Phil Perry

Here you go Col,. . .I generally use this mob, although there are quite a few other outlets. Many Licenced GA airfields stock charts. You'll need the UK Northern 1/2 Million chart to safely examine old Hadrians bit of a wall and or Jockland. . . . . Use the 1/4 Mil for more detail, but no airspace detail above 3,000 feet printed on the 1/4. www.transair.co.uk

I always preferred the Aussie mapping system. We had VTC Visual Terminal Charts. . .close up detail of most major airfields, the VECs, Visual Enroute Charts, then RNC's Radio Navigation Charts showing all the Radio aids, but bereft of any ground mapping. . . then of course, the WAC charts. . .Maps showing all the terrain and stuff. . . Brilliant. . .we don't get stuff like that here. . . we just get the half and Quarter mil charts, Stuffed to the brim with information which must confuse the hell out of student pilots. . . .

As assisant Club safety officer, I occasionally have a quiet rampage throughout our pilot members asking if their Nav charts are up to date. ( Well, I'm semi retired so I have a lot of spare time to annoy people ) I have been amazed, in past times that pilots are flying with charts which are as much as four issues out of date. This is stupid, as there is never a list of alterations promulgated b the CAA UNLESS there is a MAJOR CHANGE in airspace geometry within the area covered by that chart. I am talking about the UK Half Mil Southern at the moment, which covers the UK from it's Southern boundaries up to around just South of Doncaster . . .This is the banner headline sent to ALL Flying members via email yesterday : The latest 1:500,000 scale South chart, edition 44 comes into use today. Please ensure that you only fly with a current chart. This is a legal requirement. There are quite a few 'flyouts' planned, with small groups of aircraft going in directions various as we have a four day bank holiday from tomorrow ( Good Friday ). I shall do another check early in the morning to see if any naughty people are intending to fly using sheet 43. . . . It Isn't funny and it isn't bloody clever to take the wee wee out of this regulation. The Big Bad CAA ( they're not really ) take a very dim view of airspace infringements caused by old maps. Now, I know that a lot of pilots use digital mapping, downloaded onto their iPads and paid for by subscription, but the fact remains that a paper map MUST be carried on All flights. We ain't fully digital just yet. . . . .then there are the guys who only fly once in a blue moon. . . . One of our chaps was banned from the site for 2 months after it was found that his aircraft had not got a current permit to fly. . . .totally illegal and this would have nullified his flight insurance too AND he carried an innocent passenger . . also uninsured. . . Pilots are just people with an odd pastime, and people sometimes do strange things if they think that they'll get away with it. The local Council authority doesn't like us much ( Why ?. . .I have no idea. . .probably stuffed with Penguins ) Any excuse would be used to withdraw our planning permission to run the airfield. So,. . bad press resulting from some twerp busting airspace with a duff map would not help us much. . . . There is a lovely Bloke there, a retired NHS surgeon who has recently purchased an Ikarus C-42 aircraft,, after just winning his licence. He asked if I wanted to fly down to Wales as his passenger, as his Wife was doing something else. . . .I politely declined as a result of something mentioned elsewhere on this site,. . and said I'd be too busy on the Air /Ground radio, but thanked him profusely. . .( ! ) As you do. . . .

I hope you guys are on the jury ! This chap was only the second Sed Effriken I'd ever flown with. . . We used to have one based at our airfield and he was a similarly arrogant personality. I am glad that the CAA has a telephone number where reports can be made without fear of sanction ie, airprox and other stuff, so nothing will come directly from my call to them. . My only concern was the ratbag himself causing trouble, on the premise that Rich Ratbags can afford it. .

Thank you all for your kind words gents. My legal eagle tells me that unless an official complaint is lodged with the CAA then this will go away quietly. It has been nine weeks and noone has contacted me yet. FIngers crossed. I am still uneasy about this affair. I have never experienced anything like that before.

Thanks matey. . . .I will NEVER allow someone to kill me without arguing about it. . . . .I dunno how this is going to pan out, I know the Barstard will tell lies to the CAA,. . . .If he says that a 'Non-Pilot' took over control of the aircraft ,. . .then I'm going to be involved in a court case. . . . .He had a licence. . .I didn't. . .

Well,. . .if your plane takes a hit mate,. . .I'd like to say that it's been nice to know you. . . . . . tell the Missus too,. . . you're a popular bloke here and it was nice to have you on the forum. . . . .

