The Lemon Fool

You can tell it's a descendant of the Lancaster (and still flying in the early 90s!!)

Wish I could have seen the (EE) Lightnings when they were flying out of Binbrook ( pre-1988) although they were a bit hairy to fly apparently

AleisterCrowley wrote:Wish I could have seen the (EE) Lightnings when they were flying out of Binbrook ( pre-1988) although they were a bit hairy to fly apparently

They provided spectacular displays at Leuchars Airshows - shooting down the runway , then standing on their tails with full roaring afterburner and climbing almost vertically. The sound vibrations set off all of the alarms in the parked cars!

I still remember being at ATC camp at Hullavington, about 1950, when Gp Capt Donaldson did a low level fly past in a Spitfire, nigh on 400 mph. The sound arrived not long before he did.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:I still remember being at ATC camp at Hullavington, about 1950, when Gp Capt Donaldson did a low level fly past in a Spitfire, nigh on 400 mph. The sound arrived not long before he did.

TJH

I recollect as a small child, around that time, being frightened by the noise made by the Spitfires of 603 squadron flying fast and low over our village. By 1951 they had re-equipped with Vampires (and one Meteor for training purposes), and I can't recall ever seeing them again at low level.

I renovated an old cottage near Coningsby in the early 90's. The battle of Britain flight were based at Coningsby and the 'Battle of Britain' Flight' were regularly seen flying overhead. My wife and I were big fans and like children running outside every time we heard the engines.

We both still love the planes from that era. I am particularly fond of the P51 Mustang. Other than the Spitfire and Hurricane the P51 was the plane that won the air war in WW2.

Enough of cold (though admittedly beautiful) Northern beaches. Here's one from a stormy day in the Cape Verde Islands (not Photoshopped, for the avoidance of doubt!)

is there an otter in the photo ? Assume not
It's like 'Spot the ball'...

I regularly visit Devon (near Ottery St Mary!) but have never seen any in the river near the campsite, although they are supposed to be present in the area

Snorvey wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:is there an otter in the photo ? Assume not
It's like 'Spot the ball'...

...except the 'ball' is in the picture.

2 of them there were. Catching Scotia's fish.

Could have watched them for hours.....

Otters are the best!
Platypus are really cool too, but really look too much like the ducks they hang around with in Tasmania.

What I REALLY want to see in the wild is a Brazilian Otter. Like a normal otter but over 5 feet long. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_otter)
What you're thinking of is the Brazilian beaver and that's a whole other thing

-sd

I've only heard otters from here since moving in. But my neighbour has actually seen and photographed them in our river.

Sorry, I don't know her well enough to ask for a photo to upload.

Snorvey wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:is there an otter in the photo ? Assume not
It's like 'Spot the ball'...

...except the 'ball' is in the picture.

2 of them there were. Catching Scotia's fish.

Could have watched them for hours.....

My son fishes the Spey at Grantown (the new salmon season commences next week), and he frequently comes across otters - much to his regret since salmon don't seem to like their company.

UncleEbenezer wrote:I've only heard otters from here since moving in. But my neighbour has actually seen and photographed them in our river.

Sister in law used to be on the Exmoor otter team (though on the north side rather than the south). Dedicated otter fiends look for the crap (spraint) that they leave on rocks to mark their territory. But, oh no, Sis in Law had to go one better than that. Any time you opened her freezer, there was a fairish chance that you'd find a deep-frozen otter in there.

Quite a few otters get killed by cars, but some just die of natural causes. Either way, the practice is that you get the corpses away for post mortem as fast as possible. The PM gives the conservationists valuable information on their state of health, parasites, diet and so forth. But the collection vans would only come round every few weeks, so it was into the freezer they went in the interim. Sis in law used to keep one freezer compartment exclusively for that purpose - otters are really pretty sizeable things from close up - and her food went into the other compartments. Didn't reassure us very much on barbecue nights, though.

BJ

Mmm otter curry. Nice
-perhaps with a bit of Tarka dhal on the side ?

Snorvey wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:is there an otter in the photo ? Assume not
It's like 'Spot the ball'...

...except the 'ball' is in the picture.

2 of them there were. Catching Scotia's fish.

Could have watched them for hours.....

Ah yes, now that you mention it ...

Snorvey wrote:Think I might have posted this before, but what the hell.

Landing on Carriers - changed days - and one for my very old friend Andrew who served on Formidable in WW2 - an Albacore landing on Formidable. The batman guiding it down was also a pilot. The pictures taken by the official WD photographers could be purchased by the crew - and Andrew has a collection.

scotia wrote:

Snorvey wrote:Think I might have posted this before, but what the hell.

Landing on Carriers - changed days - and one for my very old friend Andrew who served on Formidable in WW2 - an Albacore landing on Formidable. The batman guiding it down was also a pilot. The pictures taken by the official WD photographers could be purchased by the crew - and Andrew has a collection.

I wonder if the plane was armed by my dad...... he was in the Fleet Air Arm on Formidable

--kiloran

kiloran wrote:I wonder if the plane was armed by my dad...... he was in the Fleet Air Arm on Formidable
--kiloran

The collection of WW2 photos are held by the Imperial War Museum, and are now out of copyright, according to Wikipedia. This is one from the Imperial War Museum via Wikipedia - Corsairs and Barracudas on the Formidable deck, ready for a strike on Tirpitz in 1944. So its likely your Dad is there somewhere!

My dad was on HMS Theseus in the 1950s - Suez (possibly Korea before?)
I think it was mainly Fairey Fireflys, and possibly helicopters as it was a commando carrier during the Suez crisis

Due to slightly inclement weather the work party at the loch has been cancelled, and I don't fancy gardening or going out on the bike, so I have been tidying up last year's photographs, and thought you might be interested in this one.



So what is it? And where was I when I took it? All will be revealed later.

It's for winching in a lifeboat from shallow waters, that much seems clear. Don't know where, but it sure as hell isn't Somerset.

BJ