I’ve got some mixed views on this, being someone who cycles, as well as being a motorbike and car owning tram driver for my sins.
In my daily job as tram driver here in the Wolverhampton area we have a daily conflict situation to deal with despite the council seeing fit to segregate all the various modes of transport near an awkward junction. The ‘footpath’ has been marked with a cycle lane nearer the kerb edge; we have a seperate bus & tram lane clearly distinguishable in the road, plus one lane for other motorised traffic. All leading up to a 5 way traffic controlled junction! Cyclists often chose to ignore the marked lane for them, and attempt a somewhat suicidal ride down the tram lane which has no safe area if we’re passing along too. The road signage is there for all to see, but the lack of awareness not just from the cyclists but other road users is scary some days. I’ve had to negotiate cars attempting to drive in our tram lane and not being able to get across the traffic signals (only us and buses are fitted with the transponders of course), and cyclists squeezing into non-existant gaps to avoid the tram they didn’t know was there even when we ring the bells to warn them.
When I ride, I use the designated dual footpath lanes where they are, and the roads if not. I’m lucky in that these dual footpaths are along the route I would need to use for commuting on my bike, but elsewhere I use the roads, and sensibly with full awareness of all other road users!
Quite a few years ago now, on what was a daily commute on my bike across Birmingham, I had the misfortune to be hit by a large articulated truck on a tight roundabout which could have been worse had I not been wearing a helmet at the time. As I use other means of transport I do feel for anyone on two wheels who are exposed to more dangers, but hate the continual stereo-typing of any particular mode user. My ‘car’ is a 4×4, so what with the biker image as well – I feel up against it at times when the witch-hunts start.
Every mode has it’s bad users as well as the majority of good (I hope), but I cringe at times when watching others taking risks.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?95115-RAF-St-Mawgan-Remembered/page8 has some pics of 175 prior to the incident, and some other info?

XF382 at Coventry runs via a custom built transformer box which is mobile on a trolley. Second one built now as the first I obtained suffered a failure when used on another aircraft. That first unit was made specifically for the Hunter’s power requirements from a local chap who used to build transformers for industry and he was ex-RAF so knew what I required. Sadly I don’t have in-depth details of either to hand at the moment but it involved calculating current draw of all that is live on the Hunter (including inverters). I had to isolate the radio stuff though as they drew so much current and weren’t really needed within the Museum environment…

Just checked and I believe it is!
Quite amazing the Museum Vulcan XL360 was delivered into retirement thirty years ago and now the aircraft that replaced it in service has just joined the same collection !

Think I’m getting old….

Mark if you think you’re getting old – Tornado was my last type working on in the RAF until I left in ’89. I had previously felt ‘old’ when we got the Sea Harrier in the Museum, now I wonder how ‘old’ I am when we have a Tonka joining the collection…lol

Over on another forum there is a quoted message saying that “VC10 ZA147 will be making the types final ever flight on Wednesday 25th of September. She will be flying in to Bruntingthorpe at approximately 1230. GJD have very kindly said that the gates will be open for people to view this historic occasion.” so viewing should be easy 😉

My first time visit…. 😉

Well that was a very interesting day there! What a cracking event it is – I was pleasantly surprised, and can’t wait to get back again next year. After a very early arrival thanks to the complete lack of local car-boot traffic which usually plagues the area, I turned up on the gate to be greeted I suspect by Alec (Wulfie) and told I was visitor no.4 😉

A leisurely stroll around taking photos and watching arriving exhibitors gave me the chance to investigate every corner of the show. The weather was good, the number of exhibitors and public was high, and the general appeal to all was fantastic! I love the airfield anyway, being a frequent visitor as I’m local, and it lost none of it’s relaxed charm just because an event was on.

I did have a good browse around the aerojumble, but as I didn’t know any forum members there, I remained anonymous I’m afraid 😉
I did spend some time having a good look over the Hunter cockpit panel, out of interest of course!
Nice to see the Daleks doing there thing – not convinced about the Doctor or The Master though…lol

This photo was taken up on the tower roof to hopefully give an idea of how the layout looked 😉

[ATTACH=CONFIG]220450[/ATTACH]

The full set of shots can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunterxf382/sets/72157635352877812/

G-OSRA – ex Fed-Ex N217FE

Yes G-AIDC as mentioned (archive photo attached)

Other civil registered Meteors that I’m aware of include:

G-AKPK: (archive side view attached plus this link)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwhitworth/5468077788/in/set-72157627948966391

G-AMCJ:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwhitworth/5518344520/in/set-72157627948966391

G-ASLW:
http://www.airlinefan.com/airline-photos/6333559/Rolls-Royce/Gloster/Meteor/G-ASLW/

G-ARCX:
http://photovalet.com/data/comps/MYF/MYFV13P07_03.0359.jpg