Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

I parked the car in the street yesterday evening as it would have been impossible to get it onto the drive due to the ice. I'll have to get it onto the drive tonight but its still icy underfoot so I'll leave it until later.

[polybear]

[woodenhead]

My eldest sister once got me a sweatshirt for Christmas - it read on the front "I may not be a pheasant plucker, but I am a ...."

 

How we laughed whenever I wore it.

 

I was under 10, things were very different in the olden days.  🤣

[TheQ]

Art ter noon Awl, rain Is imminent..

 

Slow trip to the sailing club driving over ice this mooring, got there, opened up, turned on heaters, water boiler, etc

Put up flags.. while doing that observed someone on the village quay having an extremely bad day.. There was another man doing compressions on his chest, was about to grab the club defibrillator when a ambulance arrived, followed by a paramedic car.

Eventually after much milling around, he was loaded into the ambulance, the blue lights were switched off and it didn't move. While this was going on, a ambulance incident van turned up, as did the police and coast guard..

After more standing around the Ambulance moved off slowly without lights..

 

Back to the clubhouse, I got the normal rescue boat out, well tried to, the battery isolation switch lever had been dropped in a puddle of water and require chipping out. Then tried to connect the fuel tank, only to find the connection end was frozen in another puddle of on board water.. more chipping out.

Sorted that, used the boat to go ice breaking round the moorings.. ice over two inches thick in places, just got back to starting position when the engine died. After much faffing around discovered the O ring seal in the fuel line connector was missing, so it was drawing in air.

 

Retired to club house to warm up.

Discovered others were trying to find out why the club had no drinking water .

When they found they couldn't unfreeze the pipes, there were discussing giving up for the day, as we need water for the showers should someone go in.

So I went out and put the broken boat away.

 

On return they said what did you do?  The waters come on... "Not me gov!!"

So back out again and get rescue boat number two out. Drive that round the moorings again and put out the buoys.

Back to our boat and my sailing compatriot is getting it ready, I joined in, but as we attempted to clear the ice floes the buzzer went off for the start of race one.

 We got out and we're behind a hundred yards behind 4 boats, and alongside another that had fought it's way out.

 Race one, depleted numbers due to the cold and ice.. course L shaped, 1, down river, 2 back at the club, three up river.

Up to buoy 1, 

 Just playing follow the leader. Just manage to out tack the boat along side round buoy start catching the lead group, kept holding off trailing boat on the run, round buoy two back at the club house, kept in the middle of the river, the 4 leading boats went down to the leeward bank, we kept in the middle it paid off, when they got a header they couldn't drop down anymore and lost speed. So we were right behind at buoy 3, on rounding bouy 3 it was almost close hauled again. We were forced down towards the bank and the boat behind got a lift and went over the top..

It was basically follow the leader for the next 2 laps with the real leader getting away.

Then as we headed back to the club there  was a shortened course signal. We had observed the tide changing to going out, so we held out in the middle and in the last hundred yards passed two boats who were on the leeward bank....

 

After a warming muggacoffee, 

Race 2,

on time on the start line, a perfect start all boats behind us as we tacked up to buoy 1,

rounded buoy 1 in the lead, then we had the run with 5 boats behind blocking the wind, you can't cover all the River and two boats got along side at  buoy 2 .

On the close hauled to buoy three we kept slightly more out in the river than the lead two and over took one of them.

We held that position till the corner where we head up to buoy 1, a header turned us down and a boat got past us on the inside, then in tacking up to buoy one a 40 foot hire motor boat was out in the river and forced us to tack early. Another boat got past us at that point.

 

Just before the buoy is a side dyke, use for small rowing boat and dories. It was on the quayside  corner of that, the casualty had been lying. A small dory came out with a very tearful lady on board being comforted by others it went off to some permanent moorings just down river..

 

Round bouy 3 and follow the leader to the finish, where we were close behind boats 2 and 3 at the finish.

 

Every one was putting their boats away. Even the dinghy fleet.

So we did.

Then to the clubhouse for baked potato and beans and a muggacoffee.

 

Then home on the  roads had mostly defrosted, we are forecast an over night temperature of + 11 so it should be gone in the morning.

 

 

[polybear]

Bear here.....

Well I never did get the door dust guards refitted after all.....but I did finally finish the paint stripping 

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....................

Humongous Tick.

 

A certain Bear (with very large and clumsy hind paws) did manage to knock over a rather large (4L) container of White Spirit whilst I was wiping down the Base Rail though - and of course it didn't have the cap on.....

Very Large Turdycurses.

Fortunately the container was sitting on the landing carpet - I was very quick to stand it up again; the carpet isn't fixed down now (due to the refurb) and so I could quickly fold it back to wipe up as much as possible (I also had rag right next to me) and place a bin liner under the wet patch to stop it going thru' the gaps in the floor boards.  The H/S/L smells kinda "interesting" just now - and probably will continue to do so for a few days too.  I'm also trying to forget that it's the wrong side of ten quid a container now.....

 

The kickball is on in the background, with the sound off; not sure I want either side to win, bearing in mind who's playing.  It's just got interesting, with 9 minutes to go.

