The Night Mail

[rockershovel]

39 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Most evidence seems to indicate that the wall was quite a stable posting for much of its existence, many of the auxiliaries remained in the area after completing their service and settled. There's still something of a debate over what the wall was really for. There are obvious answers but it isn't as simple as it might seem. There was extensive trade across the wall and the Roman remit ran north of the wall with it being a reasonably stable frontier much of the time. Probably a much better posting than many of the other frontier areas.

Roman units spent decades in the same place, much as the British Army did and does. Soldiers contracted local marriages of varying degrees of legitimacy, had children, retired onto land they knew (after all, land grants as a pension rather depend on it being productive land). 

 

Most of the Legionaries we know of in Brittania were from the Danube. I don't suppose the weather bothered them unduly compared to what they were accustomed to. 

 

I'd always envisaged the Wall area as a sort of transition zone between the military and agricultural economy to the South and the badlands to the North, with sporadic local outbreaks of violence but mostly just people making a living as best they could. 

 

After all, the only war to the North was blue-on-blue. The Romans didn't want it and everyone knew it. They were there to keep a peace of sorts, not hang over the battlements taunting the locals in outrageous accents...

[jjb1970]

A lot of the auxiliary soldiers on the wall were from North Africa, it must have been very different from their homes.

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

 ...snip... A tragic loss, but as anyone who works or plays in high risk environments, you're always aware that you can be there one second, and gone the next.

Does not have to be high-risk.

[Northmoor]

12 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Our Pompiets, all volunteers, have pagers or alarms on their phones but the siren is still tested at midday on a Saturday. 

 

Jamie

They've recently stopped testing the alarm here, which was sounded if/when someone had disappeared from Broadmoor hospital.  It was like an air-raid siren.

 

Mrs Northmoor works in the local infant school and I think they still have arrangements for cascade phone calls between schools to go into lockdown until the escapee is caught.

[SM42]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Our Pompiets, all volunteers, have pagers or alarms on their phones but the siren is still tested at midday on a Saturday. 

 

Jamie

 

This is the Suwalki gap. 

 

Tourists look at each other nervously. 

 

It's flippin loud I know that and I suspect operated by a button in Suwalki. 

 

They've been busy during the storm that now seems to be abating a liitle. 

 

Andy

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

A lot of the auxiliary soldiers on the wall were from North Africa, it must have been very different from their homes.

 

https://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk/first-recorded-african-community-britain-background-burgh-sands

[Tony_S]

 My lavatorial saga continues. I used a Dremel fitted with a cutting disc to remove the corroded wing nuts and bolts. I went to Screwfix to collect a new flush valve , in case I couldn’t remove the old one. None of the parts on Amazon or plumbing websites I  needed for the close coupling looked like the ones I removed.  So I went to the local industrial estate plumbing merchants and handed over my corroded bits and asked for replacements. The nice man had exactly what I wanted, got advice about removing the old valve (cut it out, replace, which I had already decided to do. ). I found when I removed it some bits were cracked anyway.  The corrosion on the bottom of the cistern was rather bad and took a variety of chemicals and abrasives to get back to the porcelain. At least all of these tasks have been on the clean water side of the loo! I will reassemble it tomorrow. I am tired and don’t make a mistake. We are now down to one loo per person so it isn’t a convenience inconvenience really. 
Tony

Edited July 29 by Tony_S

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Most evidence seems to indicate that the wall was quite a stable posting for much of its existence, many of the auxiliaries remained in the area after completing their service and settled. There's still something of a debate over what the wall was really for. There are obvious answers but it isn't as simple as it might seem. There was extensive trade across the wall and the Roman remit ran north of the wall with it being a reasonably stable frontier much of the time. Probably a much better posting than many of the other frontier areas.

 

Had they been able to afford to build and man the Antonine Wall to the same standards as Hadrian's Wall things might have ended up quite differently.

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Had they been able to afford to build and man the Antonine Wall to the same standards as Hadrian's Wall things might have ended up quite differently.

 

The pressures that led to the withdrawal of the legions from Britannia would arise irrespective of how many Picts had adopted the Roman lifestyle.

[AndyID]

10 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

The pressures that led to the withdrawal of the legions from Britannia would arise irrespective of how many Picts had adopted the Roman lifestyle.

 

Agreed. I was thinking more in terms of what it might have meant in the long term for the definition of Scotland. Pure speculation of course.

