As someone who has no real interest in football per se, here’s a radical thought, how about paying England players (and coaching staff)match fees purely based on results achieved, with a “no win – no fee” approach ………that might stick a rocket up all their backsides :dev2:

Problem is, they all earn far too much from their “day job” contracts anyway, so any England match fees would probably be small change to them, and thus even a win-related pay scheme might not motivate them.

As has been said above, why don’t most England supporters just wake up to the fact that the team is now a second-rate national side, the Glory days of 1966 etc are long gone, and it’s about time everyone woke up to that fact. Croatia simply outplayed England last night, we weren’t “unlucky”, we were simply beaten by a better team. Croatia played like a team, England played like eleven seperate men.

For years my better half has been saying that the problem is that there are so many foreigners playing in the UK premiership that the FA don’t have enough good English players to choose from. At long last the FA seem to be picking up on that idea too – as with most sports, once serious money moved in then the game was ruined – the only reason certain premiership teams have so many foreign players is the greedy pursuit of cash, the fact that they choose to bring so many foreign players in must surely suggest that home grown players are just not up to scratch, and should have been ringing alarm bells at the FA many years ago.

Rather than worry about qualifying for the next major international competition (whatever that is), perhaps FA should look at encouraging grass roots football, so as to help raise a new generation of high quality players, and ensure they comne to fruition by limiting the numbers of overseas players a team can put on the books, and put on the field in any match.

Personally I couldn’t give a monkeys how the team do/did. I just wish the fact that England are out would now mean that next summer’s TV schedules would be “Euro 2008 – free” – a forlorn hope methinks. Instead we’ll be forced to endure a month of “What if..?” scenarios, and all sorts of hypothetical “Well, if we’d qualified, England would have beaten so and so, and be in the knock out/quat=rterfinals/semi final/final” rubbish, while the TV channels desperately try to convince the population that they need to watch the games.

Paul F

thr62

There’s only one way to find out what works, and thats to get out there and practice.

Fast shutter speeds might seem the obvious choice to help avoid camera shake, but they will “freeze” propellors or rotors, aperture settings may help “focus” or “blur” backgrounds – it depends on the effect you are after – sometimes a background adds to a photo, sometimes it can detract from it.

Sure there are some basic rules of thumb, but ultimately (as in most things)the only way to improve is to get out there and practice.

The good thing with digital technology is that you can take loads of photos at no real cost, apart from a few units of electricty to charge the battery pack, and to run the PC afterwards, andyou can now see the results almost instantly, with no need to wait for films to be developed etc. When I think back to how many rolls of 35mm film I “wasted” when first visiting airports and airshows, I realise how lucky the “digital generation” are. So what if you fire off 200 plus photos and they are all cr@p – just empty/reformat the CF card and you’re ready to try again!

One tip I would suggest is that you don’t try too many different settings in any single practice session, or you will forget what you have tried, and end up wondering how you actually achieved that one good shot – though most modern image manipulation programs can display all the camera settings used when you are viewing the image.

One other comment – I find that my EOS350D gives “softer” images (i.e. less “sharp”) than I achieved using the same lens(es) on my older Canon 35mm film SLRs – possibly this is simply due to the fact that the PC screen is somewhat larger than a typical 6 x 4 ” enprint, and so shows up the lack of sharpness more readily? Or maybe I just haven’t yet set the 350D correctly – there are so many user settings that you can adjust once you move out of the “Auto” mode.

Get out there and get shooting – you’ll soon find out what settings best suit your own taste and style.

Paul F

Next volunteers are……

My photo was duly taken in the pi$$ing rain on Sunday – my good lady disputed that the subject matter was in any way “historic” (thus displaying her complete lack of understanding of all things aviation :rolleyes:), she said “Why on earth didn’t you take a photo of ………., which definitely IS historic?”. So, as there had been a lack of volunteers to take the camera after me I took the liberty of taking a second photo at the same venue, as directed by “her indoors” (shock horror!). We now wait to see which of the two pics everyone else thinks is suitably “historic” when the film is eventually developed and everyone’s efforts are duly posted 😮 .

Ollie Holmes and Rocketeer have both asked to be next on the list, and I believe both are planning to go to Hendon on 1st Dec. Ollie’s PM arrived first, so I will mail the camera to him later this week.

He plans to take it to the RAFM Hendon meet-up, so I assume he will pass it on to Rocketeer there?

There are about ten photos left, so the guys may finish it off at Hendon on Dec 1st – if not, can I suggest any other budding snappers contact Rocketeer, and he can make sure whomever uses it last at Hendon can pass it on.

Cheers
Paul F

Colossus took under four hours.

