Dave Hunt

Personal experience; they were gold Abel Labels with black lettering. Dave

And on the warning cones in the Gents at Lime Street station that had the legend WET FLOOR on them, someone had added, "Please note this is not an order." Dave

Many years ago I had to attend medical board at the RAF Central Medical Establishment in London following an accident in which I was knocked unconscious. The doctor who tested my hearing (who was an aviation medicine specialist) commented that my high tone range was not as good as it had been and asked whether there was anything I thought could account for it. I replied that maybe spending over thirty years working with and near jet engines could be a cause, to which he looked thoughtful and said maybe I could be right. That did little to foster my faith in aviation medics. And like Q I have a nearly constant background high frequency whine in my hearing that although not really intrusive can be annoying in a quiet environment. Dave

Some years ago in the Gents loos in UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology for the underprivileged) there were printed labels stuck to the walls in the sit-downs above the loo roll holders that said, "Sociology degrees - please take one." Dave

An RAF colleague had at one time been a police car driver in Bristol. He told us that a common trick played on newbie car passengers was to drive down the road by Temple Meads station that is a dead end at some furious speed until smashing into the wall at the end seemed inevitable, then brake hard when passing a section of fencing that had been left unpainted. This would stop the car just short of the wall, usually giving the passenger the heebie jeeebies and the driver much amusement....... ........until one day someone painted the fence. The driver had to explain the foreshortened police car. Dave

IIRC, the average European of today has something like 3 - 5% Neanderthal DNA. Dave

From Wikipedia: Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by antecessor. The oldest human fossils, around 500,000 years old, are of heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex. Until this time Britain had been permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between South East England and northern France called the Weald-Artois Anticline, but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge, and Britain became an island when sea levels rose during the following Hoxnian interglacial. Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent, and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in Wales. Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago, when Neanderthals returned. By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain. Dave

Thank the Good Lord, no. If she had I wouldn't be typing this due to: a. Not being very well after being ambushed by a baseball bat or similar, and.. b. Not being able to get into the house to use any of my electronic thingies. Dave

Just ring 119 Puppers. That's what I did this morning and within five minutes had booked Jill and I in at a time and place that suited us. Dave

I’ve just bought Jill a new iPad because her old one is now Neolithic and can’t update so more and more web sites won’t let it play. Unfortunately when I fired it up my iPhone was in my pocket so they immediately fell in love and started to share passcodes etc. I’ve now got to set about dissuading it from pursuing this love affair and become independent. Isn’t technology wonderful sometimes? Dave

I always thought that special relativity was the reason that there are lots of funny people in remote parts of the Ozark mountains and suchlike. Dave

I’ve watched a few of their games recently and there’s been some good rugby on show. Dave

Had a trip out to Dorothy Clive gardens today and enjoyed both the flora and lunch outside at the cafe. I managed a reasonable amount of walking but after just half an hour during which there was some uphill stretches my legs felt like jelly. I hadn't realised properly until now just how unfit I have become because of not doing any proper exercise for years while my spine was giving me grief. Now I've had it largely sorted, though, I'm determined to get reasonably fit again. It'll be a bit of an uphill battle but a necessary one. Dave

You are leading the poor chap down the garden path, Neil. Since when has the traffic on ERs made any sense? Dave

Known to generations of RAF aviators as Sally’s tits. Dave

No surprises there then 🤣 Dave

There used to be a very good Italian restaurant on Orchard Road. Probably long gone by now. Dave

Which two mounds are those then? Dave (OK, I admit I had to look it up)

Otherwise B58 and F22. Dave Ah, beaten to it by HH. Rats!

That brings back many happy memories of sunset feasts in Palm Cove north of Cairns. Dave

Mind you, I think that the famous Aussie pies (including those 'floating' in soup, although mine always seemed to sink) are actually generally very good. And as for the seafood - yum yum. Dave

Some friends had the archetypal Labrador and when they were staying with us once it stole and ate a two pound block of Stilton; the result was its banning from any room we were in due to the eye-watering noxious vapours. In contrast, our Lab/Collie cross Sam, although he would gleefully eat anything he was given, would not touch food until he was told he could. He would sit gazing into his full food bowl (and drooling) until we said, "Go on then" and we could leave the coffee table with plates of food all over it safe in the knowledge that although he would sit looking longingly at the contents he wouldn't touch anything, even if left alone in the room. Dave

In my early RAF days I knew a couple of the pilots who flew in the BoB film and one of them described the filmed scenes, despite some careful control and briefing, as 'raving dangerous.' I also know and once worked with (in fact, I was his mentor on his first squadron) one of the pilots who flew F14s in the original Top Gun (he was RAF on exchange with the USN) and was the one who can be seen flying past the carrier leaving a wake in the water. He earned himself a bit of a b0llocking for that when the film was released. Didn't do him a lot of harm though as he later became an RAF squadron commander. Dave

In addition to my last post, don’t believe what you see in carp such as Top Gun. Dave

No. The cleverness of systems, particularly radar and tactical displays, means that the workload of operating and interpreting them has reduced very markedly, hence the need for back seaters has largely gone although even in aircraft such as the F15E there is still that need. Back seaters in such as the F4, Tornado, Buccaneer etc. were a necessity not a luxury. No designer or end user would unnecessarily have a manned rear cockpit with its concomitant weight, equipment, drag etc. penalty. Having flown such types in both seats I can assure you that the workload was too much for one man safely and tactically to undertake. Although my experience of such as the Typhoon is only from simulators, I can vouch for the fact that the processing power available within the systems makes life in the cockpit nor more demanding than that in the front seat of the previous generation of fast jets; in fact, in many ways it is simpler. Dave