Invincible’s Arrival in Portsmouth – More Photos

On deck were a solitary Sea Harrier (ZH900 I think) tied down on the Ski jump, and a single Sea King amidships.

Finally some shots of Illustrious and Invincible together from the harbour itself. Illustrious to left, Invincible to the right.

Paul F

Invincible Arrival – Portsmouth

Took the family to Portsmouth Dockyard for a day trip on Monday, without any idea we would see Invincible arrive for the last time. Fortunately we found out, and found a fairly good spot to see her arrive and tie up (or whatever the correct nautical term is – I’m a planes fan rather than ships fan)

Flypast was three Seakings – presumably from her carrier air group. Will post my photos on the thread once I’ve downloaded them. She had a single Sea Harrier parked on the Ski-Jump, and one Sea King left on deck with rotors stowed when she came alongside at Portsmouth. Having seen her arrive from the dockyard side we then took a harbour tour to see her tied up next to Illustrious which is also at Portsmouth at present.

We were told that Illustrious has recently emerged from refit, and Ark Royal should emerge from refit next year, but unfortunately it’s the end for Invincible. She is due to be decomissioned shortly, put into the reserve fleet, then possibly sold to Australia, or even broken up .

In theory RN expects two new carriers in a few years time (to take the JSF), but who knows if they will ever be built/commissioned.

Having been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time I had been wondering whether to post my photos on one of the threads, I think I will. Hope to post photos lunchtime today, on this thread, though may post on Historic too, as Sea Harrier is now almost history too.

Paul F

Something Unusual mounted ona firebee

Jetstream man,

I think you’re right, now why would they mount something so unusual and so large on top of one…. ?:confused:

:confused: Surely a Firebee can never lift something that big?

Paul F

Never met Steve, but since joining the forum I have always looked out for his posts or threads started by him. Like many others here I find my eyes filling with tears for soemone I’ve never actually met – I guess the deep affection and respect others had for him comes shining out of their posts.

In one of his books Richard Bach, the US Aviation writer, comments that you learn more about many people by reading their writings than you ever will by meeting the face to face – well, I never met Steve, but from reading his posts (including those that didn’t touch on Chippes or flying, such as his posts concerning Julie’s Mother’s health etc) I feel like I’ve lost a close friend.

Rest in peace Steve, and my deepest condolences to Julie, Haydn and others close to him.

Paul Fry

I echo the above

Have also got the older S5000 model, mine is now a year old. Shutter lag is a bit of a bind for moving subjects, but use of “multi shot” facility and/or a little practice can soon overcome this. In practice I tend to follow the target in the viewfinder with my right eye, and use my left eye to track the “real” target. By keeping both images roughly together in my brain then the resulting shot usually captures the subject. Anyway, if you miss the target you can always delete the result and free up the XD card space for another attempt 🙂 .

Lack of lower ISO on S5000 does mean props are often frozen, investment in neutral density filter would overcome this. Maybe the lower ISO available on S5500 would help.

10x Optical Zoom is useful, and if you shoot at max resolution, max zoom and selective trimming/cropping can usually give a good image of most air display subjects. Wide angle could be better, but I’ve rarely found it a real problem.

In terms of colour rendition, and exposure options I don’t think I’ve seen any mid-priced digicams do it better.

At times I wish I’d saved a few more beans and then splashed out on a Canon Digi SLR, (to utilise my old Caonon EOS lenses) but that sort of set up was £600 or more, vs £150 for the S5000 – I’m happy with the Fuji, though still hankering after a Canon SLR 😉 .

I certainly find the compact nature and light weight of the Fuji a real bonus after many years lugging two 35mm SLR bodies and a set of lenses around.

Paul F

Editted for spelling

MyTravel A330 LGW-SFD

Took one from London Gatwick to Orlando Sandford (and back) at Easter – very nice, smooth, quiet etc though we had pre-booked the upgrade to Premium economy at the “sharp end”, so plenty of leg room, extra seat width, comfy seats, extra movie channels and plenty of free drinks. Economy class cabin looked rather cramped!

The live nose and belly camera feeds were good, though a little unnerving during arrival at SFD – after 30mins hold to wait for a violent storm to blow through Captain used intercom to tell us he was going to “give it a go” and the approach was made in strong gusts, so runway was moving about a fair amount. Still, the touchdown itself was good, though we had to wait for a while for our bags as the storm returned and they had to delay unloading baggage hold due to lightning strikes on the ramp…..

After that the flight back to LGW was pretty boring, though we were lucky enough to taxi to the stand by passing under the new north terminal bridge – a strange sensation to see a bridge passing overhead.

Paul F

Jets on Grass

Harriers can do it (of course), though they are not your “typical” jet, and they tend to do a short landing rather than a vertical landing so as to reduce chance of ingesting any debris they kick up as the jet efflux reahces the ground. I also believe the high pressure/high velocity gas emerging out of their reaction valve controls (the “puffer jets” on nose tail and wingtips that are used to maintain attitude control when aerodymanic surfaces no longer have ability to do so) can easily dig a very deep hole in soft soil.

I was at Old Warden display a few years ago when a Harrier landed there. They had recently mown the grass ready for the air display, so the beast almost disappeared into a large cloud of disturbed grass clippings as it touched down which were then gently deposited all over the crowd and car park for the next 5 minutes by a very gentle on-crowd wind :D.

I am also old enough 😮 to remember when Jaguars were regularly operated off the grass as part of their Farnborough sales-pitch displays.

Paul F