Jerry_Atrick

I think the RAF museum you are referring to is the Imperial War Museum - Duxford. A great day out.. RNAS Yeovilton is near me.. The museum is fantastic and I have flown in into its Airshow twice.. Great day.. We are pretty lucky in the UK with flying collections and museums.

OK - another from the logobook - but, again, someone else's - you guys must think I don't fly... It's January, 2010. I haven't flown for 13 years (thought it was 15). I am in the same company now for 3 years and have discovered a flying social club on the group chat. So I invite myself to it and join the conversation. In the autumn months, they decide to plan a flyout to Le Touquet - which is the British pilot's mecca and rite of passage. The idea quickly gets traction and soon the pilots are asking for volunteer pax. Of course, I put my electronic hand up.. The date is set for August and it can't come around quick enough. The pilots were still trying to get passengers, so I ask the lady who sat next to me if she wanted to join us. She was pretty keen and invited her friend.. both Aussies. They were assigned to another pilot.... The first planning meeting organised where pilots and pax attended. I already knew my pilot, the girls eagerly awaiting their chiseled jaw, tall dark and hadsome ferrier..well the look on their face was priceless when he walked in.. as was his.. He was the exact opposite of what they were hoping, they were the exact match of what he was hoping ;-) Anyway, dates settled, routes from the different airfields agreed, departure times more or less agreed, watches synchronised and all of that.. and it was waiting it out. This was out route: The southerly sector was the route out and the northerly the route back. Steve, our intrepid pilot for the day, pre-flighted the plane and the other pax, my step-father in law, followed him around to see what happened. Steve ensured a GAR form was filed and we had our passports and they were still in date. We donned our lifejackets and in we hopped (me in the back!), all bucked up, safety briefing given and we were off. The day was claggy and Steve had to use his IMC rating (only legal in the UK): I was keeping a close eye on the instruments from the back seat for good measure, but he was perfectly fine: We routed south via the Miday VOR, hung a left north of Goodwood (which I recommend if you come to the UK tome it for the Goodwood Revival if you like antique cars and planes) and coasted out just past Rye. Apart from joining Moorrabbin's 18R/35L from Carrum. I have never really flown over water in a light aircraft before. It was a surreal feeling actually. As we coasted out, we could see plenty of ships and a few ferries crossing the channel. As I only had a Blackberry and it was cloudy, the shots I took were rather average so best not post them. However, when we got the FIR boundary that separates UK and French airspace, in typical fashion, the clouds more or less gave way to decent sunshine. Steve let Richard (step father in law) take the controls of the aircraft for his first time. Richard is an ex meteorolgist who did aviation for a bit and an aviation enthusiast, but never tried flying before. Well, his initial trepidation gave way and he really enjoyed it: Steve switched to the Le Touquet ATIS ahead of crossing the border.. They transmit it in both English and French; when we dialled tthe ATIS up, it had just started the French version and it was then that Steve said this was the reason for dialling it up well in advance. He thanked London Information for their service and dialled in Le Touquet approach. This was my first taste of French RT.. .and it is a little unsettling as they speak to French pilots in French and everyone else in English. The result - it is hard to build up a situational awareness of where everything is. I normally applaud that gallic stubborness but in this case, it seemed dangerous. But, after a while, you get used to it and keep your eyes peeled. Compared to the the verbosity of UK RT, the French just require who you are, where you are, what height you're at, and what you want to do.. As I recall Aussie ATC. 