avtur

Terrific ... what a take-off

Posted by Mike Etheridge 1 on 09/06/2015 19:13:02: As for Hunter G-HUNT, was it the plane that crashed at Dunsfold some years ago? Well according to G-INFO, the CAA registration website, it is still registered but the last entries go no further than the mid '80's.

Posted by avtur on 08/06/2015 17:25:43: A Chinook has just flown over following the standard approach to runway 23R at Manchester, threshold is about 2 miles away. Makes a change from the normal commuter and holiday types expected at this time of the afternoon. Local news reported today that the Chinook had diverted into Manchester with a technical problem, after an overnight session with magic spanners it departed this morning.

What's flying over my house ... ... every aircraft departing from Manchester today! The wind is from the North East today so everything is departing from runway 05L, I live about 2 miles from the runway the first turning point for departures is directly over our house so I get to see the underside of every departing aircraft. It's interesting to see the different heights they achieve at this distance. They do tend to stop conversation though ....

A Chinook has just flown over following the standard approach to runway 23R at Manchester, threshold is about 2 miles away. Makes a change from the normal commuter and holiday types expected at this time of the afternoon.

Posted by The Wright Stuff on 08/06/2015 16:37:58: I'm afraid I see the location as very much secondary to the quality and scope of the centre. Of course in an ideal world it would be equal for everyone. We don't live in that world. There are lots of 'National' centres that are not in the geometric centre of England and Wales. The National Railway Museum? Nope. National Gallery? Nope. National Maritime Museum? The National Museum of Computing? National Horseracing Museum? National Museum of the Royal Navy? National Army Museum, National Science Museum? Need I go on? I have to say I completely agree with this comment; choose a location that best serves the purpose and if the facility really is that good people will travel. I don't have a strong view about the existence National Flying Centre. I probably wouldn't have a strong desire to visit, although if I did find reason to visit I would be more concerned about the quality of the venue and facilities on offer, the distance I had to travel would be less important.

Mac have moved to the no cost upgrade for the operating system so perhaps that has influenced Microsoft. By coincidence my invitation to reserve 'W10' popped up today (I'm currently on W7), so I went ahead and reserved it. The end user is left to decide when to activate the install.   Edited By avtur on 04/06/2015 19:15:04

The Vulcan is doing a tour of UK 27th & 28th June. She will over-fly locations around the UK where there are remaining static airframes of the V-force aircraft, so that's about 20 locations over the 2 days. The details are tucked away in the link provided by Phil Cooke earlier in this thread, follow the 'more info' link for the 2 dates mentioned. I'm very pleased to have found out about this as there is a Vulcan sitting on the ground about 3 miles away from me, just up the road at Woodford,

At last ... he's decided to go ... hopefully football can move on now !!!

Posted by Cuban8 on 30/05/2015 13:17:08: Just Googled some figures. Between 2010 and 2013, 7200 people were killed on the UK's roads. Extrapolating the figures to date means we're almost certain to be over the 10000 mark by now. Just imagine that, the population of a typical fair sized town wiped out every five years or so. Hysteria about 'poison chicken' in the papers, yet we still accept the road carnage almost without thought. That's a very good point, the fatality rate has been falling for the past 10 years or more, back in 2000 there were nearly 3500 fatalities, in 2013 the figure had fallen to just over 1700. The figure for 2014 actually rose slightly on the 2013, but in general figures are at an all time low. That may come as something of a surprise given the poor driving we see on the roads every day. It is probably the improvements in vehicle engineering which accounts for some of the reducing fatality figures.  Cuban8 makes a really good point about comparing the number of road deaths with other potential threats to our wellbeing. The recently identified 'potentia'l threat from eating chicken has made headlines in all forms of news media, the chances of death are remote, but there is certainly the potential for many upset stomachs, some could be quite severe. And yet we (as a society) appear to be accept that we loose 1700 lives a year to motoring incidents but where are the headlines about this? All road deaths are preventable, yet we accept 1700 per year and there are few news headlines about it. As individuals we may have concerns about this and anyone who has suffered such a loss among family and/or friends will be particularly sensitive about it. Yet somehow 'we' as a society at large don't appear to be doing too much to reduce the figure.   Edited By avtur on 31/05/2015 00:51:22

Posted by Bill_B on 30/05/2015 14:46:36:   .... Secondly, it's not 'road tax', it's VED, Vehicle Excise Duty ..... I think you'll find it is 'road tax' ... take a look at the government website, all references are to vehicle tax or car tax, or take a look at the reminder next time your 'tax' is due, it clearly says 'vehicle tax'  ... the term VED was used for many years to 'disguise' the charge from being called tax. We all know it is a tax and even the government has now given up trying to call it something else. As for 'dash cams' they are becoming very popular and evidence from them is certainly being used to provide evidence for some prosecutions. It probably depends where you live and drive as to whether or not they are a benefit, for those of us who live in urban/city areas it certainly looks as though dash cams can be useful, especially to prove that you were the innocent party in an incident. Edited By avtur on 31/05/2015 00:24:35

The only way this will get sorted is if the sponsors take action ... all the problems at FIFA are related to money and large amounts being syphoned off by corrupt individuals. The only way to stop this is to stop the flow of money, i.e. from the sponsors. I think if just one of the major sponsors was willing to take action the others would follow ... but no one wants to be the first to move. For my money either McDonalds or Coca-Cola should be the ones to move first, they are consumer products aimed at families who should most be wanting to distance themselves from such a corrupt and deceitful organisation, as FIFA appears to be. Edited By avtur on 30/05/2015 23:52:08

Another interesting aviation job currently being advertised is at the Shuttleworth Collection. They are looking for a new CEO (due to retirement), salary c.£90,000. I suspect the successful applicant will need one heck of a C.V. !!

