Andrewman. Are you going to save the heads? Keep tham dry, and away from mice, and you will have zillions of seeds for next year. Furthermore, your hamster will love you.

What about all the adverts that portray men as juvenille, ineffective or just plain stupid. The women, meanwhile are sassy, switched on, not to say rather smug. What about the Heinekin ad, when we are invited to laugh at the truck driver who gets beaten-up and hospitalised by his wife and female marriage guidance counciler, because he is trasporting lager. Luckily, he is white, and male, so that is all ok. Switch it round , so the man is beating up the women, and see how funny it is then.

Don’t forget the commercial with ‘ Tony and Debs ‘ from Men Behaving badly, where he is obliged to portray an utterly infantile burke, astonished by the delights and surprises resulting from a visit to B&Q.

Will there ever come a time when men are not characterised as having an obsession with football, or some other bone-headed sport? I couldn’t give a flying fig about ‘footy’ and will go out of my way to avoid it, the crass values and latent aggression which it represents. There is a current commercial where three vacuous males sit unspeaking, transfixed by the images (of football goals) on the microscopic screen of a cell-phone. Is it possible to live a smaller, duller life than this third-hand, fifth-rate existance, to be conditioned into watching a very distorted view of somebody else’s life ( and edited by others who wish to condition your response) rather than actually living a life of your own.

TV Averts- If they have got what you want, they have got you.

As Damien says, the Yak 52 is pretty good, and numerous enough to be widely available. It is quick enough to at least hang in there with heavier metal, if they agree to take it easy. With the canopy back , the angles are great, but the noise and wind is disorientating, and will easily whip off a headset. Also, beware of any baggage on the shelf behind you, eg a canopy cover, which will start to jump about, and could easily go over the side/ wrap round tailplane.

In shooting air/air , shoulder straps will need to be loosened or maybe even undone, as most formating targets will often be slightly behind. Being semi-strapped in , it is important that you persuade the pilot not to apply any negative ‘G’ .

Tigers are good for atmospheric wing/wires shot, but are very windy, and difficult to twist round in, if the target is astern. Quite slow, but OK for other light a/c. The Lysander was shot from a Tiger, but that has the ablility to go unusually slow. Keeping it on the outside of an orbit allowed it a few more knots.

Cubs are quite good, but even slower. With the door down/window up, the view is fantastic, and if the photographer is in the front seat, he can lean round and shoot past the struts, for rear 3/4 shots. Quite a gentle, relaxed photo mount.

Shooting through perspex, you just take your chance on optical imperfections, but it can be Ok. The Rapides were taken from a C-172 through perspex,and the original print was reasonably sharp. Ultimately, though, it is the skill of the pilots which dictate the results; too far away- you get nothing. Too close- photography ceases to be your main concern!

Come on then, Albert -whip ’em out !

Thanks DB and Fluffy;- I knew this would be the place to ask!

And another question;

I have been re-reading a very comprehensive article in Control Column (Vol 2 no 6) about the standisation of the Spitfires’ ‘make-up’ on BoB film.

‘AB910; Though never at Henlow, it was re-sprayed at Luton, presumably because of the restriction on grass landing for the Memorial flight’

Does this restriction still apply? I am trying to recall if I have seen them operating from grass in recent times and cannot really be sure. When the Hurricane had its problem at Duxford this year, was it exiting the hard runway? I am sure someone will know.