Thanks Paul

Cheers Paul – that explains it, we were in Lewes town itself, and so were probably the wrong side of the South Downs to see her 🙁

Re East vs West – No probs, only winding you up. We’ve lived in Lewes for 18years now, and are still viewed as outsiders by the “locals” 😀

Melvyn – thanks for the info (and a very belated thanks for your commentary at there Wings ‘n Wheels Display)

Paul F

Beaten by a whisker

Thanks Swiss M,

Confirms what I thought

Paul F

How on earth did I miss seeing her???!!!!!

Paul,

What time did it fly over ? 😮 😮 😮

I live in Lewes (it’s in East Sussex by the way 😉 ), was also at a BBQ there yesterday afternoon, but missed seeing the Vimy 😡

Suppose I must’ve been too busy turning and burning the ‘bangers 🙁 .

(Luckily I saw the Vimy fly at Farnborough a few years ago before she flew down to Oz – a remarkable sight 😮 , rather like an airborne galleon under sail)

Cheers
Paul F

B24 with B17 “Nose Job”

Was browsing an old copy (1983 print date) of “B24 Liberator at War” from the old Ian Allan “at War” series a couple of nights ago.

In there there is another example of a B24 with a B17 nose grafted on in an attempt to improve forward defensive fire. May even be the same example?

Will try to dig details out over the weekend (Legends visit permitting of course).

Paul F

‘Coasters

Kraken at Seaworld, Florida – verrrrrry long first drop! Definitely the best, and never more than a 5min queue – I guess most vsiiors to Seaworld go to see the whales/dolphins ect, not to scare themselves sh*tless!

Duelling Dragons, Universal Islands of Adventures, Florida – two ‘coasters in one, with close opposition passes at high speeds etc.

The Hulk, Universal Islands of Adventures, Florida – loads of inversions, a rapid acceleration followed by a nasty roll just as it starts, loads of inversions and a couple of “underground” dips though tunnels etc – probably second best of those I’ve ridden after Kraken.

Incidentally they’ve just opened a new one at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Fl, which has two vertical (and I mean vertical – riders will be facing vertically down at the ground) plunges – wasn’t open at Easter when we were there 🙁 , but they were running empty-carriage tests, the main vertical drop looks 😮 😮 😮

In terms of speed and sheer “violence” the wooden-built twin coaster Gwazi at Busch Gardens is probably the best I’ve been on, sure it has none of the state of the art mega drops, no inversions at all etc, but it is very fast, very rough and definitely gets the old adrenaline flowing – what a ride!!!!!

(Edited for spelling)
Paul F

Taking photos of such incidents in itself is surely no problem, after all, if photos are of use to the relevant authorities in establishing the cause, and hopefully of preventing a repeat of similar disaster, then this must be a good thing. Having been at Biggen when the Vampire crashed, a long stream of people queued up to hand over film/photos of the incident in readiness for AAIB investigation.

However, it is the wanton use of similar photos/video for commercial gain (either in terms of selling them on for hard cash, or in terms of media gaining increased “readership” via sensationalist use of such images) that is unacceptable.

Of course, the problem is where does legitimate desire to “inform the public” cross the line into “unnessecary bad-taste voyerurism”. Maybe showing the picture/clip not more than once, or taking care to edit out point/moment of impact etc, might be tolerable? Maybe preface any showing with a warning that some viewers may find it offensive/unpleasent/disturbing etc?

Also, passage of time tends to ease the pain? I guess many of us view pictures of aircrashes from WWII without anything more than a momentary conscious concern for people who may have been involved?

Widespread promulgation of pictures of 9/11 attacks may well have been justified, if only to alert the average punter as to just how serious the matter was – a matter of global concern. Pictures of an airshow crash such as Firefly can hardly be viewed in same league – and no, I’m not trivialising the latter accident in any way, for those present or closely involved it was just as bad as 9/11.

Maybe press compalints commission needs to act more firmly, or set tighter guidelines. However, with the advent of the web, control of this type of concern becomes ever harder. There will always be someone somewhere happy to sell on, or post, a photo of someone else’s misfortune for their own personla gain or own personal kicks.

It is usually easy to see the motive behind use of the images.
I guess the more well balanced, morally upright, amongst the wider population have to adopt the role of guardians of decency and take to task anyone overstepping the mark – though even this may feed their very sick egos by gaining them even more publicity or notoriety?

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Paul F

Spotter’s delight – the Olympic flights

Yep,

So all the UK chasers of airborne aluminium tubes will be able to join the rest of us who live and work in the South East, plus all the thousands of overseas competitors and visitors coming here to enjoy the Games, and we can all then spend many happy hours sitting stationary on the London Orbital Car park 😀 .

Of course, Uncle Tony and his mate Ken will have sorted the transport system out by then won’t they? So there’ll be no more traffic jams ever again – :rolleyes:

oink flap, oink flap, oink flap…..oh look there goes a flying pig…..

Paul F
Long term resident of the ever more overcrowded South Eastern corner of this green and pleasant land.

Also hoping to appear at Leg-ends

Paul F (First Legends appearance in “Forumite” mode)
Paul F’s Son
Paul F’s Bro
Paul F’s Nephew

Whether this gaggle appears as full participants of the gathering on Sat, or whetehr they merely makes a brief fly-through is TBC.

Appearance of the above quartet also highly dependant upon prevailing meterological conditions (Yep, we’re “fair-weather” airshow goers 😮 ).

Paul F