Rally Stage

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I was not feeling at my best the day when I went to the Festival of Speed at Goodwood. Consequently, I always gave myself the option to bail out if I wasn’t up to it. One of the things that I figured was most likely to get sacrificed was the rally stage. This was something I was most interested in seeing but it was quite a trek up the hill and, with a hot day and a slight lack of energy, I thought this might end up not happening. In the end I decided to start walking up there and see how I felt as I went – always having the option to change the plan. As it was, while it was very warm, there was a lot of shade on the way through the woods, and I ended up getting there without feeling bad. Always good when you have options!

I first came to the paddock area and that was so much fun to stroll around. So many older rally cars including some Group B examples along with more modern examples. The selection of Audis, Subarus, Lancias and Peugeots was great. Sure, there were lots of others but my strongest memories of 80s and 90s rallying were these types. A couple of cars were driving around including a Mini that had clearly been rolled recently. A while later, the commentary team mentioned that it had indeed been the case. I guess the participants aren’t hanging around with their vehicles on the stage.

Things were pretty quiet when I first got there, things were pretty quiet. However, it wasn’t long before they started up runs through the custom designed rally stage in the woods. A couple of cars came through before I had got to the woods and then things went quiet for quite a while. I wandered along the trails into the woods and wondered if I had missed something when a truck came along the track towing a car. Not sure what had happened, but it clearly hadn’t ended well. Hopefully they got things sorted before too long.

Then it was back to cars running through the stage. Some of them were really giving it the beans while others were making sure that they stayed within their limits. That’s fine by me. If you have a vintage rally car, being reckless with it really doesn’t make sense. Besides, you might have the cool car but that doesn’t make you the greatest driver so do what makes sense. I’m just glad that they have the car and will bring it to an event like this.

Given how hot and dry it had been, the stage was very dusty. The good spots to watch from were often around bends where you can see the cars doing what they do best. It reminded me of photographing on the ramps at air bases. There you will fit yourself photographing a jet and then, as it turns away from you, you will turn your back to avoid the jet wash. This was the same except it was dust and dirt that was being thrown over you rather than hot air. By the end of my time there both me and my camera gear were coated in dirt!

When getting images, you are looking for something that really emphasises the drama of rallying. I was going with low shutter speeds to try and emphasise the speed of the cars as they hurtle through the woods. You also want something that includes cornering since rally cars do a good job of going sideways. If they are throwing up dust, that is even better. Then you get the more interesting moments when they might catch the bank and throw earth up as they bounce back on course. They won’t all be doing that but, when one does, it does look spectacular.

The course designers also included a small jump along one section. There were distance markers on the ground so you could see how far each car went before touching down. There was a lot of variety in the way in which the drivers approached the jump. Some seemed to be barely airborne while others got a lot of distance. I tried being ahead of the cars for a bit and then went with a side on view. The trees were a bit in the way for the images, but it was more about trying to show off the drama of the location.

Up to this point, I have talked about the location and the cars. However, what I haven’t shared is the relaxed nature of the area. It is a bit like going to Oshkosh in that the main venue is absolutely manic, but you can go to the seaplane base and chill out without the thousands of people. The rally stage is like that. Whether people aren’t as interested or maybe they just don’t want to climb the hill. It’s even possible that they don’t know what is there. Whatever it is, there are just not so many people up there. The woods give you loads of places to check out so it is never crowded, and you really feel like things are a bit more relaxed than down in the main areas. If you go to the Festival of Speed, I would definitely recommend some time up at the rally stage. Even if you aren’t a big fan of rallying (and why would that be??), I think you will enjoy it – once you have cooled down after climbing the hill!

Old Wessex but They Still Look Good

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When I was first seriously into aviation, the Wessex was in widespread use with the UK armed forces. The Navy had a load of them while the RAF used them for both troop transport and for search and rescue. The Sea King was in production and was gradually taking over the roles. As a fan of anything new at the time, I viewed the Wessex as rather old and uninteresting. The new Sea Kings were far more appealing to me at the time.

