Air NORTH Meetings Nights
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    		• Welcome to the Meetings Night page, solely dedicated to supplying details of the Air NORTH Meetings Nights; from its aims, the present format, the history behind the title, its current location and the presenters themselves. Our social meetings provide the enthusiast with the opportunity to attend presentations by a wide range of in-house and guest speakers, and the chance to strike up a new friendship with like-minded people.

    Since the creation of Air NORTH (in its original form) in 1960, there has been a need and a desire to arrange a ’gathering’ of like-minded people in order to discuss/listen to/pass on knowledge or even exchange memorabilia within the aviation community, either at an enthusiasts or professional level.

    The Air NORTH Meetings Night is available to both the general public and Air NORTH Members alike. The night is centred around a guest speaker who will endeavour to conduct a presentation on his/her chosen aviation subject, for the gathered audience.

    The style of presentation can neatly be dissected into two differing styles:

    • Presenters who are currently or have been involved directly with the aviation industry, both civil or military.
    • Our own society members who have a wide experience of aviation travel to exotic aviation locations.

    If you have not been along to an Air NORTH Meetings Night or have just ‘discovered’ Air NORTH for the first time, we are quite confident that the aviation presentation and talk you will receive, will not disappoint. From the Society point of view however, the Meetings Night has another important aspect to serve. We believe that the benefits for the Society and the individual are enhanced by the ’gathering’ of like-minded people and it is hoped (but by no means obligatory) that people attending the Meetings Nights, socialise under the common banner that is aviation. Although Air NORTH is a small aviation society run by aviation enthusiasts, being part of or supporting Air NORTH can lead to greater aviation fulfilment for the individual.

    Next Meeting

    Low Level Military Aircraft Photography - The Digital Portfolio of Ron Richardson

    Monday 3rd September 2007 7.00 pm - 9.00pm
    Air NORTH Members £3.00 Non-members £4.00

    Location


    St. Mary’s Church Hall, Thornhill Road, Ponteland (near Newcastle Airport)

    Directions: From the south, follow Ponteland Road past Newcastle Airport and into Ponteland Village itself. Pass over the River Pont and turn right at the mini roundabout into North Road. In 75 yards, just before the Blackbird Pub, turn left into Thornhill Road. St. Mary’s Church Hall is 50 yards on the left.

    NEXT MEETINGS NIGHT - MONDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER 2007
    Low Level Military Aircraft Photography - The Digital Portfolio of Ron Richardson

    7.00 pm - 9.00pm
    Members £3.00 Non-members £4.00

    In recent years every purchaser of the Air NORTH magazine could not have failed to notice the tremendous quality and advancement that digital photography has made to this magazine. The images embossed on the front and rear covers of our publication are part of a process which has opened up new horizons for aviation photographers. At the forefront of this new regime is the very talented aviation photographer, Ron Richardson - a small selection of his work having duly appeared in our magazine, which in turn has raised the profile of our publication.
    Ron has ‘grasped the nettle’ as a freelance photographer would and his presentation will expand upon how he has developed his interest into a fine art. Ron’s early days were spent looking for vantage points in the hope that an interesting military aircraft would fly below his position - his quest being to take only ‘top side’ shots as the aircraft passed below. This process was incredibly time consuming although the photographic rewards he achieved were what kept him going. As his portfolio increased, Ron’s stunning digital images were made available to a wider audience and through time his subject matter expanded. By systematic research and contacts, Ron developed a system which enabled him to predict, to a certain degree, where aircraft could be sought, on low-level routes throughout the country. As his name became known in the wider aviation world, the rather ‘hit and miss’ locations he once knew were exchanged for better vantage points. Such was the quality of the photographic expertises attained by Ron, it was inevitable that contact would be made from the industry itself. Ron is now in the unenviable position of a ’freelance’ photographer, commissioned to take the photos of an individual aircraft at low-level, the pilot often seeking Ron’s instruction of flight route in order to achieve the best photographic results.
    The images you will witness from Ron on the night will simply take your breath away. The clarity and detail will be there for you to see, giving the impression that you can reach out and touch the aircraft. Even if you have only taken one photograph of an aircraft, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that it takes a bit of imagination to ‘frame’ an aircraft to an acceptable degree. With practice, photography can be taken to a respectable level and good results obtained. Factor in however, a desolate location, being perched on a rock face, the wind howling around you, an aircraft that you can’t see about to fly past below you and at 400 knots, then you’ll appreciate that Ron Richardson has served his apprenticeship.