 

Just had a call from Buddy ex-next door - he's calling in tomorrow morning for a visit, which will be good - I've not seen him for maybe 6 months or more.

[AndyID]

8 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

It's very common to conflate bureaucracy and inefficiency, and think bureaucratic countries are disaster areas, but it's not necessarily true. Singapore is incredibly bureaucratic, every I has to be dotted and every t crossed but government services are very effective and work well, and the government is very business friendly. That said there's a much more collaborative culture between government and industry rather than the government knows best attitude we get. I still remember a meeting between a large Greek shipowner and the British shipping minister I attended in which the shipping minister told this (very successful) shipowner he didn't understand shipping. I was rather proud that I managed to keep a straight face in that one.

 

Singapore's bureaucracy seems to have fallen for the crypto Ponzi scheme.

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

The jumper I got for Christmas kept picking up static electricity, so I've taken it back to the shop and exchanged it for another one, free of charge.

 

That one's actually rather good.

[PeterBB]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Never had one of those, but I do have an iPod touch which still works perfectly, although performance is hampered by the fact that Apple no longer “supports” the iOS for this model and fewer and fewer apps can now run on it - as any update to an app requires the latest iOS to be installed - which is not possible to install as Apple no longer “supports” this model….

 

This really infuriates me, all these high-tech companies bleating on about “going green”* or “saving the planet”*, yet their business models are based around rendering perfectly good technology “obsolete” as fast as possible in order to flog the new models.

 

If I were in a position to do so, I’d make it a legal requirement for tech companies to provide software support for the lifetime of the associated hardware (although they’d probably get around this by designing hardware to fail/stop working [or self-destruct if you will] after a year or so). 

 

* admirable goals, but - alas - too often used by business in a cynical way as a sales tool

The same thing applies with televisions and CDs DVDs - they were given as the best way to store information and especially photographs 'for ever' ... so what do we have now -iCloud/cloud whatever ... absolutely perfect? if you have internet reception? - no way, you are now expected to 'pay for services' and if tyou change providers etc or fail to pay you loose the lot.  They call this progress.  I may be 'stick in the mud' but all the older types should be supported.  At the time we required a replacement television the largest we could obtain that still offered DVD play was a 43".  Larger screens may offer better pictures but we can still play DVDs as and when we want without having to pay again for the use.  

 

Did not comment of the Blackberry thing as to me it was just a name - my mobile at the time had an aerial that damaged coat pockets!

Edited December 18, 2022 by PeterBB

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Good old BBC. Switched on to watch the midday news (as per program only to find that they'd reshuffled the pack to put the football on earlier.

Thats nothing - here they've decided to put it on at 2 in the morning! Who watches telly then? the idiots.

 

(Is there a penalty shootout yet?)

[monkeysarefun]

On 26/11/2022 at 21:39, monkeysarefun said:

Soccer world cup shock final prediction shock.

 

90 minutes or whatever it is  of play, then extra time etc   then it'll end in a penalty shootout like usual.

 

 

LOL at me being all Nostradamus!

 

4 years of build up, 40 odd games and  as always t all ends up being decided by what looks like a kids soccer practice session.

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Our mutual friend, Uncle T did many of the certification trials for refuelling the Tornado from the VC10 and has quite a good collection of photos.  I think he said that the central position was difficult to use because of the airflow from the high tailplane. 

 

I never had any problem with the centre hose of a VC10. Since the tailplane was almost a Hunter wing, the refuelling position when using the centre hose was almost like formating line astern in the Hunter, albeit a bit lower. The only problem I can imagine with the centreline would be if you got too high and into the tailplane wash but I suspect that the engine exhaust would have been had a greater effect. Getting too high could give trouble for the wing positions on the VC10 or almost any other tanker. The moral was to do it as experienced pilots told you to. The Tornado was prone to trouble with turbulence because of the huge fin and for both formating line astern and tanking the technique was to join low then gradually rise up until the fin just started to burble. 

 

Dave 

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I never had any problem with the centre hose of a VC10. Since the tailplane was almost a Hunter wing, the refuelling position when using the centre hose was almost like formating line astern in the Hunter, albeit a bit lower. The only problem I can imagine with the centreline would be if you got too high and into the tailplane wash but I suspect that the engine exhaust would have been had a greater effect. Getting too high could give trouble for the wing positions on the VC10 or almost any other tanker. The moral was to do it as experienced pilots told you to. The Tornado was prone to trouble with turbulence because of the huge fin and for both formating line astern and tanking the technique was to join low then gradually rise up until the fin just started to burble. 

 

Dave 

 

So burble is a technical term then?

[Dave Hunt]

2 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

So burble is a technical term then?

 

Absolutely. The technical description of the the effect of disturbed airflow felt in the cockpit went through nibble to burble then buffet.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. As if the wall to wall kick ball wasn't enough when the BBC deigned to put the news on it was all about the kick ball and nothing else. I will soon have to go out and put the car on the drive, if the ice has cleared enough otherwise it will have to be first thing in the morning. The foxes are quiet tonight but the muntjac calls are all over the place. Had a look out, there's still plenty of ice about and its slick with the rain so it looks as if I will have to wait until morning before I park the car on the drive.

