Can I introduce you to…………….. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

Thanks pal, I’m glad I didn’t look at this thread last night before I went to bed, my view of the octopus was up those bloody tentacles and it was twice as big as me and most upset, probably as much as I was, I’ll stay with looking at the sticklebacks in my pond thank you very much, they don’t tend to put suckers round your head.

I’ll try and take the sting out of this.
It must be one of the heaviest threads that I’ve ever read on the Forum, Ali obviously has a great passion about what she does and good for her, on the other hand some of the comments made on here, to my unitiated mind, seem quite relevant, others, quite negative.
As a sad old boy without the knowledge, I’m not in a position to comment on this or that rule or regulation concerning underwater wrecks, or even diving, I gave that up 15 years ago when I was attacked by a rather large octopus off the coast of Portugal, it sounds funny now but it wasn’t at the time.
As far as I’m concerned Ali should be given all the support and help that she is obviously seeking and that’s the bottom line.
Now, Ali, if you want help with filling up your air tanks or even getting into that hideously tight wet suit, let me know.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, I just feel that it’s got a bit out of hand and needs a bit more of a constructive and lighter exchange from all parties, otherwise nothing will ever happen and we will lose what I consider to be one of the most enthusiastic and interesting members of the Forum.
Pete.
Ars longa vita brevis
B####### as well, don’t condemn people for being able to quote Latin or literature if it has significance to themselves. That latin quote was an album by the Nice, and, yes, I do know what it means, something to do with Coronation Street isn’t it, bet you didn’t know that.

A load of balls.

Moggy

(Radar housings on the old Feltwell drome 😉 At least I’ve injected some historic content )

Moggy
Do I take it that you are refering to my comments on the IL-76’s.
For nearly 30 years I worked as the architectural consultant for the largest structural engineers in the B Stortford area.
During the 90’s I did work for Inflight and LPL, aka Eugene Corr, at Stansted, including reworking the big hangar at the SW end of the runway.
A former work collegue of ours worked full time for LPL on the airfield maintenance, and had ‘inside knowledge’.
During the 90’s Stansted was often visited by Russian Il-76’s which were not popular due to their poor maintenance and had a few dodgy landing experiences, in fact the only time that I’ve ever complained to Stansted about an aircraft incident was over an IL-76 that nearly removed Finchingfield Church tower and my chimney pots.
We used to see the Russian crews and their minders wandering around Jackson Square in Bishops Stortford, wearing their cheapo suits and looking totally bewildered.
I was told that the Russians refused to pay for any neccessary maintenance provided by the CAA and would bring along their own engineers instead.
The story goes that one IL-76 had a problem with it’s undercarriage, the crew obtained some scaffold poles, tied them into the frame and flew it back to Moscow with the wheels down.
After that, IL-76’s were apparantly banned from Stansted, and I haven’t seen one for years, the only Russian a/c I see there fairly regularly is the An-124 Ruslan Condor, and it still gives me the creeps when I see it struggling to climb out from take off.

Colaga

Now thats an interesting thread, regarding unintentional / intentional passes near or over the crowdline. My challenge to everyone out there is , what stories can you share with us, re this subject.
Have seen a few myself, including one at this years RIAT, when one particular aircraft came quite close to the crowdline. Ahhh, just like the good old days.
I promise not too send any more posts, for a few days, which should give you all plenty of time too reply to this intereresting thread. This should be interesting. :p 😀

I’ll start off with a Canadian Starfighter at Mildenhall, early 80’s. At this particular display, there seemed to be a bit of rivalry between the German and Canadian Starfighter teams, each one flying a 3 ship formation and trying to be as bold as you could get.
The Canadians leader, rather unusually was flying without tip tanks, they were the last to display.
We were standing back from the front of the crowdline when the Canadian leader came hammering over the top of us in full reheat running parallel to the crowd line from the direction of the hangars, it was so low, that at the time, I only had my old Zenith-E with a 50mm lens but it fills the frame, I wish I had a way of publishing my slides on here so you could see it.

