It’s been that long since I last ‘blogged’ that the snow of that time is now a distant memory and the warmer days of spring are starting to at least offer some hope of decent weather for the impending air show season.
A couple of days back I had one of my shortest journeys ever to cover anything for GAR, about 20 minutes from my house up to Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport where I was able to speak with the man at the top, Airport Director, Mike Morton. All being well the article should go live next week, at quite a fitting time in the airport’s fledgling history, as it celebrates its fifth birthday in only a few weeks time. It’s fair to say my visit coincided with a definite upturn in fortunes for the team at Robin Hood as they look forward to Easyjet commencing operations next week, bringing an additional 21 flights to the people of South Yorkshire and beyond.
The previous day I had a trip down to Heathrow, as the wind was favouring my favourite spot in Feltham to shoot some 09R departures. The forecast was one of those which could have gone either way, and arriving it was cold and overcast, the movements were slow and not big and heavy enough for a while, but the sun shone through in the end and there were the usual high standard of rotations from the BA and Virgin crews. Later in the day I tried some 09L landing shots and stayed for sunset which was looking to be a cracker, until a big cloud rolled in. Suffice it to say a 6am departure and 11pm return home and 370 odd miles meant for a restful night's sleep! Similar to my trip to the Welsh hills of 4th March, I'm a real glutton for punishment in the travel stakes!
I’ve another date pencilled in the diary for the end of April, I don’t want to say too much at this stage as it's taken months of trying to get where we are now, but hopefully it will be a top notch visit to a very active station in the south of England. It’s something I’m very much looking forward to and it all began with some random shots taken last July at another base, but that’s enough clues for the conundrum anyway!
A piece of correspondence Karl sent over to me just this week reminded me that GAR is soon to be a year old, with no regular Tuesday update missed and 147 articles to boot, I think the team deserves real credit for these statistics. The people we’ve worked with are also impressive, across the spectrum of aviation, there’s been something for everybody, from fast jets to props, fixed wing to rotary and in the UK, Europe and beyond. It’s fair to say I’ve found the going a little harder in terms of contributing this year, as my hands are very full with my daughter Katie who is four months old this week too. All these milestones show how fast life does pass you by.
As the airshow season is imminent I think it’s only right to reflect on the excellent line-up of events and acts we still have in this country. Yes, depending on how old you are, you can always fondly remember years gone by, but given the situation in the world at present right now, politically, economically and operationally for our forces, there’s still plenty to go at. One comment I noted on a forum just last week made me shake my head. It depicted Duxford and its Spring Airshow as relying on the same acts, such as the F-86 and RAF Hawk. Now, at the end of the day as a spectator you pay your money and take your choice, but the Duxford shows have always had plenty of variety for me, and it’s the only ‘A’ model Sabre in the world and a very nicely painted Hawk, in my opinion. I’m not sure what some people want airshow organisers to pull out of the hat sometimes, but there you go.
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