Swift Fledgling

When the weather has been really hot at home, we have had windows open all over the house. I was out of the office having lunch with Nancy in the back of the house and I could hear a bird tweeting that sounded very close but didn’t really pay much attention to it. However, when I went back into my office after lunch, I saw a bird sitting on the window frame. At first, I stopped dead and called Nancy to have a look before it flew off if we startled it.

This was not a problem. The bird seemed totally uninterested in my presence. I am not a specialist on birds, but I think it was a swift and that it was recently fledged. Every once in a while, it would start tweeting which may well have been because the parents were nearby. Then it would go very quiet again. I took some photos and footage of it before returning to work. I figured it would fly off in due course.

This wasn’t the case. By the end of the workday, it was still sitting there. I did wonder at this point whether the open window meant parents couldn’t see where it was. Maybe staying there wasn’t going to be good for it and I would need to close the window at night. I decided to try moving it across the road to a fence post, so it was elevated but also visible. I got some gardening gloves to pick it up. At first, it seemed uninterested in moving but then suddenly it took off and flew across the road, over the fence and into the fields. Later in the evening, our neighbours saw it sitting on the spoke of the wheel of their vehicle. I guess it liked the warmth. However, we didn’t see it again. No idea whether it did okay or not.

Europas With Varying Numbers of Wheels

The Europa is a type I got attached to when my friend Sean had one. I was living in the US when he got it, but I used to come across for work on a regular basis, and we would often take the time to go for trips. It was a fun little thing to fly in with quite a turn of speed. The cockpit was very compact which was tricky when lugging a chunky camera around but not the end of the world! Recently, I made a couple of short visits to Popham Airfield and came across a couple of Europas.

The first was parked up and it is a Europa XS which is a later version fitted with tricycle undercarriage. It is a nice-looking aircraft, but it loses the novelty factor that the Europa Classic had. It has a mono wheel arrangement with outriggers to support it on the ground. The wheel, outriggers and flaps are all controlled together so, when you retract the flaps, the gear comes up. One had just landed when we got there and was getting some fuel. Fortunately, they took off before we left so I got a good look at it as it got airborne. A quirky but cool aircraft for sure.

Moon Phases and Textures

Over the years I have taken a bunch of photos of the moon. The 200-800mm lens makes for a good option when taking a moon shot. Over recent weeks, I have taken a series of shots of the moon in different phases. The full moon is the one that really catches the attention but, when you get a shot of it when there is only half of it illuminated, you really get to appreciate the surface texture.

The full moon means that the light is falling in it from directly behind me. This kills all of the shadows. With the side illumination, the middle of the surface from my perspective has the longest shadows and this looks so much more interesting. Looking at those ridges a quarter of a million miles away is something to appreciate. I did also get a three-quarter shot which is not so bad but really lacks the detail.

Up Close with Some F-35s

This tanker trip included something I hadn’t had on previous flights – F-35s. Not a lot of them but we did get some jets show up later in the sortie. The surface finish on the F-35 is interesting, and it does pick up the light in good ways when the angles are right. The joy of being up at 16,000’ is that the chances of good light are high.

It is quite funny looking across at the pilot in the cockpit while they are plugged in. There I am staring at them while they are doing something reasonably intense. They have to decide whether to pretend we aren’t there and just look cool or are they going to give us a wave! Depends on your crew of course but I have had both.

Poppies in the Neighbourhood

There was a time earlier in the year when it seemed like, wherever I went, there were poppies in bloom. That included in the area around our house. There were poppies on the earth piled up by the construction crews as well as alongside the paths and roads. They are a bit tricky to photograph because, with their long stalks, they are flexible and, unless it is absolutely still, they are constantly moving. Besides that, I did manage to get a few images. I do wonder whether the red of the petals is one that digital sensors struggle with as they seem to be look more muted than they felt in person.

