Paul FG-VZON now in service too
Aurigny’s second new toy G-VZON (another reggie related to Guernsey locations etc) flew their GR601 service LGW-GCI yesterday morning, and Captain’s pre-take off address included confirmation that it had entered service the day before.
Paul F
Paul FEnjoy!
Paul FAs ever the noisy minority try to claim they are representing the views of the majority of British Muslims- it simply isn’t true IMHO. Reporting their presence/protest in such detail simply gives them the publicity they seek to futher their cause, and might even lead to wider gulf of mistrust between various resident “populations” in the area Let them protest but don’t report it!
As has been said, they have every right to protest, however much we may abhor their views. They seem to conveniently forget that thats one of the very reasons the British armed forces are still in the Middle East, to try to ensure that the local population have a similar right to free-speech out there too, and do not become subject to the will of an oppressive and oft brutal regime.
If we want their protests here to be banned we are at risk of starting on the slippery slope towards finding ourselves suffering under our own “police state”!
Paul F
Paul FAs ever the noisy minority try to claim they are representing the views of the majority of British Muslims- it simply isn’t true IMHO. Reporting their presence/protest in such detail simply gives them the publicity they seek to futher their cause, and might even lead to wider gulf of mistrust between various resident “populations” in the area Let them protest but don’t report it!
As has been said, they have every right to protest, however much we may abhor their views. They seem to conveniently forget that thats one of the very reasons the British armed forces are still in the Middle East, to try to ensure that the local population have a similar right to free-speech out there too, and do not become subject to the will of an oppressive and oft brutal regime.
If we want their protests here to be banned we are at risk of starting on the slippery slope towards finding ourselves suffering under our own “police state”!
Paul F
Paul FCracking photos Merlin 70, brought back loads of memories of the days when things were far more relaxed at Dx.
I remember the Sunderland sitting in one of the hangars awaiting the two halves of the fuselage to be rejoined – it had been split horizontally for transit and the upper half looked as if a whole fuselage had simply half-sunk into the floor – most odd.
IWMs BIg Beautiful Doll P51 was gleaming in the spring sunshine on one of my visits, whilst the “chinless” unpainted Sally B sat out on the flightline. Who’d have guesse dthen that we’d one day see three B17’s sitting on the flight line, and many P51’s too…The photo of the Dewoitine made me realise just how much i had “forgotten” of those days. Good to see it.
I also remember one of the East Anglian “wreck recovery” groups had a fairly extensive display of recovered artifacts there too.
Might be time to dig out, scan and post some of my old photos of the same period.
Paul F
Paul FG-COBO has entered service
Shiny new ATR72 G-COBO (very 😎 choice of registration as Cobo is one of the nice(r) beaches on Guernsey) was doing the LGW-GCI runs yesterday.
It operated the outbound GR601 servcie as a colleague flew out to Gsy on it, and says she thought the crew said that was only it’s second trip – so it may have kicked off on the GCI-LGW “red eye” service yesterday morning?
It also operated the GR606 service that brought us back to LGW last night :cool:, (seats 14A and 14C), so I assume it had been shuttling to and fro on the interim GCI-LGW-GCI services too. During pre-flight chat the Captain did welcome aboard “..this brand new ATR72 G-COBO..”, so he seemed fairly pleased to be up at the sharp end too. For a small airline like Aurigny I guess the introduction of a brand new aircraft is far more of a major event than it is for BA or Squeezyjet where planes are ‘ten a penny’.
rdc1000 – yes, interior trim is nice and clean, bright and airy, unlike the slightly shabby and tired looking ‘BWDA, ‘BWDB and ‘BXTN. Also decidely less vibration and noise etc on engine start up, and far less of a “thump” when gear was retracted or lowered. Oh, and a very obvious “new car” type smell. Sorry to say yesterday’s 17:15 GCI-MAN service was still being operated by the older ‘planes (as was my GR601 flight out to GCI on Monday morning 🙁 )
Aboard ‘COBO there are two full extra rows of seats, plus an interesting addition of two rear-facing seats on the front right cabin bulkhead (Seats 1D and 1F I assume?) next to the central “stowable” rear-facing cabin crew seat. Those two new seats face directly at seats (2?)D and F in the first full width row. I initially thought they perhaps foldable jump seats, but saw the cabin crew offer papers and refreshements to a passenger sitting in them, so I guess they are full revenue-earning seats? Thus it seems the new planes have ten more passenger seats.
Trim-wise, the seats are more rounded han before, set at an identical seat pitch (I suspect), and I wasn’t sure they were covered in “real” leather any more. They also have a neat new fold-down cup holder set in the underside of the seat-tray. In theory it means you need not open the seat tray if you only have a (still complimentary if soft) drink – though a few pasengers around me tried this and it seem the disposable cups currently used by Aurigny don’t really fit in the new holders (:rolleyes:), so they barely sit in them, meaning the cups look very unsteady as they are perched very high in the holder, and would be very easy to dislodge/spill all over your knees.
