Another day in paradise (Kirkwall Airport)

Norman the gnome visits Kirkwall

Hello All

Well I have paid my fees for another year of blogging so you will have to put with me I'm afraid.  Things have started coming into Kirkwall now the weather is better and the temperature is reaching double figures.  I have a few pictures this week starting with OY-PBV arriving at Kirkwall after I saw it for the first time in Inverness

At the beginning of the week we had a vist from Norman the Gnomw who is based at RAF Cosford Flying Club.  Here he is with his 2 minders and the next photo is a close up.  Apparently Norman has been all over the world and this was his first time at Kirkwall.  After a short visit he left for Stornoway in G-BFNI, PA28.

Just as they left another PA28 arrived from Sweden via Denmark.  The occupants were on a whisky tour of Scotland and, of course, had to begin with the best whisky in the world, Highland Park!  This PA28 is different as it is the R model or the Cherokee Arrow meaning it has retractable undercarriage unlike the previous PA28.

nd for the first time in ages  we had a low approach from a Nimrod, which usually shakes the building.  Here is XV244.

And finally just before I finished work today, G-ATLA, C182 arrived for a visit.

Thats it for just now and the first note of the next year.  Thanks for taking the time to read.

Best wishes

Neil

PS I discovered a fascinating historical site in Orkney www.crashsiteorkney.com Go and have a look.

Flying visit

I had one of my many trips to Stornoway last week and as I was passing through I took a couple of pictures as always.  Many thanks to Christian and Craig for the hospitality on the Highland Airways J31.

First of all G-SAXN, King Air B200 was parked up at Inverness

Parked next to it was G-OSOH, a Citation 525

Ben Air had a different Shorts 360 on the apron OY-PBV

And on the grass strip was G-OLRT a Robinson R22

Next was CS-DNO, a Hawker 800

And G-CEDK, a beautiful Citation X owned by the Duke of westminster

In the distance was G-SYLJ, the first time I had seen an Embraer 135

And finally in Stornoway, I saw a Saab 340 cargo, LY-NSC

Thats it for noe, till next time

Neil

Wildlife week!

"What on earth is he on about" I hear you say, or maybe I don't maybe nobody reads aircraft related sites anymore.  Why have I titled this entry wildlife week?  Easy because our visitors this week include a squirrel and a robin.   

But we will start off with a visitor from Odense in Denmark.  OY-NUD, a Citation 560 arrived early Wednesday morning and departed Wednesday afternoon.

G-STON is a twin squirrel operated by Veritair who are based at Cardiff heliport.  It was up in Orkney surveying the digital transmitters getting ready for the big switchover in 2012.

And the inside

And a new one for me, under the hood.  A rare photo of the squirrels power plant

And another

We had a short visit by G-ELUN yesterday, an immaculate DR400 Robin which arrived from Inverness.

And finally, I lost this photograph but obviously have found it again.  This King Air came in recently while normally based in Germany, the aircraft and pilots were on detachment to the UK so paid us a visit.

That's it for just now, I'm away on one of my many vists to Aviemore tomorrow so here's hoping for lots of snow.  It will certainly be cold enough.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Neil

Red sky in the morning - Shepherds warning

I don't seem to have been taking many photos lately but thought it was time I posted a few up.  We haven't had many unusual visitors lately but as the better weather comes hopefully they will start arriving.  The webcams have been a big success and viewing numbers are well up.

The first picture is XV260 which came in to see us prior to nearly the entire fleet being grounded for urgent modifications.

We had our first school visit of the year by P3/2 from St Andrews School.  The kids seem to enjoy themselves and many thanks to Loganair, OCS, AFS and all others who made their trip successful.

We had a visit from G-OMRH, a pretty Citation Bravo on its way to Liverpool Airport on a private charter

Next we have the photograph that inspired the title.  No photoshop involved.  Last wednesday was a cracking sunrise and I had to take time out to capture this.

But back to aircraft, we had a refuelling vist from G-SARC, a coastguard S92

And finally we had a visit from G-MAJV, an Eastern J41 on charter for the Sub Sea Viking who were changing their crew today.  We also had LN-BAA in from Norway piloted by Garth and Karen but as I already have a photo on file just thought I would say hi to the crew.

