Duxford - 2nd October 2007

Having been talked into attending Helitech '07 by my good friend, Paul Dopson, the two of us made our way to Duxford on a very grey Tuesday morning.

This was my first Helitech and having registered online, we collected our passes and made our way through the masses of trade stands to the external static displays.

I didn't count them, but would estimate there were approximately 25 helicopters on static, ranging from new build company demonstrators, all the way through to examples looking for new homes. The two most interesting were perhaps the Sikorsky S92 and the Agusta AW139. The former was in the VIP fit, and the latter kitted out for SAR duties.

Many of the helicopters on display carried unusual 'add-ons', from thermal imaging cameras and spotlights, through to inflatable tanks on the skids, and the like.

With the static walkround complete, we headed over to the museum, starting our journey at the newly opened AirSpace hangar.

It may have cost £25m to put together, but we both agreed that it'd been done very well. It's not too cluttered and the lighting used is a nice white colour, however, the ground floor exhibits would benefit massively from some underfloor lighting.

It was also extremely reassuring to see the Shackleton and Victor inside getting some well needed TLC.

With our walkround complete we headed over to Hangar 2 where we met one of The Fighter Collection's engineers, Martyn, who we both knew as "Boghopper" on UKAR. He gave us the complete tour of the hangar, including the chance to peer into Miss Velma's cockpit and to sit in the Staggerwing. A real highlight of the day, and my thanks go to Martyn for taking the time out to show us round.

On we moved to Hangar 3, where the Blenheim rebuild is continuing apace.

We also found the FW190 'new build' residing here, and this had been one of the items that we both really wanted to photograph, before it heads off across the pond.

On to the American Air Museum, where nothing had changed since my previous visit. First time in there with the 10-22mm lens though, so a few new perspectives were possible.

It was quite dark outside now, and the contents of hangar's 4 and 5 didn't exactly make for great pictures.

All in all a pretty good day, despite the weather. Helitech was tough to photograph, but given that entry is free you can't complain. The TFC tour really was the icing on the cake though!