Author: vortek

On my way to London and what should have been the last photography needed to put Volume 1 to bed.  I said should, because until yesterday it would have been.  That’s when I had an email back from a museum which shall remain nameless, regarding publishing photos of their exhibits.  I’m one bloke with a camera and I want to come and wander round like your average tourist and take a few photos.  Yes I would like access to your reserve collection, you used to do tours on a regular basis.  I asked nicely, what did I get back?

£50 admin fee and £150 per hour! You cannot be serious! I only needed about 5-6 photos, mainly in the reserve collection.  But because I asked, I now can’t use all the ones I already have and that means doing about 30 photos across two places at the same site. That I would have happily paid maybe half that just to get access to the reserve collection again is immaterial, nor is the fact that the new photos will look better using the new camera, mainly because the lighting in the place is crap, especially the reserve collection.

So now, publishing is back at least a month, I’ve an urgent trip to sort out to take the photos needed for Vol 1, again.  Needless to say I’ve also emailed all the other places to make sure they wouldn’t like a cut of money I’m not even guaranteed to get back in book sales and give them free publicity in the process. Because it would still be cheaper than a writ afterwards.  Trouble is I emailed a few months ago, even direct off their webpage forms for that very purpose and have I had a reply? Na.

Not happy?  Damn right.

So 2023 has arrived and I’m now looking at publishing deadlines, things are definitely getting very real!

Volume 1 has been edited yet again and is now in the format needed to send off for copy editing, tagged up to include where to put photos, separate document with the photo captions and all the photos have been renamed accordingly so they go in the right places (he hopes).

I’m now awaiting the archive shots supplied by Key Publishing that will accompany my photos, these mainly inflight shots and aircraft that are mentioned but none remain. I’ve contacted the relevant places about publishing images of their aircraft etc to stop getting nasty letter later, though,  luckily most museums were happy for me to simply include the details of their museum in the book, whilst the RAF Museum openly says on their website you can use photos taken there for publication.  The old adage any publicity is good publicity seems to hold true in this case, but I thank all the people I’ve spoken to at the museums for their encouragement and help.

I also have to thank my friend and former work colleague,  now wondrous wedding cake baker Babs Whelan for taking time out from her kitchen to take a few photos of an aircraft I couldn’t get to in Northern Ireland. Thanks Babs  https://www.wedcakes.co.uk/index.htm.

More thanks too once he’s waded his way though it, to my mate, aero-modeller extraordinaire and another former RAF electrician John Nicholls for “volunteering” to sanity check my magnum opus.  Doubtless this may cost me beer, but better that than be told by some be-anoraked person once its published, that I’m talking utter bollocks.

I’m still at the mercy of train strikes to get to London and I’m awaiting the announcement of when the next batch will be before I book a ticket for an away day to the Science Museum. The train is still the best way to get to London as it gives me a few hours peace (don’t you love noise cancelling headphones…)  to edit things on the way back.

All being well, I’m three weeks away from sending everything in for Volume 1 and then its on to Volume 2 and a few days away in the South West to fill in the blanks regarding mainly helicopter photos.

Meanwhile, I’m also hoping for some assistance from work with a few jobs to do for them in the right places, because I need a photo or two of this:

 

Stuck on a pole outside the Folland Sports and Social Club, which naturally enough used to be part of Folland Aircraft.  This I discovered is the last prototype Gnat a matter of week after I’d been close enough to divert past to take a photo…GRRRRR.

 

Managed to get a photo shoot in courtesy a work trip and paid a visit to the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum.  Hidden away in the middle of East Anglia, this is a great little museum with a lot packed in and as every with most of the smaller museums, friendly talkative staff. Better still, the sun shone, we had blue skies and hence good light!

My main reason to visit was their Lightning F1 which as well as being part of the early development batch also acted as a chase aircraft during TSR2 development.  They also have a Jet Provost in an unusual colour scheme, one of only two Vickers Valetta still around and for anyone with an interest in the electronics fitted to aircraft over the years, a goodly assortment to demonstrate how much this has progressed in the last 50+ years.

One oddity we weren’t expecting is in the photo.  The shape of the fuselage frame gives it away straight off, it’s part of a TSR2 and is the locating frame for both the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces. The thickness of the bearers onto which the moving surfaces mount just shows how large the forces acting on the control surfaces would be when at low level and high speed.