Edited December 18, 2022 by PhilJ W

[BoD]

12 hours ago, Barry O said:

@BoD.. shamenon you.. nor using a spotty is a punishable offence!  :)

enjoy your session at the Hall.

I tend not to put bacon in spotties if I can help it.

Seriously though, it is getting harder and harder to get a good stottie cake these days.  Greggs effort is a poor imitation.

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I never had any problem with the centre hose of a VC10. Since the tailplane was almost a Hunter wing, the refuelling position when using the centre hose was almost like formating line astern in the Hunter, albeit a bit lower. The only problem I can imagine with the centreline would be if you got too high and into the tailplane wash but I suspect that the engine exhaust would have been had a greater effect. Getting too high could give trouble for the wing positions on the VC10 or almost any other tanker. The moral was to do it as experienced pilots told you to. The Tornado was prone to trouble with turbulence because of the huge fin and for both formating line astern and tanking the technique was to join low then gradually rise up until the fin just started to burble. 

 

Dave 

Pre heating the fuel in the tail fin , that would make it burble😀

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

If you've ever thought the Comet and the Sud-aviation Caravelle looked similar here's why.

I should have listed the Caravelle in my earlier post. While the front-end had much in common with the Comet, the whole arrangement reminds me more of a VC10 - particularly the wing shape and engine placement. The VC10 had a higher horizontal stabilizer.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Ozexpatriate
Added link

[monkeysarefun]

58 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Absolutely. The technical description of the the effect of disturbed airflow felt in the cockpit went through nibble to burble then buffet.

 

Dave

 

 

Love military lingo  - One US  provider of targeting software we have uses the technical phrase - "putting warheads on foreheads".

[Ozexpatriate]

14 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

This really infuriates me, all these high-tech companies bleating on about “going green”* or “saving the planet”*, yet their business models are based around rendering perfectly good technology “obsolete” as fast as possible in order to flog the new models.

Separating the issue of purchasing carbon credits in lieu of actually reducing their carbon footprint, which is entirely specious (or at the very best misleading), the constant introduction of newer, smaller, faster cheaper is capitalism at work.

 

With multiple competitors, deliberately not introducing new products with new features to win your custom requires cartel behaviour not unlike five-year plans for Soviet tractor production.

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Absolutely. The technical description of the the effect of disturbed airflow felt in the cockpit went through nibble to burble then buffet.

 

So half a byte then?  Oh, that's a different nibble.  Sorry, wrong topic we did that a couple of weeks ago  🤣

 

Alan

[PupCam]

14 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Never had one of those, but I do have an iPod touch which still works perfectly, although performance is hampered by the fact that Apple no longer “supports” the iOS for this model and fewer and fewer apps can now run on it - as any update to an app requires the latest iOS to be installed - which is not possible to install as Apple no longer “supports” this model….

 

This really infuriates me, all these high-tech companies bleating on about “going green”* or “saving the planet”*, yet their business models are based around rendering perfectly good technology “obsolete” as fast as possible in order to flog the new models.

 

If I were in a position to do so, I’d make it a legal requirement for tech companies to provide software support for the lifetime of the associated hardware (although they’d probably get around this by designing hardware to fail/stop working [or self-destruct if you will] after a year or so). 

 

* admirable goals, but - alas - too often used by business in a cynical way as a sales tool

 

Another very large nail hit very squarely  on its head with a large hammer.      

 

100% SPOT ON!

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well I finally made a start putting things back in the underfloor storage area, most of the 50mm sheets of polystyrene are now stored, they are close to the access door, but to one side. I’ll start moving the boxes later in the week, probably Tuesday. 

 

Goodnight all

Edited December 18, 2022 by BSW01

[jjb1970]

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Singapore's bureaucracy seems to have fallen for the crypto Ponzi scheme.

 

That was a bit of a dumb move, but doesn't alter the fact that government services are effective and work well, or that it is a very business friendly country. If I look around the world there aren't many places in the world that match the overall balance of high standards in healthcare, education, public transport, safety/crime levels and general government efficiency of Singapore. Which isn't to say the government is perfect, but it does get an awful lot right. One of their most significant achievements has been to avoid the sort of ethnic strife that blights their neighbours.

[jjb1970]

On electronic devices, my issue isn't so much with product improvement and technology moving on, it's the way so many products have a short life. Because things move on and improve doesn't mean old stuff stops being good, but now software support fades away, batteries degrade and with replacements being priced so as to make it more sensible to replace the whole product etc. I've had a couple of LED TVs which ended up as DVD/Bluray monitors because the software was no longer supported to load new apps or continue using some of the existing ones. There was nothing wrong with the picture quality and the screen bits were still working perfectly well, they weren't that old either. Well, maybe 6 or 7 years is old today, but at one time people would normally expect much more than that from a TV. Similarly I reverted to wired IEMs and headphones after having a couple of good wireless sets which had very good sound quality and noise cancellation for flying but for which battery life fell off a cliff after about two years. I'd have happily paid to replace the batteries in each but it was more sensible to just buy new.