Being a veteran pilot ( this means: Old, having Some experience, and having a bad name ) I often get asked if I will accompany other flyers on jaunts. I LOVE free flying and being a recipient of a state pension as my main income. . . this is why I rarely refuse such an offer.) I also call this job 'Semi Qualified Ballast' . . .I have been a flying enthuaist since 1957, when my hands and feet first made contact with rudder and stick in 1957 and it has been my premium interest ever since. Matey,. . .we will call him FRED. . bought an Ikarus C-42 aircraft, a rather nice looking 3 axis aircraft with fabric covered wings, tail and control surfaces, but GRP fuselage. Made in Germany. Power unit is a Rotax 912S / 100 HP engine. He had filled the panel with delightful instrumentation, and a Pilot Aware Nav system with coupled Mode 'S' transponder and TCAS. Basically, a plastic Boeing 737. He learned to fly on an intensive course in South Africa, over six weeks in the beautiful sunny weather for which Southern Africa is well known. . . .But his instructors obviously never drummed into him the dangers of flying IMC He then had a few hours of conversion to the C-42, as he'd had all his training in PA28s. . . . SO. . . to the tale. . . . . We departed Old Sarum Airfield, bound for Barton, near Manchester on a lovely Saturday morning with a decent forecast. . . . .lovely condx, until we were abeam the Malvern HIlls. . .then we had layered cloud at various heights. . .Fred changed altitude regularly, and had decided to fly the trip Radio 'Blind' without any assistance or notification to London Information. . .which was quite legal,. . BUT. . .if someone is offering you a deconfliction service free of charge,,. . .then why not tell them what you are doing what route and height at which you are cruising and where you're going . . .? ? ? Dunno,. .. I was flying with a fully qualified G.A. PPL. ( Note* I had the feeling,. . from some of his comments that he had not passed the RT test . . his departure call from Old Sarum was wank. . . Around 12 NM North East of the Northern edge of the Malvern hills cruising at 4,400 feet, he flew directly into a solid deck of SC cloud, without even flinching. I flinched. I said WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU DOING FRED ? ? His response ?. . .No probs mate, no higher ground around here, . . .nothing to hit. ( ? ) I realised at that moment that I was sitting in an aeroplane with a total looney tune. . . He lost directional control within less than 2 minutes, I could see the Alt winding down and we were in a gentle spiral to the left at around 5ooFPM And he was doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THIS. . .. The AH was indicating the turn as well, but it was over on his side of the panel and was not easy to interpret from my side. I said 'I have control' and looked daggers into his face. There was a lot more bad speech from me that I will not repeat here. . .but I made it clear that I did not wish to get killed by some twat with the ink still wet on his licence. He was very argumentative the whole time. . . Then I noticed the ICE on the wing strut and this shut him up. . . . . .jesus christ I thought,. . .This is a bloody nightmare. . . ANYWAY. . .we landed at Long Marston and I departed and found my own way back home. Matey was mumbling about reporting me to the CAA so I got my statement in first by telephone to Flight Safety section. This is ongoing. Me having no revalidated licence isn't going to go down very well, but what the Fook. . . we shall see what happens. I let him know that the moment he told the authorities that he'd deliberately flown into IMC, without the appropriate licence, in a NON IMC rated aeroplane that he'd be in the crap immediately,. . so I hope that sunk in. FREE FLYING ?. . .SOMETIMES IT HAS WHISKERS ON IT. . . . .

Terrific set of pictures Peter. I am sorry that you have lost a lot of them, that must be awful. All this stuff preceded my 13 year 'visit to Australia by uite a while obvs. but it's great to see what was going on there back then.

satellites and similar vehicles have small thruster units which are used to maintain angular geometry. The ONLY way to maintain orbital velocity and prevent decay is a bloody great rocket burn to increase the speed of the vehicle and therefore maintain orbital momentum. Otherwise,. . .the string with which you are swinging the bucket of water around your head goes a bit slack,. . .and the bucket falls to the ground. . . HOWEVER .. . .since the satellte vehicle has been spewed out of it's launch vehicle,. . .the bit wth the rocket motor in it,. . .this is not possible. So All satellites have a very finite 'Orbital Life' before their orbits will decay to the point where they have to begin their descent back to Mother Earth. Maybe the Chinese ought to have bolted a rocket motor on to the thing to give an orbital burn ? ? I would have thought that blokes like Elon Musk should have thought about ths, since the shuttle programme was ended,. . .to sort a vehicle which could rescue expensive satellites and return them for refurb. . . .? Over to you Elon. . . .