A German, Joachim Schueth, who wrote a custom program in (of all things) Ada (ptut – bad memories from university!), managed to get all 12 wheel settings using his 1.4GHz laptop. Total runtime on computer *46 seconds*.

…..

Ah yes, but what is more impressive, to watch a boring grey box gently humming away on your desk for 46 seconds, before flashing a few words on a small flat TFT screen, or to watch a thing the size of a planet, with lots of buzzing valves, spinning wheels, and flashing light bulbs, chugging away for a few hours?

A modern PC may be faster, but it’s just SO bl**dy boring to look at 😀 . It’s a bit like comparing something like an Airbus A321 to a Vickers Viscount….both do the same job, but one’s just go so much more style.:cool:

Paul F

Volunteer Required

Hi Chaps,

My chances of getting to Hendon now look slim, but I am teh current custodian of the Flypast Historic Aviation Forum Disposable camera (See seperate thread for more info), and no-one has volunteered to take it off my hands.

Hendon would seem a good place to fire off a couple more shots on the camera (if not finish the film as there seems to be a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the project from the forum as a whole?).

If anyone is interested in taking the camera to Hendon, and using it there, either to finish it off, or to take a couple of pics before passing it on to one of the others attending, can you please PM me with your address and I’ll get the thing posted to you ahead of the forum get together.

Cheers
Paul F

Hopefully it arrived safely with Paul F this week,still 13 photos left on it if you want to take some.Just PM Paul F.:)

Yep, it arrived with me last week (thanks Trumper) and I am hoping to take a photo this weekend. However, despite me asking for volunteers on the “Flypast Disposable Camera” Thread no-one has volunteered to be next on the list 🙁

I’ll try again on that thread, but if no-one responds I’ll hang on to it and try again in few weeks…… come on guys and girls, be brave….

Paul F

Tell the youngsters of today that, and they won’t believe you…

(With apologies to Cleese, Chapman, Palin et al)

Maybe I’m being pedantic, and pardon my obvious ignorance of the quality of the engineering involved, but was that method really accurate to within an inch (thats 2.54cm for the youngsters amongst us 😉 ) – especially outdoors where a slight change in wind speed or direction, a slight movement in the undercarriage, or any “play” in the cyclic mechanism might momentarily affect the plane of the rotor disc?

I’d always assumed that a rotor disc might have more movement than that given the degree of droop and flexibility in the blades, and the fact that a gust of wind might add ten knots to one side of the disc and reduce airspeed by the same amount directly opposite? Were steps taken to allow for, and somehow cancel out, all the other possible variables first? Would the suspension travel be fixed by use of tie downs etc?

It all looks a bit “vague”, surely the position of the foot of the pole should be accurately fixed relative to the centre of the rotor disc? What happens if the guy holding the pole sneezes, or gets a lump of flying grit in his eye, and moves the pole towards the disc just that bit too quickly…..

I can imagine the same basic method working for a tracking a propellor, where rotation speed and tip speed might be much higher and where blades would be more rigid etc, though I’m not sure I’d feel any more safe standing close to the tips of a fast-spinning prop than I would holding the pole in the photo. I guess I’ve lost my sense of adventure – I blame modern ” ‘elf and safety” for wrapping me in cotton wool for too long.

….Oh, and I love the PPE (personal protective equipment) being worn by the engineer. If the pole falls into the rotordisc, and it all goes pear-shaped, it’s nice to know he’s wearing protective headgear………..

Those were the days…… Risk Assessment? Wot’s one of them then Guv’nor?

Paul F

Easy Jet takeover of GB Airways may not be to everyone’s taste….

Personally I hope it doesn’t go through – being taller than average I don’t want to travel EJ to Spain next summer – thats why we had already booked GB Airways flights via BA. We flew GB Airways last year, and the legroom was fine, and we got a complimentary sandwich and drink (and free hold baggage check-in) – unlike easyjet.

Last time I travelled anywhere on E-J my knees were wedged against the seat in front – not something I fancy for two and half hours, esp if the passenger in front of me tries to recline his seat.

I know many people only book short haul on basis of price, so the onward march of E-J may seem like good news, but for some of us legroom is a higher priority than price. Likewise, as a family of four, but without small kids it’s good to sit together, something the E-J boarding process often doesn’t allow.

What is legroom like on Monarch scheduled services LGW to Alicante (or Murcia), how does it compare to likely E-J legroom? Can you select or request extra legroom seats at Monarch check-in, or is their boarding process the same free-for-all stampede as per E-J?

All thoughts welcome as I try and decide whether to cancel the GB-tickets and rebook with Monarch (or another).

Cheers
Paul F