Tag: aircraft

#365daysofbiking Nice chopper mister

August 20th -Whilst riding down Old Park Road in Darlaston at lunchtime on my way to Wednesbury, I heard a tremendous noise from the adjacent industrial estate.

Looking up the embankment through the trees, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Quickly zipping onto the estate and up the drive, I managed to take a few pictures of what I assume was the head honcho of the adjacent, very large car sales pitch taking off for… maybe sunnier climes.

Nothing succeeds like excess.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2ZgBXQ3
via IFTTT

May 17th – I think this is a first for 365 days of biking. This is a photo of something that is no longer here.

This is a cellphone mast, located just off the A38 at Efflinch, near Barton under Needwood. Up until recently, there was a another transmission mast here with a very specific function: it broadcast a non-directional radio beacon for aircraft. The transmission was continual, incessant and could be picked up locally at the very end of the longwave band on a normal transistor radio; it broadcast the morse tones for the letters ‘LIC’ (for Lichfield) continuously in a mysterious, musical tone. I was transfixed by it as a kid, because I had no idea what it was.

If anyone back then had shown me a numbers station, my wee head would have exploded.

The station stopped transmitting in 2010 when the beacon was decommissioned, but I think the mast has only recently gone – I used to watch for it coming home along the A38. Cycling this way, often at dusk, I knew that from here, I was only an hour away from home.

When the relentless, inscrutable morse died, so did a tiny bit of my childhood.

Find out about the end of the LIC NDB beacon here.

April 18th – A great long ride today, on a warm, wonderful spring day. I headed out to Honey Hill, at No Man’s Heath via Canwell, Hints, Hopwas and Harlaston, returning via Netherseal, Lullington, Edingale and Lichfield. On the way, I stopped, as I always do, at the old ROC post at Harlaston. It was still in a very sorry state, but I was reminded of something. 

Stopping for a drink and a breather at the top of Willowbottom Lane, just by the bunker, I looked down and noticed a barely visible square of bricks and concrete. This is another reminder of past conflict, for these are the remains of a second world war anti-aircraft watchpost.

High on the hill above Tamworth, it’s an excellent spot for it. A sobering thing on a sunny, spring afternoon.