Hi All.
Bearing in mind that XH558 near enough rolled at IAT, does anybody think that they may do a roll as they have more or less used the stress and engine cycle life up on her very last day on her return to Finningley ?

Geoff.

No. Even before the Shoreham accident it wasn’t going to happen. I asked the VTTS team at Prestwick. Their take on it was that they were quite happy for XH558 to be rolled, and had asked Kevin Rumens if he would do it. For some convoluted reason rolling XH558 would impact negatively on his working relationship with Virgin Atlantic, who would perhaps see it as too risky or cavalier a move for one of their men. I didn’t quite follow the logic, but that was the story I was told.

For what it was worth, I was hoping right through the display that they would just roll it anyway for the sheer hell of it.

This does make me wonder of the viability of the Boeing P-8 Poseidon as our new maritime aircraft, given that it only has two engines and all. I thought part of the argument for four-engined aircraft (Nimrod, Shackleton etc) was that you could lose an engine to a (sea)bird strike and still have enough power contingency to keep going for a while.

Meddle – the country needs a strong opposition and a strong opposition leader, not an antidote.

Of course, and I certainly don’t see Corbyn as a credible opposition leader really.

My concern is more with the style of criticism he has received over the last few days. Yes he may resemble a stack of slowly curling sandwiches, but it should be fairly easy to pick apart ideologue with poor public speaking skills without having to resort to such childish jibes. Boris Johnson did a reasonable job on Facebook,of all places.

How anyone could scrap such a complete airframe is beyond me..!

A different time. There was a thread on here of lost, saved, lost again airframes.

Comprehensive demolition by Allister Heath in the D.Tel, to-day explaining why our putative saviour JC won’t cut the mustard. I think it is online.

Jeremy Corbyn turned me into a newt! …I got better!

The right wing press has hosted articles by several pundits over the last few days that they will probably believe comprise a ‘comprehensive demolition’. Today I saw references to a relationship he had with Diane Abbott (rather him than me) in the ’70s, the unflattering brown jacket he wore to PMQs and his “Bugs Bunny” front tooth. Demolition work to rival the late Fred Dibnah!

I think some of the criticism is a little unfair and, perhaps, symptomatic of the short memories we collectively appear to have. Blair was a well-oiled charm machine; never a hair out of place or a button left ‘disrespectfully’ undone. He sung the national anthem with great gusto and proclaimed to be a man of God. He also displayed qualities attributable to some form of borderline personality disorder, though I couldn’t stomach anything beyond the first 50 pages of that dreadful autobiography, so I know not which disorder he most likely has.

By contrast Corbyn looks like he shops out of Sue Ryder and makes his own sandwiches. A geography teacher trapped in a completely nu-noteworthy political career until last week. Surely he is a good antidote to the slick Blairite years?

Personally I watched PMQs and wasn’t that impressed. The crumpled paper and Agony Aunt questions won’t work every week, he tripped up a couple of times over his words and he gave nothing for Cameron to truly worry about. He didn’t look like a leader, even if that puts me slightly at odds with my comments above. There was nothing especially personable about his delivery. The questions he raised were significant, but if he is the only one asking them then I am slightly troubled. If nothing else, I doubt he will be stealing SNP votes from up here any time soon as I wager he will be perceived as too dull, intellectual and English for hardened Nats.

Anything else?

East Fortune had the Strathallen T.4 on their doorstep and nothing happened!

The roads are pretty narrow around Strathallen. Their Shack flew in, but I don’t see how they could have got it out. Besides, Shacks were still in service back then, so you would have needed a fair bit of foresight to really consider the importance of getting the Strathallen example out by road.

The runways at East Fortune were still usable around 2000 or so.

What is the story behind the Dassault Flamant sitting there at Paphos?

Astonishing satire there.