'Twas a joy. Anyway, I start to get excited again - we are doing a proper international flight and we are coming up to another country's coast: The airfield actually sits not too far from the beach... On the northern-ish perimeter, there is a fquant little marina - apologies for the blurriness.. need a steadier hand... We are instructed to to a join left hand downwind. The weather is almost perfect for flying - a gentle breeze and all looks fine. But, as this back-seat driver noted the approach looked a little high (but didn't say anything because Le Touquet has an 1850m runway and I figure he wants to land well into it to minimise taxy time) (again apols for the quality of the photo): The flare was a little high and we returned to terra firma with quite a bump. But the PA28's undercarriage is built to take it.. A little embarressed, Steve taxis to the parking and we disembark in glorious sunshine. Behind us, Tony and the 2 girls arrive in a rather nicely refurbished TB10. Both girls have the broadest smiles on their faces and really enjoyed the flight. We enter the terminal building, organise for refuelling and agree to pay for the fuel and landing fees on our return. No one checks our passports; we walk straight out into leafy suburban streets and ion about 10 minutes or so, we are at the rendevous restaurant. One other plane load beat us, but the others were a little late departing as they had to wait for the cloud to lift. We had an excellent lunch; one of the benefits of not being a pilot on the day was that I could also have a glass of wine.. and nice it was, too. As things were later than planned, a few went for a walk to town, but Steve had something on that evening so wanted to get back sooner rather than later. That was fine by me, as by this time, I had decided that I had to get back into flying and knew I would be visiting it again, soon. Back to the airfield, fuel and landing fees paid, we strapped in, run ups done, sat behind a TB20 on the taxciway and it decided to it's run ups right in front of us - ze bar-steward! Anyway, we are off, and sure enough, we can see the clouds across the FIR boundary. However, it is a great feeling and sight coasting in: We north along the eastern edge of the Gatwick zone, and then west along the northern edge. We had a pretty good view of Gatwick and then landed back at Fairoaks, safe and sound (though Steve did practice a side slip in): (note, the shiny building to the right is the McLarens Formula 1 facility) (The side slip - not turning final) Once we got down, we taxied, parked and put the covers on. Although customs are permanently at Fairoaks, no-one wanted to see our passports. We bid farewell and on the Monday, I let Steve know that when a share comes up for sale, let me know. I had to wait around 6 months to start flying due to other commitments, but I effectively retraced this route almost as soon as I got my JAA (now EASA) PPL. The flotilla consisted of 2 PA28 Warrior II, 1 PA28 Dakota, 2 C172s, 1 TB10 and 1 Quick-R Trike. Great day had by all. (Here's a photo of the Quick-R): And here are a couple of the steed for the day: I did get my PPL. After my test, it took about 4 weeks for the licence to arrive, and you are not considered licenced until you have it in your posession. About 4 weeks after I received the necessary paper, I retraced the whole thing. Was sunnier and absolute great fun.