A Fuji and a Bolkow

When hanging out at a small airfield, you expect to get a bunch of the regular light aircraft types. Cessnas and Pipers will be expected. Popham has a good selection of microlights and autogyros as well so that will mix things up. However, it brought a couple of planes during one weekend that really caught my eye. These are not rarities, but it is still cool to see something a little different. One was a Fuji FA200. I have caught these a bit in the past, but this was a nice surprise.

Then there was something that I genuinely had no idea about. I got some shots of it and then, when I got home, got on the internet to check out the registration to see what it was. A Bolkow BO.209 Monson was the answer. Bolkow was a manufacturer I was familiar with both from its earlier days and then being part of MBB building helicopters and part of the Panavia consortium building Tornado. I was not aware of the Monson before searching for this plane and found that 100 of them had been built by MBB before production ceased. There have been times when resurrection of production was tried but without significant success. What a cool looking plane and I hope I see it again.

You Can Just See Who Used to Live Here

This isn’t exactly a detective story because I remember when the previous tenant was operating from this building. This means I knew what to look for. Hovertravel used to carry out maintenance of its hovercraft in this shed on Bembridge Harbour. However, it seems to have changed hands a while back. However, as you look up at the front of the structure, there is clearly the indication of what used to be on there. I wonder how long it will be before the sun bleaches the remnants of these marks.

Didn’t Realise How Close This A109 Is to Being Gone

This Belgian A109 was on the static display at Cosford’s show this year. I actually used it as a reference point when meeting up with a friend. There is something about the shade of green that they use that really makes it look cool. What I didn’t realise at the time is that its days are numbered. The Belgian Air Force has just taken delivery of its first H145M with a batch of these due to replace the A109s. I wonder if I will see one again or not?

Red Funnel Action

Not been too long since I last had some ferries on the blog. Previously, it was Wightlink with their 100th anniversary. This time, it is Red Funnel. During our visit to Cowes, we used Red Funnel’s RedJet to make the crossing. With a camera in hand on the crossing and then some time on the Parade at Cowes, I was bound to get some photos of both the car ferry and the catamaran. Here you go!

Summer Afternoon at Compton Abbas

Back in the days when I first learnt to fly, I was curious about flying to Compton Abbas Airfield. Located on top of a hill in Dorset, it seemed like an interesting destination. However, I never made the trip there. Then, when my old friend Sean and I made some trips around the south of England in his Europa, we also discussed making a visit there. Not sure whether he ever went but I didn’t. Earlier this year, I got thinking about heading across because it is not much more than an hour from home by car. When I first thought of it, it was early in the year, and I thought summer would be a better time to go with longer days and a likelihood of more traffic.

Come July and it occurs to me that, if I am going to go, I should probably get on with it. So it was that one Saturday morning, we hopped in the car and drove west. It was a very pretty drive across there which made for a good start to the day. When we pulled up, they had some security guys on the gate. Apparently, it was a special day with Spitfire and Tiger Moth rides and there was a £10 charge to park. However, this £10 would then be offset against anything you bought from the café, so it really wasn’t a hardship.

The location is really rather special. Being up on top of the hill gives a lovely view to the lower ground to the north. It also makes for quite a backdrop for any aircraft shots, not that I was likely to be taking any of those! The restaurant is a modern structure, and the food was really good. We ended up sitting on a table outside to order our food which meant I was able to jump up whenever anything of interest moved.

The location does seem to make for some interesting conditions for pilots. Watching the planes on short final, you could see that they were keeping a bit high before dropping down when close in. The briefing notes on the airfield website highlight that, being low on approach can really get difficult. Looks like a place that you need to brief for carefully.

The pleasure flights in the old warbirds were certainly keeping things busy but there was the usual visiting traffic combined with some local flying training. Someone seemed to be having a bit of a time with timing their flaring for touchdown, and I felt a bit bad for them being so on view with all of the visitors when going through their early stages of flight training. I imagine learning there really teaches you some skills!

This was a lovely spot to spend some time on a sunny summer afternoon, and I would be happy to go back again. The food is also great so that would be tempting too. They had a converted horse lorry that served as an outdoor bar which might be worth checking out too next time.