So the Samaritans Purse DC-8 paid an other visit to Prestwick, this time there was the oportunity to get down to and capture a few photographs. It’s nice to see that there are still a few of these around, but it seems that we are now down into single figures.

Below is a short list of the ones that are believed to be still flying, but the list hasn’t changed for quite some time and given the age of the aircraft it could be in need of an update.

9T-TCN 45753/223 DC-8-55(F) Congo Kinshasa Air Force, DRC
9Q-CJL 45909/307 DC-8-62F Trans Air Cargo Services, Kinshasa, DRC
OB-2059-P 45990/375 DC-8-73CF Skybus Jet Cargo
TT-DFJ 45991/380 DC-8-73AF CFS Air Cargo, N’Djamena, Chad
N782SP 46013/427 DC-8-72CF Samaritans Purse, Greensboro, NC
N817NA 46082/458 DC-8-72 NASA Airborne Science Laboratory, Edwards AFB, CA
9S-AJG 46110/487 DC-8-62F Transair Cargo Services, Brazzaville, Congo
9G-AXA 46113/521 DC-8-63AF Meridian Airways, Cameroon
9S-SJO 46133/534 DC-8-73CF Transair Cargo Services, Kinshasa, DRC

This as someone said could be our last chance to see one of these flying, so it was nice to get a small nostalgia fix. This DC-8 has been through Prestwick a number of times over the last year or so, I’ve been down to see it a couple of times before – but it’s always been pretty poor light due to the arrival time of the aircraft. So at long last I have a half decent (by my standards) snap of it, that will do nicely.

Sunday 16th February 1947, the day a Seafire III crashed into the dining room of the Southern General Hospital with the Pilot – AJ Crawford suffering fatal injuries. The arcraft had taken off from Abbotsinch some 10 minutes before the accident, there were no serious injuries to any of the Hospital patients or staff.

The aircraft engine was buried some distance into the ground, fortunately there was no fire – but the fire service did remain on standby until all the fuel had been drained from the aircraft.

The aircraft NN630 a Seafire III was being tested by the AHU Abbotsinch, the accident was reported in The Scotsman on the 17th of February with a photograph showing the hole in the dining room roof.

The aircraft arrived in the Royal Navy Deposit Account on the10th of February 1945, then went through 39MU and on to RNAS Tambaram before returning to the UK and ending up at RNAS Abbotsinch.

The photograph of a Seafire III above is copyright Mr R C Clarkson of the Scottish Military Aviation Group (SCOTMAG), taken at Duxford 2016.

What to say about Walter “Terry” Bell, for anyone fortunate enough to know him there’s not much that can be added. For those of you who didn’t know him, where to start would be the more appropriate question. Walter was a long time Glasgow spotter, a founding member of the Glasgow Airport Aviation Enthusiasts Club (GAAEC).

Walter spotted at Renfrew and Abbotsinch during and after the second world war, started photographing aircraft in 1948 so as can be imagined he built up quite the collection of photographs. These for the most part were meticulously labeled and cross referenced in his logs, in most cases with quite a bit of additional information.

Walter sadly passed away on the 19th of March, however in typical fashion he ensured that his collection of images was preserved for future generations by gifting the collection the Air Britain Archive.

I for one will miss the odd visit I made to see him and his wife Eileen, where a coffee and a Kit-Kat was always welcome.

The North American Mustang, in R.A.F. service it was known as the Mustang Mk I. With the first prototype delivered an astonishing 149 days as the NA-73X after the first contact, with the first delivery of 320 NA-73’s (It wasn’t the P-51 yet!) following on with 300 NA-83’s all designated the Mustang Mk I by the R.A.F.

The evolution of the aircraft is well understood, all the way to the P-51K in R.A.F. service the Mustang Mk IVa. Many of the Mustangs were assembled at Renfrew at the Lockheed facility, shipped from there to a number of different units.

