The news media put the last nail in its coffin. The manner in which all (!) non-aviation news media blew every technical mishap out of proportion in the more and more popular “schock-horror” style scared away the last passengers. I hope that there are a lot of so-called “journalists” out there now with a bad taste in their mouth, but they are probably too busy working on articles as to how the world environment will now be saved and Heathrow/Paris residents are no longer going to live in eternal fear of a Concorde falling on their heads now that this terrible, terrible aircraft is being retired. Did someone just whisper in my ear what a technological achievement this aircraft was and how it represented what British aircraft industry was once capable of? No, must have been a mistake….

Is that from the AP picture with a Boeing 727 wreck in the background and armoured personnel carriers in the foreground? Seems to me that it has been in use as an instructional airframe (make-shift wheels, and tailplane, outer wing panels and engines missing).

According to ABC News it was a Beech 200 King Air (which they describe as a “small plane” :rolleyes: ) which crashed into a sheet metal plant with 5 occupants onboard, all of whom perished.

This reminds me of the criticism the late Spencer Flack received from a “purist” upon painting his Spitfire in that (in my opinion very attractive) red colour scheme, whereupon his reply was something along the lines that “it’s my aircraft and I like it; when you buy your own, you can’t paint it in another colour”. This moaning about paint schemes is really Armchair Aircraft Preservation at it’s best…. 😀

It may not be very well known in the UK, but Red Bull pleases many airshow fans in continental Europe every year with their Flying Bulls fleet comprising a B-25J, Corsair, T-28, Widgeon and two ex Luftwaffe Alpha Jets (!). They are currently restoring a DC-6B and sponsor a T-6 and a Zlin 50 aerobatic team as well. In my opinion the fact that the inventor of this vile but admittedly succesful fluid has taken an interest in flying historic aircraft is one of the best things that has happened to this movement in Europe in many years, even if entails “unoriginal” paint schemes. Think of what someone with the ressources to put Alpha Jets on the German civil register and to perform a ground-up restoration of a DC-6B can accomplish!

Photography has been a hobby of mine for over 20 years now and like Roger I recently (2 years) ago invested in a new 35 mm SLR camera (Canon EOS-3). At that time a digital SLR was still beyond the reach of amateurs, but look what has happened in the meantime. Canon slashed the almost new 6 MPixel D60 with customers on a waiting list only to announce the 10D, which offers essentially the same performance for 2/3 of the price of a D60! Damien’s compressed pictures do not do full justice to the capabilities of a modern DSLR (nor to his photographic skills 😀 ), but have a look at his photos at airliners.net and I am sure discussions about quality will subside. I am also fed up with smudgy, scratched and stained lab prints at exhorbitant prices. What am I trying to say with this? I am only waiting for prices to come down further before going DSLR and I am estimating that it won’t be more than 3-5 years before a 6-10 MPixel camera will be available at prices comparable with a present high-end 35mm SLR.

Another question is whether an amateur really needs a DSLR? Panasonic has just introduced a 2MP digital camera (sorry, forgotten the model) with an optical zoom (from Zeiss!) extending up to 400mm and an image stabilizer as well! Only costs about €600.

Last but not least: Just like your word-processing program won’t write a bestseller on its own for you, some photographic skills and experience is still required in order to take full advantage of one of these fancy new cameras

Is it Warsteiner? Wouldn’t give that to my cat, poor thing… 😀

Not a lot: approx. 170 hrs in a Monsun, TB-200, PA-28-161, C152 and C172.

@Moggy C: Which PA-22 have you got; a Colt or TriPacer?