Many years ago, we had the YAM Halifax, BBMF’s Lancaster and Sally B parked at the end of the runway with Lindy looking on. I miss the airshows!

Me too. I can’t remember which year it was, but I remember one year we went for a look around on the Friday night before the Airshow weekend. The crews of the attending aircraft (Sally B, Catalina, Blenheim, Lysander, B-25 etc) were more than happy to show you around and talk about the aircraft. I must have been around 9 at the time, and remember coming home from the Airshow with a large stash of airfix models.

Our house in Elvington seemed to be in the centre of where all the aircraft turned over the village before the display, we got amazing views of all of the aircraft at low level 😎 One Spitfire seemed to repeatedly fly over one display day, lower each time it came over, I like to think it was Mr Hannah Sr in MH434 🙂

You have a point when it comes to certain aspects of efficiency, but what actually happens when a private contractor takes on public service work, usually the service is reduced, staff are on temp contracts, minimum pay, everyone gets ripped off to put profits into contractor’s pockets.

Privatisation of public services is usually worse than what it replaces, simple example our hospitals are now a source of infection due entirely to handing cleaning contracts to private companies, staff levels reduced, pay levels at minimum, yet the costs have soared, wonder where the money has gone?

Don’t blame the unions apart from not being able to stop the wholesale destruction of so much of essential services, the cry goes up can’t afford, no money, costs to high, sphericals, all these contractors have no problem getting their sticky fingers on our money, but sod the service.:mad:

We need to either get our own act together damn quick or accept that we are a 3rd world country with a corrupt hierarchy

Union culture is a huge part of the problem. It’s self serving, with no regard to service levels. When these unions strike, it just inconveniences everyone else. Unfortunately, public sector workers seem not to realise that their only reason for employment is to service general society. When society looses money, the public sector must cut its costs accordingly. But unions don’t allow this.

Obviously there are pros and cons of both public and private sector businesses and services. I would argue that nationalising our aeronautical industry destroyed it. The same goes for our automotive industry.

Great idea to add an old airframe with dubious OEM support and totally foreign avionics to the fleet. Perhaps the RAF could rebuilt some Sunderland flying boats, re-engine them with RR engines, add the avionics of the MR.4 as a easy solution.

That would be fantastic

The powers that be were trying to make some way of handing traffic over to non-police, not surprising unwelcome, but the subject will come up again.

Prison and prisoner escort duties are mainly in the hands of contractors already, how far will privatisation go?.

Further. Public services are just far too expensive these days, and are hindered by general beurocracy, inefficiency/poor management and unions.

I hope other countries are looking on and learning from our mistakes.

Maybe next year 🙁

Please make sure you get plenty of photographs! 😀

To see & hear two Lancasters in the air together… 😎

I’m not an aero engineer by any stretch, but in the car world in a similar scenario, you’d look at some way of pre heating the oil, and changing the oil for a different type, with characteristics that favour cold starts over long duration. (so long as you weren’t flying it with that oil in)