Picking A Spot on the Shore Near Victoria Airport

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Before we headed to Sproat Lake to find the Mars, we did a brief recce of the area along the shore where they were due to arrive the following day.  At this time, we still had a plan to return to the island on the Sunday for the final touchdown of Hawaii Mars.  I would later scrap this portion of the trip.  However, we hadn’t got to that point yet.  There were a few possible locations to try out and Steve had noticed a small park that led down to the beach, so we went to check it out.  It was a lovely little spot and there was a tree hanging out from the land over one part of the beach that looked particularly cool.  We didn’t end up returning but this could have been a nice spot to watch the proceedings.

A Curious Old Drone

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The Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH was produced in the 1960s as an anti-submarine platform for ships that were too small to accommodate manned helicopters.  I had never heard of it before and saw it on the ramp at Olympia during the Olympic Air Show this year.  Apparently, there are some at museums I have been to before, but I guess I wasn’t paying attention.  It is a small vehicle with a gas turbine and coaxial rotors.  I understand it could carry a couple of torpedoes so now slouch.  Now it is a museum piece, but it might have been interesting to see one in the air!

Italian Day Brings Out the Wealth

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I have done quite well this year with getting to feature days at Exotics@RTC.  The Italian Day is always going to be a popular one and the number of Ferraris and Lamborghinis in the area is going to provide a good basis for the event with a bunch of other cars of varying vintages being able to fill in the gaps with a bit of variety.  I do not know much about these cars so, when I walk around, I am either looking for something I recognize or something that looks totally different.  Here is a selection of shots of cars that fit those criteria.

Evening Raptor Demo at Last

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The “at last” in this title is not that I haven’t seen an F-22 demo in the evening.  I saw one once at Chino and it was very cool.  This is more about the fact that the Raptor demos in recent years have not strayed far west very often.  They did a demo in Australia but only had one demo west of the Mississippi for one season.  However, Canada did attract the team, and Abbotsford provided a chance to see them for me.

The pilot for the demo for the last two years is a guy that was a regular attendee of air shows in the Midwest when I lived there.  I know some of his friends, but he was quite young then and I can’t claim to know him.  Even so, it is rather cool to see him have made it to his chosen airframe of the F-22 and then to become the demo pilot.  Only near the end of his second year did I finally see his routine and it was a good show.  I know he has used flares at a number of events, but warm dry weather probably has meant that the fire risk precluded that.  Even so, the evening light made for a great show.

Nicely done, Sam.  Excellent performance.  Hope you have enjoyed it for the last two years.

Spirit of Vancouver Island

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I posted about the Salish Class of ferries that BC Ferries operates previously but, as we were arriving in Swartz Bay, one of the larger ferries in the fleet headed out.  Spirit of Vancouver Island runs the main service between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay carrying the heavy traffic loads.  She pulled out just as we were coming alongside so I got a brief view of her heading away.

Girls Fly 2 Arrivals

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Each year, there is an event held at Abbotsford International Airport to encourage the involvement of young women in the aviation business.  You get quite a few military aircraft arriving for the event, and they focus on female crews from the units to bring the planes in.  While this is in Canada, the US supports the event well.  I headed up to see what the arrivals would include.

Weather was a bit overcast so not ideal given that plenty of the planes coming in will be grey.  However, there were hints of sun periodically although it did end up throwing down more rain around the time I was leaving.  Aside from the A-10s and a Cyclone, the arrivals I saw were dominated by transport and tanking types.  The KC-135s had come quite a long way but the one I was probably happiest to get was the C-5 Galaxy.  No TF-39 whine, these days, but still a cool jet to see flying.

Our First Plum Harvest (and Selective Angles!)

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A couple of years ago, when we redid our back yard, we planted a small plum tree in one of the beds.  It has grown well and, last year we had a few small plums that developed.  They all fell before we had a chance to pick them, so we had no idea whether they were any good or not.  This year, we had a lot more plums as the tree has grown quite substantially.  I picked one of them to see how it was doing, and it wasn’t too bad.  It did have a split in it, though.

The following weekend, I decided to harvest the rest.  One had already fallen, and I think I saw a rabbit having a good chew on it.  The rest came off easily enough.  Quite a few had splits in them which, from what we hear, is the result of them getting a lot more water than they have been used to.  I put them all in a bowl to get a photo.  For the first one, I put them all with their best sides up.  Then I turned them to show the most damage.  Selective angles in photos can really change the impression you give!!

NASA T-38 Once But Not Twice

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A NASA T-38 was making a brief visit to Boeing Field.  It was due in during the afternoon with a planned departure early on Sunday morning.  I was in place in plenty of time for the arrival and got it as it landed.  I went back for the morning departure and gave myself a little buffer in the schedule just in case they were prompt.  They were more than prompt and were airborne quite a while before I got there.  As it turned out, the trip wasn’t a waste, but I was rather frustrated at the time!

Blackwood Forest Stroll

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If you live in the UK, you probably aren’t aware of how fortunate you are to have the variety of places to walk that you do.  Public rights of way are a feature of the UK that are not necessarily replicated in other countries.  They provide the chance to walk in many places that would otherwise be out of bounds.  Also, the woodlands that are accessible are a treat.  We took a wander through Blackwood Forest while we were in the UK and Sam and Chris introduced it to us.  We weren’t going to be taking a major hike based on time available and other things, but we did have a relaxing wander through the trees.  We also had time to stop at the café in the forest, too, which may have eaten up some time while we ate up some good food!

Starlux Arrives in Seattle

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The increase in air traffic post the pandemic has been significant and international travel has been boosted.  Seattle Tacoma International Airport has been adding to its international destinations with new operators on a pretty regular basis and the most recent new addition has been Starlux.  Starlux is a Taiwanese airline operating services to Taipei with its fleet of new Airbus A350-900s.  I had seen that they were operating to San Francisco and was a little jealous of not getting to see this new fleet but, now they are coming here, I can see them too.  Here is one of their jets on approach to SEA to inaugurate the service.