She flew over Newcastle (egnt) today about 1 ish (I think) heading north west. Lovely sight, and some bemused looks on the faces of our airline engineering students…

edit, having seen the website and the routing across the atlantic, she would have most likely been just doing an en-route overflight of the airport before continuing North. A few transiting aircraft get permission to overfly particularly if they are interesting types, whereas most regular stuff either has to fly out to sea or miles to the west….

Our little group do a quick check on holidays etc make sure someone is available to keep an eye, water plants, feed pets, move mail from the front door, and just see that all is OK. Whether this is down to the age group of those involved is another question, would this still occur among younger residents? I really don’t know.

Close family only…. the thieving scumbags next door would even nick the paint from the walls if we let them in. I’m a big fan of security cameras, timing lights in a couple of rooms, and bear-traps along the hallway. There are plenty of dodgers in the bungalows across the road, and a couple of the longer term owners do look after each others houses, as even we used to do 30 years ago….

The problem now is a complete lack of trust, and a massive social divide between people who have no respect for people’s property/privacy, and those who do…. I honestly believe that the difference between these two opposite social groups is very simple and fundamental: One of the groups has worked to acheive what they have, whereas the other has had everything given to them.

You’d probably be better off posting in the ‘commercial aviation’ section, but there are quite a few of us who work on airliners in various ways – perhaps another ticky box would be appropriate for engineers… 😉

Even I remember coal waggons, the rag and bone man with his horse and cart, the ‘egg-man’ (mobile greengrocer), ha’penny’s, and the fact that you could wander the streets all day and night without the slightest possibility of being killed or worse.. I used to save up my pocket money for a Matchbox car, and you could have a feast for a 10p mix up. Our local sweetshop still sold candy cigarettes by the 1/4 or 1/2 lb.

I’m 34, so just a mere child compared to the majority on here….

Richard,
In my day the Person Responsible would now be in the Cells in the Station Guardroom. Summaries of Evidence would be taken leading to a Court Martial. If the individual could prove that (s)he had not, ever, been given Formal Orders to check intakes for dessicant bags then his/her Supervisor should also be in the Cells. If that Supervisor could, similarly, be called to account – and plead ignorance, then the Wg Co Eng and/or Staish would, very probably, find themselves posted very rapidly to somewhere very uncomfortable/nasty for a very long time.
Organisational failure? Pity, it WAS a good aircraft!
HTH
Resmoroh

These days, it has finally been accepted that people make mistakes, and the days of Tech charging for no good reason are long gone in the civillian world. People screw up, and there are always lessons to be learned from such errors. How do we know that the person involved was not ill, had family issues, hell… what if his dog had died! All of these outside influences can allow a person to make a momentary lapse of judgement. No blame can be apportioned with the information we have. It could have been ALOT worse, but it wasn’t. Learn and move on. I guarantee that the person who’s responsibility it was to remove the bags will NEVER miss another thing on a Pre-flight check again. I’d want him on MY see-off team immediately.

Being an engineer, I never believe the words ‘can’t be done’… What’s the major issue with the Sabre engine? I realise that there are only a couple in circulation and they are complicated… BUT with a bottomless pit of money, could one be manufactured or restored? Do manuals / drawings exist? Could one be built but rectifying design flaws? Would a new build have to be reverse engineered from a whole one?

Some familiar and some new pictures there. Is that the Buran right at the bottom?

We have plenty of water up North… we could sell you some 😀 Kielder is full to bursting and has been since it was built. No droughts here.

I might fill up my water pistol via my hosepipe…. 😀