The Diary doesn't receive many comments but the post about RAF low flying has broken all records - with two comments detailing exceptionally close encounters. One of the writers was Blake from Minnesota, the other Matt Phillips of Hull, Yorkshire, a frequent visitor to the peninsula, who included a link to his Picasa site which has two photographs of low-flying jets as well as some fine pictures of West Ardnamurchan. In the post I mentioned that the peninsula has yet to be overflown by the new Eurofighter - the Typhoon. That changed on Wednesday when two came low over Kilchoan Bay. They made an impressive entrance but, if anything, they're even noisier than the Tornadoes, which isn't surprising since each engine produces 20,000lb of thrust compared to the Tornado's 16,000. Sadly, I was enjoying a cup of coffee indoors at the time so didn't manage a picture - this one is of a recent Tornado low pass.
Comments are much appreciated. Anyone who would like to contribute to the Diary can contact me at kilchoandiary@btinternet.com - no attachments please.
Jon, you'll need to uprate your binoculars so you can determine if the Tornados are GR4, GR4A or F3! In an earlier life I wrote the missile control software for the F3 and project managed the reconnaissance system for the GR4A. You can tell the F3 (air defence out of Leuchars) as it has a longer nose to fit the foxhunter radar. The 4A is going to be trickier because you'll have to spot the window under the nose which houses the linescan infra-red camera. The Typhoon could have been from Leuchars, an early deployment. Check out the black globe on the nose - it's Clydebuilt! Production is at what was known as Barr & Stroud on the site of the old Stephen & Sons yard in Govan (who built the Sir Galahad in '66, now famous from Bluff Cove in the Falklands). Barr & Stroud is now part of Thales, the French electronics company. Incidentally, Barr & Stroud bought most of their fine sand from Lochaline to be used in their lenses, considered to be the best in the world. Chris G
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for this comment, Chris. I was thinking of some new binoculars - for bird-watching - but they'll do fine for this as well. So sad that the Lochaline silica mine is closed - and the Glensanda quarry is in trouble too, with the Yeoman Bontrup cluttering things up.
ReplyDeleteJon