Thanks Bruce, but I will do my best to pass on your invitation (to bounce)...

Firstly, sincere condolences to family and friends and, to echo Alan's sentiments, hoping for a speedy recovery to the injured. Whenever something like this happens, I take the time to reflect that it can happen to any of us and remind myself to try harder not to let bad habits form and not take any shortcuts. From the comfort of an armchair it is easy to cast judgement - why did the pilot fly into cloud? Why did the pilot not take the road, why did the pilot try aileron against the spin, etc etc. But I never do... because I wasn't in the cockpit and have no idea of the circumstances that led to the problem or decision. A personal observation is that as we age, and let's face it, recreational and GA private flying is made of of a disproportionately high number of older people, our capacity to handle stress diminishes. And that's when things start going awry. Losing an engine, inadvertently flying into cloud when you haven't practiced it ever or since you did you GA practical let alone rated for the stuff can all rapidly bring on immense stress. One tends to narrow their focus and quickly lose their hearing (or processing of sounds) in this case. I am NOT saying this is what happened in this case.. this is a general statement. As an example, I moved to the UK when I was 30. Apart form the odd joy flight with an instructor - maybe once every coupld of years if that, I did no flying for 15 years. I decided I was going to get back into it. I thought I would effectivley be starting again so decided to do the whole European PPL rather than convert my Aussie one. The CAA assesed my log book and said do the theory and with the hours I had, when the CFI was happy, do the practical tests and if I passed, I would get the licence (i.e. no min hours to do). I thought I would take 15 hours or so... It took seven hours; four of those were teh dual and solo cross country qualifier flights. I found things came back faily quickly - PFLs, stalls, EFATOs, etc. Fast forward about 8 years and thanks to various factors, I have not flown for a year. A share comes up in a TB20; I buy it. I need to do a sengle engine revalidation and because it was more than 2 years since the last, it had to be a proper assessment of skills by an examiner. I was all over the place - I could not get the PFL nearly even right.. I was out of practice and having aged, things were taking longer to come back.. much longer. However, if I was more practiced where muscle memory had a chance to develop, it may mean that I can cope better with the increased stress. Outside BFRs, how often do we practice our emergency procedures and checklists to ensure we are absolutely current? How many of us are flying knowing if the donk dies, there's already a suitable field picked out to lessen the load and focus on getting the thing down safely, etc etc. [EDIT} The above is a general statement in response to human factors - and not speculation of what happened in this accident[/EDIT] @turboplanner - I can't say I agree with your analogy with the speedway, except for organised events. Even though we may congregate in similar numbers and concentrate our location, our original locations and destinations are somewhat random compaed to that of a speedway. In the UK, clubs and schools will supervise their PPL "hirers/members" - but what does that mean? It means they have to have a check flight inorder to be able to rent, and then they ensure they have flown at least once in the last typicall 30 or 90 days otherwise a check flight is required.. And of course, they track medical and licencing expirations. This does not equate to supervision in your sense. But, say I was to fly from Mooraabin to Tocumwal and bounce down the Tocumwal runway, but manage not to destroy anything.. Are you suggesting someone at Tocumwal (where there is no manned tower - well at least when I last flew there) should ground me? On our work flight to Le Touquet, the pilot of the plane I was in hit the runway pretty hard at Le Touqet - I was bracing myself.. One of the other pilots, on being issued a direction to join left down wind, joined right down wind. My pilot landed back at home smooth as silk; the other pilot usuallyonly flew in the US due to cost - so flew 2 weeks every year. Lots of pilots from UK congregated there that day - how would we handle their situation?

Palymra - that wasn't a runway - that was a bicycle track!! Seriously, I thought you were way left of the runway on final...

The law is slightly different here... I can't recall the adminsitator/insolvency practitioner's claim, but defiitely Her Maj's Revenue and Customs has first dibs before any other debtor. After that, definitely, secured debt only has first claim on secured assets (unless there is subordinated secured debt on the same asset/s or shared senior debt on the same assets - in which case they get in line with seniority). In an unsecured debt situation, there is no concept that any unsecured creditor has more rights than any other, except under certain circumstances. These can be: - Breach of covenant or terms of the debt. So, for example, if someone has lent money to an entity with a covenent (e.g. they will not exceed a certain debt/equity ration, share price will not go below a point, can't assign certain assets, etc) and the company does, then the debtor has right above - Where the unsecured debt has been tiered between senior, subordinated, mezzanine, etc. Note, there can be a breach of terms where a senior note/debt holder may require notification and approval of further senior debt (and sometimes junior/subordinated).. but it isn't really worth the paper it is written on as the law of equity kicks in, so banks rarely offer it.. unless they package the loans and sell them off into the secondary loan markets. Although, for PLC (listed companies - from memory, Ltd in Aus), they will do it because of the financial reporting and prudential regulations. Glad to hear your mate had the stamina to see it through.. Unless there is a state of federal statute (would imagine the latter), if the bank was unsecured, I would be tempted to take them to court as well.. regardless of whether or not money was lent after knowing of insolvency - there is no difference between a bank lending [unsecured] money and a supplier or other investor.

