[php] [/php]

RAF Coronation Review 1953

by | Jan 18, 2023 | Aviation News, Spotting, Website Review, Wrecks and Relics

The RAF Coronation Review at RAF Odiham on the 15th of July 1953, this was a spectacle that will probably never be repeated – almost one thousand static and flying aircraft. This was purely an Air Forces event, with contributions from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The other services were all involved in their own Coronation Year reviews. The Royal Navy including the Fleet Air Arm had it’s own review on the 15th June 1953 with over 300 participating aircraft, the aircaft from Canada and Australia the Fleet Air Arm.

Below is a video of the event, somewhat condensed but it is pretty spectacular nonetheless. I’m pretty sure that the next Coronation Review will probably have fewer participants, so watch the video and feel the nostalgia.

I found the video purely by accident, but found it to be realy interesting. The whole flypast is there, representing all the RAF types in service at the time – some of which were in service for a number of years.

As a plane spotter I’d love to see an actual log, both the static and the flying aircraft. The sheer number of aircraft must have made for a real spectacle, they did allow paying members of the public in.

Obviously there will be an other Coronation later this year, at this time I’m unaware of any mention of a review of the armed forces – I found the above video while I was searching for anything about one. So I guess I’ll just have to keep looking, I’m sure that there will at least be a flypast on the day, or possibly soon after.

But in the mean time, enjoy the video!

John Martindale – The Ultimate Numerologist.

by | Oct 30, 2022 | Spotting, Uncategorized

John Martindale joined our circle of friends late, we all had known him for a long time when he was finally brave enough to go on a spotting trip with us. But I do have to say that I think on John’s part, there must have been an element of trepidation.

From memory John and Hugh Morton had been let down, whatever the arangements were doesn’t matter – if there were seats on the bad boys minibus, almost any bum that filled them was welcome.

And so it was that John and Hugh came on a trip with the bad boys, I’m sure that they had some concerns but it was that or miss whatever show we were going to.

So seating was allocated, sandwiches, Irn-Bru and Coke loaded and off we went. With two new members of the minibus crew, to clarify the same regulars had been going to shows by minibus for many years – there was even Lester our principal navigator. Just to let you know what the trips were like, Lester was a plastic decoy wood pidgeon – but a valued member of the minibus crew.

Quite what John and Hugh thought of the rabble that they were travelling with, nobody knows except them – but it couldn’t have been too bad as they became regular members of our circle. And I must be honest here, being welcomed into our circle as they were – is not something that should be taken for granted. John and Hugh became regular members of the Wednesday night meets at the Breahead Tavern, they also became regular attendee’s of the Christmas bash. If I’m being honest here, not what we expected when they came on that first minibus trip.

Our memories of John in particular go back to the very early 1970’s, where our card playing, drinking and fraternising with members of the opposite sex in the GAAEC club rooms did not impress John. But I’m guessing that it was all water under the bridge thirty something years later, it certainly seemed like that.

I clearly remember the conversation that first night in The Ram Hotel in Brandon, John seeming surprised at the jocularity – remarking that we actually had fun socially in the minibus and in the pub. It was said in such a way as to make you think that this wasn’t the norm on other group trips that John and Hugh had been on.

Over the years there were some humerous incidents involving John, few got more of a laugh than the “Stanstead Bus Incident”. Where John had asked to be dropped at the terminal to log of all things “Buses”, while we were going round logging aircraft – John was, as requested left to his own devices at the terminal. On our return, John was earnestly engaged in conversation with the airport constabulary who asked us if we knew John. The expression on his face when we denied all knowledge of him was priceless, although John didn’t seem to think it was funny at the time – he did later.

John didn’t just collect Aircraft numbers, there were Train and Bus numbers as well, he also was instrumental in the search for wrecks and the recovery of some of them, a detailed history of this can be found here.

We are now nearing the 10th anniversary of John’s passing and still have the odd laugh about the funny incidents, as with all our spotter freinds that frequented the pub with us – John Martindale, master of numbers is still thought of and missed.

Spotter Evolution – Notebook to Netbook.

by | Oct 29, 2022 | Application, Aviation News, Radio, Spotting, Spotting News

Since the beginning of Aircraft Spotting, whenever it was – things have moved on apace. As I’ve said elsewhere on the site, I started with a notebook and a pencil – while I was still at primary school. Now a pensioner, the hobby is still the same – but the goodies that assist have changed out of all recognition.

When I started spotting, the airport didn’t really have a fence and you could get close enough to identify the aircraft. Now you can see a contrail at 50 miles and identify the aircraft making it in just a few seconds, depending on conditions and location you can see contrails a lot further away than 50 miles. The advancing technology has changed the way that most people spot, I’ve seen us all trek out of the pub to stand and watch something go overhead on a clear night.

It used to be that there were a number of ways of finding information on arrivals and departures at an airport, there was many a time where you sneaked a look at the board that had the aircraft listed. Or you heard through the local spotters network, or you were just there at the right time.

