“No one wants to talk in the media about this…” except the 99% of the media that is already talking about it.

I noticed a ‘naughty field’ of sorts at Prestwick yesterday, directly opposite us.

To be honest, some of Saturday’s display over Ayr beach was marred for me by the presence of socially inept photographers. These guys, with massive lenses, furiously communicating with each other via personal radio (can you say unwarranted self importance in the age of text messaging?), stood directly in front of families with small kids blocking their view, swore profusely at any given opportunity and stank of drink. One was verbally abusive towards an official who was trying to maintain the crowd line on the beach, which had previously pushed forward from its original location by these guys. All that expensive camera equipment (radio equipment and beer), yet an unwillingness to pay for the photographer’s section! Make of that what you will.

I don’t think you can shame these people into better behaviour, either by calling them ‘freeloaders’ or by reminding them that they are depriving aircraft operators of money whilst getting a free display; else these forum threads would resolve themselves. Common sense would dictate that if you want the best photographs of aircraft at displays then surely you would want to pay a premium over the rest of the crowd, not duck out of paying at all. I think this tells us about the lack of morality in the naughty field camp, and why you would be wasting your time trying to shift their opinions.

With that said, what happens if you take these rude, socially clueless and morally reprehensible ***** and shove them in a field out the way so that I don’t have to see, hear or smell them? No great loss really, and it sounds like you are going to waste 90% of your energy getting this ~ 1% to pay up. Do you really want this lot at your airshow anyway, when you have small kids, young families, elderly and infirm people and other would-be enthusiasts around? Not really worth the grief, in my opinion, as you don’t want airshows to be synonymous with these sorts of people. You can suss out which photos were taken from the naughty field(s) anyway, and draw your own conclusion on the character of the photographers I suppose.

I was at Prestwick both yesterday and today. Everything seems to have been handled very well, both by the Vulcan crew and by the event organisers. Had it not been for a chap standing next to us listening in to the radio communications somehow, we would not have known either. I must admit I didn’t catch the issue with the nose wheel when it made its dirty pass, and it wasn’t until I noticed it circling to the North of Ayr beach, during the BBMF demo, that I figured something must be up.

By happy coincidence I was sharing accommodation with one of the VTTS team last night, so I had a brief but very interesting chat with him. Also went on the under-wing tour today, and stayed around long enough to watch XH558 take off and perform a slow pass of Prestwick before making a slow pass. The general consensus seemed to be that there was a small air lock in a pitot tube (technically minded people feel free to chip in).

As I mentioned before, whilst the crowd were oblivious to the incident on Saturday, the rumour mill had started to chug into action today. I was told by one individual today that 1) the undercarriage had been lowered with the aid of a crank (cue mental image of one of the VTTS team furiously lowering the nose wheel manually) and 2) They had considered ejecting over the sea, and letting XH558 plunge into Troon Bay. Vulcan To The Sky dive academy, anyone? I also heard mention that they scrambled typhoons from Lossiemouth, and that they were briefly considering an in-flight refueling. Perhaps the latter are true, as they were relayed by the radio interceptor I was speaking to on the beach?

Always makes me cringe, when visiting a hospital you invariably see a patient who’s sneaked out for a tab whilst connected to a mobile oxygen clyinder….

The unofficial motto of emphysema should be ‘you’ve got to make do with what you’ve got’….

Smoking can lead to emphysema which, although it cannot be cured, will lead to a patient requiring years of increasingly intensive treatment to mitigate the side effects. Smoking does not lead to violent crime, but we all still pay for those oxygen tanks!

Nicola Sturgeon has proposed for air passenger duty to be first cut by 50%, the ultimately removed altogether in Scotland. This is in a bid to bring more business to Scottish airports. All well and good, but the SNP have recently announced a ban on GM crops in Scotland “to protect Scotland’s clean, green status”. First of all, who invented this arbitrary environmental status and what weight does it carry? Secondly, how do GM crops present a risk to our ‘clean green status’ whilst increased air travel in and out of our airports doesn’t? This coming from the same crowd that bought out the entirely uneconomic Prestwick airport as well, purely to keep it open. The SNP is clearly taking an ill-informed and anti-intellectual stance to appease individuals who fear GM crops out of general ignorance. I know that the SNP didn’t consult with the chief scientific advisor because we haven’t had one up here since December last year. That post is one of eight scientific advisory positions currently unfilled in the Government up here, and it seems nobody in the wider Scottish scientific community was consulted before this ban was proposed. Scotland has a long history of scientific research in the agricultural domain, and the ban on GM crops represents a disturbing backwards step purely for the sake of a few votes from concerned mothers and ageing environmentalists.

Ms Sturgeon also complained yesterday about the lack of Scottish representation on the BBC. How do I know this? Because I was watching First Ministers Questions live from Holyrood on BBC 2 yesterday! :stupid: Sturgeon made the point that Germany has blocked the seeding of GM Crops. What she didn’t mention was that Germany has had a strong grassroots ecological movement since the ’70s, which has also blocked the use and development of nuclear technology there. We might have CND here, but we lack the strong ‘deep ecology’ lobbying that is inherent in Germany. A poor comparison in my opinion.

She said something about us needing to accept more refugees though, so that two minute soundbite will be the one section of FMQs that will make the rounds on social media for the next week. I even know an SNP supporter who had her hair cut into a tight bob not unlike Ms Sturgeon’s own. Uncanny!

Good call, that one claimed the lives of 31.

56 died in the Bradford City stadium fire, which was traced back to a discarded cigarette butt.

Just saying…