Island airport voted world’s most stunning landing spot

You never know where the next compliment is going to land, and it must be something of a surprise for the tiny, and part time, airport on Barra to have come on top in a poll of the world’s most stunning landing spots:

A tiny Scottish airport on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean has been voted the world’s most stunning landing spot.

Barra Airport in the Outer Hebrides came top of a global poll of pilots and travellers.

It beat tourist hotspots such as St Barts, the Maldives and Gibraltar to be named the most scenic place to land in a plane.

Barra’s Cockle Strand on the northern tip of the island serves as a runway when the tide is out. It is unique as the only beach in Europe that doubles up as an airport.

Established in the mid 1930s, it’s long been a favourite landing spot of Prince Charles, who worked on the islands as a boy.

Michael Galbraith, station manager for Barra Airport, said that being voted number one was “a wonderful accolade” for the airport. He said: “To be up against some of the most beautiful parts of the world such as the Maldives and St Barts is testament to Scotland’s stunning scenery.

“The landing on the beach is certainly one of the most unusual in the world. When competing against large scale airports, it goes to show that when it comes to a stunning landing, small can definitely be more beautiful.”

More than 1000 people voted in the poll by private jet hire booking network PrivateFly.com. Barra received just over 22% of the vote, the most overall.

via Island airport voted world’s most stunning landing spot | Highlands & Islands | STV News.

Barra Airport

The top three destinations in the poll were:

1. Barra airport (Scotland, UK)

2. London City Airport (London, UK)

3. Jackson Hole Airport (Wyoming, USA).

RCAHMS features US Navy aerial coastline obliques

News of an intriguing set of aerial images that could provide detail for anyone interested in the targeted areas during the 1960s:

Around 2,000 oblique aerial photographs of the coastline around Scotland and Cumbria, taken by the US Navy in the 1960s, are now accessible online thanks to an archivist on secondment from The US National Archives and Records Administration. Tom McAnear spent a month working in NCAP on an internship programme sponsored by the US Government.

The US Navy aerial photographs were taken to aid amphibious landing training, and show the port of Leith undergoing reclamation and expansion; the entire coastline of the North-East highlands from Duncansby Head to Inverness; and the shoreline of the Solway Firth from Whithorn to Barrow-in-Furness.

Tom, who is more accustomed to working with textual records in the US National Archives in Washington D.C., was trained by NCAP staff in a range of aerial photograph handling, preservation, digitisation and cataloguing techniques.

via News – US Navy Set.

View US Navy Aerial Photography Feature

View US Navy aerial photographs

View US Navy aerial photographs in Google Earth

The Google Earth view is particularly interesting, as it shows the location of every image pinned along the relevant coastal area.

Second Baird of Bute commemorative event for 2011

After the success of last year’s centenary event: The first Scottish powered flight « Secret Scotland, when the first powered flight in Scotland was commemorated and the airstrip near Kingarth on the Isle of Bute was named Baird Airstrip in honour of Andrew Baird (on the 60th anniversary of his death), the celebrations are to make a return this year.

Scheduled to begin on the morning of Saturday, September 24, 2011, light aircraft will arrive at Baird Airstrip until 10:30 am, and will be on display to the public from 11:00 am onwards. Parking, refreshments, entertainment, and toilets will be available, and the pilots will be on hand to discuss their aircraft, most (if not all) of which will have been home-built.

In the afternoon, activity will move to Ettrick Bay where, at approximately 1:30 pm, a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter will carry out a simulated rescue from the waters of the bay, to be followed (at approximately 2:00 pm) by a fly past of the aircraft seen earlier at the airstrip.

At 2:45 pm, a short ceremony will be held marking the 60th anniversary of Andrew Baird’s death on September 9, 1951, with a wreath being laid on the monument which was erected last year.

Baird airstrip opening (2010) - Courtesy of Zak

There will also be a kite flying competition, with some two hundred children from the island’s schools being invited to participate again this year.

