< September 2012 >

All content copyright © David Richerby, 2012–13

Contents

Saturday, 1st September

Ships

Some of the ships involved in the construction of the Gwynt y Môr offshore windfarm.

Yakovlevs Display Team

The Yakovlevs are back in town for the festivities around the tall ships. Alas, the picture quality is pretty poor, as the planes weren't very close and I was shooting too close to the sun.

Sunday, 2nd September

RFA Fort Austin

RFA Fort Austin finally left Cammell Laird after an eleven-month refit.

Ships and boats

Irish Sea Tall Ships Regatta

The tall ships all sailed off into the distance.

Yakovlevs Display Team

The Yaks are back.

Regatta redux

And then some of the tall ships came back.

Monday, 3rd September

RFA Fort Austin

RFA Fort Austin's back, after what I assume was a day of sea trials.

Ships

Tuesday, 4th September

Wednesday, 5th September

You may remember the crane ship Mersey Mammoth, formerly owned by the Port of Liverpool. She spent a long time in Antwerp and has been renamed Lara 1, re-registered in Panama and repainted. She's been back in Liverpool for a couple of months but this is the first time I've seen her on the river since her return.

Thursday, 6th September

Saturday, 8th September

Another Place, Crosby

Aircraft

Various aircraft on their way to and from Southport Air Show.

Sunday, 9th September

Southport Air Show. I still have another memory card full of photos to process.

The Red Arrows

Because of the two accidents last year, the Red Arrows are flying a seven-ship formation this year. Also, Red 1 was flying in the spare plane, which didn't have a smoke generator fitted. The first two photos seem to have been lost: I'll sort them out soon.

Gloster Meteor T.7

The two-seat trainer version of Britain's first jet fighter.

Black Cats Helicopter Display Team

Westland Lynx AH7

Flown by the Army Air Corps. No camera tricks. They can do loops in them. Starting from a hover. I'm sorry, were you using those laws of physics?

AeroSuperBatics wingwalker

Wingwalker Sarah Tanner and pilot Steve Hicks, who flies Airbus A320s out of Heathrow for a living. The plane is a Boeing–Stearman 75, which has been re-engined from 220hp to 450hp to be able to perform aerobatics with the extra drag of a woman standing on top. Lots more information on the AeroSuperBatics website.

The RV8tors

The RV8 is an aircraft you buy as a kit for under $100,000 and build yourself. And, you know, fly aerobatics in.

Bell UH-1H Iroquois

Also known as the Huey. This one served with the US Army Air Corps 129th Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam and the names of the 39 people who died on missions after travelling in her are written on the door.

Avro Vulcan Mk 2.B

Tornado GR4 role demonstration

Rather than fly acrobatics, the RAF demonstrated a typical mission in Afghanistan, in support of soldiers pinned down by militants.

Miscellaneous

Monday, 10th September

Tuesday, 11th September

Thursday, 13th September

Albatros

I forgot last night that Albatros was coming in so I didn't get up early enough to photograph her arrival from Londonderry.

Dried rose

My buttonhole from Louise and Pete's wedding, photographed on cardboard and a piece of black velvet.

Friday, 14th September

Ocean Countess

Dunlin

The pilot boats were taking a bit of a battering from the wind.

Ships

Saturday, 15th September

Monday, 17th September

There are seven fire engines and two ambulances in the background of the first photo. I'm not sure what's going on — there's no mention of an incident at the ferry terminal on the fire brigade or ambulance service websites.

Wednesday, 19th September

Wednesday, 20th September

Birkenhead Docks

I was working from home and saw that two tugs had gone into Birkenhead Docks. I assumed that meant Voge Paul was leaving and, since ships of that size only come into Birkenhead a couple of times a year, I went over there to get some awesome close-up shots as she came through the Tower Road bascule bridge and then again as she came out of Alfred Lock into the Mersey. No such luck. It turns out that the tugs all parked up in Vittoria Dock so they could take Voge Paul out on the next tide, in the middle of the night.

Friday, 21st September

Saturday, 22nd September

Ships at sunrise

I happened to wake at sunrise so I took a few photos before going back to sleep.

Liverpool Docks

I took a walk up the dock road because the Navy's type-23 frigate HMS St Albans arrived yesterday. I knew, from the local paper, that she's in Huskisson Dock; unfortunately, she turned out to be in the part that's practically invisible. I came home on the train and stopped off at Sandhills station, from where that part of the dock is visible. That's where I took the photo of Dyckburg but the end-on view of HMS St Albans wasn't worth photographing.

Sunday, 23rd September

Another visit by Ocean Countess and the tanker RFA Orangeleaf is the latest naval auxiliary to enter Cammell Laird for refit.

Monday, 25th September

Tuesday, 26th September

Thursday, 27th September

Ships

RFA Orangeleaf

Leaving Cammell Laird after dry-docking.

Saturday, 29th September

Sunday, 30th September