Second one, the performance by the Blue Angels at Finningley during the 90’s.
We were standing up at the end where the b##### noisy funfair was, but you got a good view of a/c preparing to take off, and anyway, that was where the Blue Angels were parked up, so the noise was worth it.
One of their routines was to attract your attention to the hanging in the air, slow flying routine while another one hammered overhead at almost mach speed.
He decided to do this behind the crowd, but I think he forgot about the big wheel. What the poor sods on the top of the big wheel felt as the F-18 cleared it by what seemed just a few feet to us must have been a good case for counselling.

West Malling, 1980’s. There was a dog fight between Stephen Grey in Moose, Ray Hannah in MH434 and various Pilatii.
At one point, Stephen Grey was running low along the front of the crowdline when Ray flew underneath him and over the crowd, it was so low that me and my mate actually ducked and sat on the ground, twitching with fear.

Wethersfield, 1980’s, RAF Phantom performance, they lost it doing a tight turn, it came ossillating over the crowd and we were quite frightened, I gather from a previous thread that they were killed a few weeks after at another airshow.
At the same airshow, the half size Fw 190 continuously flew low over the crowd line during his routine.

During the 50’s and 60’s it didn’t seem to matter where you flew, Lightnings would appear at high speed and low level from behind the crowd etc etc.
I recall watching a display by the Black Arrows at Cottesmore in the early 60’s during a thunderstorm, I was cowering behind a hangar door while they flew their formations where they could at low level, whether it was over or in front of the crowd, it didn’t seem to matter.
Thinking about it, most solo a/c in the 50’s and 60’s tended to arrive behind the crowd in order to give that element of surprise.
What larks Pip.

I googled B-36’s and as I thought, the type was originally concieved in 1941 to bomb Germany from the US in the event of the UK being occupied and the States having no immediate bases, brave plan indeed.
Although the bomb load is quoted as 86000lb, which is huge, I gather that with the fuel load for such a long trip, it would have been reduced to 10000lb or half the load of the Lancaster.
Imagine having to fly that thing across the Atlantic to bomb Germany, how long would that have taken at a cruising speed of about 300mph, 15 hours?
Then if the UK and probably Eire, due to it’s strategic position, had been occupied and filled with Me 262 interceptors, they would have been harried all the way into Germany across occupied Europe.
Those that did fullfill their missions would then have to face it all again on the way home and be faced with another gruelling 15 hour return flight back over the Atlantic, some of them damaged, with wolfpacks and surface raiders rampant over the Atlantic and friendly British bases in Africa occupied by the Nazis.
On the other hand, by this time having developed the atomic bomb, one mission and it would have all been over.
Sounds like a good idea for a novel, what do you think.

A few years ago, I saw a couple of visits to Stansted by what I thought was an Antonov Colt with 6 engines instead of 4, I’m absolutley certain of this but my research can’t find a 6 engined variety, however, whatever it was, it’s the only other a/c that I’ve seen that could match the B-36 droning sound, I saw a Tu-Bear in the static at Fairford once but never saw it fly, I would imagine that the noise was very similar.
I was also surprised on watching the film, that the B-36 had 3 bladed props rather than 4, was this something to do with the aerodynamics of backwards facing props.

I’m doing the toast now, why not, and looking up at the sky, the clouds are forming up into such magical shapes today, it must be a sign.

Roscoria

Yes, it was always exciting to see an F111 display, I remember seeing a formation come over Mildenhall once and each one had their wings set at a different angle.
I was also lucky enough to have been at RIAT when the Aussie F-111 did his display and burn all to the music of Rolf Harris!
Another interesting experience I had at Alconbury was being allowed to scramble to the back of a KC-135, which I recall was full of huge fuel tanks, where I was met by the refuelling boom operator who got me to lie down in the operating position and patiently gave me a lecture on how the thing worked, pity we were’nt in the air at the time as all I could see out the window was concrete and people peering up at me.