Early Risers.

[Barry O]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Hatfield U-Block, by any chance?

Nope

I worked at the proper missile site.. St Evenage!

 

Did visit Hatfield to help with Sea Eagle.. open roof officers in a freezing cold hangar.. not the best place to be in Winter!

 

Baz

[roundhouse]

I have been on two helicopters, one round the World trade centers in NYC and the other up onto the top of the glacier in South Island NZ - that trip my leg was really painful but I still made sure that I could climb in and out of the heli.

 

Other half was told to go early incase the Worms were affected by London bridge incident. Luckily the train just didn't stop at LBG so she was happy as she gets on at Farringdon. However had I still been in working in London I would have had quite a walk to get to another station to get home. She said Blackfriars station was wedged as her train stopped there.

 

Tomorrow Letchworth show with the Czech layout which has now been loaded into the car. Just the DCC boxes to load tomorrow. Will be tight as layout and four of us in the car although not a full as when we do a long distance show with overnight bags.

[Debs.]

10 hours ago, 45156 said:

.......I wonder how long the Awl has been suspended, Debs?   BTW, how many years ago was the pic of you driving the pannier taken? 

Dear Cody was about six months old in that picture; being a proper "Ci Cymro", he was born on St. David's Day, way back on March 1st 2001........so long ago now; but so many happy memories. 

 

I plead for an awl exemption for posting pictures, o n the grounds of Ill Health. 

Edited November 29, 2019 by Debs.
Cant spell too well todsy

[Sidecar Racer]

A nice photo , but I must question the lack of PPE , no boiler suit , no hat , no

protective foot wear , surely as a highly qualified person of your standing these

should be the minimum for performing loco driving .      

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Ian's post confirms my thoughts about heliochopters, and that Jemma is indeed a smart cookie!

 

I could perhaps, maybe, undertake flight in one again to 'do' the Grand Canyon, a bucket list thing for me.  I've seen it from 35,000 feet or so, I'd like to get up close and personal with it too.   Apparently pulling the handbrake in a panic isn't to be advised though.  (It's the collective....).

 

I was in the back of a Lynx once, when Westland One (Chief Test Pilot) said "Everyone Strapped in good and tight for landing?"  He'd never said that before...I knew he was up to something......

Next thing I know the whole thing's pointing 90 degrees nose up....vertical climb.....180 degree turn at the top.....vertical nose down, staring at the ground......pull out of the dive bloody close to the ground and settle it on the pad.  Some people are flash, whilst others are truly gifted....

I seem to recall that little episode involved hauling on the collective somewhat...

 

12 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Nope

I worked at the proper missile site.. St Evenage!

 

Did visit Hatfield to help with Sea Eagle.. open roof officers in a freezing cold hangar.. not the best place to be in Winter!

 

Baz

 

Stevenage?  Proper?  They shut the wrong site

Offices in a Hanger?  That'll be U-Block.  Happy days....

And Eagle?  Got the T-Shirt.....

[Kingzance]

I'm with the bumble bee!

Farmers Market stall-holders duly removed several pieces of paper / plastic from my wallet but the lamb's liver tonight was very good, the breast of lamb will make a lovely navarin, the beef steaks look excellent, the pheasant breasts will be lovely wrapped in pancetta, the oxtail will make a lovely stew with a good portion of shiitake mushrooms, the rabbit will be casseroled en moutarde de Dijon, the sausages replenished diminished freezer stock and the sausage meat will be used in 26 days; three rather tasty cheeses will certainly not last that long.

I've lost my very old and long-serving multi-meter and, since the wiring into the new dresser / sideboard / cabinet is not performing properly, I am getting a little miffed. With hands the size of mine, I can't even get into little miffs so what good is that? Later I shall be starting the hand of pork, searing the outside by exposing it to around 240DegC and then reducing the heat to about 80DegC for a further 10 hours.
Ah well, back inside the bottom cupboards for another go persuading electrons to travel along the paths I want them to follow before I can reward myself with something containing C2H5OH...

Commiserations to those delayed by the latest London Bridge incident but those commiserations are nought for those present at the actual event - be safe everyone!

Debs: shouldn't that exemption be on the grounds of awl health? Hat, coat, door...

Edited November 29, 2019 by Kingzance
Update for pannier!

