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Prestwick again.

by | Mar 17, 2021 | Spotting

Down at Prestwick for the third time this week, seems that there have been a number of reasons for going – today it was a Covid-19 test for the wife (A pretty fair swap I might add). What was going on, not really a lot. There was an Austrian PC-12 and a Cargolux 74F, the one with a facemask over the nose.

The Camera had got its self into a strange mode and by the time I sorted it out, I’d missed any chance of a decent sot of the Cargolux. That about covers Prestwick off this afternoon, I was only there for around 20 minutes so not too bad when all is said and done.

There was a C-12 hiding somewhere, but I couldn’t find it – mainly because of the time that I had available. Not too many years ago I’d have set off on foot to have a look for it, but with things the way they are and the fact that I was time challenged I decided to let things lie and catch it another time.

There were probably seven or eight other spotters down there at the SAL gate, but there weren’t any that I knew. Still that is the way things are now, the old familiar faces are getting fewer and fewer.

Prestwick Visit

by | Mar 15, 2021 | Spotting

A quick visit to Prestwick tonight, what was about that I was interested in – well there were two aircraft of interest to me one was an RCAF CC-144D 144619. Arrived earlier this evening from Ottawa, looking like an overnight stay. And a Douglas DC-8, the first one that I’ve seen flying for probably ten years. The photograph, taken on a mobile phone and not edited in any way just shows how good the camera in a mobile phone can be. Especially given that it was pretty dark and the aircraft was still moving at a reasonable speed, my DSLR probably wouldn’t have done any better.

It was great to see a DC-8 flying, especially one that I hadn’t seen before – this was its third or fourth visit to Prestwick in as many months. As you can see from the picture it was pretty dark, so maybe on its return trip in a couple of weeks I’ll get a chance to get a shot of it when the light is better.

The Challenger on the other hand is a relatively new aircraft, it looked pretty good from the Monkton side – but I didn’t photograph it as the light was pretty poor when I arrived and it wasn’t well positioned for a photograph.

Once the Covid restrictions are lifted, I’ll hopefully get the chance to spend a bit more time between the airports on the west side of the country and may be able to get a few better photographs.

So I’ll just have to wait for the next half decent visitor to have an excuse for a trip down to Prestwick, or until the wife has to go for another Covid-19 test at car park 4.

Soviet & Russian Testbed Aircraft

by | Mar 15, 2021 | Book Reviews

In the books 400+ pages there were some real revelations for me, along with a number of major eye openers. When you compare the time lines of some of the Soviet projects covered in the book to some of the Western projects, the reasons for a few things become clearer.

The pictures of the full delta winged MiG 21 were absolutely fascinating, but there are so many photographs of one of types that it is hard to say what was the most interesting.

This is an other of these definative books, with over 700 photographs – many in colour and around 70 illustrations along with many technical specifications. The authors have done huge amounts of research, they have obviously been granted the highest levels of access to the information from a number of sources.

As someone with a lifelong interest in aviation, I was astonished at the information contained in this book. As a reference book it is brilliant, from a modeling point of view – probably only those interested in scratch building would be interested. All in all if you have any interest in Soviet Aircraft, this book is well worth the money.

 

Spitfire The History

by | Mar 14, 2021 | Book Reviews

I have written a review of this book once before, the book titled Spitfire The History is probably the definative work on the Spitfire. The book itself is technically superb, suitable for anyone who wants to know everything Spitfire related. Is it perfect, alas no there are a couple of things that do anoy me about the book – and yes I do have both editions and find the second infuriating as well.

But I have to be honest, if there is information missing it’s hard to think of. The only missing facts that I can see, is the GPS location for the Spitfires buried in Myanmar (Burma to some of us). You could probably take a guess at where they are using information in the book, as it does list the SOC location for many of the spitfires and it does list every single one of them individually.

What do I think of the book, well as I said have both editions and really do consider it to be the finest work that there is as far as information content goes. What do I find anoying about the book, from a technical perspective absolutely nothing. From a readers view point, I find it extremely anoying in some places. It reminds me of some of the early technical manuals, where they had been translated poorly.

A long time friend surmised it as follows;

“Why did two English speakers write a book in Japanese and then have it translated into English by someone who had Swahili as a first language.”

There are lots of places where the text doesn’t really flow, but given the information in the book – I’ll put up with it.

If you have an interest in the Spitfire whether as a researcher, a model maker or just as aviation enthusiast. This book will likely answer your questions on some of it’s 600+ pages, where it has the service history of some 20,000 Spitfires.

Where to get the book, not so easy as it is out of print at the moment. But a search on Amazon or eBay will return results, but hold onto your hat. I’ve just done a search for the book, there’s a couple on eBay being auctioned off with a few days to go one hasn’t moved but the other is at £35.00. There are several available on Amazon, with prices starting at £100. There are a couple of other specialist book searches online, some of these have prices for the book of anywhere up to £300 – so it is still out there if you want to pay for it.

Prestwick of Old

by | Mar 13, 2021 | Airport News

 

Being a Glasgow spotter, in my early years in the hobby a trip to Prestwick was an event. Usually only at weekends and during the school holidays, but there was the very odd day where “bunking off” was in order if something special was due in. Note the use of the term “bunking off”, the often used term “dogging” now has unfortunate connotations but it was what we called skipping a day at school.

Now I live around 20 minutes from Prestwick, but due to Covid-19 I have only managed down a few times – in reality less frequently than when I was a teenager dependent on public transport.

But it was great just to take a flyer down to Prestwick on spec, there used to be some great stuff turn up unexpectedly. Still we are where we are and it’s likely to be lock down for an other couple of months.

For Prestwick spotters, 2020 was a pretty good year if you could escape lock down and get to see what was there. The couple of exercises and the deployment of the US Navy P-8’s meant that it was pretty busy, but technically we weren’t allowed out to see anything.

The new hangers that have and are still being built at Prestwick have restricted the viewing angles, but not so much that you can’t get any pictures. You can still easily access much of the Monkton side where the majority of the Airport can be seen, with the only missing view being the North Pan and some of HMS Gannet.