Phil Perry

I gave up my I/R after Birmingham Intl. started charging £45 + 20% VAT a go for ILS / missed approach practice. . .( Thieving barstardz ! ) Didn't wish to fly 75 Nautical each way to keep current with ILS. . . .NDB holds / Letdowns didn't count for the full I/R reval regrettably !

Here Ya go Mr. Blanket,. . .real cool place to fly in,. .NO landing fees, No parking fees, . . .occasional food, Free coffee / Tea anytime. . . fuel by prior arrangement. . .six runways. . . Hell ? what could be better ? GPS Co-ords are : 52 :42 :496 / 002 : 05 : 563. <othertonairfield.co.uk> I don't suppose the 185 fuel stops enroute would bother a CPL trainee. . good Nav practice too . . .( Warning ** Avoid overflying Baghdad, Mosul or Damascus ) Before someone asks what the crude 'Lollipop' near the threshold of 07 is,. . well,. . this was someones's brilliant idea for a helicopter landing pad. . . .before they put a big letter 'H' in it. . . .

What's the A-buck / Pommie-Quid exchange theft rate nowadays I wonder ?

You forgot. . .'And clean behind the fridge without whingeing too. . .'

Amazing story isn't it ? . . can't wait to see the doco.

I should mention here that, although I was not even a spark in my Dad's eye when all this happened,. . I am seriously thankful that these blokes pictured above decided to volunteer for service in the RAF. AND for all the other people not of English birth who did the same.

It seemed to me to be a bit of a daft poll anyway Kaz,. . .when you consider how many other nationals were involved,. . such as 310 Squadron. . .Czechoslovakians. . . . They certainly look like a happy bunch of blokes don't they ? Their British Sqn. Commander is ( Alegedly ) the bloke with the pipe BTW. . .Although he is not named in this picture. . .As you can see,. . the unit flew Hurricanes. I've no doubt that the score of German aircraft shot down by this particular Squadron will be available on Wiki Britannica for those interested. . . The R/T exchanges must have been interesting though,. . as English was not generally spoken in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s - 1940s . . .

This looks interesting. Secret Spitfires docu reveals wartime in southern England | Daily Mail Online

Yearz ago, I had the good fortune to meet, at an Airshow,. . . an American Gentleman on vacation in England. He was a really nice chap and he said that he had been involved in the investigation of the Sioux City DC-10 accident. He was an Engineer, working for Douglas and he said ( amongst a load of other interesting things ) that ' Jesus Holy Christ',. . .none of us foresaw that ever happening in our wildest design nightmares . . . he also referred to the involuntary unlocking in flight, of the cargo doors on two DC-10 aircraft, resulting in two fatal crashes. . . He also alluded to a similar situation happening to the 'C' locks on a B-747, which resulted in a large hole being blown in the side of the aircraft with the loss of some strapped in passengers,. . .all caused over time,. . . by urine leaking from a toilet . . .

Indeed it would not seem right aer Kid. . . . . .

The bloke who sent me that pic is a WW2 aviation historian. He agrees with YOU Sir. ( That geek has probably got the damn serial number from the factory ! )

Nah mate,. . .that 380 was a Blanc one . . .

I saw someone shriek 'Incorrect' News about the Rolls Royce bit earlier today Kasper. I've lost the link now but it was saying that the engines on this particular A380 were American made, Not Rolls Royce ? . . . Can't confirm that, still trying to find the source. . . was looking over Daughter's shoulder and only got a brief glimpse. Phil.

Now. . .who can tell me what variant of '109' is shown in this picture. It was taken at a Luftwaffe base in in the Mediterranean. . . .no more clues. This bloke with the cheezy grin is using a USAF flotation device retrieved from a shot down Bomber, as a backrest. He looks a nice enough bloke doesn't he ?. . .remember that a large number of Luftwaffe pilots were NOT members of the Nazi party. .

I did say that it was an easy peasy one ! I could have blocked the reg, but why make it too hard ? It's just a bit of fun. These aircraft are quite nice to fly,. . I had the opportunity to fly one in 2007 in France. Very positive control even at low speeds. . although, the horizontal Left / Right view is pants, due to the position of the shoulder mounted mainplanes. . . .

