Evening Flying at Duxford

 Here a miscellany of shots from an Evening Flying show at Duxford which featured a pyrotechnics display by two motorised gliders. Some of the shots were taken by Phil on my camera as he didn't get his gear organised before leaving for work in the morning (used faster shutterspeed 1/640th for gliders) while I used a slow shutterspeed (up to 1.6secs) to accentuate the trails and shapes. The moon wasn't quite full but still impressive.

Perfect Gliding Weather?

Saturday's walk was all about the weather - I sent off for my walk round Hardwick Wood and Caldecote in warm sunshine but the clouds soon gathered and, as the rain started, I noticed a glider against the storm clouds and then another and another. In all I counted 8 soaring in the thermals (plus a buzzard). I later found out these were from the UK Junior Gliding Nationals at Gransden Lodge. One glider failed to maintain height and must have landed in a local field somewhere. I got very wet but. like these skittish calves, dried off in some late afternoon sunshine. (for my info wider angle are phone images)

Herald Out, BAE146 In

A visit to Duxford Air museum yesterday to preview a new exhibition inside the museum, but also took the opportunity to look at their newest airliner acquisition, the BAE 146. Unfortunately to display this on the Herald has been sold to another Museum and is in the process of being dismantled. Hope the reassembly instructions are better than the usual flat pack ones. For the interior shots I used a wide angle lens add-on with Fuji X100V  at F2, which gives distortion round the edges of the frame

Evening Flying at Shuttleworth

We were lucky to have great skies for the display at Shuttleworth yesterday evening. Too much wind to fly some of the lighter planes but very enjoyable event. Here just a selection from the displays.

 

 

Estonia - Rummu Quarry and Abandonned Aircraft

From 1938, the quarry was an open mining system for limestone and Vasalemma marble, a specific kind of limestone resembling marble. 

When the pumps were turned off in the 1990s, the quarry quickly filled with groundwater, forming a lake, immersing some of the utility buildings and machinery. Next to the lake is the Vasalemma spoil tip (slag heap). Over time, the spoil tip assumed a lunar appearance through erosion by water.

Since 2015, Architecture students from Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) have been discussing ideas and drafting several possible sketches and proposals of what the abandoned area of the quarry could become in the future. As of 2017, the owners of the property are planning a technology park.

 In 1988, this An-12 Soviet transport plane was donated to the Keila Model Flying Club. It performed its last flight from Lvov to Tallinn airport where it was partially disassembled, transfered to Keila by road and reassembled again at the current location.