One Last Time

If you’ve got a spare few minutes, give it a read. If not then enjoy the photo.

 

 

It filled me with great sadness last week to find out that my beloved plane graveyard would soon be no more. The land has been sold to make way for a few thousand new houses and the planes fate has been sealed, I don’t know if they will be scrapped or saved but it’s inevitable now.

 

 

I first visited here in 2007 and it was my first real light painting road trip, I had a blast and did something unique and came away with what then were my best images. This has always been my favorite location with about 15 planes in the middle of nowhere. It was what I had dreamed of. When I first saw the work of Troy Paiva, I wished we had those kinds of locations in this country. We did, they we’re just hard to find. I even took Troy here when he visited.

 

 

This place holds a lot of memories for me and some of my best work was made here. Over the years planes started to disappear, one by one, sold off for restoration to private collectors, it was sad but it was alright because my favorite planes remained and I still had stuff to shoot if even it wasn’t as much as before. A few more years passed and most of the planes had gone. All that remained were The Sea Prince, The Shackleton and the Whirlwind, my 3 favorites, still made the 200 odd miles round trip worth while. Hell I just always assumed they would be here, The Shackleton is just too damn big to move!

 

 

Me and a few friends had one last trip in 2011 to bid them farewell as they could go at any time. It was the super moon and what a night it was! I shot the best photos I’d ever taken on that night and are still some of my best to this day. This place has always made me happy, and also sad at the same time, sad that one-day they will be gone, rotten, scrapped or even restored. In my head I naively thought maybe I could save them one day, maybe I would be that person with land and money and would take them away to save, to be fair I’d just have a plane graveyard in my garden and take photos of it all the time. 11 years on and I’m no better off now than I was then.

 

 

When I found out the plane graveyard was being demolished I was real bummed out, and just moped around the house all day because I really wanted to go and say goodbye but couldn’t justify the trip. At 9:00 that night my wife said we were going to get fuel so I could go one last time, seen as they could be gone any day, even leaving it a day could be too late and I would regret it forever.

Also my wife and son really wanted to see them, as we had never been as a family before and they had only seen my photos and heard my stories. The plane graveyard is not close, it was a 6 hour round trip in the end. We arrived around midnight, the solitary security hut was still there with it’s annoying security light, after scouting it out from a distance for a bit I realized that the hut was unmanned and we snuck under the fence. As I walked in I could see the silhouette of The Sea Prince in the sky. The Sea Prince had a new military style paint job since I had last been which I did prefer to the old one. The place is now mad overgrown as no one is tending to it with 5ft weeds everywhere, we had to fight a path up to the plane and made camp.

 

 

Now I’ve romanticized this place for years, it was the most beautiful unearthed gem with endless possibilities for stunning photos to be made but it was sad to see the plane in such a state, even the new paint job done a few years previously was crumbling off, which I liked, but it was obvious that this hidden gem had not only been exposed to the elements but to the arseholes as well. There was a barrage of litter inside from beer bottles to coke cans, anything that was not bolted down has been ripped out, and even things that were bolted down had attempted to be removed. Every window had been smashed and there was glass everywhere along with many people who had “been ‘ere” and “luved” someone scratched in to the paint.

 

 

Although they had seen better days I was here to documents the final days of these old forgotten relics one last time. I have always had a strong connection with the planes here that I have not felt with any other abandoned vehicle, machine, building or plane, and not in a “weird” way but…. Ok maybe it’s a little weird; maybe some other light painters will understand where I’m coming from?

 

 

I’ve not been “myself” for the past few years, possibly since my Mum passed away, I’ve just not felt like doing anything at all, not really, I’ve barely existed, in fact these are the first pictures I’ve taken this year. This was the first photo I took on that night and from the second the shutter opened up so did I. My wife said it was brilliant to see me snap back in my element. I had gone back to my roots, good old fashioned flash gun and gel light painting, I’ve tried to keep up with the times with all these fancy spinning lights but really this is where my heart is and always will be. There was no trial and error going on, every shot was first time every time, lighting was perfect, colours were complimenting. Apart from the weather not making its mind up about being starry or cloudy everything was going my way for what felt like the first time in years. I was just waiting for the police to rock up and throw me out, but no the whole night was uninterrupted and I came away with more photos than I’ve taken in the past few years.

 

 

After shooting The Sea Prince for a bit and taking a self portrait for posterity It was time to make our way over to The Shackleton. My wife and son have only ever seen photos of these planes so when I told them how big it was they we’re shocked, not as much as when they saw it, to hear someone see it and say “wooow” for the first time, is just great. Again sadness came over me as I saw the state it was in, 5/6ft weeds everywhere, windows smashed, crude graffiti on the side from 15’, no propellers. The only way my wife and I could describe it was like watching a dinosaur die, like on Jurassic Park, this huge thing is lying before you and there is nothing you can do to save it but watch.

