Wildy returns or should that be many happy returns

Last week saw one of the busier weeks as far as february goes.  Over and above the normal schedules we had a Subsea Viking crew change and 3 Tucanos overnighting.

One of the pilots, “Wildy”, is the son of Chris and Julia Wild, who are the owners of Craigies Taxis in Kirkwall.  The three aircraft were ZF407, ZF287 and ZF347.

 

 

 

We had a further visit from an Eastern Dash 8, G-WOWB which was livery free on this occasion?

And finally a photograph of aircraft that I rarely feature on the blog.  I don’t think there will be many people who have not seen a Saab 340 in Orkney but someone noticed the livery had changed.  Next the terminal was plastered with stickers and balloons.

It turns out Loganair are now the ripe old age of 50.  A considerable achievement.  In 10 weeks I will reach my half century so its not too bad an age to be

Here is the new livery with a minor change

Many happy returns, hope I am around at the centenary!

That’s about it for this week, there have been a number of flypasts by Typhoons and Tornados this week and I seem to have missed each and every one.

A couple of people to mention this week.

Flt Sgt Justin Morris, Happy 50th birthday, hope to catch you for a dram in April.

Nigel Pendrey, my dentist, without him I would have jumped off a cliff yesterday as I was in agony, Absolutely nothing to do with aviation but appreciation where appreciations is due.

All the best from a snow and windless Orkney and as always, thanks for taking the time to read.

Neil

 

Those magnificent men in their flying machines

I thought it was time to start putting up some of the special events Kirkwall has hosted over the last decade. 2008 saw the 75th anniversary of the inaugural passenger air service to Kirkwall started by Captain Ted Fresson.  This event saw a large turnout of vintage aircraft and was well attended by the public.

Enjoy them, I can’t see this happening again for some time.

 

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself.  Time to get myself in gear and get my typing fingers going.  So what has happened since my last post?  Very little GA wise but been seriously busy at work.

The good news is there will be another airshow at RAF Leuchars this year.  There are some who have moaned and groaned at the standard of the 2011 show but what a day out.  I do not believe there will be another so if you want to get up close and personal, keep logging into www.airshow.co.uk .

I only have a couple of pictures for you and a couple are pretty poor but finally on November 18th, Kirkwall Airport had its first visit by Eurofighters.  They did not come low nor fast and the light was poor but that did not reduce their majesty as they announced their arrival.

And they were gone

The thing about these aircraft is their ability to be gone before I have time to get my camera out.  More RAF came to visit us when we had a short stopover from ZE701.

The holidays were over too soon and it was back to work.  Our first international charter came in from Haugesund on the 5th of January with crew change for the Subsea Viking which is now almost a local.  Unusually it was their King Air 350.

All it will take is a lottery win and I will have one as well

Finally today our first RAF visitor and this one was from Leuchars;

And a visitor from Perth, I wonder who got home first?

That’s it for now, thanks for reading and once again Happy New Year, I hope 2012 brings you everything you wish for.  A transfer to Buffalo Airways in Yellow Knife would do me fine as I have been watching Ice Pilots.  It may be hard work but that style of life would suit me down to the ground.  It would mean coming back to Orkney to top up my tan though:)

All the best

Neil

 

Music at KOI

Each day brings a surprise and I was wondering what the subject of my next post was going to be until today.  While in the course of my normal daily routine, I was aware that there was music in the terminal, which was strange as the christmas CD’s are not playing yet.

A quick look at the check ins and I was aware of singers, very good I might add. singing “You raise me up”.  Sadly I only caught the last minute but here are the Husnes Brothers from Grimstad in Norway.  The video does not do them justice but still worth a listen.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrTGvkDLwDA

All the best and thanks for visiting

Neil

 

Too close for comfort

I finished work just after 1430 with Children in need well under way.  So where does the title come from?  Skip and Lyndsay started a sweepstake where certain “volunteers” would be chosen, votes would be cast at a cost, and the person with the most votes would end up getting their legs waxed. The thing is, all the “volunteers” were male.

Wind ups followed all morning and some worried looking faces including mine with the impending sense that my legs would be silky smooth by the end of my shift.

Sure enough, the time came to count the votes and it ended up a tie between Richard Gorn, Supervisor with Loganair and myself.

Then along came my fairy godmother in the form of The Loganair Inter Island Team.  MIchael Bain came and cast the final votes and luckily for me the tie had ended meaning Richard Gorn would shortly have the pleasure of beauty treatment courtesy of Lyndsay.

The photos take it from here:

Well done to the ladies for working so hard and full marks to Richard for being such a good sport.

The girls were around the £500 mark when I left so here’s hoping they beat their record.

That’s all for now and thanks for reading

All the best

Neil

 

Nimrod rise and fall

I mentioned in a previous post that I had the pleasure of working alongside a number of top blokes in the RAF based at Kinloss,

To name a few

Justin, Jim M, Steve, Dave I, Roxy, John, Terry, Dave B and Keith,

All of them made me feel welcome and spent time and effort with me showing off what is now the last Nimrod MR2 in Scotland and if I had my way, it would have been the last complete MR2 in Scotland but that is sadly, unlikely to happen now,.  The SDSR put paid to our RAF maritime assets and this book highlights what can only be described as a rushed decision with far reaching consequences that we may not see for some time.

