Friday 30 August 2019

Flying into Heathrow

A lovely day for flying - clear skies over Warsaw, clear skies over London. And a nice window seat, right at the back. BA into Heathrow - so much better than WizzAir to Luton.

Below: PZL W-3 Sokół helicopter configured for flying VIPs, 1st Transport Aviation Base, Warsaw-Okęcie. It was taxiing just as our Airbus was pushing back from the stand.


Below: two USAF C-17 Globemaster II aircraft, in town for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2. Trump's not coming, so the hardware that these transport giants have brought along will be for the use of the vice-president, Pence.



Below: take off, and immediately visible to the east is the path of the S2 expressway, crossing Ursynów on its way to cross the Vistula. Eventually, the S2/A2 will continue on to the Belarusian border. But just for it to cross the river would be useful.


A thousand miles fly past, under the wings of our plane.


Left; estuarine Essex - this is Foulness. where England meets the North Sea and the highest elevations are two metres above sea level. Will this be under water in fifty years' time?

Flying into London in the early afternoon, sun still high in a cloudless sky, gives good opportunities for photos.

Below: the new Tottenham Hotspurs football stadium, opened four months ago.

Below: Richmond Bridge, catching the sparkle of the River Thames.


Below: homage to 1969, Heathrow, today. This is British Airways' retro-liveried Airbus A320, G-EUPJ, sporting the colours of British European Airlines from the 1960s. A bit of manual de-focus to get a softer image, run through VintageJS software (available free on vintage.js.com) to give that old-timey look, capturing the excitement of the start of a childhood continental summer holiday.


This time four years ago:
The search for the Gold Train intensifies

This time five years ago:
The Vistula from on high

This time eight years ago:
Bad car day

This time nine years ago:
Dragonfly summer

This time 11 years ago:
"What do we want?" "Early retirement!"

This time 12 years ago:
Greenhouse sunset


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