I seem to remember attending a course at work about improving communications where we were told that up to 70-80% of communication is 'none verbal', e.g. that body language, facial expression, tone of voice (et al) play a significant part in how our message comes across to others. I think Internet forums are a fine example of this, here it is entirely down to our choice of words and it is so easy for the 'intention' of words by one person not to match the 'perception' of words by others. Once this starts and you have a misunderstanding then it can escalate, especially if one or other of the parties is 'having a bad day'... and I think we we all have bad days ... sometimes.

Indeed, enjoyable and interesting, but sad. However when you hear the Boeing guy talk about new aircraft being upto 60, or even 70%, more efficient to operate then you can understand why it happens; especially when you consider what has happened to fuel prices over the years.

I can't attend but ever so glad for the organisers and all who will attend ... hope you all have a great weekend ...

Given the importance and popularity of this event would it be possible for the mods to make this post a 'sticky' and keep it at the top of the page to ensure that everyone sees it ... just a thought.

Sadly I have experience with 'travellers' taking up unlawful residence. There are two areas very close to where I live where this has happened many times. Typically the only way they move on is when court orders are in place ... a process that takes time. Long term its all about making the site inaccessible but then there are consequences for legitimate users ... Fingers crossed for a miracle ...

It is true there used to be many grades of Avgas but these days you'll be hard pressed to find anything other than 100LL ... although you may find UL91 which is the 'upcoming' unleaded version. In truth you'll find it impossible to 'buy' Avgas because it can only be sold as an aviation fuel to full sized aircraft. You may be able to obtain small quantities which have been drained off through sampling systems, but that would be an 'unofficial' source .... nothing wrong with it ... simply a commercial loss for the supplier. I've worked in the aviation fuel supply industry for the last 25 years, I think I know about most of the options for supplying fuel ... one way or another ...   The reason you may be looking at Avgas is to avoid ethanol and unfortunately it is true to say that finding an ethanol free source of 'petrol' these days is all but impossible. There are some geographical areas where it is 'rumoured' that supplies of higher octane unleaded (super unleaded) are still ethanol free, but the information is anecdotal and not reliable. I run a 'classic' sports car, a Triumph Spitfire, which in an ideal world I would not use an ethanol based fuel in; however in reality it is unavoidable and in truth it has not proved a problem over the past five years. I think there is a need to keep a sense of proportion in these matters.   Edited By avtur on 18/05/2015 22:49:39

I was on a full size aviation website a few minutes ago when my attention was drawn to a posting on the official Vulcan to the Sky website. It has been confirmed that this will be the Vulcan's last flying season. Very much the end of an era, but then perhaps we were lucky to get a second bite of the cherry and see her in the air this last couple of years. I guess it'll be busy wherever she goes this year!

I saw this on another forum and thought it was a great idea... so have a think about it and let’s say what is good about life… there is far too much talk about what’s bad .. so come on let’s talk about what is good… I’m sure there is plenty to say … here is my starter …. First, and most important … I'm still alive at 59 ... Being made redundant two years ago ... was a blessing in disguise ... lucky that I had 20 years service Within months of redundancy I suffered a heart attack which made me re-evaluate my life ... which was a good outcome because I listened to the doctors ... Sort of retired … well I receive a modest private pension so I set up my own business ... consultancy in what I've done for the past 25 years. I have a beautiful wife for the last 31 years ... and two daughters both successfully through Uni ... I have a choice of 7 models to fly whenever I have the time, my club field is only 3 miles away. Driving my Triumph Spitfire ... have owned it for four years ... 5000 miles ... only ever driven with the roof down ... I can't complain about anything in my life now ... by heck I'm lucky ...

Posted by Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 09/05/2015 14:27:20: The polls seem to have genuinely, comprehensively and pretty universally got it wrong. Strange. BEB They do indeed, although one polling company apparently carried out a poll on Wednesday evening and produced a result extremely close to the final outcome, the polling company decided not to publish because it was far different from all other polls, I can't remember the name of the company but it's boss was interviewed on Friday by Sky News. An American 'pollster' was also interviewed and he commented that the way the majority of UK polls are carried out leaves something to be desired. Apparently most just launch straight into "what is your voting intention" which catches people off-guard. A more reliable answer is given if a number of unbiased but probing questions are asked first in order to get the person thinking and to feel comfortable about the conversation, and then the question of voting intention is asked. Ah well, they have 5 years for postmortems and to come up with a more reliable polling method. Let's enjoy the peace until them Edited By avtur on 12/05/2015 14:24:35

All done bar the shouting ... not the result expected or predicted. Maybe the dust will settle a little bit sooner and we can all get back to normal

BBC news reporting an engine fire here Oh dear, just as the airshow season starts, hope it isn't too serious ...   Edited By avtur on 07/05/2015 21:41:37

I think there is lot can be said about politics without declaring one's own views and thereby not getting into a debate about my man is better than yours. Personally I do feel strongly that while anyone who chooses not to vote is excising their right; in the event things don't workout how one might want them to if you haven't voted that's a rather weak position form which to criticise what may happen in the future.