Phil Perry

I found RNCs very useful . . . A chart with very little topography, and a lovely network of ten watt 'Transistorised' NDBs, PLUS VORs & DMEs to play with. . .with added foreign shortwave musical entertainment in the early evenings . . .what's not to like ? ? ? Was fun until some smartar$e Git invented SatNav and at a stroke, consigned to the dustbin of history the 'Paper' navigator and the precise skills which went with him ( ! ) Of course, this method of navigation by GPS also ended the perennial reports of 'Airspace Infringement' didn't it ? ? ( I still have lots of old Aussie charts in the attic. . .wonder if some museum would like them. . .)

Do you guys still use RNC charts ? I always found them quite useful. . . do the Aussies still produce RNC charts for the plebs,. . or do you have to be a Freemason to obtain them ? I used to do quite a lot of Night flying,. . .until I finally got my I/R. . .and then they were even MORE useful. . .( Oddly enough ) Jus' wundrin'. . .

That is a very sad story Sir. . . I was taught to fly ( Among other people ) by a Polish WW2 ace, who stayed in the UK since the Nazis had killed his entire family. . .although I could not appreciate the enormity of his grief at my young age. .. he STILL believed that the DH82A was an utter 'Pile of $hit'. . .But he was a total master of it, being a member of a B of B pilot in the war, flying Hurricanes. He was a lovely man, I attended his funeral in 1984. . . I only wish that I could have taken him flying myself in later years. . . I flew his two Sons, . . one of whom flew A-320s as an SFO for Thomas Cook airlines. which went bust a few months ago. . .I dunno who he is flying for now. I'm still searching. But he has a Polish Surname like the UK version of 'Smith' which narrows it down to around half a million Poles. . . One of my friends is a disabled pilot named Steve Slade, Who,. . apart from home brewing superb beer, flies his Rans S6 three axis microlight to several records, ( one of which was landing at the most airfields in A SINGLE DAY ) does this NOT to prove that he's better than able pilots, but because he loves being in the air. . . The bloody lunatic. . .and HE was the chap who introduced me to Microlight flying in 1983. . .when he asked me to retrieve his crutches from the wing spar tubes, so that he could get out of the aircraft to have a wee. . . **Memories. . .

Now THERE is something that we have in common Sir. . . Scared the #@~* out of me, but the lovely softly spoken Welsh RAF instructor said "No lad,. . .not like that. . .Do it Gentle like,. . . and go easy on that top rudder Boyo. . . . ! ! !

Training film for Air Cadets. This stirred a few memories from the early 1960s. . .

Thanks for that Marty. . .Glad he's still in one piece,. . if he's whingeing, then he MUST be ! We had 24 British pax from the cruise ship at Yokohama flown in this week, none were symptomatic when they left Japan, but around 12 of them now are, and they have now segregated the rest ( ? ) No deaths in the UK as of today,. . . nor any supermarket panic buying. . . touch wood. . . Let us pray. . .

BLIMEY !. . .YOU WERE IN WOLVES ? just seven miles away ! would have liked to get together for a glass of something cool. . .never mind, maybe next time Mate ! My mate Marvin would still like a flight, as would his Son Lucas,. . his two kids are running him rated at the moment, his Son Lucas has joined the Army cadets, and his Daughter Emilia is already a junior champion gymnast and has just been featured in a new Aussie TV soap opera. . .it looks like the family are enjoying life of the Gold Coast ! Better than staying here in the UK LOL.

Has anyone heard from Bex lately ?. . .I have not seen Chengdu mentioned in dispatches. I Hope he and his family are OK. I've lost his email address. . .bloody unreliable computers. . .

Someone said that the EJECTION SEAT was still 'MANDRAULIC' . . . :-)

A similar fate took Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper. . . Flew with a pilot who was 'rusty' on instruments, and with the blind flying kit electrically disabled, and took off into darkening skies and VISIBLY worsening weather at dusk. . . There is a late night TV show named 'How do they do it' . . .I reckon there ought to be another one aimed at Aviators, entitled 'WHY DO THEY DO IT ?'

I agree entirely. I watched around four landings, then fast forwarded a few more ( I didn't watch the stream from the start ) but the bloke's voice and antics broke my cringe threshold in the end. . .

20 + Aborted landings. . ( live streamed )'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC8E7_w5u2o

I'm pleased to see that there are no comments / supposition / theories on this Here so far. The world media seem to be beating themselves to death on the subject. . . PPrune included. All manner of tinfoil hat stuff abounds. ie, Accidental shoot down by Iranian air defence missiles, Donald Trump satellite laser beams. . . you name it. Commiserations to the families of the deceased passengers, whatever the cause. With so much bullcarp flying around, I doubt that anyone will ever know the truth, especially if the Iranian authorities don't allow independent inspection of the flight data recorder equipment . . . I guess we'll just have to watch this space.

Thank you for that Dick. I borrowed Keith's 150s quite regularly up to 1976. . .making the time to do this on my regular trips to Melb from Brisbane.. .Initially for Elsa's Hamburgers ! ! ! Used KQM, RXV, DTC and a couple I can't recall. . . they were all well used, but I never had a maintenance issue with any of them. I wonder what happened to TIGy and the Leopard Moth ? I also used RSI the Victa 115, IWK, ( C-210 ) a Cherokee 6 and a couple of 172s + 2 PA28s. . I really Liked the Fuji FA200/180 (VH-FJL) for limited aeros. . .. wonderful days at what was the friendliest flying club I have ever been a member of. Wifey found my 'Groupair' Wings recently ! Somewhere I have photographs taken at Casey Field. . .must clean out the loft and find them. . .

May I wish all of you and your families a very Happy New Year. Phil Perry. . .

Just chatting on a radio / internet link to a friend in Canuck Land. We were talking about airport Baggage codes versus ICAO codes ( ! ) He said that Canadian baggage designators are weird - if they start with a Y it means “Yes, there is a runway to land on”

Thank you for that info Mr. Downunder Sir !

That last feller I mentioned definitely has a bit of the 'crazy' about him . . . some years back, he imported a very basic ultralight from the States and assembled it as a demonstrator, but forgot to check first if the governing bodies would approve it in the UK. . . . .they didn't ! !