Catching a "Drone"

There has been alot of talk lately about drones.  I'm not sure what to think of it but I am pretty sure that people are not seeing what they think they are seeing.  It seems that many of the pictures I've seen are at night and I've noticed that planes don't look like planes at night.

This is an Embrear 175 coming in for a landing.  You can see the red and green wing tip lights.

It comes a little closer and looks a little more like a plane.

I'm not sure what the bright light in this picture is, but it makes it look like a UFO.

And clearly this is not a drone.
 

Catching a New Ship

 This is the ship that I really wanted to catch.  She is new to the Great Lakes.

She was built earlier this year.  She's been around the Lakes for a while.  She was coming down from Sault Ste. Marie.  I think she uses liquified propane gas which is why she has the odd stacks.

I wanted to catch her at Riverside but I noticed that she was slowing down.  I figured that meant she was going to anchorage and is probably waiting for a pilot.  After she gets a pilot, she will be on her way to Montreal.

Catching Up With the Paul R. Tregurtha

 This wasn't a ship I was planning on catching but I saw that I had an opportunity to catch her.

That required me going to Belle Isle though.  I didn't think I wouldn't have enough light if I stayed at Riverside.

As it was I had barely enough light but I still got pictures of her.  I kind of like this one.

She was heading down from St. Clair to Monroe with a load of coal.  That is typically the way she does her deliveries.

She would have originated at the coal terminal in Superior, Wisconsin.

As the largest ship on the Great Lakes, she is considered as the "Queen of the Lakes".

One more shot of her.

Catching the M.S. Westcott

 Since I was right next to the Westcott Building, I was able to get some different shots of the Westcott.

It was the M.S. Westcott though.

She was delivering something to the Great Republic.

It was kind of cool to see.

They have a wreath on it.

Catching the Great Republic Again

 It wasn't too long before I saw one of the ships I was hoping to catch.

The Great Republic was coming down from Brevort.

Brevort is about 20 miles west of St. Ignace and near the Cut River Bridge.

I believe ships that go there pick up sand but I'm not sure.

She was heading to Buffalo.

And I'm not sure what she is going there for.

But it was kind of nice to see her.

She approaches the Ambassador Bridge.

She is about to pass the Ambassador Bridge.

The tower near her pilot house.

She passes the Bridge.

She continues down the river.  It is probably about 18 to 20 hours for her to get to Buffalo from this point.

The Federal Dart Again

 My mom had a couple of doctor's appointments, so I took the day off.  I had some time left and I saw that there were a couple of ships passing.  I ended up heading down to Riverside Park to catch them.  The normal part of the park was closed, so I parked by the Westcott building and took my pictures there.

The Federal Dart was still at the Nicholson Dock, the picture was a little more blocked though, but I still like it.  I'm not sure how much longer she is going to be there.

The Commercial Flight that Circled the Globe

 The next model is a diecast model.  I wish I could find a proper model of one but I don't think many people make them.  When I ordered the plane, I thought it was bigger but it's not too bad, I guess.  It can fit in with some of my other airliners and not look too out of place.

The Boeing 314 Clipper was a large flying boat that was produced from 1938 to 1941.  In that time, twelve were produced.  They were used by Pan American, the British Overseas Airways (predecessor to British Airways) and the US Navy.  It had a crew of 10 to 16 and could carry 68 day passengers or 38 sleeping passengers.  It had a top speed of 210 miles per hour with a range of 3,685 miles.

I will have to say it is a pretty nice looking plane and is a throwback to more civilized age of passenger flying.  It probably could rival rail service.

Anyway, that's not the story I wanted to tell.

Pan Am Flight NC16802 (also the tail number of the plane but not my model) was a regular scheduled flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand.  On December 2nd, 1941, the pilot took off from Treasure Island in San Francisco.  It landed at Pearl Harbor on the same day, refueled and left for New Zealand.  On the way to New Zealand, it had stops on Canton Island, Suva, Fiji and Noumea, New Caledonia for refueling.  It arrived in New Zealand on December 7th, 1941.

Captain Ron Ford learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor and was instructed not to head back to the United States by way of the Pacific.  He then received instructions to take the employees of Pan Am in Noumea to Gladstone, Australia.   They arrived in Noumea on December 16th and flew to Australia in the same day.

From Gladstone they flew to Darwin, Australia.  There they refueled but they had to do it manually.  They then flew Surabuya where they were intercepted by the Royal Dutch Air Force.  They had to convince them they were non-threatening.  They had to pick up a lower grade of fuel which didn't help their trip to Ceylon.