Mount Stuart provides a further venue for activities from 2:00 pm onwards, including family games on an aviation theme, and displays by the Bute Astronomical Society, and a ceilidh in the evening.

Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, Scotland

From 2:30 pm, the University of Edinburgh Hot Air Balloon Club will be offering flights about the island.

At 4:15 pm, there will be a thirty minute aerobatic display by Scottish pilot Jim McTaggart (I assume in his Starduster Too stunt aircraft).

The Baird of Bute Society will also be hard at work during the day, hoping to recruit new members to the society.

Home – Baird of Bute Society

Finally, if the Saturday should be a washout, events are to be rescheduled for Sunday, September 25, other than the ceilidh, which will still take place at Mount Stuart on the Saturday evening,

From:

Welcome return for ‘Baird of Bute’ celebrations – Community – The Buteman

I used to have a web site link with details of the airfield, but it seems to have died and not been replaced in recent years, but I did note the following a while ago (so check for yourself, as this is not claimed to be current information for flight purposes):

The airfield is a grass strip about 480 metres long. 09/27 runs slightly uphill if using 09.

There is a local frequency of 135.475 call sign Bute Traffic.

Care is advised when landing on 27 – a gap is reported in the trees, but the road may still have hidden traffic, and if the strip is wet, braking action is reported to be poor downhill.

PPR is from the Bute Estate Office on 01700 502627 or nick.mellish@bute-estate.com

View Larger Map

Update

By all accounts, the day was favoured with good attendance – some 18 aircraft were reported at the field – and the promised events were able to go ahead as planned, since the weather stayed fair on the day. Even the post-hurricane winds and rain we ‘enjoyed’ during the week went away, so the hot air balloon was ably to fly at Mount Stuart.

Click on the montage below to see a full gallery of the day’s events on Bute:

Baird of Bute 2011 gallery - courtesy of Zak

Could blue ice contain the answer to mysterious Loch Ness object?

I’ve been waiting to see if there was any follow-up to the story of something ‘blue’ falling from the sky into Loch Ness. However, unless I was looking in the wrong direction (possible at the moment as my computers are giving me a hard time) there hasn’t been any sign of an obvious story so far.

Mention in the story of a blue object falling from the sky into the loch suggest one likely candidate… blue ice.

When it fall from the sky, it’s probably something that describes a lot of tales that are told around Loch Ness – in some people’s eyes at least – as it could be the  frozen result of a leak from a commercial aircraft’s lavatory waste tanks, comprising a mixture of human waste and blue liquid disinfectant which freezes at high altitude, and then breaks loose from the aircraft and falls to Earth.

It is, of course, illegal for the operator to discharge such blue material from the aircraft when in flight, but it can happen if there is a leak.

It would melt and vanish if it landed in the water… and it would appear that nothing was ever found after the initial sighting and report.

Then again, maybe someone got careless when dropping food pellets for Nessie, and almost gave the game away.

The emergency services undertook a night-time search of Loch Ness after reports a balloon-like object had fallen from the sky.

The police, coastguard, lifeboat and an RAF search and rescue helicopter scoured the area but found nothing.

The alarm was raised at 20:00 on Saturday after members of the public said they saw a blue object fall on the south of the Loch, near Dores.

Police thought it might have been a hang glider or microlight.

However, following a three-hour search the emergency services could find “nothing untoward”.

via BBC News – Loch Ness search for mysterious balloon-like object.

See also:

UFO sparks search on shores of Loch Ness | Highlands & Islands | STV News

RTD – Russia Today Documentary – launched

There are probably more secrets to be found in the vastness of Russia, once locked behind the doors of the Soviet Union, than anywhere else.

RT has amassed a stunning array of documentaries for viewing online, but they can be hard to track down on what is really a news channel, and is now sprawling and huge.

There is a wealth of amazing subjects to be found in a huge country, and where many things that were once secret and hidden – and you would probably have been shot and forgotten if you had tried to see them – are now lying abandoned and derelict.

