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 
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
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 
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
I left Orkney on thursday lunchtime for my annual trip to the RAF Leuchars Air Show. Granted the static and flying program did not appear as full as last year but it really does not matter as the whole experience is worth every penny.
A couple of changes this year to the arrangements, some good and some not but if you know me , I am a glass half full kind of person.
Once I had checked in and the safety brief was complete, it was time to find my shooting location for the weekend. When I arrived there, I was greetd by an old friend who I met last year.
Tony from Montrose is a first class photographer with a great sense of humour and the weekend was spent in his company along with John from Glasgow who took some excellent pics and young Nikita who was out to learn the art of photography under Tony’s watchful eye.
The weather was pretty grim most of the weekend but I had my waterproofs and brolly so no problems.
There were too many highlights to mention them all but the flying displays were fantastic.
Of particular mention are the RV8ors and the Blades. The French display team from the Armee de L’air were a welcome addition and of course the Red Arrows who were displaying for the first time after the death of one of their colleagues.
Flt Lt Jon Egging, 33, from Rutland, was killed when his Hawk T1 aircraft – Red 4 – crashed about 1km south east of Bournemouth Airport afew weeks ago.
Both the Arrows and the Patrouille de France flew their displays minus an aircraft where Red 4 would have been located, very respectful, poignant and fitting as was the moments silence for the loss of a great man.
My particular highlight was seeing a Catalina for the first time and even better when it displayed prior to departure.
The F16 pilots from Belgium and Holland were out of this world and I will look forward to seeing them next year.
Neil Geddes and his replica SE5A put on an outstanding display for the crowd. Some of you will remember him from the Orkney Air Show. A tremendous pilot and a very nice man.
Anyway, some photos, I have not edited any of them but will get around to it, hope you like them.
That’s a selection of the 600 or so pictures I took. Did you notice the picture inside the exhaust of the F16? Very artistic I thought
As you probably know Leuchars is a casualty of the Defence Review and will close. Bitter sweet as Leuchars loss is Lossiemouth’s gain.
I still can’t get my head round these decisions and certainly don’t agree with them. The loss of the Nimrods was the first decision I struggle with and now Leuchars. It was heartbreaking hearing from the firefighters at Leuchars, some who were being shown the door after 30 years.
And to what end? It’s not the loss of the planes that bothers me, it is the loss of the knowledge and the experience. Maybe I am being thick but by the time we are in the position to properly fund our military, will there be anyone with experience to train the new batch?
Off my soap box. Hope you enjoyed the pics and thanks for reading.
All the best
Neil
Just a quick post before I head off to Leuchars on thursday. We had a visit from HRH Prince Andrew on Tuesday.
He was up for a visit to a couple of renewable energy sites and out to a regeneration site at Lyness which was a Naval base but latterly was a bit of an eyesore.
Anyway for those of you interested in the aircraft, here is G-XXEB, a Sikorsky S76
And for those interested in the Prince, here he is being met by our local representatives on the apron at Kirkwall Airport.
That’s it for now, Leuchars here we come.
Thanks for looking in
Neil
Just a couple of extra photos to finish the week. The Subsea Viking visited Kirkwall again for a crew change and I never know what to expect until the day before.
We had a rare visitor to Kirkwall this time by a Dash 8 operating for Eastern but in Air South West livery. As I understand it Air South West are to become part of Eastern and operate out of Plymouth but will be moving up to Aberdeen soon.
Here it is taxiing up 14 on arrival
The international part of the title comes from the visit of Bergen Air Transport who are regular visitors. In this case LN-BAA, King Air 200
And finally a profile of G-WOWB.
That’s it for now, have a nice weekend
Neil
Just prior to going on holiday we had a visiting Canadian registered Super Puma on its way to Brazil. Just looks like any other CHC aircraft except for the registration.
While I was in Stornoway, I did not have much time for taking photos but this one was worth taking time out of my lunch. I have not seen many Casa 212‘s and I guess this one was on a ferry flight. Not pretty, but then again it’s a bit like a big Islander so I guess it has it’s charm. Apologies for the chain link visible in the photo, didn’t have time to get photoshop out.
We had a visit from a nearly new Embraer Phenom 100 which arrived from Germany, while I was down taking the picture, our Firefighters were about to go on exercise.
No pun intended, we had a flying visit from OO-GEA, a Bell 206 passing through from Belgium to Shetland.
And the inside
Back to that Phenom 100 from Germany, afetr the weather brightened up a bit I managed to get a better picture of this aircraft and I have to say it is stunning. Sadly I did not win the Euromillions rollover on tuesday night so can’t afford one just yet.
And, of course, the inside. Reminds me of the USS Enterprise
It is becoming more like a virtual word with these glass cockpits. Look carefully at the screens and you will see they also show the terrain.
WE had a couple of Super Pumas drop by at the beginning of the week as one went tech and another saved the day for the offshore crews. G-CHCN and G-CHCL
Finally a first visit from Cessna 182 G-EFAW. This was piloted by Martin Petrie, a regular vistor to Orkney and his first with this aircraft. He was passing through with his wife on their way to the Faroes.
That’s it for now, thanks for taking the time to read, till next time
Neil
It’s amazing how time flies. Just back off holiday and a few weeks until Leuchars. Unbelievable a second scottish base is being binned by this government. Anyway had a vist to East Fortune museum when I was away and have a number of pics to sort before posting them here.
I thought I would post up afew more photos from July when we had visits from a C17. We had notification that a C17 was going to do low approaches at Kirkwall Airport, so for a few minutes the world stopped.
It was only when I had taken the photographs that I realised it was a completely different aircraft from the previous day. This particular one is ZZ173 and it hung about most of the day.
And then it was time to go
We had a few other visitors, first of all we had G-WAIN up from Hawarden
And then a vist from an old friend, ZE700 from the Royal Flight
It never ceases to amaze me just how quiet these aircraft are! The final unusual visitor we had was G-CFLU, an Eastern Saab 2000 up to do the crew change for the Subsea Viking.
As some of you know, I manged to be part of the tribute Spitfire flight last year over Skea Brae. This year I managed to land there thanks to Andrew Brown and G-WIFE.
The weather was due to turn and Andrew asked if I fancied going for a flight with a view to landing there. 30 minutes later we were in the air. 15 minutes after that we were on finals for Skea Brae
Then we were on the ground. Another life objective met. Here is my host for the evening pictured at Skea Brae. Many thanks Andrew.
And my final 2 pics prior to disappearing to Stornoway were a couple of visiting helicopters, Squirrel G-BPRJ and Eurocopter G-SASA
That’s it for just now, some nice pics from East Fortune to come and won’t be long till I am sifting through hundreds of Leuchars pics. I have to say the flying program is a bit disappointing this year but wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Thanks for reading and all the best
Neil
ZZ177 has caused a stir amongst the population of Orkney. Never has a visiting aircraft (Spitfire excluded) caused such a stir. The light was slightly better today and thanks to Hub, I was in the right place at the right time.
Hope you like todays photos. Also it is worth noting there may be visiting aircraft over the next week and a half so keep watching the skies.
Thanks for looking in again. If you want to view video footage. Thanks to Andrew Rendall in the fire section, you can. Gind the fottage here
Neil
