Category Archives: Aircraft

– and relax! (Shropshire diary. Day 5)…

05 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Aircraft, History, Photography, Shropshire, Travel

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The weather forecast for Shropshire was lousy today. It claimed we’d be awash with rain, so we’d planned accordingly and arranged a couple of indoor visits. After a leisurely start to the day that involved lots of coffee and a healthy breakfast of porridge, blueberry compote and toasted coconut flakes we drove off to our first assignment – a visit to the Royal Airforce Museum at Cosford. For anyone interested in aircraft it’s an amazing place packed full of aircraft right through from World War 1 Sopwith Pups right to prototype Eurofighters – with lots more in between. The aircraft and other exhibits are spread over several halls, most of which are old aircraft hangers but the building dedicated to telling the story of the ‘cold war’ is a custom-built structure and a great exhibition space. Due to Covid rules we were encouraged to pre-book and register for add-ons like the 4D ‘Red Arrows’ experience, where you feel like you’re in the cockpit of one of the planes flying in their famous displays. The museum was quiet when we visited so we had the 4D experience (which costs £5 apiece) to ourselves. The pair of us found the museum so interesting we ended up spending several hours there, from 11:00 until after 14:30. Admittedly, we did take a coffee break in the cafe in-between halls!

An English Electric ‘Lightning’ interceptor aircraft on display in the ‘Cold War’ building. The Mach 2 Lightning was in service with the RAF from 1960 until 1988. It was designed to protect the RAF’s nuclear deterrent ‘V-Bomber’ airfields from Russian bomber aircraft. It’s displayed like this in homage to its incredible rate of climb capability which led to the nickname pilots gave it – the ‘Frightening’.
This is the British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft, one of only two ever built before the programme was cancelled back in 1965. The decision was controversial with some people maintaining this was the best aircraft we never built.
Here’s the Sikorsky S-65/HH-53C ‘Super Jolly Green Giant’ helicopter which was converted for special operations – hence the rotary cannon sticking out of the side behind the cockpit!

On leaving we drove back to our next appointment which was in Shrewsbury where we’d booked to see the new James Bond film “No time to Die”. At 2 hours 40 it’s hardly a short film but to be honest, the time flew by! It’s a blockbuster of a film with a real twist that I won’t reveal but fans of the franchise won’t be disappointed by the action scenes, chases, locations or gadgets. Daniel Craig’s as excellent as ever. Personally, I’d have to say he’s been my favourite Bond since Sean Connery started the ball rolling.

Now we’re relaxing at ‘home’ with a drink after scoffing a home-made veggie noodle stir-fry. Tomorrow the weathers meant to change once more so we’ll be back outdoors. The plan is to spend much of the day walking on the Long Mynd at Church Stretton, which is a wonderful bit of countryside. Watch this space…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

27th November picture of the day…

27 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by in Air Travel, Aircraft, Musings, Picture of the day

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There’s not much of a blog from me tonight. I’m tired and hurting from my fall yesterday, although I didn’t let it stop me getting my exercise today, it just meant some of it was through gritted teeth.

I do have one small cause for celebration. I try for a little victory each day – something that I’ve accomplished so that I can feel that I’m moving forward. Today’s was scanning the last few slides from our round the world trip. We left the UK and arrived in India on the 6th November 1997. Over the next 18 months we visited many states in India, then overland into Nepal to go trekking before flying to Thailand where we travelled overland to Malaysia, then by ferry to tour Sumatra, back to Malaysia and overland to Singapore before flying to Bali, then travelling by bus and ferry as far as the Island of Flores in the East. From there we flew back to Bali, toured the island with friends before doing a ‘visa run’ to Singapore and back. After which we went by bus and ferry to tour Java thence returning to Bali for the final time before flying to Australia for Xmas with friends we’d made on our travels. We toured Victoria with Alison and her family, then caught a train to Sydney to meet up with yet more friends before flying to Auckland, New Zealand. From there we travelled by train through the North Island, then a mixture of train and bus around the South Island (with Alison once again, sans kids) before flying back to Auckland to connect with our Air New Zealand flight to Los Angeles via a week in Fiji and another in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Barely pausing for breath in LA, we caught our final flight on the 20th March with Virgin Atlantic, who flew us back across the pond and home to London, where we arrived on the 21st March 1999. This rather breathless precis is just to give a flavour of what was an incredible experience. You’ll be able to find all the photographs in this gallery by the end of the week. One day (when time permits) I hope to blog in detail about aspects of the trip and show just how much the world has changed since those heady days of the 1990s. For now, here’s the picture of the day, which is the final picture I took on the trip…

We caught a Virgin Atlantic flight from LA (VS8) at 17.30, it’s an overnight flight as the journey takes 10 + hours to cover the 5416 miles. Waking up on the morning of the 21st just in time to feel the plane banking over the Atlantic at sunrise I grabbed this picture out of the aircraft window…

Memories…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Kicking our heels in Abu Dhabi airport….

06 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by in Abu Dhabi, Air Travel, Aircraft, Communications, Internet, Travel

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Well, the homeward trip has begun. Yesterday’s water taxi trip on Bangkok’s Chao Praya river and BTS Skytrain jaunt into the heart of the city seems like a lifetime away already. We’re flying back to the UK with Etihad Airines via their hub in Abu Dhabi. I’m not a great fan of flying. The romance of being stuck on a thin metal tube with 300 odd souls as it skims its way above the planet at 37,000ft was lost years ago. I don’t think the name ‘Airbus’ does much to bring that lost era back either although the planes Etihad use are very well equipped with a large variety of film, TV & music channels to help make 6 hours clamped in a set with legroom that can best be described as ‘cosy’, bearable. I always envy my partner’s ability to sleep on planes. She had over four hours kip whilst I took in a couple of films, including the WW2 Tank movie ‘Fury’ starring Brad Pitt (I wasn’t very impressed with the Hollywood heroics & thin characters, but it did pass the time).

Now we’re kicking our heels in Abu Dhabi airport, waiting for our onward flight to Manchester. This being an Arab state, the only temptations put in front of your are those of financial excess. The airport is a well stocked consumerist haven – especially if you’re into brand names & expensive chunky watches. Oh, and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate…

In the spirit of these straightened times we’ve kept our cash & opted to spend our hours catching up with the world using the airport’s free wifi. It’s not particularly fast but there’s no time limit. As an itinerant photographer I spend a lot of my life fighting with free wifi at airports, stations & hotels. I have to laugh when I remember my early travels and two words most folks under 25 will probably never have heard of:’Poste Restante’- those far off days when you used to have real, handwritten letters waiting for you to collect at nominated post offices in far flung lands. My, how the world’s changed. Then you’d wait months for news from home (unless you wanted to blow your budget on the occasional phone call via some temperamental state phone system where you’d pay a fortune for the privilege of shouting to your loved ones down a receiver that sounded like it was connected with string – via the moon ). Yet, in some ways, I miss those old days. The immediacy of modern communications has taken away some of the romance & craft that went into letter writing. Now it’s time to step back into the 21st century & publish these thoughts which will be accessible to a whole planet (should any of it bother to look) at the press of a button. So, here goes…