Phil Perry1

Ground crew and armourers refill ammunition belts with .303 bullets. Aircraft in the background are Hawker Hurricane Mark 1s of No. 85 Squadron RAF at Lille-Seclin.

Mosquito Tsetse. . .four x 20mm cannon and a Six pound autoloader gun too. . .!

Here's your starter for ten. . . Armourers wheel a 4,000-lb HC bomb ('Cookie') for loading into a De Havilland Mosquito B Mark IV (modified) of No. 692 Squadron RAF at RAF Graveley, Huntingdonshire. I never heard of RAF 'Gravely' . . .going to research it now. . . . .

US 'drops planned Pakistan F-16 fighter jet subsidy' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl... There is also a report of a Helicopter crash in Norway, 11 fatalities.

I saw an inflatable room on Fizzogbook yesterday,. . . . I believe ( I could be wrong here and usually am ) that it was an Australian invention, where some enterprising person has invented a cloth material, impregnated with concrete. The rooms are made to order, and contain an air pump which blows up the material to full size, after the packaging has been filled to the top with water. You then have five hours, before the concrete element sets and when it is inflated and dried, it makes a solid structure which people can actually stand on, and comes complete with prefixed doors. . . . . .scrambling to find the video. . . . .will try and post it. . .not much good for space exploration,. . .bit heavy, but very clever. Useful for buildings out in the middle of nowhere special,. . .and dead easy to set up. . . .

Hmmm,. . .Okay David,. . .from Swindon. . . no Oceans around,. . all we've got to offer is the Bristol Channel, and the English Channel . . .! But it's not that far to go and have a look at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire,. . . . Around a forty minute drive I would have thought,. . . Ever since I went there, I had a religious experience, it was wonderful,. . . I'm now a fully fledged Jedi. ( Shame about the Euro rules re low wattage light sabres though ) There are plenty of small airfields around, you might even be able to blag a quick flight ! ! depending upon how Mrs. Fox feels about it ! The Shuttleworth Trust air museum at Old Warden airfield, is probably a good hour and a quarter drive, but certainly worth a visit if you have time, some really brilliant flying specimens there, check opening hours on the web though, not sure about weekdays there. Check the LAA and BMAA websites, for info about local airfields, should the missus be in agreement about that ( ! ) Hope you enjoyed your trip to Russia, Dassveedanya. ( whatever the heck that means ) Phil

Yes,. . .So did I,. . .I had a ticket too,. . .then something came up and I had to flog it to someone else. . . drat !. Wonder how long you're staying in the UK David, you may have told me at Otherton but being fairly old. . . I forget things !

Nice story Sir. I landed at Scampton on the way to a flyout in my Flexwing some years ago, with my Daughter Leanne in the back seat. It was a hot summer day and very thermic. She said those words which every pilot dreads, " I think I'm going to be sick. . ." I had got a clearance to overfly Scampton whilst the Arrows were based somewhere else, from the controllers at nearby Waddington, the military zones are right next to each other as you'll probably remember. I had just landed my tiny trike on their enormous, billiard table smooth tarmac, and I asked the controller if I could pull up short due to the passenger sickness problem. They were very kind and said I could just stop on the runway. Just as I ground to a halt, poor Lea barfed up all over the back of my flying suit and helmet ! I have a photo of her trying to clean the aircraft up with a rag and a can of coke. Ah,. . .memories. Daughter was only nine years old then, and is thirty next month, so it was a while back !

I think the old stock answer to that John, is "If you have ask. . .. yer can't afford it ! ! ! " ( I'll bet FlyVulcan has an idea . . .)

Correct GG,. . . new legislation introduced by that nice Mr. Camoron,. . . can comment on anything at all, providing it's NTDWI. ( SSHHHH ! The thought police are out there !)

Air Tattoo - RAF Fairford The last airworthy Avro Vulcan. Moves afoot to keep it flying with new public funding. I hope it succeeds. The incredible story of XH558 will not be forgotten. It is one where people’s passion overcame great odds. As such, the big graceful Vulcan will be sorely missed from the skies over the UK. Then again, the aircraft has come back from the brink to fly again multiple times. Maybe, just mayb,e XH558 will soar again.