With the exception of the earliest orders for the Mustang Mk I, which were struck off charge in 1945. All the rest of the Mustangs in R.A.F. service were lend lease and so had to be returned to the United States or scrapped. The last Mustangs in R.A.F service went in 1947, so the Mustang in the picture in R.A.F. colours is actually a rareity – there aren’t many Mustang Mk IV’s around.

There is some excellent information in the book, Lend Lease Aircraft in WWII – by Arthur Pearcy. The book which is old now and out of print is a must if you are researching aircraft during the period.

I am not sure where to start with telling people about aviation photography, there are so many people who have so many different opinions that you are almost certain to clash with someone.

As for me, I want a photograph that captures a reasonable representation of the aircraft showing a reasonable amount of detail. But before I delve into detail, I have a few questions to put out there – in my opinion they are worth considering.

Viewing Images

The first questions are simply about how you view images and how you consume digital media from other sources.

• Pretty much everyone has some photographs in a number of formats, if you have prints – how many of them are bigger that 7″ X 5″?
• When viewing digital images on a PC or Laptop, how often do you use the actual size function?
• Do you use a phone or tablet to view online images, or do you use a large monitor?

The above questions might seem pretty banal, but if you think about things you’ll see why I ask them. Take the first question, a photographic quality 7″x5″ (300ppi) print is just over 3.1MP which equates to a sensor of 2100 X 1500 pixels.

As to the second question, given that the average Laptop or PC Monitor has a resolution of around 2MP or 1920 X 1024 pixels a 2100 X 1500 image file will fill the screen plus a bit!

The third question is perhaps the most relevant here, if you view your images on a tablet or phone then the physical size of the devices comes into play and although the screen resolutions can be very high on these devices – the viewing area is pretty small in most cases.

Capturing Images

This is where the lid comes off the can of worms, if you want to capture high quality images you can do that with a Phone, a Tablet, a Digital Compact, a Bridge Camera a DSLR and a Digital Mirror-less Camera. Each type of device has its own merits and as is to be expected its own failings.

Lets start with the good old smart phone, most people have one and the camera’s are pretty good on them – with the lowest resolution available being around 5MP and the highest being an amazing 100+ MP. The pro mode on many of these camera’s allow full control and many of them have double digit zoom capabilities. So whats not to like about them, most cameras lenses make them more suitable for close work so they are great for taking a picture of a static aircraft at a display – but not that great for flying shots or shots at a distance.

Tablets in general have less camera functionality and resolution, but are OK for close up photographs. But it should be noted that these devices are improving with each iteration of the product, the latest iPad is a good product in terms of its photographic capabilities.

Digital Compact Cameras, I have used several of these – the cheapest was a Canon A2300 which was a great little camera and could be carried in a pocket quite easily. It gave good results but as it didn’t have a viewfinder or a very bright rear screen, using it for flying shots was very difficult and the results were not great. For aircraft on the ground, it was a great little camera with 10MP and 10 X Optical Zoom and the lens would fit through the gaps in most perimeter fences.

For general use a Bridge Camera is hard to beat, quite a number of these cameras are available covering very serious rages when it comes to focal length – at least one covers 24mm – 3000mm. These cameras can deliver great results, but be aware that trying to take a flying shot with a 3000mm lens will not be an easy thing to do. Whereas the optics on these types of cameras will be good, they are not changeable so getting feedback from an someone who uses a bridge camera is probably worthwhile.

DSLR and Mirror-less cameras, well you are getting in amongst the big boys now. So the features that you choose directly impact cost, I have read quite extensively on the subject of DSLR’s and Mirror-less as I’m thinking of upgrading my current cameras – in fact I seem to think about it once a week or so! At the moment the DSLR camera seems to have the edge for aviation photography, in particular around the speed of the auto focus. But it probably won’t stay that way for long, given the speed that technology moves at.

Mirror-less cameras are on the up and up, all the major manufacturers have models that seem to fit around the DSLR’s that they manufacture. This is probably the way that the camera world will go eventually, but I think that it’s going to be a while before the DSLR is confined to history – if it ever is.

As to the best camera for aviation photography, the one you have in your hand when you need to take the picture.