For me - it depends. Before leaving Aus the first time, I would book an Aerobat aftewr work (summer) and take it for some light aeros in the Moorabbin training area.. I found that hour was so focused on flying, it was a great stress reliever. I also liked the competitions that RVAC used to do.. more for the social side than the competitive - but they would sharpen the skills a little. Sometimes, I feel the need to circuit bash or practice things like stalls, PFLs, etc. I like flying with other people and much like @red750, like to take people up for heir first flight in a GA aircraft.. When taking people up for the first time, it would be proprotional to the distances Red750 mentioned, but remember the UK is much smaller, so the distances are usually shorter. But I mainly like longer 1 day trips and touring. I like the scenery, meeting different people, sampling different culture. I prefer over-nighters - camping at the airfield or a B&B/hotel (they don't really do motels here). One of my fondest memories was one where I was not even flying - PA28 from Fairaks (South West of London, just outside the M25) to Le Touquet; a flotilla of about 5 or 6 planes all from work descended on the place. Lovely lunch, walk around the town and back (Over the channel - taken with a then old Blackberry) The steed that took us.. I was later to buy a share in it. Wish I never sold it. Lunch in Le Touquet - The 2 ladies on the left are both Aussies - I used to work with the blonde and the brunette is her friend. I have to say, If both her and I were not spoken for, I would have gone for the blonde - lovely lady!)

Great shot.. Nice stted you have.. May get me thinking of building my own (nah.. I don't want to end up a statistic due to a mid-air breakup or something)... Now a lot of envy kicking in! Have family not too far from you (relatively speaking) - Bowen and I think a cousin has moved toTownsville.. Nice country up there..

Wow.. Over 'ere, HMRC have, I think, first dibs.. The only competitor is the administrator who may take their fee before HMRC gets theirs (although I guess there would be horsetrading), then secured debotrs, unsecured debtors, shareholders...

Great shots... A "bit" of envy creeping in! If you have any shots of your steed, feel free to post them...

Wasn't it Warren Buffet who wrote something like "every time I think I may investn in an airline, I call a 1-800 number I set up to talk me out of it.". As I see it, there are two really big issues in Australia with respect to newcomer airlines that are little more than a domestic operation with some regional international flights. First, QANTAS seems to have a lot of the infrastructure tied up. Terminal space, regional airline connections, etc. This makes it hard for me to book, say a flight from Brisbane to Mildura on any other airline. I know that other airlines have agreements, but the connectivity in terms of timetaleing, etc just makes it that much more difficult. I know as I tried it.. Secondly, is the market big enough to support more than one home-based operator without some form of intervention? In the good ol' two-airline regulated days - where, in the'80s, a standard price fare from Melb to Brisbane was in other order of $650 then, it meant there was enough to go around to ensure profitability. With regulation coming and going, we saw the first attempt at Southern Cross not get off the ground, and a second attempt eventually crashing. Ansett goes broke (I can't remember if this was before or after Southern Cross), then came Tiger, Virgun Blue/Australia, Jet Star (QANTAS, I know, but run as separate entitiy), and all have not fared so well. Only QANTAS survives to make a profit, which cannot be brand loyalty alone - or can it? With a small population, large land mass, high unit costs (I recall sitting at Adelaide airport waiting for a connecting flight and in the 2 or 3 hours there was only 1 landing and 1 take off aircraft - that's a lot of expensive facility sitting idle), etc, it is not a valid comparison to Asian, European, Middle Eastern nor US/Canada. Maybe Africa - although SAA has just gone bust, too. After de-regulation, we have enjoyed lower fares, but is the market rebalancing to what it can bear and, with what looks like one airline, will the fares moving up reflect the true cost/return on equity of air travel in Australia? Re the debt pile, well, it will ultimately be the debtors that suffer. The aircraft leasing companies will not be able to move too many planes at the moment, so they will have stock. But, they probably won't be hurt too much as they tend to wrap the aircraft leases into asset backed securities and flog them to investors - often funds, but sometimes direct to retail investors depending on the jurisdiction. So, your super may ultimatley suffer. I haven't looked at their books (are they available), but I am guessing there is very little tangible assets they hold - maybe slots at the major airports and some fuel/spares will be tradeable.. It is common that even the office funiture is leased during startup/early phase of running a business to keep cash flow positive and also reduce tax liability. Any bond holders or on-balance sheet bank loans will be swallowed by those institutions; senior debt holders will get the first dibs at whatever pickings are available, and then subordinated debt gets whatever may be left. Of course, trade debtors will also have a crack. Let's not forget, the ATO probably have fiorst dibs (after the administrator?) on everything. The shareholders will be wiped clean - but often in these structures, they provide the cash in the form of mortgaged or senior debt throgh some wrapper, so they get what they can out of it before anyone else.

