655 MaPS visit 558 at RAF Lyneham

[Ramshornvortex]

As Sooty mentioned on another thread, 12 members of the 655 MaPS team visited RAF Lyneham (note the spelling Soots) today to see our cousins and their charge, XH558, nearing the end of the winter servicing.

Snapper was there, no doubt you'll see some photographs soon. A large amount of sickly, biscuit/cake confection was handed over to the undernourished engineering team at VTTST - they seemed pleased

On behalf of MaPS I must say a huge thank you to Toni, John, Rick and our own Damaris (OK, we share her) for being such good hosts whilst they were busy with all the other tours as well.

Not long now before an exceptionally well maintained but underpowered 201-engined Vulcan struggles into the sky once again.......

[Mackrick]

Thanks all....

[Crew chief]

Glad to see the team had a good day out.Couldn't make myself but a Vulcan is a Vulcan after all.


cc.

[Jigsaw]

Excellent. Great stuff, now where are the pics?

[Snapper]

Where's the photos? Give me a chance.... I've just spent two days linesiding at The GCR in sub-zero temperatures.
http://clive-hanley.fotopic.net/p68881272.html

I've just uploaded 1 picture from our visit so far that says it all..... There will now be no further excuses for delays on XH558's winter maintenance.

http://vulcanxm655.fotopic.net/p68882125.html

Seriously though I was most impressed with the operation at RAF Lyneham and offer my thanks for the hospitality and friendly and interesting tour of the iconic aircraft by the XH558 team.

[RLN]

The last time I saw "City of Truro" was 10 years ago at the NRM.

[Snapper]

I've finally uploaded a few of the photos taken last Sunday at Lyneham to the XM655 photo website. The hangar at Lyneham is illuminated with lighting that has given a yellow cast over the pics. I've tried to correct it as much as I dare.

http://vulcanxm655.fotopic.net/c1937961.html

I took loads of photos but I feel these are the main items of interest.

[Jigsaw]

Thanks for taking the time to do that snapper

Edit: Love the one under the port wing

[Sploosher]

I've finally uploaded a few of the photos taken last Sunday at Lyneham to the XM655 photo website. The hangar at Lyneham is illuminated with lighting that has given a yellow cast over the pics. I've tried to correct it as much as I dare.

http://vulcanxm655.fotopic.net/c1937961.html

I took loads of photos but I feel these are the main items of interest.

Great pics...........................

what lens did you use....................looks like the same as I get with the Sigma 10-20

[Dee]

Great pics thanks

[Snapper]

Great pics...........................

what lens did you use....................looks like the same as I get with the Sigma 10-20

Thanks Sploosher... Its always nice to get some feedback.
The lens I used inside the cockpit was a Sigma 12-24mm on the Nikon D700 body. It is designed for a full frame sensor so if I used a 10-20 lens the camera would only crop it down to DX size. Images inside the cockpit were taken hand held using flash so the depth of field is atrocious. I had so little time inside the cockpit it was literally snap, snap, snap as fast as I could and hope I got everything. Outside I used various combinations of camera/lens between the Nikon D200 and D700 - and in lenses between the Sigma 12-24mm and Nikkor 24 - 70mm.

[Snapper]

I've just uploaded a few more photos taken inside the cockpit of XH558 while at RAF Lyneham.

http://vulcanxm655.fotopic.net/c1941117.html

Looks like somebody was monkeying around in the bomb aiming window though...
http://vulcanxm655.fotopic.net/p69010006.html

Its amazing what you see when you actually study a photo.

[Jigsaw]

Thanks mate. Love to see the office

[Minty4371]

Cannot see any photos from fotopic websites . The website has been down for a while . Hope it comes back soon, or will all photos on fotopic be lost? I hope not. I enjoy looking at XM655 photos on Mr Hanley's website (along with his railway ones)

[Bovril]

I've just responded to BOVRIL via a PM but now having logged in here and read this blog entry I felt It was necessary to post it openly here...

Read on...................


I've been using fotopic as the website host for several years now and have upwards of 20,000 photos uploaded. However they went off-line last Tuesday and rumours suggest they've gone bust.
Read it here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotopic.net

The beauty of fotopic (as a PRO user) was that I could create up to 100 individual websites. That was how I was able - at no extra cost - to create the photo website for XM655. However I'm now scrambling around for alternatives.

For my railway pics I've gone for Flickr but I've never liked the functionality of it.
Heres a taster....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clivehanle ... 2024/show/

For another of my projects I've used Zenfolio...
http://evergreen.zenfolio.com/

Each of these systems has cost me money - I always go for the highest PRO level of user.

The problem I have though is that it would be silly to have a collection of railway photos, then a collection of Vulcan photos etc etc. I need a system that allows me to create totally separate websites. There are more options on the market so I've not given up hope of finding a suitable alternative but meanwhile I'm up to my neck trying to learn the functionality of two new systems and getting up to speed with current stuff.

I still hope and pray that fotopic finds a new owner or they solve the technical issue that stopped them last week but I don't hold out much hope. The silence is deafening.
Clive

[Old Rigger]

Could Snapper not use MS Publisher/Serif Webplus etc and use a web page template and make/produce/publish his own website/s, thats what I did for a work demo and started to do at home for my own Vulcan/Aircraft interest allthough I never finished the one at home and the work one has been parked for now due to all the changes going on.

That way you have control and the cost is minimised, unless this route does not give some functionality that is gained from paying for hosting through other peoples sites.