Well the HMS Ocean has arrived in London/Greenwich. Not too far for me to go and see it. Does anyone know the best location to view her from?

I wouldn’t recommend underneath.

Paradigm

Parachute in

Stakeholder

I was at a high level meeting once and the chair talked for about twenty minutes using nothing but bollox talk. At the end he said to my colleague

‘Well, what are your thoughts Geoff?’

To which he replied to his eternal credit and undying fame…

‘I’m thinking I should have brought some ********** hand grenades.’

my brother worked in the forces in germany he put what was necessary into the german ecconomy but mainly he saved to give his family a better life in the uk !!

the difference is ???

The difference is he was being paid by the British government, not the German one.

I’ve recently joined Sherwood Flying Club based at Nottingham Tollerton Airport flying the PA-38. Thanks for the responses, I forgot totally about this post I made.

You weren’t up at Waddo recently at the GA safety fly in were you? I was talking to three studes from Tollerton.

An old chestnut that always sticks in my mind is ‘Take offs are optional, landings are mandatory.’

Glad you’re enjoying the training Mike (don’t suppose you would be doing it if you weren’t though!!). Funny thing is though that once you have your license everything stops being manic and you kind of miss that. Always try to keep doing something new. One of our club guys and I were talking about this today, we’re going to give formation flying a go later on in the year, properly supervised of course!

Pilots have a large drop out rate once they have their license, the ‘achievement’ has been achieved and they have no further goals. I always try and do something new or differently every flight no matter how small. I actually give it some thought, you have to keep widening the horizons. Of course sometimes it’s just nice to blast off on a summers day and play in the clouds….you do remember summer?

I had to laugh when I booked out with ATC earlier on in the year on one of the rare nice days. I filed for IFR east, general handling FL70 to FL40. ‘So what are you actually doing then?’ they asked.

‘Just having a good time’ I said. There was a pregnant pause….

Sounds like a good trip there Moggy. Has anyone noticed even during this terrible weather that you can usually get away about 20.00 for an hour in some flyable stuff?

Helping my mother on washday (always Monday) by ‘possing’ the clothes in the fresh water tub as mother pulled them out of the washer. A posser was a broom handle with a copper bell shaped affair on the end, known by other names in other parts of the country I believe.

Dad putting fire bricks in the range oven then wrapping them in a cloth for us to take to bed in the winter.

Breaking the ice off of the inside of the bedroom windows on a winter’s morning.

Zebra black lead range blacking.

‘Stardrops are a girls best friend’ advert sung to the tune of diamonds are a girls best friend.

Keeping a poker in the outside loo to break the ice in the bowl on a winter day.

Getting a balloon off of the rag and bone man if you gave him some old rags, hanging on to the back of his cart as he drove it up the street.

Playing out from morning until dark with a quick dash home for some tea.

Listening to two way family favourites, theme tune ‘With A Song In My Heart’ and hearing Jean Metcalfe saying ‘Hello Australia can you hear me?’ Mother was always cooking the Sunday dinner when that was on and I still hum that tune now when I can smell Sunday dinner. BFPO numbers by the cartload and servicemen on foreign detatchments that were years not months long.

Listening to Radio Luxembourg as it faded and swelled and Horace Batchelors Infra Draw Pools Method ‘Write to Horace Batchelor, Department One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Bristol.’

Making toast on the open fire on a Saturday night and watching The Avengers.

Watching John Glenn blast off for the first US orbital flight. What exciting times to live in.

There’s a tendency for we old goats to sound like the Three Yorkshiremen but I wouldn’t swap a minute of what I had for what kids have now. I think if you were brought up in the 50’s/60’s you had it all really.

One other thing I forgot to mention Mike, in an earlier post you said you were paying as you went due to finances etc. NEVER pay up front for lessons, no matter how tempting it looks. The amount of flying schools that go bust in UK owing punters money is beyond a joke (and they usually appear a month or so later under a slightly different name.) Running an FTO is a very precarious business.

Red Arrows, Bof B stuff quite regularly, various stuff from Waddo. Sky’s always got something buzzing overhead. (E3 doing ccts as I type) You can sit in my garden and watch the Arrows putting pretty smoke trails in the sky. TBH much as I admire the Reds you get a bit blase when they’re on your doorstep.