Early Risers.

[AndyB]

Evening all.

 

And to quote

Private Fraser, we're doomed. Doomed I tell ye!

 

A relative of an acquaintance has been flown back from China along with 7 other passengers. So everyone got into 1st class! Nice. However, face masks and gloves were required for the 8-hour flight to LGW.

Based on those precautions they sort of imagined that on arrival they'd be segregated from other passengers prior to self isolating. 

 

Nope.

Straight into the terminal with other passengers from Dubai who were sonewhat startled to see the be-gloved and masked passengers mingling amongst them.

Cue some discrete backing away. 

 

What were the 8 passengers told to do next?...

'Take the masks and gloves off you're scaring the other passengers."

Heaven forbid that anyone should be scared. 

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Still windy to the west of the Dark Peak, but the white stuff only came a couple of times at town level and retreated quickly. Gritters out this afternoon, road surface temperature over the tops is about -4C at the moment.

 

A bit of water ingress over the front bay window, don't think it was ever right from when built. No serious damage, more a nuisance, but I will have to examine closer when the weather is warmer.

 

Real pain in the rear was that I found a leak in the tank cupboard. At first I thought it was the thermostat pocket on the unvented tank but closer examination showed that to be intact. Probing further I found water coming from the valve on the central heating. Just a slight drip but enough to wet the floor under it. Fortunately I had one spare from when a motor unit went U/S a few years ago and I only changed the clip-on bit.

The unfortunate thing is that the way Wells Fargo had installed the plumbing  you nearly had to dismantle the whole thing to get it out. When I was putting it back together I found that a washer on the pump had been damaged by the way it was installed so a princely 10p was spent down the High Street for a replacement. 

 

After a day on that I need some therapy of the unmentionable kind.

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Still more than a bit windy with on and off rain, Arthur Itis is not predicting any more rain soon though. Not any damage to my property but a new fence at the back of a house around the corner was down with a concrete fence post at an odd angle. A mate of mine who lives a couple of doors down from the property explained that the ground in that area was almost a swamp. This might or might not be connected to the storm >>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-51444749 A former girlfriend used to live in road where it happened.  

Edited February 11, 2020 by PhilJ W

[Kingzance]

If, as I believe, the sink hole referred to by Phil above has swallowed a Prius, one suspects the vehicle is now going to need to be carefully disposed of, containing various nasties including a significant amount of lithium!

 

I was remiss in not sending my congratulations to the good Mrs Rick, well done! I hope that milestone also eases the stresses.

 

The tale quoted by AndyB must be true as you couldn't make that up (could you?).

 

The ITV local news for this area showed a clip from Beds Bucks & Herts Road Policing Unit taken yesterday at an adjacent village. First, I need to set the scene for you dear reader:
This village is one through which ALL the traffic to and from the CowboysRUs development is supposed to be directed (always ignored by the drivers of course, and they get VERY p!ssed off when you photograph their misdemeanours). In order to facilitate smooth operations and to avoid two LGVs attempting to pass in the narrow roads in the confines of that village, waiting areas were constructed at each end of the road. The waiting areas have nice wooden sheds to provide a comfortable place for the - I guess you would call him - banksman to wait. There is a banksman at either end of the mile-long stretch. As each has to be present throughout the working day, he needs his own khazi so has been equipped with an orange "port-a-loo" in the same lay-by.

As our friends in the Beds, Bucks & Herts roads policing unit drove through the village yesterday late afternoon, they filmed The Tardis gently meandering under sail power diagonally across the road from its intended location. It would appear not to have been emptied recently as it remained vertical throughout its journey, its passage possibly being lubricated by teh contents of its holding tank? Sadly, the local broadcast did not include any commentary from within the police vehicle . When I drove by this lunchtime, it (or a replacement) had been returned to its normal resting place.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

The site seems to be having problems with disappearing and double posts. I had a time out trying to post earlier. The edit cache did not function either.  I seem to have scored a "triple" post!!

 

I haven't had problems loading pages.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[grandadbob]

I think I've got triple and quintuple vision!

