The Night Mail

[Joseph_Pestell]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

There was an occasion at Coningsby when we were in the middle of an exercise and a light aircraft appeared unannounced and landed, fortunately at a time when there were no Phantoms arriving or departing. It taxied up to ATC and shut down whereupon the police wagon that had been following it disgorged its heavily armed occupants and the pilot was taken into custody. It turned out that he was lost and being of the hard of thinking persuasion had spotted the airfield and decided to stop and ask for directions to his destination (I'm not making this up, honestly), The chief plod went to see the Station Commander and asked what he should do with the idiot whereupon he was told, "Lock him up, I'll deal with him at Endex." Thus the civvy pilot spent the night in Coningsby's luxurious detention suite, much to his chagrin and severe displeasure. When released he was livid and threatened allsorts of legal action but apparently was told by a CAA official that the best thing he could do was leave quietly and not make any more fuss.

 

This happened when the RAF still had some backbone. I'm not sure what would happen today.

 

Dave 

 

A friend of mine who holds a private pilot's licence tells me that he and many others find it difficult to know where they are, even in clear weather. I do not find it difficult at all but then I have an interest in geography and maps.

[br2975]

14 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And be prepared for one (or more....) of them to chonk up inside the BRmobile.....🤮

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Whilst "Mrs. 2975" enjoys imbibing - regurgitating the money she has spent is a very rare occurrence, even rarer than the Preston Guild.

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However, the walk home from 'my club' (The Llandaff Institute) of a Sunday afternoon can be interesting, and even amusing for the onlooker.................on occasions.

[AndyID]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Certain sectors of the sky around the Hippodrome look a bit murky this morning, but the sun is visible in the sky.

 

Where I a hardy beast, I would take my breakfast  and a cup of coffee outside and sit on the patio and cogitate.

 

However, I am not, so won't.

 

 

 

I would not mind a bit murkiness at the moment. Wearing protective clothing and a helmet for arc welding is no joke when it gets above 75F. The highs here are 90F+ at this time of year. The good news is we have low humidity so the temps drop quite dramatically when the Sun goes down.

[SM42]

Rain  today. 

 

This has saved me from walking round the amusement park Mrs SM42 wishes to visit

 

We are also abandoning the narrow gauge railway visit as it appears it closed 5 years ago. ☹️

 

We may find something dry to do en route to Opole. 

 

Stations!

 

They have shelters. 

 

It's  dry there. 😁

 

Andy

Whi will soon be going into radio silence for a while 

Edited August 1, 2023 by SM42

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

A friend of mine who holds a private pilot's licence tells me that he and many others find it difficult to know where they are, even in clear weather. I do not find it difficult at all but then I have an interest in geography and maps.

On my last aerial jolly around Shropshire, I was navigating by identifying disused railway track beds.

 

I believe this was a common enough practice during the earlier years of general aviation when the term 'Flying by Bradshaw' was used.

 

If not sure of your location, do a low pass by a railway station and read the running in boards. 

 

This was not advisable over heavily built up areas🤣.

[Happy Hippo]

Kraft Klubb meets this afternoon at 1430.  I have been busy cleaning the garden room including the windows.

 

Do I ever see Nyda tidying up in the garage for me before Trayne Klubb?.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

Do I ever see Nyda tidying up in the garage for me before Trayne Klubb?.

 

Would you want... ?

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

A friend of mine who holds a private pilot's licence tells me that he and many others find it difficult to know where they are, even in clear weather. I do not find it difficult at all but then I have an interest in geography and maps.

 

It is my contention that in order to hold a PPL, candidates should have to demonstrate an ability to do basic visual navigation and map reading, which is what we used to do with Service pilots before they were allowed out of sight of their home airfield. The obvious dangers of semi-competent PPL holders wandering around not knowing where they are and potentially infringing areas of high density civil and military traffic are, to my mind, too great to allow the sort of thing that goes on daily. Even with decent radio communication and navigation aids, failures of equipment are hardly unknown and all pilots should be able to resort to mk. 1 eyeball and paper maps when necessary. Rant? Oh, yes.

 

Dave 

[jamie92208]

I  surprised a friend by being able to tell him where we were on the London Orbital car park by reference only to which railway we had last crossed.   Such minor things like the type of OHLE let alone the livery of the trains work a treat.