En route from Surabuya to Ceylon, they saw a submarine and were fired upon but not damaged.  They reported it to the British in Ceylon but they didn't believe.  From Ceylon, they went to Karachi.  He had to drop off two mechanics there so that Pan Am could establish a base.

From Bahrain, they went to Khartoum and had to leave another mechanic.  They landed on the Nile in Khartoum.  From there, they went to Leopoldville.

then they went to Natal and then Port of Spain.

On January 6, 1942, the crew was elated to see the New York city skyline as they landed at LaGuardia Airport.  They struck a sandbar as they were taxiing, but no damage was caused.

A map of the flight.

The plane was purchased by the US Government but operated by Pan Am during the war.  After the war, it was sold to Universal Airlines, then American International Airways in 1947 and World Airways in 1948 and scrapped in 1951.

There are no surviving aircraft although there has been talk of salvaging one of two that sank during operation.  That has never come to fruition.  That's kind of sad since this would be a window into a different era of flying.

 

Rainy Day Fun

I was going to go down to Detroit today.  There were a couple of ships that I was hoping to catch but unfortunately the weather did want to cooperate with me.  By the time it looked like one of them was going to pass, it was getting pretty late and it was already cloudy.    It was still raining when I thought about leaving and I didn't feel like dealing with that.  It was warmer today but not that warm.

I still wanted to do pictures today, so I brought out my light box and decided to take some pictures of a couple of my new models.

First up is the Fairey Swordfish.  This was a plane that served with the various forms of the Royal Air Force from 1934 to 1945.  In that time, almost 2400 were built and were also used by the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Netherland Air Force.

This is the plane that participated in the battle of Taranto where an Italian battleship was sunk and two more were damaged.  That was the battle where the Japanese learned that they needed to modify their torpedoes for the Pearl Harbor attack.  More ships would have been sunk there but aerial torpedoes dive before they continue to their target.  Taranto was shallow enough that a number of these torpedoes were stuck.  The Japanese modified their torpedoes so they wouldn't dive as deep.

The Swordfish was also used in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck.  One of them was able to score a hit which damaged the rudder.  That enabled British battleships to finish her off.

It was a fairly maneuverable plane which helped its survivability but not fast enough.

Anyway, I got tired of seeing Bismarcks in my model forums, so I wanted to post the plane that hand a hand in her sinking.

The plane served throughout the war as the British were having problems with the plane that was to be her successor.  The last operational squadron was disbanded in May 1945 and the training squadron was disbanded a year later.

There are two in airworthy condition and both are in the United Kingdom.

This particular model was an Airfix kit and was a pain in the ass to put together.  It didn't turn out as nice as I wanted but not too bad, I guess.

Next up is a Hawker Hurricane.  There were almost 14,500 of these planes produced during the war.  It was deemed the workhorse of the war.

The Spitfire is probably more famous the Hurricane was probably more important.  It could be used as a fighter and an attack aircraft.  It was fairly easy to build and maintain.

Catching the M.S. Westcott

 One of the things that I like about Riverside Park is that it gives me an opportunity to catch the Westcott in action.  It is pretty neat to watch as they deliver mail or people.  They were delivering mail today.

I had my big lens on, so I couldn't catch her as she went out, but I was able to catch her flag.

As she was returning to the dock.  I have to believe it was pretty cold for them.

One more shot before moving on.

The Kaministiqua Passes By

 It wasn't too long for the ship I was waiting for to appear.  It was a good thing too.  While the temperature said it was in the mid 40's, the wind made it feel much colder.

The Kaministiqua was coming down from Thunder Bay.

I know that because I caught her last Sunday as she was heading up to Thunder Bay.

I think the ships had to take the long way around Lake Superior because of the nasty weather they had last week.   Factor in that it is already a roughly 2 day trip from Detroit to Thunder Bay.

Add in at least 2 days for loading.

So it makes sense that she would be passing Detroit today.  She is heading to Sorel which is in Quebec.

She is approached by the M.S. Westcott.

She passes Windsor.  The M.S. Westcott is behind her.

A relatively clean background between downtown Windsor and the Ambassador Bridge.

She approached the bridge with the M.S. Westcott at her side.

The tower of the Ambassador Bridge at her bow.

Amidships.

And near her pilothouse.

She continues down the River.

The Westcott leaves her.

It is at least two days to Sorel from this point.