bloodnokSo more with lesser terms is better? I can understand to a point issuing new contracts to new employees but to have your current T&Cs eroded because everyone wants to follow suite is not right. I have no idea what you do for a living Rob but how would you react if your employer started to erode what you have? Put you on fixed based contracts, made you pay for your own tools to do the job they employ you to do, made you pay for your own car parking, own uniform, own refreshments considering you can’t get any through security, own type rating, simulator sessions, charge £50 for them to look at your CV, charge you for an interview, sim check, the list goes on. Because they are doing it everyone wants to follow suite. This doesn’t make it right, and to top it all off you can’t even plug in your own mobile phone at work.
All in the name of low cost tickets, that is not only being subsidised by ancillary revenue, but by the employees as well. If anyone thinks this is normal then it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
Many of the things you list are common to many jobs.
As an aircraft engineer I had to provide my own tools (at considerable expense), drive myself to work, put on my own overalls, pay for my own coffee and work in a place where mobile phones are banned.
If I do a type course I am bonded to the company (not legally enforceable, but try getting a job if you didn’t pay your bond when you leave).
The Ryan air way of doing things has been around for many years, it’s not a secret and for anyone who has joined the company in the last 10-15 years has known what they are getting in to (whether you like it or not).
MOL is just a business man who is not so subtle at plugging his airline as some others, and drives a hard bargain….that’s business. He’s not ending civilised employment as we know it, he’s providing a service that just happens to be very popular (with business men as well as the great unwashed).
bloodnokVery few charities I would think pay the lions share to themselves and not to the very thing they are supporting!! Can we query it with the charity commissioners etc??
If you believe that then you are very naive!
The percentage of income that actually goes to good causes is actually below 25% in many charities that are a household name.
bloodnokIt’s funny how some are stating that the fee is OK as long they know the money is going to the right places. How many charities, museums etc that you pay for, break down the costs for you? Not many I can think of. Why is Cosford different? Is it because it has been free for a longtime?
Recent large cash demands for the continuing flight status of a large cold war bomber were met and honoured(with a bit of cajoling) with enthusiasm (albeit not everywhere) but a few pounds to park at one the best museums on the country is treated with cynicism and contempt. Hmmmm…..
I know what I would rather pay for…
The Vulcan has never claimed to be free though.
The cynic in me says this is the thin end of the wedge, £3 this year, £4.50 next year, and then in a few years time you’ll be paying £10 to park your car at the ‘free’ museum.
bloodnokAt Wattisham yesterday we had a nice fly past by the Catalina, and today we had a great display by a Hurricane.
bloodnokMy point is that, agreed the surface detail of this story is a non-story, but the story behind it – the underfunding of the UK armed forces which forces them to constantly resort to bodge jobs is what is being missed by people just dismissing it.
Please provide details of some of these ‘bodge’ jobs and proof that they’re a ‘bodge’.
bloodnokThe problem is that all the discussion does detract from the fact that this is an issue. “Cut and shunt” should be of concern. Yes its an ancient practice… but it goes to the heart of undefunding in the UK military and that is the real story.
I have no doubt that chinook rebuild was utterly professional and “a proper job”. But why should the RAF and the military overall have to restort to such measures? I would not get on an airliner if I knew it was built from two other 30 year old airframes, one of which had crashed. I wouldn’t put my daughter in a car I knew to be made of two 30 year old chassis’….so why do we expect “our boys” to do the same with their kit?
If our military was funded correctly we would have bought a replacement Chinook and not expected one to be rebuilt from war booty and a wreck.
Thats the real story.
I’d have to disagree with most of what you’ve written.
I’d have said it was a good use of resources to repair the damaged aircraft with the bits they had available, the only other options was to either lose the asset and be one down or to buy a new one at a far greater cost.
You use of the word ‘crashed’is also in the wrong context. Nothing had ‘crashed’ in regard to the chinook, it had a landing accident, and the part that was used wasn’t damaged or subject to undue stresses.
Saying you wouldn’t fly on an airliner made of from old bits of 2 aircraft just shows your lack of knowledge of aircraft engineering and the standards worked to. I’d also say you probably have already flown on an airliner made up from bits of another, one of which may have crashed!
bloodnokI was quite lucky as a kid, my father is the eldest son of a vicar, and me and my sister are the eldest grandchildren by a few years.
