Go for the Cars, Stay for the Helicopters

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A day out at Goodwood Festival of Speed was clearly done to see the cars on show. However, there might have been a chance for a little aviation to be thrown into the mix. On the Friday of the show, I was working from home and heard a sequence of helicopters head overhead. About four helicopters seemed to be running a shuttle from a country house hotel near us across to Goodwood. Seems like a pretty decent idea. It’s probably not much more than fifteen minutes and means a nice spot to stay combined with no traffic. Maybe I should have given it a go.

Elite Helicopters from Goodwood was running the service. For the rest of the day, they were doing pleasure flights around the venue. At one point in the day, I headed across to the field that they had set up for the helicopters and sat watching the steady flow. A combination of JetRangers, LongRangers and JetRangerXs were being used. There were a number of pads and ground crews were sequencing passengers on and off. A one-way system meant that the departing helicopters would go around a cluster of trees and out the back passing the inbound traffic. They were certainly keeping busy.

I would have quite liked to do a ride, but I decided this was not the day for it. The hillside around the event would make for a good view. I learned to fly at the nearby Goodwood aerodrome and know that the Trundle looks nice with the horse racing course being cool to see too. Combine that with so much stuff on the ground for the festival, it would be a good trip.

I would probably be camera happy in that environment but, watching the flights, it did occur to me that everyone did seem to be busy watching it through their phone rather than just looking at it. I would probably be tempted to do something similar. That is when something like the Insta360 can help because you don’t have to frame anything. It can all be done after the event allowing you to just enjoy the moment. I hope they all enjoyed their flights.

Can This Dog Get the Ball?

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As we crossed a bridge in Bushy Park that spanned a river, we saw a dog that was intently trying to recover its ball. The ball had gone into the river, and the dog wanted it back. It wasn’t planning on swimming for it though. Instead, it was trying to reach it from the bank. It wasn’t having any success, but this did not seem to be stopping it from trying. I have no idea how patient a dog can be and what its limits of frustration might be, but it didn’t have any success while we were there.

A Pitts with Extra Oomph

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When I was a kid, the Pitts Special was the pinnacle of aerobatic aircraft. Then, the arrival of a bunch of high-powered monoplanes like the Zlin Z50L showed up follow by Extras, and the Pitts became more the preserve of individuals getting into aerobatics. It can still make a good display platform, though, and plenty of souped-up versions are on the air show circuit. The Cosford show included one flown by Rich Goodwin that has been modified with a pair of turbine engines mounted on each side of the fuselage.

This makes for a lot of noise and plenty of extra power. The piston engine still does the majority of the work but, when going vertical, the jets are fired up and give a major boost in performance. That can include hovering in place if required. From some angles, the plane is hard to notice as being any different to any other Pitts. However, from the right angles, the engines are conspicuous. A pretty cool display act. I assume top speed is constrained by the original airframe limitations so not much point in using the jets unless pointing upwards.

Exbury Gardens

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Nancy had been thinking for ages about making a trip to Exbury Gardens and we finally made the trip. I had ridden past the place on one occasion, and it had caught me out as I didn’t know exactly where it was at the time. However, with a plan in hand, we headed down. When you visit similar places, you can get caught out. The map will show you all of the areas and it will look like it is huge. Then you find you have walked from one end to the other in fifteen minutes. Exbury is nothing like that!

The grounds are extensive and we spent a good chunk of our day wandering around. There is such a variety in the ways in which it is laid out and the types of planting that they have. We were strolling through one area when a golf cart pulled up and the woman in the cart started asking us whether we were having a good time. Turned out it was her estate. We chatted to her for a while before she continued on her way.

The bottom of the gardens come down to the Beaulieu River. It was surprisingly misty down there and, when the boat traffic was gone, it was a very tranquil spot. A trail went alongside the river for a while which made for a nice part of the visit. Then it was across some meadows and back into the main part of the grounds. There were many steam powered vehicles on site as part of an event, but I shall write about them separately. There is also a steam railway but that will also have its own write up.

We were quite taken with the place. Having this so close and providing such a good variety of walking locations, we decided an annual membership would be worthwhile. On our way out, we stopped by and took care of that. Now we need to make sure to get back there whenever we are free.

Please Come Just a Touch Forward

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Sometimes, pilots don’t realise that their obligations to a photographer are more important than their other mission goals!! I was in a Voyager on a refuelling track over the North Sea providing fuel to a bunch of RAF jets. A couple of Typhoons from 3 Sqn (ignore the unit markings on one of the jets) came up to get some fuel. They had a time on a range that they were waiting for so hung out in formation on our wing until near their slot so that they could top off at the last minute before heading in.