[roundhouse]

Talking of missiles, I recently worked on 'Blue Steel'

 

OK its only 1/72 but took some time to put all the decals on let alone the lot on the plane

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

I could perhaps, maybe, undertake flight in one again to 'do' the Grand Canyon, a bucket list thing for me.  I've seen it from 35,000 feet or so, I'd like to get up close and personal with it too.   

 

Count me out.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2018/02/12/grand-canyon-crowded-airspace-recipe-disaster/328219002/

[Tony_S]

I once got invited to a day out at Cranfield. There was a Lynx flying display. At that time I hadn’t known that helicopters could do things like that. I once worked (summer job) in a place where some very small but critical parts were made for helicopters.
Quite a few of the cruise ports we go offer helicopter tours. I don’t think I am likely to take one. When we were in St Petersburg helicopter flights weren’t in the approved tour list, to be honest I thought the MiL 8 excursion helicopter landing near us looked a bit tatty!

[Kingzance]

4 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Count me out.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2018/02/12/grand-canyon-crowded-airspace-recipe-disaster/328219002/

Lucky enough to have done that probably a dozen years ago. The airspace was busy bit not crowded and we didn't land on the canyon floor but a great trip all the same.

[New Haven Neil]

7 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Count me out.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2018/02/12/grand-canyon-crowded-airspace-recipe-disaster/328219002/

 

Allow me to reconsider my bucket list.....

[Barry O]

13 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

Talking of missiles, I recently worked on 'Blue Steel'

 

OK its only 1/72 but took some time to put all the decals on let alone the lot on the plane

My late BiL worked on Blue Steel. Fueling it was always a problem as it could go awfully wrong.....

 

Baz

[brianusa]

11 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Home after Thanksgiving dinner. We will have another freezing night tonight with the possibility (I think remote) of overnight snow late on Saturday. The cold air was hailed with the annual first triggering of the tyre pressure gauge.

 

This is a wonderful invention but on my car it has (in my opinion) a flaw. Once the low profile tyres warm up after friction with the road and pressure exceeds the trigger point (28 psi) the alarm will not reset until the car is restarted with tyres above the low pressure trigger. Hopefully the garage will remain warm enough for when I next use the car.

 

So the drive home was accompanied by a bright yellow tyre pressure warning lamp on the instrument cluster and a separate flashing "psi" sign on the "computer" display despite the tyres being at a safe level of inflation.

 

[brianusa]

One of those annoying improvements!  Warnings appear if you're too close behind or beside anything - why would you drive too close to anything anyway?  What was wrong with a TP gauge that you kept in a pocket or the glove box?  It was simple enough to use and inflate the tyres, better than warning lights, etc. Then there's the warning light that comes on at random, proving nothing and is to be treated as suspect after many trips to the garage where it usually doesn't show up.  I've ignored it for years with no consequence!

     Brian.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I don't know about black Friday and care even less. There were no more punters than usual at Tess Coes this lunchtime so I assume most people think the same. Next Tuesday is the last SEERS night of the year so I got a few nibbles to share out during the tea break. Its also test track night and I will be taking my latest acquisitions from Warley for a run. 

[bbishop]

Glad Mrs R and The Lurker are ok.  Bill

[Kingzance]

Further to mine of a couple of hours ago, I traced the fault to a defective 4-way plug board by the expedient of replacing each device along the required electron pathway. Even SWMBO seems happy now! C2H5OH in the form of Old Golden Speckled Hen is sliding down nicely 

[TheQ]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

AKA no door....??  :-)

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/hewett-academy-norfolk-removes-pupil-toilets-doors-for-open-plan-look-1-6396282

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.

 

Cold and tired would sum today up.  Despite there being a shiny yellow thing hanging in the sky in the same way that bricks don't*  they forgot to turn the heater on.  

 

I arrived home by way of the sorting office and collected a pack of switches which apparently wouldn't fit through the letterbox.  Oh yes they would.  Perhaps it was the little shuntering diseasel that was in with them which caused the problem

 

In due course the new printer was delivered though there has been no chance to set it up nor will there be for a couple of days yet.  It requires me to pull the office part of the multi-purpose room well and truly apart which cannot be done over the weekend.  We are away Airbnb'ing (for want of a better verb) with friends of SWMBO somewhere rural near Glastonbury, I am told.  My part of the bargain is to get us to Taunton and back which will, unfortunately, involved GWR marrows.  Their part is to collect us there and deliver us back.  Together I am assured we shall visit a supermarket, cook, perform music and watch murmurations of birds.  

