Island Images Aerial 2000

Aerial Images 2000 I first flew a light aircraft back in 1973 at the age of eighteen, getting to 'first solo' level on a flying scholarship program run by Hertfordshire County Council, using Piper Cherokee aircraft. For financial reasons I didn't continue until 1980, when the UK Civil Aviation Authority kindly provided flying lessons up to Private Pilot's Licence standard as part of my Air Traffic Controller training. For several good reasons at the time I didn't do much further flying and it eventually lapsed until 1996 when I re-validated it in the Isle of Man. When I bought my first digital camera in January 2000 I realised that it would be quite easy to take photographs with it from the air, when I wasn't too busy actually flying the plane of course! The following are some of the results re-edited from the originals in 2021. Pictures left in the same format as shot in the camera. All pictures on this website are © Jon Wornham

Aircraft flown at the start of the period (2000 - 2001)

First aerial trip with the new Fuji MX-1700 camera. Piper Archer G-BUMP 19/1/00 14:00 - 15:00 I was impressed with how easy it was to fly the plane with one hand and use the small digital camera with the other.

Next flying trip with the camera was on the 25th January, quite a short flight, only 30 minutes. Piper Cherokee G-ATRR 12:40 - 13:10

My next sortie into the air with a camera wasn't until March. This time not in either of the two regular Manx Flyers aircraft, but in Cherokee Archer G-BRME, which was probably there to cover maintenance on G-BUMP. 16/3/21 11:10 - 12:00

The next time I went flying was on the 28th March and I only took two aerial pictures, but my log books says that I had Georgie with me and I was probably too busy showing her the island from the air to take more! The following day we flew to Hawarden airfield in Wales, for a day out across the border in the City of Chester and I think that I was also trying to learn how the rather complicated radio navigation installation and autopilot worked. 28/3/00 G-BRME 10:40 - 11:20

The next proper set of aerial pictures that I took was in May, when apart from the general flying, I had an idea to produce an online guide for private pilots visiting the Isle of Man. Working in ATC we often had pilots approaching the island on their first visit who seemed to have problems identifying land features, so my idea was to take pictures at various ranges from the island, approaching on the more usual routes flown by VFR arrivals. This flight was the first test for this, but there seemed to be a very lukewarm attitude from our management so I didn't get much further with the idea. 4/5/00 Piper Archer G-BUMP 10:00 - 11:00

This flight took place in July 2000. Having not flown for a while I needed to have a check flight with the club instructor, which took 25 minutes according to my logbook and having passed that I dropped him off back at the club and continued with a 45 minute solo flight. Piper Cherokee G-ATRR 21/7/00 14:45 - 15:30

I think this trip was probably a bit of a spur of the moment thing. I had my friend and work colleague Brian Kneale along as passenger and I suspect that we had been working an early shift together in the tower at Ronaldsway and I'd commented that it was a lovely day for flying, so after a quick check with the flying club we did a bit of sightseeing in the afternoon. Piper Cherokee G-ATRR 18/8/00 14:15 - 15:10

Back in Piper Archer G-BUMP and a morning flight to the north and back. 30/8/00 10:30 - 11:15

Up in Piper Archer G-BUMP again, late morning and early afternoon 25/9/00 11:50 - 12:55

It's a bit of a mystery to me as to what actual aircraft I flew for this trip in October. According to my logbook it was a Piper Cherokee 140 with a registration of G-BATK, but according to the CAA records, this was a BN Islander! Anyway, 20/10/00 14:55 - 15:45

This next flight was something a little different in that it was work related. Manx Flyers were going to start helicopter instruction and needed a procedure with ATC for doing practice engine failure auto rotations onto the airfield. They suggested that somebody from ATC went up with their instructor to do some demonstration auto rotate's so that we could see what was involved. Whilst most of my colleagues refused point blank, I jumped at the chance, had a great time and learned a lot and even managed a short time flying and hover taxiing the helicopter. Although they looked a bit scary from outside, from inside the helicopter the whole procedure was totally under control and each time ended up with a very smooth landing on the grass. Enstrom Shark G-MHCB 22/10/00 10:25 - 11:00