Nice easy one. . . (No it's not a 'Tipsy Nipper' too many seats !. . . )

Dunno if the airport guy being black had anything to do with him being useless Mate. . .! The Nigerian bloke in charge of security at a major UK airport when I was fitting taxiway signs was really on top of his game and it was evident from speaking to other blokes there that he garnered lot of respect from them. . . I've had similar experiences to yours at Luton, Bristol and Cardiff airports, where nearly all of the staff are immigrants. . . some of 'em were OK, but others,. . .well, some of em' wouldn't last a day at McDonalds. . .

Seven years ago,. . .I foolishly booked a flight to Paris with Ryanair. I should have checked the French code for the airfield that we went to, which was prefixed with PARIS - . can't remember the place now,. . .but it was meant to sound like a local suburban airport . . .it was 67 miles away by road from Orly. I missed my connecting flight by 2 hours. Massive additional cost and a 17 hour wait for a replacement flight.

Michael O'Leary allegedly advertises a million airline seats for sale. . . WHO in their right mind would trust this scumbag Company now ? ( I'll bet that Marty wouldn't ) Sounds like its going bust and good riddance to the worlds most hated airline AND YES. . .I DO feel EXTREMELY sorry for the cabin crews and hundreds of support staff. . . .it isn't THEIR fault. You KNOW where you can stuff that model don't you Michael ? ? ?

Welcome George. The Weedhopper project sounds interesting - keep us posted please. Phil. .

Michael O'Leary is a complete a$$hole Marty. One of the reasons for this current chaos is the departure of a large number of Ryanair pilots over to Norwegian Air. No one wants to fly for them any longer. Aircrews have always been treated with contempt by him. The original CEO was far more reasonable.

The sad story of major Irish carrier Ryanair's rapid decline continues apace. This bit of humour is in response to 'Moneygrabber' MD Michael O'Leary suggesting that Charging passengers to use the toilets in flight was being considered. . . ( Previous ideas included having limited blocks of 'Standing' passengers, A La bus / tram, to increase revenue per flight )

You just 'Triggered' a memory there Peter,. . .I shall now proceed to bore you silly with it. My childhood friend Johhny Porter, who was in my primary school class. . .and I used to hang out together and get up to all sorts of mischief. The street next to ours was due to be demolished, so we nicked as much of the lead, from water pipes that we could, as we had found out that you could melt it quite easily. Then we found some clay from the riverbank down the road, and made sme moulds, by pressing Sherriff badges into the clay, then heating the clay moulds in his, or My Mum's cookers until it went hard. Then we would pull the rubber hose off the boiler gas supply, . . light it with some swan vestas matches, and use the flame to melt some of our stolen lead piping into a steel bowl. . .. We Poured the molten lead into our home made Sherriff's Star and Marshall badge moulds and made badges which we then sold to school friends for a tanner each.. . .we made nearly three quid doing this. . . three quid in 1956 was a bloody king's ransom. . .but we were caught and stopped by Johnnie's mum. . . the headmaster at the school said that they were the best castings he'd ever seen, but was horrified when we told him how we'd made them. . .another bloody anti-capitalist pig. . . .

I'd actually be surprised of our 'Boiler' was made from copper,. . Mum and Dad bought the house in 1951, a year following my Birthday,. . .It was a damned expensive house actually,. .. I found out many years later that Dad paid over £390.00 for it on a ten year mortgage. . . . and Copper would have been in short supply just 6 years after the war. . . .My memory doesn't recall what metal our boiler was made from. . . So, I will have to plead ignorance in that regard.. . .on the subject of 'Agitators'. . .I was fascinated at how the agitator in the Baby Burco washer could rotate one way, and then reverse to rotate in the opposite direction,. . .My Dad explained to me how it actually worked, which sparked my interest in engineering thingies. . .and why I got Meccano sets for several birthdays and Christmas prezzies. . .he obviously saw in me a bloke that was going to follow in his footsteps and I did. . .whilst my two male siblings followed other paths. . .I worked for his Company for five years until I achieved my engineering qualifications, whilst studying other things at night school ( aviation stuff ) in between playing in rock bands, and flying Tiger Moths on weekends . . .as you do. . .how the hell I did all this and found time to actually go to bed,. . .I cannot remember. . . I only needed around four hours sleep per night, and was off again. . doing something else. . . Which is quite possibly why I feel absolutely fecked at 67 years of age. . . . .unable to drag myself out of bed before 7.30 in the mornings, feeling like I've just done 4 rounds with Mohammed Ali. . . . .

And don't forget the Naval verb to Mine an area of navigable water . .