A definite improvmeent over the older aircraft, and hopefully I will get to see more of ‘COBO as I have now re-started my regular weekly overnight trips to GCI after a three month gap.
On the flight back to Gatwick I noticed that The Guernsey Press newspaper last night was reporting a sizeable drop in passenger arrivals in Gsy in Jan/Feb ’09 – something like 4000 down (IIRC) over the two months. Might be a knock-on effect of the credit-crunch (i..e less bankers travelling to many financial institutions on the island), or it might simply be due to the fact the Flybe have now completely stopped using BAe146s on the LGW-GCI route, thus cutting seat availibility. Maybe the extra Aurigny seats on the new ‘planes, plus tehir introduction of an extra GCI-LGW-GCI round trip every weekday will start to rebuild passenger numbers.
Oh, and yes I did have my camera with me yesterday, but time was very tight and so no I didn’t have chance to grab any photos of the gleaming ‘factory-fresh’ G-COBO 😡
No doubt one of the Gatwick regulars will soon capture her earning her pay and post a piccie or two. Come on chaps, you’re slacking!!!!!
Paul F (most often to be found on the historic thread, as civils are usually as boring as buses ! ;))
Paul FBlimey…in my day (really not THAT long ago!) we had to walk to school in the snow if there were no busses or if road transport was stopped. Kids from outlying villages were excused but only if roads were impassable, but closing schools was unheard of. We played football and rugby on frozen pitches, in falling snow, and if the snow was too deep to kick a ball around we went cross country running. No tracksuits and comfy trainers….just a sleeveless vest top and shorts (short shorts, that is!) and plimsolls. Remember them?! Now, we get one mm of snow and everyone goes into shock-horror mode. Pah! We’re turning into a nation of spineless mamby-pamby lily livered character-less and limp-wristed wasters. Is it any wonder things are in such a mess. Argh! Makes me angry….but I cannot go to “anger management classes” according to my teacher wife. Now its “Dealing with our emotions” sessions. Pah!
Do I qualify for “Grumpy Old Men” yet?
Join the queue here Tangmere…..:D:D
Paul FBlimey…in my day (really not THAT long ago!) we had to walk to school in the snow if there were no busses or if road transport was stopped. Kids from outlying villages were excused but only if roads were impassable, but closing schools was unheard of. We played football and rugby on frozen pitches, in falling snow, and if the snow was too deep to kick a ball around we went cross country running. No tracksuits and comfy trainers….just a sleeveless vest top and shorts (short shorts, that is!) and plimsolls. Remember them?! Now, we get one mm of snow and everyone goes into shock-horror mode. Pah! We’re turning into a nation of spineless mamby-pamby lily livered character-less and limp-wristed wasters. Is it any wonder things are in such a mess. Argh! Makes me angry….but I cannot go to “anger management classes” according to my teacher wife. Now its “Dealing with our emotions” sessions. Pah!
Do I qualify for “Grumpy Old Men” yet?
Join the queue here Tangmere…..:D:D
Paul FOf course, its not the snowfall per se thats the problem, its the Councils’ , and School Governors’, fear of being prosecuted because some little Johnny or Little Susie slipped over on a patch of untreated ice/snow, bumped their elbow, and dropped and broke their mobile phone/Ipod etc – thus allowing their parents an excuse to sue the school, the council, the weather forcasters and gawd knows who else for the personal injury/damage to property/mental trauma/post traumatic stress/ lieftime of flash-backs and nightmares etc etc etc
As ever, its the modern duo of “‘elf ‘n safety” and litigation that are the real reasons behind the fact that UK schools close as soon as a flake of snow falls…
Like many others posting earlier, I went to school from 1965 to 1979 (IIRC :o), I walked both ways every day (or cycled four miles each way to sixth form college for two years) and I honestly don’t remember missing any days due to snow except once when the school boilers failed.
If it snowed or was icy your parents simply told you to walk a little more carefully, and not to slide on the snow. You wore thicker gloves, hats and scarves etc, and you took care on the slippery patches. If you fell over you picked yourself up and carried on….probably worrying about the reaction you would get when your Mum/Dad saw the torn trousers/blaser/coat that night etc.
Few parents took kids to school by car, and the only kids who failed to get in during bad snow (i.e. 4 inches or more) were those living on outlying farms, etc, where they couldn’t get to the bus-stop in time to catch the school bus.