[Kingzance]

3 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

I think I've got triple and quintuple vision!

I have twice asked the administrators to tend to your eyes Bob .

[Ozexpatriate]

12 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

I think I've got triple and quintuple vision!

Honestly, they are breeding!

 

Each time the page reloads there are more of them.

 

Now the original post is deleted. I did report all the duplicates but in a surfeit of efficiency the original is gone too.

 

I was going to author and publish it a third time out of sheer cussedness but it's honestly not worth it. No one will miss it.

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[PhilJ W]

Early risers came up in triplicate on the content listing as well and refused to load but I think the mods are on to it.

[Kingzance]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Early risers came up in triplicate on the content listing as well and refused to load but I think the mods are on to it.

Or is someone "rocking" the boat? 

[Gwiwer]

Just now, PhilJ W said:

Early risers came up in triplicate on the content listing as well and refused to load but I think the mods are on to it.

I had posts go up twice and even three times earlier.  The mods are indeed onto it.  My multiples seemed to relate to intermittent server dropouts and - perhaps - to multiple attempts by the board to register the post on the server.  

 

In other news I created a respectable vegetable masala for this evening's enjoyment.  SWMBO remarked that this must be the first time I have ever used a recipe and vegetables together.  She has obviously overlooked the other occasion  

 

No sign of Former Neighbour (Upstairs) tonight either online or in person so I am still none the wiser as to what is afoot with her.  I may never know.  She knows where to find me if she wants a friend; I know there is a fine line between offering friendship and being perceived as intrusive.  

 

And ..... finally ..... after an exchange of emails at 16.40 stating that I was no longer prepared to give up my afternoons waiting for a gas man ..... at 17.25 he showed up!!!  Calmly apologetic that he had been stuck on another job (which does happen) but no mention of the two other days I had waited in to keep appointments.  At least we have been tested and found all in order.  

 

On that safe note I bid you all goodnight.  

[AndyB]

So if I reply to Kingzance's triple post will I generate 9 new posts?

This could multiple faster than, well.....

 

Made up? Nope.

The only detail swmbo wasn't sure about was whether it was LGW or LHR. 

[Andrew P]

And I thought it was just me that had quadruple post in Model Shops, just been in for a mega delete.

[Dave Hunt]

Despite still feeling like a Norwegian Blue I had to take SWMBO's car to Crewe (about 20 miles) for servicing and its first MOT this afternoon. Half an hour before I set off a blizzard arrived. There only seemed to be two types of driver on the roads (apart from me that is) - those who had never seen snow before and were limited to 5mph and those who had never seen snow before and thought it was OK to drive like idiots. Part way there one of the second category who had been overtaking everyone like a pillock came unstuck and the inevitable happened. Road blocked. Hence I had to turn back and find an alternative route and so was late for the garage appointment. By the time the car was ready, though, the snow had stopped, the sky was blue (well greyish as it was by then evening) and the roads were clear, albeit flooded in places. An interesting afternoon for a given definition of interesting.

 

Regarding aircraft landings. Very smooth landings (called 'greasers' in the trade) may seem really good but are, in fact, not ideal except on very long runways. For most occasions a firm landing is best as when the wheels contact the ground with sufficient force for them to start rotating immediately at full speed a lot of energy is absorbed straight away and that is translated into deceleration without the brakes being involved, which is a good thing when the idea is to stop before the runway becomes part of the local scenery and the brakes don't burn out (OK, I know that with ceramic brakes the latter isn't that likely and reverse thrust helps but there is still the need to slow down ). It's generally known as killing elephants as the effect of a firm landing is the same as reducing lots of m from the mv squared formula. By firm, of course, I don't mean teeth jarring crunch arrivals.

 

On Boeing wings and bouncing around - said wings are designed for efficiency in the cruise leading to extended range and fuel efficiency and are not the best for gust response as Baz has alluded to.

 

Thoughts for all those who's travel plans have been affected and/or have had damage caused to habitats by the storm.

 

Have a quiet and peaceful night (or morning for Baz and those in eastern lands).

