Aviaition news

 Well it's been a courious week aviation wise, for some reason the numbers of light aircraft hitting powerlines is well up.  This mostly seems to happen during the landing approach, and even odder the passengers usually survive (not always though)  Why this is happening is anybodies guess, maybe having powerlines on runway approaches is a bad idea, they are supprisingly hard to see even in good lighting.

 A helicopter has crashed with loss of life, hardly big news sadly, this one however was made in the late 1950's.  Thats a 70+ year old helicopter not only still flying but working, not just doing airshows as a vintage display aircraft.  I know aircraft are expensive, but this thing is old, well it was, theres not much left now.  We need a realistic age limit for working aircraft, not just keep it going until someone dies.

 Staying with helicopters, two flying to an island had a decision to make, turn and take the longer route or fly into bad weather.  One turned, the other took the direct route.  The fuel tanks and a body were found floating in the sea. The aircraft taking a route around the bad weather landed safetly.

Oh dear, it's going to be one of those days!

 

 So far today, we've had broken glass, a very high voltage electric shock and now a broken hoover to deal with... and it's only nine thirty in the morning.  What will the rest of the day bring?

What a shanbles the UK is!

 

 It'll come as no supprise to anyone living in the UK that the country is a total shambles, but just how bad it is might supprise many of our overseas cousins.

 The migrant crises.  We're paying France around 63 million euros a year to stop migrants leaving France, yet tv footage shows the French police  (think allo allo police here) either ignoring the migrants carrying boats down the beaches or in some cases actually helping them.  

 Same as our so-called rescue services.  They have been caught in touch with the trafficers in France arranging to pick up the migrants, thats people trafficing and a serious criminal offence, anyone booked yet?  No chance!

 Then theres the £66 a month energy grant, great idea... well it would be if they were actually organised enough to send the grants/vouchers out.  The UK figues show only about 50% were used, thats because only about 50% of people actually got them, I haven't had the second one and it seems I'm not alone.

 Covid boosters.  How hard can it be to organise this really?  After all they managed to set up all those centers, and testing centers, and loads of portable hospitals during the covid crises.  Yet now it seems they cant organise a simple booster jab.  

 I got a letter offering me one, fair enough.  At a chemist no less.  Sadly not my local chemist, in fact not even a chemist in my town, in fact in a village 14 miles away from where I live with no real public transport... on a sunday.  Seriously!  How the hell are people supposed to get the jab.

 And another thing, we were all told chemists couldnt give us the jab, it had to be "special" centers with doctors in case of reactions to the drug and the very low temp it had to be stored at.  Well that was bollocks for a start then if it's now available in a bloody chemist.  Why not give it with the flu jab at locals chemists.  

 My mother got her letter sent to the care home where she lives, that was for a a town over 20 miles away in a chemist again, the town the home in is begger that the area with the chemist her jab is at.  Theres no logic, only madness.

 It's as if they dont want us to have the jab, which will cause infection rates to rise and then they'd have an excuse to bring back lockdown.  WTF are they playing at?

 Still look on the bright side, only four prime minsters till Christmas left!  Roll on an election.

B 17 crash update

 

 After watching more footage of the B17 and P63 mid air crash from a different angle, it now looks more likely the P63 pilot lost sight of the B17.  The P63 is known to have somewhat poor visibility forwards and down (it's got a long nos) from the angle of it's turn into the formation it looks like the B17 might have been in it's "blind spot" so it seems likely the P63 pilot simply couldn't see the B17.

 The NTSB will have a report out in about 6 weeks with it's early finding.

Miserable day

 

 Well today isn't turning out to be fun so far.  

 This morning I started compling my list of celebs who have died this year.  I post this around the new year every year.  This year I started early, so many familar names and faces, some I've had the privilage of meeting, some have given me many hours of entertainment, some have made me laugh.  

 I dont mention this usually when I post the list, but it's worth remembering that we have lost our comics, singers, actors etc, their family have lost a dearly loved family member.  While our lives are going to be worse for not seeing them on stage or screen, the familes loss is much much worse our thoughts should be with them.

 Now I'm off to visit my mother in her care home, then it's shopping, I just love shopping, I love standing around waiting because the tight bastards who run the shop wont pay for enough staff to man the tills.  I love the half dead morons who shuffle about like bloody zombies not buying bugger all, and I love queue jumpers.  

 One threatened to fight me last time I shoved him and his wife out the way and got into my rightfull place in the queue, when I said I'm standing here and not running away and good luck they moved to another till, I did wait outside for a bit but they must have stopped for lunch or something.

Lights and the "glow"

 The lights and glow of the steelworks.  Shot on...  yes you guessed it the phone!

B17 flying fortress crash Dallas

 Sadly this week has seen the loss of a B17g flying fortress and a Bell P63f kingcobra in a mid air collison over Dallas executive airport.

 Video of the accident shows the P63f hitting the B17 behind the wing and cuttng the aircraft in half, both planes flying low in a flypast fall to the ground with the loss of all 6 abord both aircraft.  