 

 

I shone my torch over to the Whirlwind and to no surprise it had gone. I believe I saw a picture of it the other day in it’s new home as an obstacle on a paint ball course. I had a walk round best I could to look at the old office, the caravan and the old workshop. Again everything had been smashed, trashed and stolen, the only thing that could have been worse is if it was set on fire. Every window smashed, paint thrown over all walls, literally everything not bolted down was taken.

 

 

As I walked in to the workshop I heard a familiar sound, a little flapping, or tapping, I shine my torch to the roof to see my old friend, the chopper hopper. Anyone who remembers the story and photos will know that a little bird used to live in the Whirlwind, and he sat very nicely and let me photograph him. With the Whirlwind gone he seemed to have moved in to the workshop. Almost like fate that we met again at the end, he did seem a little distressed, possibly that his home had been taken away.

 

 

Now I never do this, as there are unwritten rules that we abide by - to leave a place as you found it. To enter but not to break, you shall not vandalize and you shall have respect but, the place is being demolished and it was my last time here. I wanted a souvenir other than my photos to remind me of the place. I was planning on just taking a piece of the smashed glass from The Sea Prince but as I was about to leave the workshop this caught my eye in the corner of the room. It was battered and beaten with bits of thrown paint on it, it had been trodden on, was rusty and covered in bird shit. It was perfect. An old fashioned Oxo tin, I have one the exact same at home that I got from my Nan’s house after she passed. It was perfect.

 

 

I walked back round to The Shackleton. It has always been my favorite plane, I’ve always felt a true affinity for it, I don’t know why. Most people think it is the most hideous thing they have ever seen, not me. It has real beauty. I actually have a tattoo of it on my left arm. Apparently there are plans for it’s future, although I do not know them I will be keep an eye out.

 

 

I wasn’t quite ready to do The Shackleton justice as all my usual angles were overgrown I’d have to be more creative. I decided to go and see if the Meteor was still around the corner on pallets. It was, although heavily over grown I made the best of it and came away with a few photos one last time.

 

 

I walked back to The Shackleton again, I felt it now, it was time. I just sort of walked around it and the angles just kept coming to me, angles I never would have picked before but new angles that seemed right for the occasion. Every time I said we’re finished and went to walk away another angle would catch my eye and we would stay a bit longer. Maybe I just didn’t want to leave it. After collecting my last few photos I said I was done and it was time to get a few more of The Sea Prince before leaving.

 

 

We started walking away and as I got to the edge of the compound I stopped dead in my tracks, and I could barely get the words out of my mouth, I said “I have to say goodbye” I asked my wife and son if they wanted to come and say goodbye as well or stay here while I did it. They said they would like to say goodbye as well. We walked back over to the gentle giant and as I arrived at my old friend to say goodbye for the very last time, I didn’t know what to say, no words or emotions came to me in this time. All I could do was hold my hand against the side of the plane and say “Thank you for being in my life.” Nothing else mattered in this moment, the 3 of us stood in the middle of a field at 3am with our hands on the side of a plane in silence. I don’t know how long we did this for; it might have been 30 second it might have been 2 minutes or more. This moment was timeless and I’ll never have another like it. Just before I removed my hand from its body I literally almost felt it die, probably just my emotions but It was almost like it had been waiting for me to come back and say goodbye before it could leave. As we started walking away my wife asked me if I was ok and was I upset. It was sad, it was hard to say goodbye, but it was ok. I was grateful for the joy and happiness that I’ve had from its existence rather than sad for the fact that its existence may end soon.

 

 

We started walking back down to The Sea Prince for a few more photos then it would be time to leave. We set up camp again and I got a few more shots. It literally started getting light as I was shooting and it was time to go. We said goodbye in the same fashion as we did The Shackleton, hands on the side, silence and said thank you. Again it was sad but it was ok. We packed up and started walking back to the gate. I turned round for one last look at the silhouette I was greeted with never to be seen again by my eyes.

 

 

We got back to the van and started our 3 hour journey home, I wasn’t even tired, I was contempt, On the way home me and my wife spoke about our goodbyes, and she told me that in our silence with our hands on The Shackleton she also said thank you for it bringing me such happiness and she too felt the connection that I had, like it was alive, like it was dying, like she wanted to help it and save it. She loved it just as I did.

 

 

Me, my wife and son shared an awesome adventure together, one that made me feel me again, I actually felt excitement and anticipation to go out again and rekindle something I once had such passion for. It was the plane graveyards final gift to me.

 

 

This has been hard for me, and emotional to write but I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this adventure that has been special to me, or just the nonsensical ramblings of a guy who is losing his shit over some old planes that no one else cares about.

 

Done