Pete and I continued our flying excursion with a trip to Portsmouth.  We wanted to take a look at the forts out in the Solent since one of them would be part of our fun the following day.  However, we were also interested in seeing the dockyards at Portsmouth.  For those that don’t know Portsmouth, it is the home of the Royal Navy.  The Navy has been based there for centuries and it is still home to a substantial portion of the fleet – even if that is a lot smaller than it used to be.  There are also moorings for out of commission warships which is what we were actually interested in seeing.

We weren’t sure how open the airspace was to us.  The charts did not show any issue but we checked in with the radar service to tell them what we had in mind and they said it was no problem so we headed across.  Spinnaker Tower is a large structure that has been built as part of the redevelopment of the dock area.  We flew past it and checked out the moored old warships.  Then we did a loop around to see the docks themselves.  This includes HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar.  She looks great from above.  Next to her is the building housing the recovered wreck of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship.  These are both worth visiting if you ever find yourself there.