All together now, in our best Monty Python Yorkshire accents…”Try telling the kids of today that, and they won’t believe you…”
Paul F
Paul FOf course, its not the snowfall per se thats the problem, its the Councils’ , and School Governors’, fear of being prosecuted because some little Johnny or Little Susie slipped over on a patch of untreated ice/snow, bumped their elbow, and dropped and broke their mobile phone/Ipod etc – thus allowing their parents an excuse to sue the school, the council, the weather forcasters and gawd knows who else for the personal injury/damage to property/mental trauma/post traumatic stress/ lieftime of flash-backs and nightmares etc etc etc
As ever, its the modern duo of “‘elf ‘n safety” and litigation that are the real reasons behind the fact that UK schools close as soon as a flake of snow falls…
Like many others posting earlier, I went to school from 1965 to 1979 (IIRC :o), I walked both ways every day (or cycled four miles each way to sixth form college for two years) and I honestly don’t remember missing any days due to snow except once when the school boilers failed.
If it snowed or was icy your parents simply told you to walk a little more carefully, and not to slide on the snow. You wore thicker gloves, hats and scarves etc, and you took care on the slippery patches. If you fell over you picked yourself up and carried on….probably worrying about the reaction you would get when your Mum/Dad saw the torn trousers/blaser/coat that night etc.
Few parents took kids to school by car, and the only kids who failed to get in during bad snow (i.e. 4 inches or more) were those living on outlying farms, etc, where they couldn’t get to the bus-stop in time to catch the school bus.
All together now, in our best Monty Python Yorkshire accents…”Try telling the kids of today that, and they won’t believe you…”
Paul F
Paul FI I cannot understrand the reasoning behind the Jaguar purchase when there are and have been aircraft available of far greater interest to Manston.The sums involved in the Jaguar purchase could have happily have brought a straight winged F-84G into the collection for example or a good example of a Whirlwind .
Which type of visitor do they get to the museum, and which type of visitor are they trying to attract.. “Enthusiast” or “Casual Passing trade”?
Is it perhaps a case of the museum wanting a “modern fighter jet” to draw in the casual visitor, who would not necessarily care how relevant the type is to Manston, all they’d be interested in, and possibly the thing that they would remember and that might draw them back again, would be seeing a “modern jet” up close.
Maybe it seems an odd choice to enthusiasts who know the base’s history, but perhaps it would be seen as a more “exciting” choice by a non-enthusuast, and thus might just get more casual visitors in through the front door than an older, less charismatic, albeit more relevant type?
Paul F
Paul FWell, I’m not complaining, we were planning to pick up our new car from the dealer on Saturday, but the salesman just called, and advised us to wait till Monday, thereby saving ourselves a chunk of cash due to the reduced VAT that comes into effect on Monday 😀
I guess it makes no difference to them, so long as they get the sale – and they’re happy to help us save a few of our hard-earned readies. What a fine bunch of Gents 🙂
However, as we had already decided to buy the car, we are merely delaying to take advantage of the VAT rate cut… but otherwise will 2.5% off VAT really trigger a rush to spend, spend, spend….I think not.
Even on “big ticket” items like cars the saving is not really going to swing most people’s decision in favour of a purchase in such uncertain times.
And of course, we’ll all have to foot the “tax giveaway” bill in the long run….:(
Paul F
Paul FWell, I’m not complaining, we were planning to pick up our new car from the dealer on Saturday, but the salesman just called, and advised us to wait till Monday, thereby saving ourselves a chunk of cash due to the reduced VAT that comes into effect on Monday 😀
I guess it makes no difference to them, so long as they get the sale – and they’re happy to help us save a few of our hard-earned readies. What a fine bunch of Gents 🙂
However, as we had already decided to buy the car, we are merely delaying to take advantage of the VAT rate cut… but otherwise will 2.5% off VAT really trigger a rush to spend, spend, spend….I think not.
Even on “big ticket” items like cars the saving is not really going to swing most people’s decision in favour of a purchase in such uncertain times.
And of course, we’ll all have to foot the “tax giveaway” bill in the long run….:(
Paul F
Paul FMight the small aeroplane with the G on the tail be Swedish? It looks like it could be a Swedish roundel on the fuselage.
Adrian
Could it be the tail of a Bucker Bestmann (their monoplane trainer/communications type) perhaps?
Paul F
Paul FHi Fournier,
Somewhere i have a photo of ‘ZSC at Blackbushe in a blue with gold cheat line scheme (IIRC) would date back to around 1974/75 I guess – it was parked on the apron at Blackbushe alongside a number of more exotic types such as the then recently imported SeaFurys (G-BCOV/BCOW), and Doug Arnolds Spitfire 16. I think the Haydon Baillie T33 Black Night was also there that day too.
Quality will not be brilliant as it was shot on cheap 35mm film, with a cheap camera, but I’ll try and find it (when I’m back home later this week) and scan it if you’re interested?
Those were the days when a trip to Blackbushe almost always found something “unusual” on the ramp… I remember coming across the following at various times in the seventies and early 80’s …P51, B 17, DeH Drover, DeH Comet (Ex Dan Air), Ex RDAF Hunter, B25’s, demobbed Spanish CASA “JU 52s” and Dakotas….
Paul F
Paul F
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