Flying Horses

Today was an easy day coordinating a horse flight transiting my local airport. The flight was en-route from Dubai to Los Angeles with a stop in New York to drop of some of the 18 horses on board. The Horses are all thoroughbreds and included the winner of the 2010 Dubai Gold cup, Gloria De Campeao. I understand the prize money for this race alone was $10 million.





The aircraft used was a DC8 which can accommodate up to 45 horses, this time it was relatively comfortable with just the 18 horses and, I understand, 27 grooms. None the less it can be a bit smelly after a while!

Lost in Translation 2

the second in an occasional series of places or things that may not translate well into English

This is a cafe in the Science centre near Montreal Harbour, Why would you choose this name for a cafe? maybe it works better in a different language

Montreal

Last week saw a visit to one of my favourite Canadian cities Montreal, March in Montreal can go either way weather wise on this occasion it was mixed, the Sunday was pouring with rain which disrupted the St Patricks Day parade. This begs the question why is there a St Patricks Day Parade in Montreal? There can’t be many Irish people can there? I suppose like everywhere it’s just an excuse for a party.
The Monday was a fantastic day beautiful sunshine and temperatures of 16C. Given that it can be still in the region of -20C at this time of year it was very pleasant. As I walked around the waterfront and old town there was a real sense of a city coming out of hibernation and getting ready for another busy tourist season.


Quebec has multiple flags, from the left the Candian National Flag, The fleurdelisé which is the flag of Quebec, The Flag of Montreal and one other I dont know.

This is really clever, the building is undergoing renovation and what you see is not in fact the building but the hording around the building designed to protect the public during the renovation. It has been designed so that the hoarding has a picture of the building behind it and it fits in really well with the surrounding area and does not spoil the view. I really think we should do this in the UK particularly the major tourist sites in London.

This photo was taken at Montreal harbour, During the winter the ships are laid up and the harbor freezes, as can be seen the ice was melting and the ships were being prepared for the summer season. The ship behind was the Gordon C Leitch a “lakes steamer”. its history can be found at http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/leitch.htm . launched in 1967 its as old as me, because the ships never leave the great lakes which are fresh water there is no corrosion and the ships last for longer than they might in the ocean

Back down South

just catching up after a few trips in March. The first trip was back to the Falklands again, hopefully this is to be my last visit for a while because its a long old trip. this time the weather was fantastic and I managed some pictures on the approach to Mount Pleasant.

The above photo shows Port Stanley (all of it) I was sat next to a visiting Surgeon who tells me the blue building at the top of the picture is the hospital.

The wreck of the sailing ship the Lady Elizabeth can be seen in this photo, more information on the ship can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Elizabeth_(1879)

The aircraft above was photographed at Mount Pleasant and is operated by the British Antartic Survey from the Rothera base in the Antartic. it had arrived the previous day with a passengers leaving after the southern summer operation and was on the way back to the ice. The crew were saying the flight takes about 5 hours and that this was their last trip South for the season. the following day they were due to fly to Punta Arenas with more passengers before continuing on to Calgary where the aircraft spends the Northern Summer and will be flying South again next season. more can be found on the BAS at http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/index.php

on departure we got an escort from the Eurofighters, I have made four trips and this was the first time I have managed to take any air to Air photographs.

There were some Girl Guides on the aircraft that had become trapped in the Falklands as theri flight back to the UK via Chile had been cancelled due to the earthquake there. they had managed to get a lift on our flight and were waving at the pilots out of the windows, the polits of the Eurofighters waved back .... too cool !!!