So that's it for now, hope you drop past again soon.

Take care

Neil

Save a Vulcan - Please read

I normally don't update the day after I have updated but I thought I would share a picture with you.  Before I do that we had another vist from G-OAKI today which I had never seen close up so here is a gap that I have filled

The next bit of news is devastating.  I have already mentioned the Vulcan to the skies project which is a charity responsible for restoring the last and arguably the most iconic aircraft ever madeXH558 to flying condition.  This group of enthusiasts have worked tirelessly to bring this beauty to the masses but sadly unless around half a million pounds is found, this aircraft will never fly again.  Here are some more details.

So back to this photo, a friend from SFPA, Dick Jones left me a book and a picture at the airport for me to have a look at.  When I saw it this morning I was gobsmacked as it was an original picture of, yes you've guessed it XH558.  It is stamped on the back as having coming from negative 196 of AV Roe, Manchester.  Amazingly Dick hadn't noticed the number.  He told me that his father went on a course with Avro, hence the picture.  He has kindly given me permission to share it with you so here she is in her heyday.  I should also give credit to A.V. Roe, Manchester.

And as she was in October

The bad news is they have to raise their funds within the next 8 days and 22 hours or thats it.  The End.  So if you have £500,000 pounds and you are looking for a good home for it, please go to:

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/

Also there is a petition that can be signed at the following hyperlink

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/vulcan-XH558/

The alternative is:

500000 people give £1

250000 people give £2

100000 people give £5

50,000 people give £10

Simple maths but shows it can be done.  I have already given but I am away to pledge more.  Thanks for raeding and all my very best to the Vulcan to the skies team.

Neil

50hp from an exhaust!

Yes thats right, each exhaust of a Tucano is equivalent to 50hp.  No wonder they have such a nice noise.  Photos shortly.

The first new visitor we had this week is the relief Eurocopter from the Scottish Ambulance Service which literally dropped in past yesterday.  Here is G-BZRS

And a close up of the livery

I am sorry the page only allows a mximum width of 500pixels but its says "Funded by the public and dedicated to the communities we serve" and "Help us to help you"

Then out of the blue we had a vist from a couple of Tucano's today.  First of all we had ZF341

Closely followed by ZF485, both aircraft from 72 Squadron based in Linton on Ouse but attached to RAF Lossiemouth for a couple of weeks, hence the visit.

I took this photo to show just how mean and powerful they look from the front

And finally the inside, front followed by rear seat

Thats it for just now, here's hoping for a busy year

Take care and thanks for looking in

Neil

Cold spell over

I thought it was about time to "scribble" a few notes so I have a couple of recent pictures for the blog.  We had a cold spell recently that was just about as cold as I can ever remember.

My weather station http://orkneyweather.freehostia.com recorded -8.1C.  Sadly I did not take lots of pictures but this first one shows one of our Rolbas attempting to sweep 15/33.

2 of the days were so cold that the de-icer could not defrost the runway.  Anyway back to aircraft.  This next shot of G-CCPW is taken in it's new livery.  AFAIK the aircraft is going to Finland on charter and will be piloted by Dougal Russell, who lives in Finland, but is the son of Julian, one of our security agents at Kirkwall.  I guess flylappeenranta.fi is a Finnish Airline.

We also had a visit from G-BWWI, a Bristows Super Puma

And G-YPRS a Citation Bravo from Gloucester

And the inside

As I was driving to work I saw a Jetstream 31 lining up on 27 that I did not recognise.  It turned out to be G-OAKI which I can only assume was on for Highland Airways with our newspapers.

We also had a vist from Oscar Charlie, an S92 which is based in Shetland and operates on behalf of the Coastguard.

