2nd September 2020 - 1 military Mokus + 1 Gazelle at Pipis-hegy
I heard a helicopter approaching this afternoon whilst I was photographing butterflies at The Small Quarry. I quickly made a few shots of what looked like a Szolnok Mokus AS350, but it seemed to have an orange strut on its port side. I quickly drove up to the airfield just as the Mokus was landing. I noted that it was No. 101 (the repaired aircraft). After a short while it took to the air, making a 'bee line' for Szolnok ... so I thought that was the end for me for today. A little later, I heard rotor blades again, but this time, accompanied by the 'toot toot' sirens of Police cars. Then I remembered: it was the cycling 'Tour De Hongrie' today, and the police were leading the riders up Main road 24 to the Mátra ... and the helicopter was filming the event. I quickly drove up to the top of the airfield, just in time to photograph what I thought was the Mokus making the filming runs ... just like at the F1 Grand Prix. Eventually, the riders had completed the course at Kékes summit and the helicopter flew back to Pipis. As can be seen, I was able to take lots of close-up photos. I immediately saw that the helicopter carried a civil registration: HA-LFN ... which baffled me as I was sure I'd seen 101 earlier. It wasn't until processing the photos on the big screen that I saw that I'd photographed TWO helicopters today, and the filming 'copter was, in fact, a Westland Gazelle ! The machine is owned by Hidroplan Nord, and based at Hajmáskér, near Veszprém. The company supplies helicopters for many uses, including V.I.P transport, sports events, and TV and film work. For most of the afternoon, there was an aircraft circling at quite high altitude and sounding very much like our beloved Antonov. It was very difficult to locate, with eye and lens, but eventually I managed to take some shots of it ... but as yet, it is still unidentified.