 

Here I am home alone as SWMBO is out mosaicing.   A good afternoon/evening watching trains at Angouleme took place yesterday.   Today I have the terrible task of heading for the shed and running trains as a neighbour and his grandchildren are coming round to play trains.  It's a hard life.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

15 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

It is my contention that in order to hold a PPL, candidates should have to demonstrate an ability to do basic visual navigation and map reading, which is what we used to do with Service pilots before they were allowed out of sight of their home airfield. The obvious dangers of semi-competent PPL holders wandering around not knowing where they are and potentially infringing areas of high density civil and military traffic are, to my mind, too great to allow the sort of thing that goes on daily. Even with decent radio communication and navigation aids, failures of equipment are hardly unknown and all pilots should be able to resort to mk. 1 eyeball and paper maps when necessary. Rant? Oh, yes.

 

Dave 

Totally agree.

 

But they are the aviation world's equivalent of the drivers on our roads who have no spatial awareness, are incapable of negotiating road junctions in the correct lane and with no signals, are unable to find controls and switches by touch alone, and need their eyes glued to the  speedo in order to maintain a constant speed.

 

They've passed their PPL and have not improved on their basic flying skills. In fact like their road based peers, their skills have declined to the point of needing retesting.  Airmanship has too many letters in it for them to comprehend.

 

'Come on Bob, we'll fly from Sleap down to Shobdon, get a pickle sandwich in the club house, and fly back.'

 

'Where's Shobdon?'

 

'Down in Herefordshire.  We'll fly down and find it eventually.'

 

'Do we need to file a flight plan?'

 

'Don't be daft it's only a local flight.'

 

Me...cynical?

Edited August 1, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[Dave Hunt]

Further to the navigation issue, a friend and wife were once on holiday in Scotland and early one morning were setting off to drive from near Perth to the west coast. He was driving and she was in charge of the map. At one T junction he was indicating to turn left but she said the other was the way to go. "I don't think so," he said, "We want to go west." The reply was that the way she suggested was west. "No it isn't," the male half of the sketch said and since the sun in full evidence added, "That would mean we would be heading towards the sun." This led to a blank stare so he added, "Where does the sun rise?" the response was, "Over next door's back garden, why?"

[Dave Hunt]

Additions to my last. When we lived in Germany, in North Rhine Westphalia, we were setting off to holiday in Switzerland. After a while Jill queried why we were heading south (at least that bit was right) and when I asked where she thought Switzerland was said, "It's in Scandinavia isn't it?" Fast forward to when we were actually in Switzerland she said, "I wonder why there are so many Czechoslovakian cars here." It took but a moment to fight back the tears and tell her that CH plates meant Switzerland.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

Additions to my last. When we lived in Germany, in North Rhine Westphalia, we were setting off to holiday in Switzerland. After a while Jill queried why we were heading south (at least that bit was right) and when I asked where she thought Switzerland was said, "It's in Scandinavia isn't it?" Fast forward to when we were actually in Switzerland she said, "I wonder why there are so many Czechoslovakian cars here." It took but a moment to fight back the tears and tell her that CH plates meant Switzerland.

 

Dave

It sounds as if Jill's navigational skills are on par with Beth's. Perhaps we should put them both in a car with the satnav disabled and set them off. 

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

It sounds as if Jill's navigational skills are on par with Beth's. Perhaps we should put them both in a car with the satnav disabled and set them off. 

 

Jamie

I was teaching a lady to drive in the Wolverhampton area.

 

We were parked in the carpark at the row of shops at the end of her road.

 

She walked there every day!

 

I then asked her to drive home.

 

Out of the car park, turned in the opposite direction to where her home was, got to a roundabout, and, takes the exit towards Tipton.

 

I let her continue for a few minutes and then got her to pull over asked her where she was and did she have a second home in Tipton I was not aware of.

 

Not a clue...

 

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

It is my contention that in order to hold a PPL, candidates should have to demonstrate an ability to do basic visual navigation and map reading, which is what we used to do with Service pilots before they were allowed out of sight of their home airfield. The obvious dangers of semi-competent PPL holders wandering around not knowing where they are and potentially infringing areas of high density civil and military traffic are, to my mind, too great to allow the sort of thing that goes on daily. Even with decent radio communication and navigation aids, failures of equipment are hardly unknown and all pilots should be able to resort to mk. 1 eyeball and paper maps when necessary. Rant? Oh, yes.