This is just another picture of OScar Charlie in a different pose

It was time for another Subsea Viking Crew change yesterday and we were visited by G-MAJV, a Jetstream 41 opearted by Eastern. Bergen Air Transports LN-BAA arrived from Haugesund piloted by Eric Frettem but I already have a photo on file.  Hope you enjoy your Highland Park 18 year old and your Scapa 16 year old

And finally we had a short visit from G-CHCG, another Super Puma operated by CHC Scotia

Thats it for now, thanks for reading

Take care

Neil

PS The second webcam upgrade is now up and running.  The reason for the poor view is due to the heated external housing failing to turn up on time.  It will be finished on Tuesday 24 Feb.  See the cameras at

http://www.kirkwallairport.info/capture1.jpg

http://www.kirkwallairport.info/capture2.jpg

Cheers

Visitor from Munster

We had a surprise visitor from Germany this morning so thought I would post a pic of Metroliner D-CPSW operated by Bin Air and piloted by a husband and wife team, Berndt and Ilona.

Bye for now

Bravo, a new plane is born

Hi All

Will come to the title subject shortly.  Photos are pretty difficult at the moment as the weather is pretty grim.  The ambient temperature is rarely above 5 degrees and with windchill it is always below 0 when there is any wind.  The Met office are saying this is the coldest winter in a decade.  So much for global warming!

Anyway some pics for you, no excuses the weather and light is terrible so WYSIWYG.  I will start off with a pic for Nimrod fans.  This is the first time I can recall seeing this one, XV260

Next we have M-OTOR an Isle of Man registered Beech C90 King Air operated by Zephyr Aviation

This next aircraft was a surprise visit.  I believe this aircraft G-ORCA, a Vans RV4, only has around 50 hours on the clock and was owned/built by Marshall Wishart, who is the pilot of the Islander operating the Inter Island Service in Shetland operated by Direct Flight.

And the first for ages, the inside

Next we come to the title subject.  In this case G-SMMB, a brand new Cessna F406 owned by the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency operated by Highland Airways.

And a different view

And an excellent view courtesy of Will Noble, Tactical Director of G-SMMB and the skipper/crew of the Hirta SFPA protection vessel who took the picture.

And finally our old friend  XV254 who flew past just before I finished on friday

Thats it for just now, do't forget if you want to see what rubbish weather we are having just now you can find my live weather site at http://orkneyweather.freehostia.com .  Also I have upgraded the webcam to an Axis HD external camera.  You can find the images at http://www.kirkwallairport.info/capture1.jpg . 

Thanks for taking the time to read.  It is much appreciated.

Till next time

Neil

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Where has January gone?  Thanks to all for the nice feedback and the requests for more pictures and news from Kirkwall.  Plenty has happened in the last few months but there has not been an abundance of new aircraft that I do not already have on file.

The first of my photographs are taken in Aberdeen while I was passing through while attempting to get to Stornoway.  A long story but the day was saved by Dave and Brian from Highland Airways who looked after my welfare from 0730 in the morning until 1715 at night.  A whole day in a Jetstream 31 was an experience.

Anyway some pics.  Just before I left we had a flypast from a lone Hercules which is unusual and I managed to catch a picture but the weather was so bad, I cannot make out the number

Then it was off to Stornoway Sumburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness and ultimately back to Kirkwall.  I took a few pics in Aberdeen.  The first is CS-DMB, a Netjets Beechjet 400A.

Next is G-REDP, An AS332 Super Puma in Recue livery operated by Bond

Next is I-DLOH, a Hawker 800XP

And OY-JPJ, A Cessna 650 Citation 3

Back to Kirkwall to be greeted by our old friend XV254

Then it was back to Inverness for our annual ops meeting.  This next picture is a first on Spottersblog ( I think) This is my colleague Janet, who is terminal manager in Stornoway and myself in Highland gear for the first time in many years. 

If you have recovered from that last picture, I will go back to aircraft in Kirkwall.  This next aircraft was definitely a first.  EC-IXL a spanish Metroliner 3 came in with mail.

We also had our first vist from Bergen Air Transports new King Air 350 LN-BAB

And finally G-MAJY, and Eastern J41 which came in for a crew change on the Subsea Viking

Thats it for just now, thanks again for taking the time to read my notes and hopefully I will get back in the routine of updating regularly.

Take care

Neil