Yeah - just look at our pollies (collectively across the western world, at least)...

That brought a tear to my eye! Poor rabbits, though..

Not all of us!. I am hoping to retire to either Tocumwal or Merimbula, possibly Apollo Bay. Also looking at Deniliquin and a lot of the Riverina area. I dodn't care too much for Coffs Harbour (was over 20 years ago though); Byron Bay is too expensive; I had an uncle in Nimbin, which is surrounded by a nice area. I still have a bit of time to decide...

@Mike Gearon - I am not sure I entirely agree that your environs you grew up in set what you need. I know people who come from farming and don't even loke countryside holidays, preferring the concrete jungles on the Costa de Sol. Both my partner and I a re city born and bred and while I enjoy going to the city for work, I am darned gald to get out of it. We had 13 acres and loved it (well, the partner ended up no liking the realisation the country, despite its tranqulity, it a cesspit of death and violence if you happen to be an animal of prey). We really like the open spaces (can't call south west England wide) and my partner has no intention of going back. Maybe its also an age thing..

Once a yokel, never a grockle!

Agreed, Marty. I was travelling in a London cab and the cabbie remarked how he liked the fact the bankers got bonuses as they spent it and it was a shot in the arm for the economy. I mentioned for the bars, strip clubs, cabs and local drug dealers - yes, but what else? WHen they buy their Porsche or Ferrari, or their second home in Provence, where does the money go? It did get him thinking. I worked for the investment banking arm of a bailed out bank in the UK. I was shocked at the genuine despair the bankers, some of whom made many millions of pounds over the years through their bonuses, were worried where the next (huge) mortgage payment was going to come from once their redundancy money ran out. Seems the Champagne houses and wineries in France made more than their fair share out of those bonuses.

Hedge funds and hedging are two very different things... An agribusiness will hedge using, for example, futures, to lock prices in, or swaps to normalise interest or fx rates.. these are NOT offered by hedge funds. Futures are usually standard contracts offered by traders managed through exhcanges. and your coops/marketing boards would be actively trading in these. I was talking to a commodities trader a while ago, and he mentioned a lot of the larger farmers are more wiley than the traders these days when it comes to futures. There may be off-exchange futures, called forwards and these are rarely traded and can only be done OTC (Over the Counter). Other hedging is usually through some form of interest rate or FX swaps and various incarnations of these. These are normally offered by commercial or investment banks - rarely directly by hedge funds. Hedge funds originated by playing bets against something - or short-selling it. For example, if they thought a stock or commodity was going to tank in price, they would borrow it (for a price) from an existing holder - sell it on the markets, which provides excess supply therefore reducing the price - and then when the price loses enough, they buy it back at the reduced price and return it to the entity they borrowed from. While they have branched into more sophisticated techniques and they bet both ways, they are purely betting houses - calculating the odds and when the odds stack up, taking a punt. The only value they create is for their investors. Often, they destroy value as they are positively acting to do it. THere are other hedging instruments as well - for example credit default swaps, etc. But they operate the same way. CLOs and CDOs are not hedging instruments - but are investment instruments of a form of an asset backed security and these were a problem. Having said that, I would be surprised if hedge funds would have been bailed out... hedging desks - also known as counterparty exposure management desks - may have been the cause of some of the losses of your traditional banks which were bailed out, or they stupidly held CLOs and CDOs and other asset backed securities as part of what were the rules allowing Tier 12 capital.

Back to topic, the CAA instructions here: COVID 19 | UK Civil Aviation Authority say So definitely not a free for all and inhibit where it can be.