Chances are you can now learn about them a little more easily now, than yesterday:

RT has launched a brand new 24-hour documentary channel bringing you the best of Russia in English. The channel was launched on Thursday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited RT’s studio in Moscow.

RT’s launching a new project – an English language documentary channel about Russia. The project team worked for over five years making documentaries about the world’s largest country and taking viewers to its farthermost and little-known corners.

Today, they are ready to present all of their findings. RT’s new channel will feature RT-made unique documentaries which received high appraisal from industry’s professionals, were distinguished by Media Excellence Awards, and won a New York Festivals prize. Discovering Russia will offer a tour of Russia’s most beautiful and interesting cities and towns.

Meeting with Nature will take viewers to Russia’s unique nature reserves. Technology Update will report on advancement in science and technologies. Faces of Russia will introduce the audience to culture, arts and crafts of Russia’s ethnic minorities. Culture Fair will report on culture, arts and fashion, while history fans will learn a lot about Russian history from the Historical Files series.

RTD – Russia Today Documentary

Poor weather put dampener on first ever microlight event at Prestwick Airport

While I wouldn’t have been there, it was a bit sad reading how wet and windy weather had all but decimated the first ever meeting of microlight enthusiasts at Prestwick Airport – which would have formed an unusual sight as they are normally excluded for safety reasons due to the volume of commercial flight at the airfield.

As it was, just one microlight made it, while everyone else attended by road, as the day was centred on safety, with NATS (National Air Traffic Services) providing a full day of practical safety information for microlight pilots.

BBC News – Microlight event at Prestwick Airport hit by weather.

Maybe they would have better luck if they arrange the next on the Isle of Bute:

Baird of Bute Photo Gallery by Rothesay at pbase.com

And had their meeting on the recently named Baird Airstrip – followed by a nice day on the island.

South Uist missile range may host civilian drone testing

There was much speculation and angst during 2009, as the future of the South Uist Missile Range swung from imminent closure to continued service’.

Closure of the range, which includes radar and tracking facilities on the remote island of Hirta within St Kilda, had seemed certain when first announced in June of 2009, but after much protest and representation, was turned around by September of the same year.

Shortly after this, there was a call for drones to be tested on the range, but not much else was heard after that.

Now, at the start of 2011, the growth in civilian drones has led to the range being proposed as a test facility for such devices.

Development of such drones, particularly in the form of lightweight quadrotors, or quadrocopters, has been both rapid and significant in that time. Previously, such aerial craft were generally created using ordinary radio-controlled helicopter, but this had the disadvantage of requiring a skilled pilot to control them, constant observation and control (or they would fall out of the sky), and they were heavy, both in their own construction, and in the cameras and other equipment they carried. The alternative of autonomous, or semi-autonomous, drones was then still an expensive alternative. £40,000 plus was still the norm only a couple of years or so ago.

However, by using electrically powered quadrotor designs, utilising tough and lightweight plastics, powered by miniature, high-efficiency motors, and lithium battery technology, these aircraft have fallen dramatically in price and size, while performance has grown.

Coupled with a similar fall in size, weight, and price of digital imaging systems, and the ability to stream images as data, the observational capabilities of such craft has also grown dramatically.

Finally, as computing power has increased, they have been made autonomous at very low cost, and can be programmed by an operator to fly a mission/route, retrieve images, then return to base without human intervention, thanks to GPS (Global Position System). Even without such sophistication, anyone can fly such a device now, as they can easily be made semi-autonomous, looking after their own stability, while the operator only has to worry about setting desired course, height, and speed. If the operator get it wrong, and asks the craft to crash (or becomes disoriented and loses control), it will override their request, take over, and avoid obstacles using sensors, depending on the level of its sophistication.

The technology moved so fast in the past year or two, that many devices were being flown illegally by unwitting users, and the police found their new toys grounded by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) while legislation was brought up to date, and regulations introduced to make flights of such craft illegal in proximity to humans.

I was in almost on the ‘ground floor’ of radio-controlled helicopters, and they were heavy, expensive, and demanding of skill to fly.