    MEETINGS NIGHT CALENDER 2007
    Location: St. Mary’s Church Hall Thornhill Road Ponteland Village

    Monday 1st October 2007: Ken Cothliff Air Supply, Scanners, Flight Simulation etc.

    Meetings Review - 11th January 2007

    Syria, Finland, Ireland, USA, Waddington/Fairford/Farnborough and ..... Northallerton ? ..... were all visited by Mick Ryan during 2006 – his travels were slightly more extensive than my own and probably everyone else in the audience. Mick joined the British Aviation Enthusiast Society organized trip to Syria and although ramp access and visits had been pre-arranged, the unknown quantity that is Syria, was in the back of everyone’s minds. Awaiting transport at Damascus Airport, Mick experienced everyone’s worst fears, spending the next hour under arrest. His crime had been to venture onto the viewing terrace to take photos. Thankfully the group managed to convince the authorities of the peculiarities of their visit and ramp access was granted, along with the release of Mick. Syrian 727s and a Caravelle were viewed as well as the necessity to rid the 747SP of its accumulated sand layers before its next flight. The military side of Damascus airport was tantalizingly close as they left for their hotel. Various sites in the city displayed ex Syrian AF MiGs however a visit to the ‘fighting’ museum produced wreckage of an Israeli F-4 and a Mirage III. Their return flight to Heathrow climbed back over Damascus Airport, giving Mick the chance to photo the military ramps occupied by IL-76s, AN-24s and 26s.
    In total contrast, access at the Finish AF Airshow on mid-summer's night was extremely relaxed. The proximity of the aircraft was evident in Mick’s shots, although the bright sunlight hid the fact that this was nine o’clock at night – the show going on until 3 o’clock the next morning! The deep green camouflage of the Finish AF complemented the lines of the Hawks, FA-18s, Redigo’s, MiG-21s and Mil-8. The sad sight of auction signs at the Hawkins and Powers aerial fire-fighting business at Greybull, Wyoming, USA greeted Mick on arrival. New legislation had rendered this unique fleet obsolete.
    Avoiding the rattle snakes, Mick photographed the classics shapes of C-118s, Hercules, Neptunes, C-97s, Privateers, C-119s and C-82. Sadly the latter two types were the only aircraft expected to meet the reserve price and escape the smelter. Before setting off for home Mick visited the poignant ‘Battle of the Little Big Horn’ monument and finished off the night with his traditional sunset slide - fittingly, a view over Terminal 1 at Heathrow, where most of his journeys for the year began and ended.

    Meetings Review - 5th March 2007

    Mark Coles neatly broke the content of his highly interesting Meetings Night, held on the 5th March, into two parts. Canadian and predominately the Toronto area slides were the order of the day during the first period and rather appropriately, the first aircraft on the agenda was an old friend of Newcastle Airport. We all enjoyed looking once again at a CP Air 747, splendid in its orange and aluminium livery. Vancouver Airport was also visited by Mark, the Intair ATR-42 being particularly interesting. Seattle gave us a look at Worldways' original aircraft, in the form of the venerable DC-6, while the Transair and Quebecair Boeing 707s brought back a few memories of the early generation jet airliners. For the military enthusiast, Mark showed us some great shots of Voodoos in flight – the 4 ship flypast looked tight, whilst the Canadair Argus at the Rockcliffe Aviation Museum brought a sense of serenity. British connections were abound, the shot of the airworthy Avro Lancaster at the Canadian Warplane Museum in Hamilton and the British Antarctic Survey team’s DHC Twin Otter VP-FAW wintering at Toronto being particularly memorable.
    For the second part of the night we formed an orderly semi-circle around Mark as he talked us through the idiosyncrasies and formidable potency of the SBS system incorporated within his laptop. Mark gave us a step by step demonstration of what personal preferences can be programmed into the system and showed us how this relates to aircraft transiting near or over the top of his house. The radar style layout on the screen in front of the audience situated in the middle of Ponteland village was very close to operation happening a few miles to the south, in Newcastle Airports control tower - “I’ve seen the future and I want, no I need a SBS system!"

    Copyright on all text and images within this web site remains with A.Hutchings (2007).