Unf, not... Despite being closer, I only rent when I need to from Dunks as the Shareoplane is based in Blackbushe.. So, for me, it is into the flight school (there is no club in the real sense there), book out, fly, book in, pay and go.. Shame, as the airspace around here is so much more open than SE London. But, I know where he is now - so I will look him up!

Yes - UK also has remote areas and some great islands.. and of course, the very big island off to the east (well, continent).. But in terms of reaching remote areas, there are a few that can only be reached by air or boat - most notably the Scilly Isles, Hebrides, and the Isle of Wight. And Lundy Island is popular with permit and smaller ends of certified GA. But generally, when people here say, for example, Exmoor is remote, I do have a chuckle. That said, John O'Groats to Lands End would probably take two - or three days - traffic and wx dependent. [edit = just checked google maps c. 14.5 hrs drive at the moment.. but traffic is very light.. I was on the M5 yesterday and there were literally a couple of trucks each way for the stretch I was on (junction 25 Taunton - Junction 26 - Wellington).

Jodels are very popular inthe UK.. The main flying magazines - Pilot and Flyer - bothof which I subscribe to - have more and more about LAA/permit (RAA equivalent) than GA in them these days. But that is where the industry is heading and Europe as some pretty cool manufacturers...

That has technically always been the case...

G'Day, Mike. VFR flight is not yet banned in the UK (AFAIK), and up to about 2 weeks after the lock down I would see the odd VFR flight (usualy a C150/152 arounf here) Most of the GA airfields are closed to all but emergency services (I fly from both Blackbushe and Dunkeswell). Last week onf FR24 I saw someone flying from near Chilterns to near Membury on FR24 - I am guessing both were private strips. The lockdown allows one to travel only for the permitted reasons - work, exercise (once per day), necessities (food, etc) and medical reasons for self or assisting others (e.g. picking up medicines for elderly neighours). The UK is a small piece of land and GA, expecially in the SE and parts of the SW leave a big footrprint. There is already considerable opposition to GA (lately being led by Jeremy Clarkson - it seems) in the UK and this is borne out by the number of crazy noise abatement procedures because a dairy yard (not the house) is under a flight path where the ac would be min 1000' overhead and other such nonsense. Although, in the flying press, councils are portrayed as wanting to keep the airfields, look at both Fairoaks and Wellesbourne Mountford - when the poop hit the fan, the councils reneged and it was the aviation community who had to step up to stave off closure.. in the latter's case, I think the inevtiable - like Old Sarum - is just being delayed; Fairoaks is safer because none of the residents want the new "garden community" that was to replace the airfield. Yes - it is unfair - but we are in this together.. Golfers could easily meet social distancing rules - and England Golf took the decision, despite being an exercise, to close all courses. It is regrettable and unfair, but, if anything else, it shows unity... People are complying with the spirit of the lock down and for us to be finding ways to get out of it will hurt us more than help. Also, if we start looking at all the exceptions rather than a blanket rule, it becomes impossible to police - and the UK police are beign nowhere near as zealous of the stories espoused on here. And, while flying is allowed, the journey to the airfield is probably not.. except for the below.. Running up the engines to ward off corrosion? Not necessary (I know I am going to get a kicking for saying this). If you are going to go to the airfield or you are lucky enough to have access to a private strip, go there for essental work - inhibiting your engine and protecting your airframe. No need for the once a week excuse to defy the order. Just think - we choose to take this pastime - we don't need to (in the sense of survival). Lose that £20K engine - pay a LAME to inhibit it for a lot less - compare that to people whose businesses were needed for survival and will lose everything and usually a lot more than £20K... Playing a bit of devils advocate as well, but sometimes we have to think outside the Lo Presti box. edit: Not meaning to come across as self-righteous.. I am more frustrated than most as the shareoplane came back 5 months late on the Monday of the week the lockdown was announced. But, these are not normal times.. when the curve is flattened, then we should look at it again..