At its most basic (ignoring those without proper control), for £40 I can buy something that will fly ‘out-of-the-box’, maybe even have a gyro to stabilise it, needs little skill, and will not explode into a pile of scrap if I let it fall out of the sky – and is almost silent.

Spend ten times as much (or more), and I can buy a basic ‘real’ model that will stunt-fly and demand proper control, and will also explode into pieces if I do allow it to crash.

But, go down to around £300, and I can have an AR.Drone – and things just get silly:

Remembrance 2010 and spoilers

I don’t really know what has kept me so diverted, or if things have been particularly low key this year, but it was only when I arrived at the shops last night I really noticed my first proper poppy event – with some Army personnel doing their stuff around the checkouts.

Maybe I’m not watching enough ‘live’ TV nowadays – the current love affair it seems to have with the talentless (nobodies who seem to think they have talent) and the worthless (celebrities who seem to think they are gods) – means I’ve retreated to channels that serve up programmes made in the days when television was not just a medium for personal promotion and blatant sponsorship.

Anyway, that is tangential and irrelevant to the subject, and I just want to make sure we make our little contribution to the appeal (because so many of the little-known subjects we describe have wartime connections or origins) by giving it a mention.

Last year was marred by the story of a couple caught on video while stealing a Poppy Appeal container with donations.

This year, I spotted a story about an anti-poppy demonstration which took place at Celtic Park, noted because it is not far from me. Apparently this is becoming a regular occurrence, and the club has been slated for not doing more to prevent its re-occurrence. I’ve no idea if it’s the club’s fault or not – it ‘s not that hard to sneak a protest banner in after all given the flags etc that fans carry – they’d have to ban the lot to be effective. The real shame is that this sort of thing continues to show a lack of respect, and that the real story of today.

Click on the image or button below for further details of the Poppy Appeal, and how you might be able to help:

The first Scottish powered flight

It looks as if one of the least known Scottish achievements is going to become a little better known by the end of September.

I first learnt of Bute blacksmith Andrew Baird some time back in the early 2000s, when I happened to pick up a book containing a number of photographs of old Bute. Flicking through the new acquisition to see if there was anything out of the ordinary on offer – and I thought I had at least heard of most of the unusual event on the islands, even if not in great detail – I was more than a little surprised to see photographs of an early monoplane included, both in a workshop, and on the green of the Esplanade.

According to the notes, Baird had a long standing interest in aviation, and had been in contact with other early aviators, such as Louis Bleriot. After attending an Aviation Week in Blackpool in October 1909, he returned to his workshop on Bute, inspired to design and build his own monoplane. While this would be outwardly similar to Bleriot’s, Baird would develop his own design and control systems. Significantly, these would go on to be adopted in later designs by subsequent manufacturers.

Baird went on to display his aircraft statically, on Rothesay’s esplanade, and went on to make a test flight on the beach at Ettrick Bay, on September 24, 1910. Although the short flight was deemed a success, part of the undercarriage was buckled in the heavy landing, and after returning the aircraft to his workshop, Baird never flew the aircraft again.

You can read much more about Baird, his aircraft, and the developments which followed in his wake at:

Baird of Bute Home – First all-Scottish heavier-than-air powered flight

A weekend of events is due to take place between September 24 and 26 of 2010, to mark the centenary of the flight. These will include the unveiling of a memorial monument at Ettrick Bay, a ceremony at Mr Baird’s grave in Rothesay Cemetery, and will even see the renaming of the island’s airfield in his honour.

The programme, planned to begin at Ettrick Bay on Saturday September 25, 2010 will include the Rothesay pipe band, possibly playing the new song ‘Baird of Bute’ written by Charlie Soane, the unveiling of the Baird of Bute monument on the patio at the Tearoom, a ceremonial flyover, and up to two hundred local children selected by their schools to fly rainbow coloured kites sent over from Canada by Mr Chris Markwell, responsible for the Baird web site, and much of the research into the history of Baird and his aircraft.

