2011: My year in planes
Continuing my current favourite theme-"2011"-here's a compendium of my best-ever plane-related memories of the year.
My biggest spotting event was definitely going up to Hawarden in search of Beluga. Only five exist, and they don't operate to any kind of regular schedule, so it's just down to luck and persistence. As we were driving to the airport on that special morning, I found Beluga on Planefinder and he was on approach! It was then a race to see who got there first. Luckily it was us, and we found a spot to watch him land. It was hazy and not great for photos, but it was still an amazing feeling to be in the company of such an eminent freighter. We waited for him to be loaded up again and watched him take off with a roar that I've never heard before, or since *wipes tear*.
Gatwick proved mostly fruitless due to the lack of spotting places. The few that do exist have the sun right in front of you pretty much all day, so they're no use for photos. A few hours at Luton was well spent, though. Nothing particularly big and heavy, but loads of business traffic and the odd other thing of interest. The Foo Fighters, for example:
And a swish looking Gulfstream, owned by the Azerbaijan Government:
Other personal favourites include finally spotting Delta's pink 767 (it's to promote breast cancer awareness apparently):
Getting up at 5.30am to spot some heavies at Heathrow:
Jersey Girl's show-stopping appearance at Manchester:
A really nice flight on this Flybe Dash-8 up to Edinburgh:
And an equally nice flight on Delta Bravo Charlie Hotel in August:
Up close and personal with a Tristar engine in Speyer:
Aerodynamic contrail producing a rainbow effect:
A Virgin Atlantic A340 taking off just before it started to rain; the humidity resulted in some nice wing-tip vortices:
British Airways 747 showing some impressive wing flex:
I got very excited at seeing a British Airways World Cargo 747-8F at Stansted, but no pictures of that unfortunately.
A special trip to see one of BMI's A330s, which will soon be no more. Bittersweet:
The imminent demise of BMI was a low point of the year, as was the announcement that Airbus are ending the A340 project. The A340 is my favourite airliner and I'm upset that we'll only be seeing less of them. I was also disappointed when Boeing called off the Dreamliner's visit to Heathrow in September, although I'm sure they'll be appearing in UK airspace pretty soon.
2012 will bring us closer to British Airways flying the A380; delivery is due in the last quarter, with operations starting early in 2013. There's also the Farnborough Airshow to look forward to. The Dawlish Airshow will be in June this year, so the weather should be better.
I also hope to go on some planes myself, but we shall see.
Feel free to share your favourite aviation-related memories of 2011.
My biggest spotting event was definitely going up to Hawarden in search of Beluga. Only five exist, and they don't operate to any kind of regular schedule, so it's just down to luck and persistence. As we were driving to the airport on that special morning, I found Beluga on Planefinder and he was on approach! It was then a race to see who got there first. Luckily it was us, and we found a spot to watch him land. It was hazy and not great for photos, but it was still an amazing feeling to be in the company of such an eminent freighter. We waited for him to be loaded up again and watched him take off with a roar that I've never heard before, or since *wipes tear*.
Gatwick proved mostly fruitless due to the lack of spotting places. The few that do exist have the sun right in front of you pretty much all day, so they're no use for photos. A few hours at Luton was well spent, though. Nothing particularly big and heavy, but loads of business traffic and the odd other thing of interest. The Foo Fighters, for example:
And a swish looking Gulfstream, owned by the Azerbaijan Government:
Other personal favourites include finally spotting Delta's pink 767 (it's to promote breast cancer awareness apparently):
Getting up at 5.30am to spot some heavies at Heathrow:
Jersey Girl's show-stopping appearance at Manchester:
A really nice flight on this Flybe Dash-8 up to Edinburgh:
And an equally nice flight on Delta Bravo Charlie Hotel in August:
Up close and personal with a Tristar engine in Speyer:
Aerodynamic contrail producing a rainbow effect:
A Virgin Atlantic A340 taking off just before it started to rain; the humidity resulted in some nice wing-tip vortices:
British Airways 747 showing some impressive wing flex:
I got very excited at seeing a British Airways World Cargo 747-8F at Stansted, but no pictures of that unfortunately.
A special trip to see one of BMI's A330s, which will soon be no more. Bittersweet:
The imminent demise of BMI was a low point of the year, as was the announcement that Airbus are ending the A340 project. The A340 is my favourite airliner and I'm upset that we'll only be seeing less of them. I was also disappointed when Boeing called off the Dreamliner's visit to Heathrow in September, although I'm sure they'll be appearing in UK airspace pretty soon.
2012 will bring us closer to British Airways flying the A380; delivery is due in the last quarter, with operations starting early in 2013. There's also the Farnborough Airshow to look forward to. The Dawlish Airshow will be in June this year, so the weather should be better.
I also hope to go on some planes myself, but we shall see.
Feel free to share your favourite aviation-related memories of 2011.