That's interesting Birdy,. . . .the radio chatter bit I mean,. . .when I was flying around in the centre during the seventies, I often carried a vinten taxi radio, converted to the 2 metre ham band, I could nearly always raise a convo on ch 40, 50, or 51 FM, when I hadn't heard a damn thing for hours on the VHF airband ! Once worked Darwin Flight service on 8 megs HF, ( if I remember the freq. correctly. . .) by winding the wire trailing aerial out around 104 turns, but since I was around 1300 nm away from them, I just did it and called it a "radio check" . . .they were quite nice about it and we chatted for a few minutes ! The CFA "Smokenet" was another channel you could have a chat on, but the RFDS pilots were a bunch of nancies and wouldn't talk to a PPL,. . . .too low class I guess. My croppie / instructor mate Sir David Squirrell once regaled me of a tale where one of his mates was up the bush one day and Darwin kept insisting he was lost when he didn't give them a really accurate position fix. . . in the end he "225'd" the station, apparently, this was the first time an aircraft commander had ever done that. He admitted to David that his actual position on th WAC chart was " 2 miles West abeam numerous sand ridges" Much better than fisherman's stories these were. . . . . And now you're moaning about TOO MUCH radio traffic ? ? ? ? there's no pleasing some people. Phil

Yes, that would be a bit of a conundrum if it were not for the fact that our nice Mr. Camoron has cut defence spending beyond the bone, so I guess 75% of our hairyplanes are stacked one on top of anther in a multi storey hangar somewhere, leaving just a half dozen or so for training. . . whereas the private Civvie types stand idle gathering dust as due to world financial problems, the owners can't afford to run them . . . ? apart from a handful of rich people that is,. . .still,. . .it enhances air safety wonderfully, bugger all to crash into midair. . . .

Well,. . . they've really upset me now,. . .this afternoon, my mate Chris ( yes,. . .another boring pilot type,. . ) was driving along a country lane with his van full of home made beer,. . .( Brown Ale, . . 7.5% ABV ) some of this consignment was destined for Phil's back shed shack. . . .( he is the Club's home made beer guru and has been succesfully supplying most of us with illegal non-govermnmental drinking covestibles for some years. . .) when a Tornado GR summat or other flew directly over him at ( he reckons,. . .but you know how pilots exaggerate ) about 150 feet,. . .doing around ( And he was only guessing here. . .) 450 knots. . . . the noise startled him so much, ( So HE said. . .) that he slammed on his brakes, ( he said that he thought he'd run over something and it had stuck on his underside ) . . . . that he momentarily lost control of his charge and ran into a ditch. . . . The result was that the load of bottled beer shot forward and 70% of it was lost in broken glass. . . . . . Every cloud has a silver lining ( . . .of course, . . .unless you are flying thru it accidentally. . .) so he came to MY PLACE FIRST. . . so I got primary dibs at what was left intact. I am now enjoying some rather "Newcastle Brownish" substance which is going down very well,. . .especially with my Brother Ray's home made vodka on the side. . . . . . This is why I can continue to make sparkling and intuitive posts to inadvertantly annoy the $hit out of Teckair and a few others and continue to keep up my reputation as completely irrelevant. *****EDIT TO UPDATE***** Just had a word with Chris the bootlegger,. . . . he's called the RAF on Freephone 2230 and asked why one of their aircraft caused him to run off the road,. . .they said ( so he says ) SORRY. . .we realise that your airfield zone has what we call a class 2 "Avoidance" category,. . .but we are training quite a few foreign pilots, and that particular aircraft crew were several degrees off track" . . .end of conversation, end of phone call. ( I should have mentioned that Chris was diriving past our airfield when this incident allegedly occurred. . . . .) we have had an RAF low flight training avoidance category for 20 yeras, as their antics were upsetting some of the students,. . .having high speed jets flying underneath them in the circuit.. . . .

Struth, . . .you could be right there cobber,. . . thanks for the pointer.

Probably a bad time to discuss doggie issues, during the PRC dogmeat festival. . .?

*****UPDATE***** The pilot who "Murdered a dog" is no longer working with the FLYBE airline. This report from a small single column on page 28 in yesterday's daily Mail newspaper. The very short report concluded that "It is not clear whether the pilot actually resigned,. . .or had his employment terminated by the company following a long period of paid suspension . . ." So there you have it. . . . . If you wanna keep working as a pilot, don't drown your neighbour's doggie, unless you are certain that the media won't find out. The bloke was in his very early forties I believe, so he'll probably be able to continue flying for some other outfit,. .or instructing,. .or something. . .? His experience ought to be saleable I would have thought. . . None of the media reports indicated whether he was an F/O or captain. . . ( I wonder if he pays his TV license on time. . . .)