Memory fading ? yes,. . .mine is too. . . .I'm 68 on June 2nd this year. . . . On the subject of good looking 'Millennial' Ladies,. . . .my local roadside Butty Bar is now run by an unmarried lass named Trina . .she is a lovely person, a great sense of humour, terrific cordon Bleu trained cook and very popular with the truck drivers who frequent the place. She looks about early thirties maybe. . . but she let it drop last week that she was born in 1961 FCS. . . .I was gobsmacked. . . Must be all that good bacon and going to the gym 4 days a week I guess. . . . . . shocked I tells ya. . . . . .

Has she still go terrific legs Bernie ? ( asking for a friend )

I wouldn't be surprised if the cheeky buggers came back for the flashy lights on the top !

If I had to buy a 4WD mate,. . .it woudn't be a bloody Landrover ! We'll probably source some Isuzu Trooper wheels from a tat yard somewhere and keep on using it. . .starts first time in any weather condx. The CFI is really peed off about this as they nicked his butane gas bottle to shore it up and get their jack out. . .No tea at the airfield today !

It was donated to the Club and has always resided outside. . . . .it isn't road legal, but was 100% reliable and damned useful. Ran on Farm diesel. . . Might find some el-cheapo wheels for it. . . The radio won't be much use to the scumbags, as all 25Khz stuff is finishing in a couple of months. I might even have a box of free hand held radios ( at least 3 x Icoms, antennas / chargers ) for any of you guys to use as you like ( ! ) if someone pays the postage ! Not type approved in OZ, but might be handy just for monitoring. . . . Let me know. ( Email addy in profile page.)

Jeeze - I hope I never get you lot on MY jury. . . . .:-)

This time, it wasn't Rotax 912S engines, Props and ancillaries taken, but the Alloy Wheels and off road tyres, Radio + HD Battery from the emergency vehicle. . . . HD CCTV stack can be seen in the background so we have footage of the crime which has been forwarded to the local Plod. . .

One of my Polar Involved mates said a few years back that one of his antennas at a Polar research station ( North) was damaged by a meteorite. . .. he reckoned that you could find them easily in the permafrost due to their blackened colour. . . .

Oh , , ,errr. . .I didn't know that magnates had any effect on Alooooominum cobber. . . . .

When Spacelab hit in Western Australia,. . .it was determined that some of the debris was travelling at 5,000 Km/H . . . and that one large piece 'Bounced' and continued on for another 100 Km. . . .100 Kg at that velocity could do some damage I would have thought. . . .lets hope it hits in the sea somewhere. . . . . . .

The Chinese have admitted that they have no control over the unit. ( Flat batteries,. . . exhausted fuel for attitude thrusters ? ) This means that it is probably ( Possibly ) 'Tumbling' and not in a semi static position. This means that any attempted orbital interface with it by another spacecraft would be suicidal, unless it was of such a size as to be 'Grabbed' as with a robot arm on a large 'Shuttle' type vehicle to stabilize it. . . . .As far as I am aware, the Chinese do not have a shuttle type vehicle to accomplish that. I can't recall the original weight quoted by the Chinese, was it 10 Tonnes ? ? ? that's a bloody big lump to mess around with. . . .it obviously isn't worth the effort to recover it so they'll just allow it to fall wherever it falls. . . . .This we shall know in due course. . . .let us fervently hope that what's left of it doesn't do any damage to persons unknown in that rather large band of possible impact. . . .

OK,. . .let's work out the fuel burn / Cost/ to slow the rubbish to a sensible re-entry velocity,. . .so that all that lovely scrap doesn't get frictionationally cremated,. . .then weigh the argument against what a good Scrap dealer could get for the scrap. . . .after having to collect it from the middle of some ocean. . . .etc. . . .

Tiangong-1 Chinese Space Station Could Fall In Corsica, France – How Dangerous Would That Be?

Bloody weird I know, but I've had a horrible recurring nightmare about running out of runway on landing. . . .had this for forty nine plus years of aviating. . . although never actually did it (Yet ) Still,. .. it helps with the final checks I guess. . .!

Having been involved in the building of four aircraft,. . .I would concur wholeheartedly with your opinion Marty. Our friend Craig's experience at airframe machining will certainly be a huge advantage though. . . . .