Two things have changed my perspective. First, I have grown to appreciate a load of stuff over the years that I didn’t care too much about when younger. Also, having had the fun opportunity of spending a load of time with Midwest Helicopters and their S-58Ts when living in Chicago, it reignited my interest in the type. I think Historic Helicopters have an operating Wessex, but I haven’t seen that myself. However, Cosford had a couple of examples on display – one in SAR yellow and one in camo. They looked immaculate and it was great to see them on the ramp looking just as if they could be ready to head out on a mission as soon as the show wrapped.

Sagrada Familia Externals

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Been a bit of time since the last of my posts from our short trip to Barcelona. Up to this point, I have not included anything regarding possibly the most famous building in the city, Sagrada Família. If I am honest, this is something that I was only vaguely familiar with before we went. I had heard about it and the amount of time that it had been under construction but, until we saw a TV show about Spain that included it, I really wasn’t terribly up to speed.

We had a chunk of time set aside to visit and, having taken the subway to get there, we were well ahead of our time for our tour which gave us time to walk around the whole site and check it out from as many angles as possible. As with any famous tourist attraction in a big city, the place was absolutely mobbed. Since we were tourists visiting it, it would be churlish to think that we weren’t also part of the problem! Of course, with construction of the structure still underway, the amount of funding that we all bring in is probably important to helping get things finished.

As for finished, it famously isn’t. I thought I had heard that it was going to be decades before it was but either I got that wrong or things have accelerated. They have made a lot of progress with the seven main towers in place. When we went inside, our tour guide told us that they don’t know when it will be done either, but she indicated that it might be another decade and then it would be done. That doesn’t sound so bad. There is one whole façade that needs to be done. If you look at the more ancient cathedrals around Europe, they took huge amounts of time to build too so this isn’t out of the norm.

Another thing the guide told us about was that Antoni Gaudi’s philosophy was that the exterior of the building had to be the eye-catching element. Drawing people to the church is important and, when inside, it is less important to be wowed. The interior is actually very nice, but I shall cover that in another post at some point before too long. As I have mentioned in some other Barcelona posts, I am not a massive fan of Gaudi’s style. However, this structure is definitely interesting and worth checking out in detail. And there is no shortage of detail! So many elements across the exterior of the building with meaning built in. While we attribute it to Gaudi, it is worth noting that he died when barely anything had been built. Others have been taking forward his designs and concepts. Maybe he would be pleased with it, but we shall never know.

I won’t try and recall the details of the symbolism of the many elements of the outside. There is a combination of different periods during which work has been done which means the styles might vary significantly. There are some modernist features that look pretty cool but definitely seem at odds with other parts. I know that this annoyed some people, but the combination of styles is actually something that I appreciate. If everything was just one style, that might be a touch dull – a strange word to use for something that is so visually striking.

While I might not be so into the reasons for these buildings existing, I do appreciate the beauty that gets created. Whether it is a cathedral hundreds of years old or one that is still under construction, the scale and the adventure of them is something to behold. Walking around Sagrada Família was something so impressive. Next, it was time to head inside. I will note that being inside did give the ability to have a closer look at some of the external details too but, since there was no shortage of stuff to include in this post, I will save that for the next time.

Thunderbirds Crossing Shots

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As is often the case, I was looking for something when I came across something totally different and that took me down a rabbit hole. In this case, I found myself looking through some old shots of the USAF Thunderbirds. Particularly when living in the Midwest, I used to see them display pretty frequently. You get a bit blasé about it after a while. Anyway, I was skimming through shots to see whether I had any crossing shots that I liked. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few of them that came out pretty well. Modern cameras allow rapid frame rates which help with crossing shots but apparently, I could still get it right occasionally when the tech wasn’t quite so advanced. The weather and lighting might vary a bit but here are some of the ones I liked most.

Are There Really No People at Stourhead?

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Of course, the answer to this question is that there are tons of them. We went there earlier this year and the footbridge at one end of the lake looked like it was worth an image. However, there are so many people who visit Stourhead that you can’t conceive that it will be possible to get a shot with no one there. Instead, I decided to take a bunch of shots with people in different places and then use Photoshop to remove them after the event. As it turned out, this patient approach paid dividends as a gap appeared in the traffic and some people saw me waiting and held back. I assure you this bridge is rarely this quiet.

