Stonehaven

Along the East coast of Scotland, a little south of Aberdeen, is the fishing village of Stonehaven. A pleasant coastal town with a nice harbour and a boardwalk along the seafront which has a number of stainless steel 'sculptures, mainly of fishing vessels from the area but also a lighthouse and a viking ship all built by a local artist. Among the sculptures was a Norwegian biplane marking the occasion in April 1940 when a Norwegian Type MF11 escaping the German military alighted in Stonehaven Bay. It moved on the next day but the story has clearly left an impression.

Sikorsky S-92A Helibus

Spotted in the distance over Stonehaven today was this CHC Helicopters chopper out of Aberdeen.

Seaplane memorial, Dundee

The record distance flight for a seaplane took place on 6th October 1938 when a composite aircraft, which was one mounted atop another, took off from the Tay estuary at Dundee. The smaller top aircraft then separated before flying over 6,000 miles to South West Africa. A memorial to this is on the bank of the river in Dundee.

Diamond DA42 Twin Star

A new one to me, spotted over Dundee yesterday was the Austrian built Diamond DA42 Twin Star which has been in production since 2002.

Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre

Montrose airfield was the first operational airfield in the UK of which more in another post. Flying had ceased by 1952 and some 40 years later it reopened as a Heritage Centre which has gone on to win many awards. Based around some original buildings the centre tells the story of the airfield and holds a few airframes, some of which are replicas and only recently took delivery of a Tornado which is displayed in an original hangar.

The centre is fairly small but staff are friendly, the exhibits interesting, including a poppy memorial area to which we contributed, and it is worth visiting.

RAF Milltown

Milltown, a short way from Elgin in Scotland started life as a decoy for nearby Lossiemouth. However the decoy site ceased to be used in October 1941 and construction began on a real airfield which opened in June 1943. Initially used by Bomber Command the airfield soon passed to Coastal Command although it was a base for 617 Squadron in 1944 for their missions to sink the Tirpitz which ultimately succeeded in November of that year.

Following the end of hostilities the airfield transferred to the Fleet Air Arm in 1946 as a training base and remained in use until it reverted to RAF control in 1972. Apart from deployment exercises no further aircraft were based at the field and flying ceased completely in 1977.

The field was then used by the RAF as a signals station until 2003 before being sold off 10 years later.

I went for a look a few days ago and most of the runways and one original hangar remain. There are few buildings and the site is used for sheep and cattle grazing as well as an HGV school and skid pan training. Although there was no sign of it plans are afoot for a solar panel farm. 

RAF Great Orton

Great Orton airfield was opened in 1943 as a satellite to nearby RAF Silloth. It was used by Wellingtons of 6 OTU and Hurricanes of 55 OTU. Additionally air sea rescue Warwicks were based there. At wars end it became 249 Maintenance Unit and was used for bomb storage. The station closed in 1952 and after a period of disuse it has been developed as Watchtree Nature Reserve. I went for a wander a few days ago and found evidence of old runways and a derelict control tower along with a modern day wind farm and cycle tracks.

Solway Aviation Museum

This museum is on the edge of Carlisle Airport. My visit is a bit of a cheat as it just an 'over the fence' exercise as the museum is not open during the week and I will not be around at the weekend.

The museum star is probably the Vulcan which is easy to capture from the road side. The aircraft was still active in 1982 at the time of the Falklands and surrendered one or two parts to other aircraft. It was then retired from the RAF and flown to Carlisle in 1983 and has been on display since.