A tight formation of the two jets off our wing was really cool. They were close in and their formation was nice and tight. Perfect photo stuff. However, their location was just a touch further back then ideal with the wing tip obscuring the planes a touch. I was desperately hoping that they would pull forward just a touch. Nope, locked in place seemingly effortlessly maintaining station. Then, after a turn at the end of the track, the positioning moved just a touch forward. I was able to get a clear shot of the pair at last. What a great view. This was also one of those moments when it is important to stop looking through the viewfinder and enjoy watching this most unusual of sights.

Car Aerodynamics Beyond the Norm

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When you look at any modern car, the aerodynamic design is always going to be advanced since reducing drag is key to fuel economy. However, you will also see a bunch of stuff that is designed to look like it is aerodynamically important, but it is really just styling. Vanes that look like they do a lot are common but the one that is always there is a diffuser. The shaping of the underside of the rear of the car is designed to look like it is there to increase downforce. The underside of the rest of the car is hardly tailored for downforce, so this is really a styling cue.

There are cars, where the aero is significant, though. The Festival of Speed at Goodwood included an Aston Martin Valkyrie. This is a car where aero really does matter. In these two shots, focus on a couple of areas. The rear of the car has quite a diffuser and this one is definitely functional. A combination of flow route either side of the centre of the vehicle combining and expanding to enhance the downforce under the car. Then look near the front wheels in the wider shot. The wheels are isolated with the flow coming around them and then back out of the sides. So much effort went into this design.

Hats Off to the Chinook Demo Team

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The final display of the Cosford air show was the Chinook demo. I have always enjoyed a Chinook display because it is a very agile helicopter despite its size and it can be thrown around which impresses. There is also the wheelie that it can do which has a unique feel to it. However, I wasn’t prepared for just how much I enjoyed the display.

There were a number of elements that made it so good. First, it was at the end of the show, and the light had come around to be more favourable for photos. This could have been even better because a bit of cloud cover rolled in. A little while after the display was over, this cleared and the warm light was so nice. It would have been great to have that on the helicopter during the display. Let’s not focus on the negative though, when there is so much positive.

They started the display carrying in a couple of underslung loads. Showing off the lifting performance of the helicopter is a great way of showing what this capability is all about. They had a howitzer and a truck on lifting lines using two of the three pickup points that the Chinook has. A bit of manoeuvring with that before dropping it off on the airfield. The gun crew then came out and set the gun up. They proceeded to fire off a few blank rounds.

Then it was back to throwing the helicopter around for a bit. A helicopter display always has an advantage in that it can keep things in front of the crowd, and some tight turns certainly achieved that.

However, I haven’t yet highlighted what really made the display great. The commentary was top notch. You might think that a military display narrator is going to run through a staid list of talking points but that was not the case here. Sure, they did highlight the capabilities of the helicopter and the helicopter force as a while but there was so much ridiculousness thrown in to keep you amused throughout.

Whether it was pointing out that one of the crew had both of his friends in attendance or describing the vertical climb and pointing out it has no operational benefit but it does look really cool, the lines kept coming. They were delivered in such a normal way, though, that you needed to pay attention to spot when the serious bits had been superseded by the more flippant lines. Top stuff and hats off to the team. Great flying, great performance and excellent writing!

Trains at Glasgow Central

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I make pretty frequent work trips to Scotland, and, on some occasions, it is most convenient to stay at a hotel right next to Glasgow Central station. One side of the hotel looks out over the street but the other overlooks the station itself. I was in a room with this view on one occasion. I was looking right down on the platforms and the tracks heading out of the station to destinations near and far.

The structures for the overhead lines obscure a lot of potential shots but I did have a camera with me, so I was going to get a few shots of the trains coming and going. Here are some of those shots.

Floatplanes with Mark

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Let’s jump back in time to when we were still in Washington. My buddy, Mark, had come down from Vancouver to visit a friend and had some time to kill so was stopping off in Kenmore to photograph some floatplane activity. I headed over to join up with him since it is fun to see a friend and there is never a bad time to watch floatplanes.

An extra was that Mark knew a spot that I didn’t – local knowledge, huh?? There is a public dock that is accessible and has benches to make hanging out relaxing. It is a lot quieter than the pier at Log Boom Park which, on a sunny day, can get very busy with the local kids swimming. It also brings you in closer to the approach path of the planes which adds some options for the shots. We hung out for a while with a bunch of the usual sort of traffic coming and going. Then we each had places to go. Having a location like this on your doorstep was definitely a bonus when we lived in Woodinville.

One Day I’ll Finish the Model of This!

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During a visit to Yarmouth, we had a wander down by the water. Yarmouth is home to an RNLI lifeboat station with a Trent class lifeboat. I was given a Airfix kit of the Trent class for Christmas a few years ago. I got quite active building the kit during the pandemic and got it to a reasonably advanced stage before putting it aside for a while. That while has grown. I took a load of pictures of the boat to use as references for when (if) I get moving with it again. We shall see…