Prop Effects When Using a Phone

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Rolling shutter is a phenomenon that has become very apparent with the widespread adoption of digital sensors in cameras. The way in which a sensor scans across its surface means that relative movement can result in the position of objects being different at the end of the scan than the beginning. DSLRs used a digital sensor but a mechanical shutter so weren’t terribly susceptible to this (except when in video mode) but phones and video camera like GoPros have been.

Usually, if I am photographing aircraft with props, I am using my main cameras. (While I now exclusively use electronic shutter on my bodies, the read speed of the sensor is sufficiently high that the rolling shutter effects are barely visible. However, I rode my bike to Popham one Saturday and decided to grab a few pictures with my phone while I was there. The resulting shots have props that are clearly suffering badly from rolling shutter. It is not something I normally get so I actually found it rather funny. That wouldn’t be the case if I had desperately wanted the shot.

Hypercars Get Ready

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I was down near the start line for the hill climb at Goodwood when the hypercars were coming out. They were exiting the paddock and turning on to the start line. However, there were so many of them that after the initial cars had turned left onto the road, the rest had to turn right and go up to turn before coming back to join the line. There were that many cars. None of these were in anyway cheap under performers!

I could try naming them all but that is hardly possible. First, there are so many it would get boring. Second, I don’t even know what some of them were. I might have a bit of an idea, but I would really be guessing, and I don’t want to get people giving me a hard time about being wrong when there is no point. Instead, here is a sample of the amazing vehicles that were awaiting their turn to blast along the opening straight and turn up the hill for the large crowds at the Festival of Speed.

Want a Ride in a Spitfire

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Two seat Spitfires seem to be ten a penny these days. The ability to make some decent money providing rides for people is a good way of supporting more airframes which isn’t a bad thing, even if they don’t look quite as elegant as the original design. There was one at Compton Abbas on the day of our visit that was doing a pretty good business taking people up for a ride. A blast down to the south coast and back seemed to be the norm.

You had plenty of notice when it was going up. The process of strapping in the passenger was not speedy and, while the pilot might not yet have come out to pre-flight, the activity loading up let you know that a flight was not far off.

Conditions were pretty blowy which, given the location on a hilltop, didn’t seem so surprising. I wondered whether this would limit flying but it didn’t seem to be much of an issue. Besides, the wind was quite close to being down the runway so not much of a challenge. When firing up the Merlin, the crowds outside the restaurant were treated to a blast of wind from the prop. A few hats would be dislodged but no one seemed to mind!

There were quite a few flights during the course of the time that we were there. The return at the end of each flight included a high-level flyby but no beating up the field I’m afraid. That would have been a nice way to round things off but maybe that would not go down well with either the CAA or the neighbours.

Waymo Comes to London

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When I lived on the west coast of the US, I came across Waymo a few times. They were operating in LA and San Francisco and were starting up operations in Seattle around the time we left. I never got to try them out although I was quite interested in giving it a go. Recently I have seen a few self-driving cars in London, most of which belong to Waymo.

They use Jaguars for the programme with plenty of sensors around the outside of the vehicle. One was passing my in Tavistock Square and I grabbed a few shots of it. I’ve seen a bunch more since. I will have to look up what their plans are for starting service. I have also seen a different configuration vehicle with the name Wayve on the side. Know nothing about them!

Turbulent Times

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If you are only used to airliners, light aircraft can look pretty flimsy. They are well designed, but they are small and a little flexible looking. They might be more than up to the task but, to a first timer, they might have the impression of being a bit risky. Then you can look at a Druine Turbulent. That takes the idea of simple to a new level. It is a home-built design that first flew in 1951. Small, light, powered by a small engine and with an open cockpit, it seems like even fitting in it might be a bit snug.

One was parked on the field at Popham one Sunday when we swung by to get some lunch. In due course, the owner came back to the plane and headed off. He had to hand swing the prop himself, so the aircraft was chocked while he started it up. The chocks were then stowed in a panel behind the seat and he climbed in and taxied out. Take off was not startling but still reasonably swift and he climbed out en route. What a cool little plane. I wonder whether it is a cost-effective way of flying.