confirmed that navigation lights have been installed to allow the carriers to navigate their way in. These light are mounted on top of large posts sunk into the seabed. They aren’t the most attractive things but I guess they do the job.