 

Dave 

 

    

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Were still experiencing some heavy gusts at the moment, but nothing like those over the weekend. This afternoon we had quite a bit of hail falling from the sky, it was so heavy that it looked like we’d had snow!

 

Yet another day has passed and my package of electronic goodies hasn’t arrived, I’ve contacted the company involved and asked when I can expect it. I’ll give them until Friday, then I’ll raise a query with PayPal about it. So much for using the smaller independant supplier, needless to say, I definitely won’t be ordering anything else from them in the future.

 

 Goodnight all 

Edited February 11, 2020 by BSW01

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Congratulations to Mrs Rick

Night awl

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[pH]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Regarding aircraft landings. Very smooth landings (called 'greasers' in the trade) may seem really good but are, in fact, not ideal except on very long runways. For most occasions a firm landing is best as when the wheels contact the ground with sufficient force for them to start rotating immediately at full speed a lot of energy is absorbed straight away and that is translated into deceleration without the brakes being involved, which is a good thing when the idea is to stop before the runway becomes part of the local scenery ...    

 

A Boeing 737 ran off the runway at Kelowna in 1986. The landing was in heavy rain, on a very wet runway, with a gusting wind. A gust hit the plane very close to the ground and held it up, so that it touched down well down the runway, and very smoothly. When the crew tried to select reverse thrust on the engines, they could not. With the 'late' touchdown and a wet runway, the brakes could not stop the plane in time and it ran off the end of the runway. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, and the aircraft was repairable.

 

The aircraft had a safety system to prevent reverse thrust being selected in the air. Microswitch(es) in the landing gear legs were actuated when the wheels contacted the ground, allowing reverse thrust then to be selected. On this occasion, the touchdown had been so smooth that the switches had not been triggered.

 

Here's a short summary of the accident, which doesn't go into a lot of detail:

https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19860714-0

There used to be a more detailed report available, but it now appears to have been archived offline.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Regarding aircraft landings. Very smooth landings (called 'greasers' in the trade) may seem really good but are, in fact, not ideal except on very long runways.

 

 

If you don't break-through the ground effect you're liable to skate the entire length of the the runway like a hockey puck .  I think they sometimes apply reverse thrust even before the tires make contact - or at least some landings feel like that. I prefer it when the pilot "nails it" to the runway even if it means a bit of a bounce.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Regarding aircraft landings. Very smooth landings (called 'greasers' in the trade) may seem really good but are, in fact, not ideal except on very long runways.

 

 

If you don't break-through the ground effect you're liable to skate the entire length of the the runway like a hockey puck .  I think they sometimes apply reverse thrust even before the tires make contact - or at least some landings feel like that. I prefer it when the pilot "nails it" to the runway even if it means a bit of a bounce.

[Barry O]

So all qantas landings are good landings. ..as TUI Brewery used to say..Yeh,  right!

 

My old man reckoned any landing you walked away from was a good one..and his log book showed he tried landings in over 40 types of aircraft. (He liked mosquitoes and dads best marauders and liberators worst...)

 

Sleep well those in the homelands

Baz

[AndyID]

Now you're cooking with gas. Hydrogen gas....

 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/zero-emission-electric-pickup-insane-233001398.html

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

Thankfully, the wind is now calming down a bit - although it is still pretty blowy out!

 

20 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I know that bit of coast well, one set of grandparents lived at St. Leonards and most of the summer holidays as a child were spent down there.  I gather that he was rescued just off of Rye. I'm thinking if he'd come ashore between Hastings and Rye there wouldn't be anything much to find of him, except by the crabs.

 

Yes - I think you are right Phil.  The original report from The Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/storm-ciara-hastings-surfer-missing-rescue-lifeboat-rnli-video-a9325986.html) had him coming ashore at Pett Level - which wouldn't be too bad.  It's a nice flattish shingle beach - but anything west of that (Hastings to Cliff End) would be substantially more difficult due to the cliffs.  There are a few isolated coves at the bottom of the Glens - but nothing that would be very easy to spot.

 

My Mum told me that they said Rye on the local news - so it appears that the orignal report was probably incorrect!

 

Have a good day everyone...