 

SWMBO is busy baking cakes to take with us.  I am on the point of sleep and have called time on the day.  I may well not appear here through the weekend.  A PM will call my attention if I'm needed.  

 

Best wishes to one and all.  Stay warm on what is an icy cold night Upon the Hill of Strawberries.

 

* as described by the late Douglas Adams

Edited November 29, 2019 by Gwiwer

[jamie92208]

Helicopters... the classic book about flying them is called Chickenhawk, written by a Huey pilot in Vietnam.  It opens with a quote that goes something like this....

an aicraft consists of several thousand peces that go nicely together, and when in motion want to stay together and produce flight.  A helicopter consists of several thousand pieces that also produce flight but spend all their time trying to get away from each other.

 

The omly time that I've been in one was when I was on a course and each class member got the chance to spend an evening with the air support unit. I did two flights and enjoyed them both.   For some peculiar reason the one over Leeds required us to come home over Gildersome  and somehow I managed to take so e aerial photos of our house.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

Evening awl, 

Most of the temperature pre and post adjustments, about a couple of hours work left

.

Driving back. Long queues through Wroxham,  caused by rain,  the river is flat,  across the moorings,  across the car park,  across the A1151. Only 3 to six inches deep across the road, but some drivers in a panic were trying to swerve into the middle to the shallower bits into the oncoming traffic. 

 

Darn chilly out there, even though we've had a couple of heavy rain showers. 

I noted that on a couple of dangerous corners on the way back from the MRC some selective gritting had taken place. 

A reasonable attendance to night,  I was able to demonstrate the servo tester / servo method of changing direction on parallel bits of metal. 

Almost completed one board scenically,  Just 200 fence posts to cut and install.. 

 

Story from Local Town today, witnessed by MRC member,  council lorry parked half on pavement  while two men are painting double yellows.. 

Idiot in car starts repeatedly blaring horn,  as he wants to park where the men are. 

 

Copper taps on window,  driver puts the fingers up,

Copper smacks window with truncheon. 

Driver winds down window and starts giving abuse. 

 

Copper says the magic words.. You're nicked sunshine.  Then gives the  Legal version.. 

 

Tomorrows work depends on how cold it is... 

 

Choccy time.. 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

And one more thing.

 

Here's the House of Fun either pandering to the Nanny State or simply stating the flippin' obvious

 

 

[pH]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Helicopters... the classic book about flying them is called Chickenhawk, written by a Huey pilot in Vietnam.  It opens with a quote that goes something like this....

an aicraft consists of several thousand peces that go nicely together, and when in motion want to stay together and produce flight.  A helicopter consists of several thousand pieces that also produce flight but spend all their time trying to get away from each other.

 

The omly time that I've been in one was when I was on a course and each class member got the chance to spend an evening with the air support unit. I did two flights and enjoyed them both.   For some peculiar reason the one over Leeds required us to come home over Gildersome  and somehow I managed to take so e aerial photos of our house.

 

Jamie

 

The elderly Canadian Navy Sea Kings were described as "50,000 parts flying in loose formation".

 

I read "Chickenhawk" many years ago. As you say, quite the classic. Some very non-standard flying described, like using the rotor to chop bamboo in a 'rolling' takeoff  under fire, with a machine too heavily loaded to take off vertically. And hovering with an underslung load too heavy to lift any higher about 5 feet above a minefield! (Solution - allow the machine to rotate, meaning less power being used by the tail rotor and so more available to the main rotor.) If I remember correctly, the author ended up in prison in the States for smuggling drugs by helicopter - he was hooked on the adrenalin. 

 

 

[BSW01]

Felling meh, aching all over and can't stop shivering, going to bed. 

[JohnDMJ]

3 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

A nice photo , but I must question the lack of PPE , no boiler suit , no hat , no

protective foot wear , surely as a highly qualified person of your standing these

should be the minimum for performing loco driving .      

 

 

Eye protection? (from the smuts in the smoke)

 

Awl could be well that may end awl!