Whenever we used to go and visit my grandfather in his huge Victorian vicarage I used to go up to the old toy room which was absolutely packed with dinky toys, meccano, old kielcraft kits,eagle annuals, mamod steam engines and lots of old 50’s copies of air pictorial and even a bunch of progames from 50’s Farnborough airshows.
This kind of set the scene, I got into Biggles books in a big way, started making kits, and like many others on here loved the comics from the 70’s, I still have a few of those hippo books, old observers books, and I still have those programmes from Farnborough!
The one book that set me off on my chosen career path of fixing aircraft structures was a pre war copy of The Air Training Manual. I believe this was a text book for the early Air training corps, and the chapter on structures really got to me. I used to hate to cover balsa models with tissue paper as it hid the frame!
bloodnokNo one is talking grit blasting & the only media that could possibly qualify as “expensive” is plastic & thats only because it;s twice the price of the others.
I’ve found that for small quantities of walnut media that the local pet shop is the place as they sell it for parrotsWe’re talking about aircraft parts here, not boat anchors.. 😉
I suggest you read some of the early posts again, I believe garnet was mentioned, that’s definately grit. 😉
You’ll have to forgive me, but I shall have to bow to your obviously great experience in boat anchors and getting your supplies from pet shops, I speak from experience of decorroding aircraft structures on an almost daily basis in job I’ve been doing for quite a few years.
bloodnokAlso there are not 67 Apaches in service yet. Many are stored awaiting the activation of the third regiment, which has been delayed because of Afghan commintments.
It’s now only 66, they broke one last year and it’s unlikely to be repaired.
bloodnokThe only downside to using just about every method mentioned so far is expense!
‘Grit’ blasting is really far to heavy for your average aircraft structure, and buying the media designed to be used on aircraft is more expensive.
In my experience nothing removes corrosion as well as a session with a Vacu-blaster, the grit is as fine as flour, and i’ve seen areas that have been paint stripped years later, and the corrosion hasn’t returned.
Whilst using compounds like Alodine/Alocrom to protect the metal afterwards is the best method, for the amateur user you have the expense, and then you have the issue that it’s a quite dangerous chemical, has to used correctly and disposed of correctly….. this isn’t so easy.
In reality the best way of removing corrosion will be using flapper wheels/discs, then etch priming followed by top coat. If it’s really that bad, then you have to chop it out and replace the metal.
bloodnokSo why start the “I know something you don’t”?
It would indeed be better coming from TFC, so don’t stir it.
You’ve been on these forums long enough to know that there are quite a few posters who like to allude they know something you don’t, and then say you’d better not discuss it because it’ll have dire consequences! :rolleyes:
bloodnokLet’s be quite clear about this: the weather at Yeovilton was above limits for some sort of display for most of the day.
Those teams that wanted to get airborne and make the most of it put on some good displays. If 558 had managed just one circuit and landed the very large crowd that came to see it would have been satisfied, even a single high speed run along the runway would have been worthwhile.
The weather was above limits? Do you know what limits the Vulcan operates under?
I’dsay if it had taken off and done a circuit then landed we’d still have loads of posts along the lines of “I paid £xx to see the Vulcan and all it did was fly round once and land”
bloodnokTickets for the familes day are still avalible and so are tickets for the function in the evening.
a lightning cockpit is part of the static display for those who want to know.
At the risk of ‘tit for tatting’, I know of several civilians who’ve tried to obtain tickets for both events only to be told no more are available, this was the situation as of this afternoon and for over a week. It may be different for military personnel for the evening do.
bloodnokI actually made a successful tool for these fasteners using a 2p piece and a set of large wire locking pliers….. The copper coin gives way before the fastner, so if they do need drilling out through corrosion you won’t destroy the head………………..
oh, and we still order via the Bardolph catalogue……
You might use the catalogue, but Bardolph passed away 3 years ago. All rights to the name and the catalogue were bought up by Craig tools.
bloodnokOne of the most important things to remember when taking pretty much any kind of screw in fastener out is to remove as much of the paint/crap out of the head as possible before trying to undo it.
Once the slot is damaged they (Hi torque, tri-wing, offset phillips) are right b*ggers to get out, even with the correct ‘bit’.
Take a bit of time with a sharp scriber to pick the paint out, and if you have access to an air powered impact gun set pretty low you at least have a fighting chance.
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