[Oldddudders]

Sherry has just txted me to say that a friend of her son is at Alder Hey hospital, his daughter having been stabbed 5 times in the Southport atrocity. She will survive, apparently, but at 8 years old, what does this do to your ideas about people and the world you are growing up in? 

[jamie92208]

2 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Sherry has just txted me to say that a friend of her son is at Alder Hey hospital, his daughter having been stabbed 5 times in the Southport atrocity. She will survive, apparently, but at 8 years old, what does this do to your ideas about people and the world you are growing up in? 

My thoughts are with them. It sounds to be a terrible event. 

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Can any of our colleagues with aviation knowledge answer a question that has been bothering me for a while.  Why in fixed wing aircraft does the captain occupy the left hand seat but in helicopters the command pilot appears to sit on the right.  

 

Jamie 

[DenysW]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

The pressures that led to the withdrawal of the legions from Britannia would arise irrespective of how many Picts had adopted the Roman lifestyle.

Hadrian's Wall ca 120-30 AD. Antonine Wall ca 140 AD, abandoned ca 165, shortly after the death of Antoninus Pius. Withdrawal of the legions, much later, 380-410 AD. Looks like Rome decided the Antonine wall was a vanity project.

[Compound2632]

23 minutes ago, DenysW said:

Hadrian's Wall ca 120-30 AD. Antonine Wall ca 140 AD, abandoned ca 165, shortly after the death of Antoninus Pius. Withdrawal of the legions, much later, 380-410 AD. Looks like Rome decided the Antonine wall was a vanity project.

 

Yes. Hadrian was much criticised at the time for his policy of retrenchment, abandoning the territory gained by Trajan in Dacia. Antonius Pius was reacting against that caution, but Marcus Aurelius seems to have been more of Hadrian's temperament. 

 

My point about the withdrawal of the legions was simply that it would have happened however much of Great Britain was within the empire.

Edited July 29 by Compound2632

[PMP]

50 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Can any of our colleagues with aviation knowledge answer a question that has been bothering me for a while.  Why in fixed wing aircraft does the captain occupy the left hand seat but in helicopters the command pilot appears to sit on the right.  

 

Jamie 

Early helicopters were built with the collective (throttle/blade pitch) on the left and the cyclic forwards/backward/sideways in between the pilots legs as per a joy stick. Presumably the early designers and pilots were right handed, and designed the controls to suit themselves!

The twist grip throttle is on the left, can be left in a set position and switches etc manipulated by left hand. Early designs just had the one collective, centre console, but pretty soon full dual control became the norm, but the convention stuck. I assume too it’s easier for a instructor to monitor and intervene with a student from the LHS. An instructor associate of mine has mentioned that if you ride motorcycles a lot, undoing the ‘hardwire’ mindset for bikes on the throttle twist grip is quite a challenge, it twists opposite, I can believe it having nearly overturned an outboard motored boat with the same mindset.

Edited July 29 by PMP

[SM42]

52 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Can any of our colleagues with aviation knowledge answer a question that has been bothering me for a while.  Why in fixed wing aircraft does the captain occupy the left hand seat but in helicopters the command pilot appears to sit on the right.  

 

Jamie 

 

Never noticed that before, but an interesting convention. 

 

Mind you helicopters are inherently unsafe as the wings move faster than the fuselage and the pilot is always playing with the handbrake. 

 

Andy

Edited July 29 by SM42

[AndyID]

17 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 the wings move faster than the fuselage

 

Depends on whether they are coming or going 😀

[polybear]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Can any of our colleagues with aviation knowledge answer a question that has been bothering me for a while.  Why in fixed wing aircraft does the captain occupy the left hand seat but in helicopters the command pilot appears to sit on the right.  

 

Jamie 

 

And certain fixed wing Pilots are just plain bluddy minded and sit in the middle.....

 

 

 

 

[bbishop]

Could we just discuss baked beans on this thread for the next few days.  Flavio is meant to be writing an article for Continental Modeller.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Sherry has just txted me to say that a friend of her son is at Alder Hey hospital, his daughter having been stabbed 5 times in the Southport atrocity. She will survive, apparently, but at 8 years old, what does this do to your ideas about people and the world you are growing up in? 

Two dead according to latest reports.

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, bbishop said:

Could we just discuss baked beans on this thread for the next few days.  Flavio is meant to be writing an article for Continental Modeller.

 

No problem.....

 

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Two dead according to latest reports.

 

With another six children & two adults critical, plus three more children injured.