 

Dave 

 

Do PPL Students have to pass all ground exams (or at least some, such as navigation) prior to going solo?  Hopefully the answer is yes - imagine a situation where a student pilot is in the circuit on his first solo when there's an incident that blocks the runway for a considerable time - requiring the student to perhaps divert to an alternative field.  OK, so I suspect the vast majority of airfields could accommodate a grass landing - but is that the case for all? 

 

Now if Bear were flying a light aircraft I'd be inclined to have a car sat nav in my pocket "just in case"

 

[Tony_S]

14 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

This happened when the RAF still had some backbone. I'm not sure what would happen today.

One of my friends was educated at various places round the world as her father was an army officer. When she was an older teenager she was detained by the German police for some minor infringement but they just phoned her Dad to come and get her. He refused and said they should put her in a cell overnight and he would arrange collection in the morning. 

[Dave Hunt]

43 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Do PPL Students have to pass all ground exams (or at least some, such as navigation) prior to going solo?  Hopefully the answer is yes - imagine a situation where a student pilot is in the circuit on his first solo when there's an incident that blocks the runway for a considerable time - requiring the student to perhaps divert to an alternative field.  OK, so I suspect the vast majority of airfields could accommodate a grass landing - but is that the case for all? 

 

Now if Bear were flying a light aircraft I'd be inclined to have a car sat nav in my pocket "just in case"

 

 

I don't know about civvy flying clubs but in the RAF if a student pilot was doing his first solo, no other traffic would be allowed in the circuit until he was back on the ground (one way or another). I think that most pilots nowadays carry mobile phones, probably with satnav functions, but such things have been known to fail and I'm not sure that controlled airspace features on Google Maps. There may be an app but I'm sufficient of the dinosaur persuasion not to know. And when airborne without a clue of position is a bad time for the satnav to fail and not be able to read a map.

 

Dave

 

PS  Although passing groundschool exams is necessary for a licence to be awarded, AFAIK it isn't needed before a first solo. 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Dave Hunt

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

is a bad time for the satnav to fail

Matthew and I had just entered a fairly complex road junction in Texas. I did not know the satnav had voice activated commands. Matthew said something that the device interpreted as going into some unhelpful mode. I poked what I thought was a button to return it to normal and it fell off the windscreen. Never been keen on voice control since!

[Dave Hunt]

16 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

One of my friends was educated at various places round the world as her father was an army officer. When she was an older teenager she was detained by the German police for some minor infringement but they just phoned her Dad to come and get her. He refused and said they should put her in a cell overnight and he would arrange collection in the morning. 

 

When I was stationed in Germany, although UK service personnel were governed by German law and under German police jurisdiction when outside UK premises, unless the offence was extremely serious they would turn miscreants over to the military police. It usually meant harsher treatment than they would get within the civilian system anyway.

 

Dave

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

they would turn miscreants over to the military police

My friend was the Colonels daughter…

[br2975]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Kraft Klubb meets this afternoon at 1430.  I have been busy cleaning the garden room including the windows.

 

Do I ever see Nyda tidying up in the garage for me before Trayne Klubb?.

.

For an officer, and gentleman, of your age, and experience................... you do ask some silly questions !

[br2975]

A former colleague of mine ( a police constable )  recently applied to sit the police promotion examination, for the rank of sergeant.

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The examination is a national test, and one must apply via the 'College of Policing'

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The applicant is required to complete a questionnaire; of which only two questions are 'police related' - namely 

(i) your force, and

(ii) your force (collar) number.

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The myriad of other questions include

(iii) what type of school did the applicant attend ? 

(iv) the level of the applicant's parents education ?

(iv) is the applicant the same gender now, as to that assigned at birth ?

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As a lifelong sceptic I can see the reasoning behind such 'apparently unrelated' questions.

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However, I wonder what a certain  "deport them, castrate them, hang them high" national newspaper would make of such nonsense.

.

.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by br2975

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, br2975 said:

However, I wonder what a certain  "deport them, castrate them, hang them high" national newspaper would make of such nonsense.

 

Has anyone pointed out to them the impracticality of doing things in that order?

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, br2975 said:

  "deport them, castrate them, hang them high" 

 

Laudable though your sentiments are Mr Rolley, we don't think you would really fit into the working environment and ethics of the current Parole Board.

[br2975]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

Laudable though your sentiments are Mr Rolley, we don't think you would really fit into the working environment and ethics of the current Parole Board.

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About as much chance as 'Nelson getting his eye back !"

Edited August 1, 2023 by br2975