 The video show the P63f turning in to formate with the B17 but doesn't seem to turn out in time and hit it.  It's impossible to say from the video if this was caused by the P60 misjudging things, a malfunction of some sort (controls jaming?) or maybe the pilot just lost sight of the B17 or suffered some medical issue.  Either way the B17 had no chance to take any avoiding action.

The NTSB will be investigating and determine what actually happened.  Sadly 6 people enjoying what they do and giving the public a chance to see historic aircraft have lost their lives.  Our thoughts for their families.

Torches have come a long way!

 

 Yes torches have come a long way over the years.  Back in the 1970's my torch of choice was the army issue right angle torch, this used two D cell batteries and gave a fair amount of light for what it was.  Then the mini maglite became popular, much more light for a small and lighter torch, they were all the rage with my unit, and I loved it.

 Some time after that when I did a bit of caving (not much) we started getting Petzel headlamps, these like the Maglite had a focusable beam but gave out more light and had a longer battery life, but were bulky and akward to carry when not in use.

 Fast forward some decades and Tesco came out with a 4w led torch, this only slightly bigger that the mini Maglite was WAY brighter.

 Now with the high power leds of today torches have a power thats just staggering, even something that will fit in your pocket will light up a field, no comparrison to the torches of old, the move forward in tech is mind blowing.  Indeed they seem to be close to doubling output every two years or so.  

All we need now is the same boost in battery tech and us torchaholics will have it made.

Living with the new torches

 

 Well it's beena few weeks since I got the last few torches I've reviewed, so I thought I'd update on how they are going and how I like them.

 First off I'll start with the Nitecore LR12.  Well I've used it properly now and while it works well, it's not my favorite.  First off I find it a pain that theres no memory and you go back to low every time you turn it on, then theres a twist or two to get to the light level you want.  In real world use I find the second mode 60lm (24 hours) enough to safetly move around on rough ground at night, although it's not throwing very far ahead (as the design for the diffuser see review) after an hour or so it wasn't even warm at the head so thats a good plus.

 Lumintop tool AA.  This little beast is the torch out of the three recent one that I've used to most, as it's small and always in my pocket it's hand for those quick look behnd the fridge type jobs.  In real world use mode two with a 14500 batter 85lm (6 hours) is the one I'd probably use for walking at night.  It's bright enough to move in safety and it throws better than the nitecore, quite enough light, the other more powerfull mode are just amazing.

 Lastly the Olight Warrior X3, well the good news is the holster has loosened up a bit and the torch is easier to get in and out, although still not perfect.  The light levels, well low mode 300lm  (8 hours) is a load of light, and the beam design means you can see a long way off as well. Then full is just bonkers, you can see things half a mile ish away, although battery life is only about 2 hours in full power.  The buttons I've got to grips with, as I suspected at the time it's me rather than any fault with the torch.  This torch is in my hand most of the way home incase I need to relight the sun!

Misty road

 

Got this last night with the phone, still not had chance to get out and take proper pictures.

 

Interesting week aviation wise

 

 Been an interesting week aviation wise.  Three light planes are missing in various parts of the world.  The number of major airline aircraft having birdstrikes is getting worse, I cant remember seening this number in a year before.  

 Theres been a rather high number of planes suffering depressurisation issues too, a worrying trend to those who remember the Helios accident, in that case an issue led to the deaths of 121 people.

 And finally, how unlucky do you have to be to be on a medevic aircraft and then hit a deer on take off, the patient continued on a different plane, I cant find out how the deer faired... probably badly.

Mary Poppins grave and my burn scar.

 

 I know I post some odd titles on this blog, but this one is right up there with the oddest!

 First my burn scar.  Some months back while on a secret missing behind enemy lines I burned my hand, my wrist to be more exact, it left a scar.  The good news is the scar is fading. Now it may show up when I get tanned if the sun ever comes out again, but I'm not that bothered if I'm honest.

 The bad news is the secret mission behind enemy lines was probably in my kitchen (close enough to enemy lines, you haven't see my kitchen) the truth is I dont know how I burnt it if I'm honest, I didn't notice at the time as it was a deep burn, they dont hurt much when you do them as the nerve ending get seared.

Mary Poppins grave.  Ok if I'm totally honest this isn't actually the real Mary Poppins grave.  Thats because the real Mary Poppins isn't dead, she's 87 years old and alive at the time of writing this.  It's just the brolly stuck in the grass made me thing of it (what a warped mind I must have?) and if I remember rightly it's the wrong sort of brolly, I think her's had a round handle but I may be wrong.

 Now for my errrr... famous Dick Van Dyke Mary Poppins film impression " Cor blimey, ello Mary Bobbins it's me Bert the chimney sweep" done like Van Dyke in the worst cockney accent you ever heard, not helped by his voice coach being Irish and he couldn't do it any better than Van Dyke. apparently.  

 Indeed it was so bad it was voted second worst fake accent ever heard in a movie or tv series, first place went to Sean Connery for his accent in the Untouchables.