[PMP]

On 14/07/2024 at 10:42, iL Dottore said:

From various sources I’ve read it would appear that if aviation fuel was taxed the same way as other fuels, the low cost carriers would (mostly) disappear overnight. Of course, only using one type of aircraft, using obscure and second tier airports wherever possible, using stairs instead of jet bridges, being parked further away from the terminal, having a “pay for your seat, everything else is extra” ticketing system, minimal grand handling and support, all bring significant savings to the operator - but without fuel subsidies (which is what tax exempt commercial aviation fuel has) ticket prices would go up.  According to Wiki, “In the UK, aviation got £9 billion tax free benefits in 2003” - so God knows what they get now.

 

So we, as tax payers, are subsidising booze-fueled stag and hen-dos to (unlucky) cities like Prague, Amsterdam and Ghent. Who be extremely happy if they never saw a squeezey-jet or O’Leary Air ever again.

 

I reckon that were aviation fuel taxed, the ones least affected (in terms of ticket pricing) would be business class and first class passengers.

The recent helicopter control question reminded me that I hadn't responded to @iL Dottore from a week or so back regarding aviation taxes as I'd intended to.

 

😃 Hopefully not a TLDR post but here goes! 

 

It's quite correct that there isn't a fuel duty like we have for forecourt fuel on aviation fuel. This isn't just a UK thing, it's a long standing international convention. There are differences at the 'pump', but no fuel duty. If there were the it would need to be applied unilaterally and equally from country to country. If it weren't you would se an increased negative environmental impact as airlines would 'tanker' fuel on every sector where charges were higher, and that cost would undoubtedly arrive at the passengers door in the form of higher prices. The Lo-Co's would be able to absorb those costs far easier than the 'full service' (FS) airlines. This is because they are far more agile commercially, have shorter routes so wouldn't need to tanker as frequently or as much, and haven't got the historical overheads the FS have like, big pension pots, old, large commercial premises in very expensive areas. The Lo-Co's have a massive passenger base, Ryanair in the order of 160M Pax Per Year, Easy 80M PPY and Wizzair 60M PPY. British Airways has 40M PPY, the entire Lufthansa group 120M and KLM group around 110M, so the Lo-Co's can spread the hit far easier within their yield management systems and ticket pricing structure.

 

If the UK unilaterally decided to apply fuel levies it would significantly dent all aviation activity and worst case would be loss of airlines. However what would likely happen then would be that Amsterdam/Paris/FrankFurt would benefit, as traffic would be generated by airlines operating from Europe collecting uk passengers and taking them to European airports to 'start' their main journey from there. Those airlines almost certainly wouldn't be buying much fuel as they'd take round trip fuel, or possibly take just a tonne or so in the uk to top up. Also you'd get non EU airlines operating those flights under fifth freedom rights, so you may not get the quality airline you'd be hoping for. So fuel duty isn't going to be a thing anytime soon, and if it ever does come, the passenger will be paying it within increased ticket prices whichever airline they fly with.

 

We're certainly not subsidising stag do's, passenger types Ryanair has 60% business, EZY I think was close to 70% and Wizzair around 50/50 those may have changed but not by a huge amount. A solid percentage are also ABC1 marketing targets so not beer filled oiks or slappers! Some of the worst behaviour I've seen is in fact the Eastern European nations males with vodka/high % beer and drug fuelled unpleasantry. Even if Ryan/EZY/Wizz stopped flying to those destinations, their place would be taken by other airlines, just filling the gap, and it is of course just a few bad apples that generate the clickbait lager lout headlines. For every muppet that is a problem there's literally tens of millions of passengers that are no problem whatsoever.

 

The choice of aircraft is key in the business model so single type fleets are real positives, and each type has its advantages and the 737 with its airstairs is excellent as there's no issues which stand it goes on at an airport. With the A320 types only a slack handful have airstairs, due to the design the cabin floor is much higher so internal steps are heavier and steeper. Generally wherever you go you need an airbridge or steps to come to the aircraft. They're not always available, and that can have an impact on regular maintenance too, each A320 needs steps at night for an engineer to do his daily, a 737, no problem.  As a rule there isn't a difference in stand prices for aircraft on these short turnrounds, the airport will tactically determine which stands a flight will use based on operational needs such as refuelling, where the handling agent is based, turn round time required, ATC slot etc etc. Stand planning is frequently a bad-tempered horizontal game of jenga!

 

All of the above based on my personal perfeshunul expeeryence 

 

 

 

[SM42]

29 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

No problem.....

 

 

Bakes beans and meal worms.

 

Interesting choice. 

 

Andy