The SDSR succeeded in putting 1000′s out of jobs, closing RAF KInloss and ultimately Leuchars but hey!  The American aircraft industry got a huge boost as it is highly likely we will eventually have american P8′s guarding our shores.  There is a pattern here did Germany not get a huge contract to build trains for the UK resulting in 1000′s of redundancies from Bombardier

Must get off that soapbox, anyway, I got to know them while working on a project connected with my interest in all things RAF, in particular RAF Kinloss and the Nimrod MR2.

Justin has been working on a project which has just come to fruition in the Form of a new book . Nimrod Rise and Fall. This book is written by Tony Blackman about the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod from its beginning to its end, 978-0-9553856-7-4. NON-FICTION, with the appendix written by Justin from a flightcrew perspective.

I was delighted when a number of my photos were used to illustrate this book,  Also I have been sent some fantastic pictures by JIm Mailer which I hope to show here at some point.

Now you know what to get your other halves for christmas.  Buy it, you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for letting me know about it Justin, great book.  Find more about it at www.blackmanbooks.co.uk

Till next time

All the best

Neil

 

Oldies but goodies (except for Marco……)

Who is definitely not an oldie but qualifies as a goodie.  I started looking through some of my older photographs and thought I would start posting them up in batches.  Amongst them are pictures of aircraft we no longer see including Highland Airways and British Airways.

Hope you like them

Part two shortly.  Thanks for taking the time to read.

Neil

 

Pudsey and Co

It’s that time of the year again.  Things are being prepared at the terminal for next weeks children in need under the watchful eye of Co-ordinator Skippy (Susanne Carter) and Lyndsay Robinson.

They have been working hard preparing raffles, home bakes and sales and I would not be surprised if they have their best ever year.  Here are the Dynamic Duo.

Obviously there are others in the background who make things possible and Skip has asked me to thank the following on her behalf:

Margaret Corsie

Lyndsay

Maurice Dawson at the Blue Door

Jackie Delaney

Security Staff at KOI

and everyone else for generous donations and beautiful baking.  Not good for the waistline!

Thanks for reading and good luck ladies

All the best

Neil

 

Spotting at Kinloss July 2009

I am still looking back over many of my old photos and came across these.  On my way back from my summer holidays, I decided to have a coule of hours at the end of the main runway.  Nothing happened for a few hours so I called for my Mrs to pick me up.  AS she arrived there was the unmistakable sound of jet engines starting and all of a sudden things came to life.

None of the photos have been edited but thought this would bring back memories for some, hope you like them.

AS always, thanks for taking the time to read

All the best

Neil

 

Old friends, new visitors and sadness

Quite an unusual title this time as the last few weeks have been varied.  The weather has changed to winter.  It’s dark, it’s cold most of the time and unusually I have worn a jacket to work.  Not something I tend to do in October.

It’s a week to go until my October leave and usually I find a day to stand at the end of the main runway of RAF Kinloss waiting patiently for the next picture.  Sadly there is no point this time, however, I may go across to Lossie for the first time, I will have to see how much time I have.

Anyway, since I last typed we have had a number of bizjets in, a crew change for the Subsea Viking (SV) and I have been to Stornoway and Inverness as the pics will show.  First of all an Eastern Saab 2000 from Aberdeen with part of the SV crew change.

M-CICO, a beautiful Falcon 50 dropped past for a few days

And a new Citation operated by Gama, here is G-CGUZ

Followed quickly by a Citation Mustang OE-FHA

While I was on my way to Stornoway, I had a couple of hours to kill after arriving in Inverness,and as I saw the sun for the first time, I went for a walk and as always took the camera.  NOt much was flying and most of the pictures I took were not from the correct angle but I liked a couple of them.

The first is a view of the Airport with an A319, Q400 and Embraer 195 parked up before departure.

As I was walking back the A319  G-EZAZ had come to life and was getting ready to depart

So where does the sadness come in, look at the next picture and you will understand!

A year and a half ago, this beautiful aircraft, or should I say, what is left of it was protecting our maritime interests at home and abroad.  I am glad I have photos of her over Kirkwall Airport but the Mighty Hunter deserves better than being cut up and ending up a museum piece.  Heartbreaking

I like finishing on a positive so now to old friends.  The Cartier pilots are a sociable bunch and it was a pleasure to see Marco Pierotti for the first time in a long time.  Also a pleasure to meet Olivier who was the Captain for this trip.  You can just make him out in this pic prior to departure.

And finally PH-CIJ, one of the two Cessna 680‘s they operate and regular visitors to Kirkwall.

That’s about it for now.  Thanks for taking the time to read.  Will see what the holidays bring but looking forward to having a dram with some of my RAF friends in a couple of weeks.

All the best

Neil