Now you can identify an aircraft pretty much anywhere in the world, you can go further and show only aircraft that will arrive at a specific airport from the thousands in the air at any given moment. In an instant you can have all the information that you would need, information that you couldn’t get 20 years ago – when even if you could see the head of the trail and could identify the type finding out any more information was difficult.

 Now I have a second screen on my PC which has a permanent window on the aviation world, showing an area about 40 miles East and West of me and 25 miles North and South. It’s about as much as I can see given the obstructions around where I live, when I lived in Skye the settings were about twice that distance as I could walk up the hill behind the house which allowed me to see much further.

If I’m logging everything then I can generally log 100+ in a fairly ordinary day, I’m not really a civil spotter anymore – my focus moved to military many years ago. But it doesn’t mean that I’m no longer interested in civil aviation, just that it is a secondary interest now – there are exceptions I’ll make a trip to the airport to see something older and more interesting to me than the modern Boeings and Airbus that are now the mainstay of civil aviation.

Now I can see it a long way out and decide if I want to be there when it arrives, or if I want to just pop down and see it when it is in. All on my computer or phone, although I still write any details that I want to record in my notebook with a pencil or pen having gone up in the world.

 

Spotter Evolution – Beginning.

by | Oct 29, 2022 | Camera, Optical Enhancement, Radio, Spotting, Spotting News

A conversation with a fellow spotter raised a couple of questions about plane spotting, like when it started and why do people do it? The second is probably easier to answer than the first, as in – for the most part people enjoy watching aircraft and other aspects of the hobby. There are probably not that many spotters who have made their fortune from spotting, some have I’m sure but I’m also pretty sure that these people were spotters before they monetised their interest or hobby.

If you go looking for when Plane Spotting (Or probably more correctly) Aircraft Spotting actaully bagan, you can find numerous threads on the older aviation forums – these usually deteriorate into a bun fight during the course of the thread.

Mostly with references to spotters of other things, with Trains, Busses, Cars and even Birds all being denigrated by Aircraft Spotters. And yet I have met a number of Aircraft Spotters who collected information on some or all of the above, after all it is a hobby and as such pretty much on a par with any other hobby.

When did it all start is much more of a quandry, looking through the online archives of publications – the earliest mentions of the hobby that I can find seem to date from the very early 1950’s. Although other sources seem to date it from the 1940’s, however I’m aware of at least one spotter from the early 1930’s – so I’m guessing that it is still all open to confirmation.

A number of sources point to the formation of the Observer Corps as sowing the seeds of the hobby, with the pastime gaining traction after WWII. Although the Observer Corps can rightfully claim that it’s inception goes back to WWI, where the War Office used whatever resources that it could – these included both Army and Naval peronnel along with Special Constables, Lighthouse Keepers and even Boy Scouts to man observation posts and report aircraft movements.

The earliest log that I’m aware of is dated the 12th of December 1935, but I’m sure that it won’t be the earliest log that there is. Most peoples logs probably don’t survive them by long, only in a few instances will there be enough foresight to ensure that the collection of logs survives and goes to somewhere with the resource to hold the it.

The average person during the inter war years is unlikely to have had very much spare time or money to indulge in a hobby like aircraft or any other type of spotting, so at best these people may have stretched to a notebook and pencil – few would have had binoculars or a camera. However after WWII much changed, more free time and more disposable income would lead to more people with time to indulge in a hobby.

Along with the above came a veritable treasure trove of equipment availability, courtesy of Government Surplus – in the form of Binoculars, Radio Recievers and trained people admittedly mostly ex-forces but many turned their training towards their new hobby – Aircraft Spotting.

Canadian Work Horse

by | Sep 25, 2022 | Aviation News, Website Review

The de Havilland DHC-2 “Beaver”, an aircraft for the bush pilots of Canada. Designed by a small team, with significant input from the potential customer base – yes the design and sales team actually did market research. Was designed and manufactured in Downsville Ontario, first flew on the 16th August 1947.

The original design called for the aircraft to be powered by de Havilland’s own Gipsy engine, but an offer of the Pratt & Whitney Junior Wasp at a bargain basement price was too good to refuse. The increased power of the Pratt & Whitney engine gave the Beaver outstanding STOL performance, this along with other design features were major selling points – although sales were slow at first.

The first production aircraft was delivered in April 1948, running all the way to 1967 where over 1,690 were finally delivered. With the United States Army being the customer for over half of the production. There are many sources of information available on the web for the “Beaver”, with one of the most comprehensive being Neil Aird’s site – with photographs of most of the production aircraft.

It is rumoured that someone once said that the “Beaver” only had to be faster than a dog sled to be a success, well it must have been faster than a dog sled – as it has been an outstanding success. It may well still be flying in it’s 100th year, with rights having been bought from Bombardier – we could even see it back in production at some point in the future.

There is now an “Electric Beaver” flying, a Harbour Air of Vancouver and Magnix collaboration. Although the infrastructure must be just enough for testing at the moment, I’m sure that there will be more available soon and the “Beaver” with it’s utilitarian function will be an aircraft that will be in the mix when the change to electic flight gains traction.