Sorry Turbo - I already admitted to "Self-Drift" in an above post,. . . .great way to get a Mother's club discussion going though isn't it . . .? Or don't you have a TV tax to watch ABC ? ? ? ?

It certainly is Marty, and completely indefensible nowadsays as you point out, with all the channels available free to air. . . Why pay all that money for BBC ONLY ? . . . they get away with it mainly due to the Criminal Offence bit, the Govt' are already considering de-criminalising the fee, then that will be the end of the road for the Beeb's excessive overmanagement and gold plated salaries and pensions for all of the "Non-Job" Luvvie Leftie staff they are stuffed with. They also get substantial funding from the European Parliament, so you can guess what side their "Public Broadcaster Impartial Reporting" is going to spin during the In / Out referendum on the EU gravy train that we are now legally guaranteed at the end of 2017 . They rely on frightening people by regularly visiting homes to check on licenses, where there has been one before,. . .but have no right of entry to the property. Saw a show last week where many people told them in no uncertain terms to "Eff off mate, . . .we don't watch BBC crap " Should be some movement on this within the next 12 months hopefully, ME ? . . .I was going to argue the toss, but Mrs. Phil gave in and paid the tax whilst I was out ! ! Silly woman, fraid she is not an uncultured midland oik like me. . .

AAh,. . young Marty. . . sure and oi had no idea you were from de emerald oisle . . . ! ! ! ( what we really need is a quantum leap in tekno to produce keyboards with a programmable accent. . . .? ) Strange how we have progressed in just a few posts. . . . from DOGGICIDE to BBC license tax. . . . ( YES I KNOW - I mentioned it in Rant #70 hereinbefore posted. . . . .) . ( ! ) [ perhaps POOCHICIDE would be a better descriptor for dogmurder. . . .Oh, and POOCHICUTION. . .for sheep worriers. . . . . .]

No, not anymore. . . they just use previous records, and when you buy a brand new TV set, the retailer has to ( by law ) have your address details at the point of sale for the TV Licensing database. It is a criminal offence here to watch live TV broadcasts without a license, even on the web, if it is live streaming. . . .whether or not you are watching the BBC, if the platform is capable of recieving Beeb,. . .you've got to pay. Average fine for not doing so is £1,000.00 and a permanent criminal record.

This is the problem with cats,. . .they destroy so much indiginous wildlife, and the "Catflap" has a lot to do with this problem. You just CAN'T let a cat out at night, as it will decimate the wildlife population in your area and they range for quite a few Kilometres radius to do their dirty deeds. . . . . never like d the damned things, never had one as a pet,. . don't want one. Well,. . .if you've formulated an idea which works for you, then GREAT !. . .my next door neighbour has a realy BIG pond full of Koi Carp, and his main problem is herons,. . . . but they are a protected species, so although his pool is around eight feet deep, he still loses fish. . . .so he has had to cover the entire pool with mesh to protect the fish from the herons. . . . . GEEZ it's hard to have a hobby nowadays innit ? . . . the CAA want all sorts of bloody paperwork so you can go flying,. . . The UK Govt. want £145.00 per annum just to watch the telly, ( even if you DON'T watch the bloody leftie BBC. . .) The cats pinch yer fish. . . . you can't buy NON-HALAL meat at the corner shop. . . . .I dunno what the world is coming to mate. . . Think I'm going to have to become a Cat-Hating vegetarian, and junk the TV like my mate Moss has done,. . .but they still don't believe he hasn't got a telly, and visit him every month to check. . . . . .

You could have had him for nowt mate !, but since this was 1975 (ish) he'd now be around 280 odd dog years older than he was then,. . .probably well into his doggiepension now I'd imagine. . .in some carekennel somewhere maybe . . . . AS to your feline fish removal problem, I'd recommend a smallbore shottie with a nightscope. . .?

"Phlatulent Phil. . .? "

Hey Phil,. . . . .don't sweat it mate,. . . . ."Living in my What ? ? ? ? ? " . . .If you think you are in the shadow of a burntout cretin llike me, then I really feel for you mate. Don't be bloody daft. Most of the stuff I write on here is crap and noone believes it . . .but it does while away the evenings, which is why I like being an internet troll. . . . . . Not much else to do when you are semi retired and all of your alleged conquests and achievements ( ! ) are long gone. . . . .! ( And I'll bet I weigh more than you ! ) If it bothers you that much,. . .I'll use one of my middle names,. . .no,. . .not tarquin,. . .or Andrew,. . .how about James ?. . . .I could use "JIM" if that releases you from my shadow old son. . . . .