Category Archives: Flying Boats and Sea Planes

January 9, 2012 · 1:58 pm

What do ‘Licence to Kill’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ have to do with writing my Blog?

I watched two memorable films over the festive season and surprisingly enough both taught me something about my blog writing. How?

The first was a James Bond, ‘Licence to Kill’ and the second was ‘Mamma Mia’!

I’ll tell you why at the end of the post. Anyway they both certainly got me thinking.

A New Year brings new thinking and planning and since we had visitors into last week and were also coping with after Christmas illness, yesterday was the first time I really thought of my blog. It was beneficial to have a break from all this Social Media and recharge the batteries but it is also good to spend some time reflecting on what I am trying to achieve and think of the way forward.

Questions I asked myself:

1. Am I happy with the look of my blog?

Yes although I intend to change the picture in the spring to reflect my current writing projects.

2. Do I need to update my ‘About Diana Jackson Page’

Yes

3. Am I happy with the content of the posts?

I have been writing posts in themes and this has worked quite well, reflected in the clouds of tabs at the side. My topics range from book reviews, book shop reviews, family history, background to writing Riduna, Writing tips and posts about the Channel Islands. I would like a more consistent approach for the first couple of months in the year. I have likened it to the way I garden; a little haphazard, allowing surprises to flourish rather than have regimented, well organised flower beds. This approach may not be to everyone’s taste or be the most effective, but those who have visited and commented on posts have enjoyed them.

4. Do I need to do any more careful planning?

A big yes!

4. How effective do I think I am in reaching my target audience?

I’m not sure here. I am reaching an appropriate audience but am I reaching my potential. Probably not.

5. Having thought honestly about the above what am I going to do about it?

  • Be more consistent in my blog themes.
  • Plan more carefully.
  • Yes, have one off posts occasionally to reflect the moment but otherwise stick to the plan.
  • Start with a theme running through January and February.
  • Review at the end of February.

So back to those two films. I loved being lost in the sheer indulgence of unadulterated entertainment for entertainment’s sake. Pure fantasy! In ‘Mamma Mia’ what struck me most was how much the actors enjoyed themselves. Yes, it was corny and hats off to Pierce Brosnan for singing his own songs. (Yes James Bond in musical) But it left me with that ‘feel good’ factor. I want people to enjoy reading my work but I also want to enjoy writing the posts.

 In ‘Licence to Kill’ I was glued to the scene where James Bond fights with a sea plane pilot in mid air, (One day I’ll fly in one myself, maybe not so daredevil though!)  but the scene focussed my mind on the content for my next couple of months of blogs.

A tough act to follow but watch this space!

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October 21, 2011 · 8:32 am

The Catalina – The oldest airworthy flying boat in the UK

Sunday was another red letter day for me in the flying world. We went to the Duxford Airshow, a first time for me and quite a different experience to an afternoon at Shuttleworth, but yet again we were blessed with a fine, relatively warm day for early October.

The 80% male contingent ooohed and ahhhed at the Gloster Meteor, the first British Jet fighter and the Lockheed Martin F-16, a fighting falcon with a

Sitting inside the Catalina!

maximum flying speed of Mach 2+ (whatever that might mean, but it was certainly Fast with a capital F.) Both of these jets were loud, impressive and certainly captured our undivided attention in their unnerving displays of flying antics at speed.

Then, of course, the Supermarine Spitfire MkIX, built in 1943 in Castle Bromwich rather than at Southampton where my main interest lies, as always gained a well deserved respect from the crowd.

The highlight of my day though was the PBY-5 Catalina; a flying boat built in 1943 in Canada, which is certainly the oldest flying boat still capable of flying at this moment in time in the UK. I had never witnessed a flying boat in the air before and enjoyed the pleasure of going on board before the flight and meeting some of the crew. (not me personally I might add, but it was open to the public at £4 a head)

The Catalina glided over us like a graceful white albatross, then swooped on its prey, the enemy submarines below; its smooth hull ready to land on water if a rescue mission was required.  The scene was easy to picture in your mind’s eye, even though the sea was many miles away and fortunately the Catalina had a tricycle like undercarriage in order to land safely at Duxford. It will be on
display in one of the many hangers there over the winter months; as well as undergoing any maintenance due.

I asked a question which the crew were unable to answer.

Which is the oldest airworthy flying boat in the world? Can anyone help with this one?

If you click on the photo below you’ll find a short video on my Diana Jackson’s Author Facebook page:

PBY-5A Catalina at Duxford Oct 2011

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Filed under Early Flight, Flying Boats and Sea Planes, Supermarine

October 3, 2011 · 7:54 am

From Riduna to Ancasta – the seeds to my new novel were sown

What inspired my recent interest in the history of aviation?

I have written about the moment that my debut novel ‘Riduna’ was conceived, but for those of you who were not reading my posts back then, here’s a quick recap.

“I was standing on the Butes looking out over Alderney Harbour and Braye Beach Fort Albert on the island of Alderneytowards Fort Albert, thinking about my father’s stories about my great grandmother Harriet Jane, who was born on the island in the late nineteenth century. We had been on several family holidays on the island of Alderney in the Channel Islands when I was young, but it was only on this holiday, when all the family had reunited on the island and I was in my late 30’s, that my dad began to talk of Harriet. As I tried to imagine her life back then and could see red coated soldiers marching along the bay from the fort towards the harbour, the seed of Riduna was planted in my mind.”

Returning to my opening question, I had a similar moment of inspiration although the setting for this could not have been more different.

I was visiting the Woolston area of Southampton with my parents one weekend; a trip down memory lane for both of them since they grew up in the area and for me it also evoked happy times visiting my grandmother who lived in Newtown Road.

We walked down to where the floating bridge used to leave the shores of Woolston for Southampton over the River Itchen, now under the shadow of the new bridge. Here we read the tastefully embossed plaque which commemorates the birth of the Spitfire.  Next we ambled further north along the river’s edge to try to locate the site of Supermarine. Eventually we found the slipway in front of a higgledy piggledy assortment of buildings and from old photographs we had seen, we knew that that this was the place.

Mum and Dad standing on the Supermarine slipway

While I stood there my imagination was running overdrive thinking of the momentous events in history conceived on this very spot from ‘Supermarine
to Spitfire,’  for which we have RJ Mitchell among others to thank. Then I began to think of the effect on the local businesses, the local economy, the banter in the public houses and the lives of everyday people. My desire for a new journey of research had been granted.

This blog will be the last in my series related to the history of aviation but as soon as my new novel is published I will return; covering topics which will include:

Solent Sky – The Southampton museum in the history of local aviation

Calshot

The Shuttleworth Collection – The archives, the museum itself

Aviation in the Channel Islands

Sea planes and flying boats

Sea plane development

Book reviews I used for my research

…………………………………….

To name but a few directly to related to flight, but my reseach also took to many other places where I met an interesting variety of enthusiastic people!

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Filed under Blogs, Channel Islands, Early Flight, Family History, Flying Boats and Sea Planes, History of Alderney, Riduna, Southampton, Supermarine, The Shuttleworth Collection, Weston Shore, Woolston

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