The story was also featured, together with a photograph, in one of a series of books:

Stenlake Publishing – Old Bute

The aircraft’s original engine still survives, currently in storage while Glasgow’s Museum of Transport is relocated to its new premised on the banks of the River Clyde, and the 4-cylinder, air-cooled engine with water-cooled valves – built for Baird in Edinburgh by the Alexander Brothers – is due to go on public display in the new museum.

The propeller has also survived, and negotiations are in progress with the hope of possibly uniting it with the engine in the Bute Museum – it is currently on loan to the Lanark Museum.

Full details of the weekend, and of the remaining artefacts can be found in Bute’s local paper:

Bute to celebrate a pioneer of aviation – Buteman Today

Update

The day went well, and was even blessed with fine weather for the various ceremonies and activities.

Baird of Bute celebrations a “flying success” – Buteman Today

Johnny Bute, Marquis of Bute, had graciously agreed to the re-naming of the airstrip in recognition of Baird’s achievement.

Baird airstrip opening - Courtesy of Zak

Seen holding the new sign for the airstrip are Andrew Blain Baird II and Andrew Blain Baird III.

More pictures of the day’s celebrations and activities can be found here: Baird of Bute Photo Gallery by Zak

Missing rivet head may have caused air crash that killed David Leslie

While we are often told that commercial air travel is statistically safer than road travel, I don’t know that anyone has ever carried out the same analysis of private air travel. At a guess, it may be rather more risky as the altitudes involved in private flight are much lower, and altitude = time, and less time means less opportunity to recover, or search for and try options to resolve any problems that may arise in flight.

The recent Icelandic volcanic ash event reminded us of the first such encounter by a 747 jet, when the crew had about thirty minute of glide time during which to solve the problem of their mysterious engine shutdown, and during that time were able to attempt more than 50 restarts before the restored power and were able to land safely.

In one private, piston-engined helicopter I am familiar with, the pilot only has between two and four seconds to recognise an engine failure and set the controls for autorotation before the aircraft begins to lose momentum, and recovery becomes a more difficult procedure.

Private flying certainly doesn’t necessarily seem to be kind to those that can afford it, and the news from the more densely populated area of England seems to produce fairly regular headlines along the format of ‘Two people were killed when a light aircraft crashed today…’. In America, it would appear that so many people who became wealthy from the part they played in creating the ‘personal computer, and were later to die in air accidents involving the aircraft they were able to afford, that the conspiracy brigade have claimed that there was a plot to assassinate them. We lost rally driver and champion Colin McRae to a helicopter crash near his home back in 2007, which also claimed his son and two close friends of the family.

In 2008, British Touring Car Championship driver David Leslie was killed, together with four others, when the private jet they had just taken off from Biggin Hill airport in Kent came down on a residential area – the crew had reported engine vibration only two minutes into the flight, and were about to return to the airport, but never made it.

As one who may be described as an engineer (amongst many other things), I never cease to be amazed at the detail air accident investigators are ultimately able to extract from the wreckage of a crashed aircraft, and how they can identify clues that allow damage to be defined as being a result of the crash, or of some incident prior to the crash, and therefore a probable contributor to the cause.

In the case of the David Leslie crash, which was further complicated by the absence of a black-box or flight recorder (not required on the type of aircraft involved), they have come up with the remarkably tiny clue of a missing rivet head related to the left engine fuel cut-off lever, which had become
detached at some time prior to the crash. The aircraft was unable to develop power, lost altitude, and could not be recovered.

Update June 1, 2011

An inquest has decided that the five deaths were accidental.

A senior engineering inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has said that the vibration was most likely to have been caused by a failure of the plane’s air-conditioning and pressurising system, and that a rivet head missing from the left engine’s fuel-cut-off levers could have caused it to shut down.

Jurors said the presence of “black box” flight recording equipment would have helped with the investigation into the cause of the crash.

The coroner said he would be writing to the relevant authorities about the lack of a “black box”, and the AAIB also recommended making it mandatory to examine rivets during maintenance checks.

BBC News – Farnborough jet crash deaths were accidental