Latest Posts   –  Page 126

Not an auspicious start

Ben, who was going to be flying with me, contacted me on Sunday to say that he was stuck in Copenhagen with a jet whose wheels would not retract. A nice young man named Alistair agreed to adopt me for a few days, so we flew out to Shobdon yesterday where we got stuck on…

Read more… 4 Apr 06

Oxford

I spoke to Ben yesterday and so my trip to the “British Mainland” is now confirmed. I’ll start in Oxford and do circuits there until I’m dizzy (circuit: take off, fly in a circle, “touch” the run way and “go” again, ad infinitum) and then head off to local airfields and do the same there.…

Read more… 25 Feb 06

More things to do in Alderney…

… lest you think I’m only going there for the alcohol. A meal in St Anne in view of St Anne’s church. Hike out to the neolithic burial site, followed by a visit to the Alderney Museum. A trip on the only running railway in the Channel Islands. Find out about the Elizabethan wreck which…

Read more… 14 Feb 06

Milk-a-Punch Sunday?

Alderney has an annual event called “Milk-a-Punch Sunday” and I’ve specifically worked my schedule around being able to be there, plus a day on the ground on Monday to recover. http://www.alderney.gov.gg/index.php/pid/16/more_info/7 This long-observed tradition is a drink made of milk and egg and given a little kick by a healthy tot of rum, offered by…

Read more… 13 Feb 06

Things to do in Guernsey

The Food and Ale Festival. I think this means a pub crawl. I hope so. :) Currently looking at spending most of the time in St Peter Port, seeing the harbour and the market and probably the German Naval Signals HQ, Hautevill House and Castle Cornet. I’m not sure if the shipwreck museum in Fort…

Read more… 10 Feb 06

Things to do in Jersey

Visit Vineyards of La Mare Find out about Jersey Apple Brandy Try a real Jersey Cream Tea Go to the Ramsar wetlands Walk on the seabed where Jersey was once connected to mainland France Take a coastal cruise from Grouville Bay Visit the sea front at St Clement including Green Island Get a tour of…

Read more… 8 Feb 06

Accident Reports

A Lesson On Keeping The Aircraft in Trim

On the 28th of May 2019, a customer arrived at a flight school at Archerfield Airport, Queensland for their first flight experience. The aircraft that day was a Cessna 152,…

Explosive Decompression on the Ground

The Gulfstream G150, a twin-engine business jet, arrived at Kittilä airport in Lapland on a cold Tuesday afternoon on the 2nd of January 2018, carrying three crew and four passengers.…

Demystifying

How Many Successful Ditchings of Commercial Airliners?

When I was learning to fly, I remember someone in the pilots’ bar insisting that all that talk about life jackets under your seat was a waste of time; if…

Small Plane Gets Stoned

This photograph has been posted to aviation forums repeatedly, each time with a thread of pilots wondering what the hell could have happened to cause the light aircraft to be…

History

The History Listen

I was on the radio on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in a show called The History Listen. They asked me to tell them about a famous story in Australian and…

The Last Flight of B121-120

The Beagle B.121 Pup is a British, single-engine, all-metal aircraft produced in the 1960s. British Executive and General Aviation Limited, who traded as BEAGLE, designed the Beagle B.121 Pup as…

Fun Stuff

The Tetris Challenge

When the Kantonspolizei Zürich (the police department of the Swiss canton of Zurich) posted a photograph on Facebook showing the contents of a standard patrol car, they had no idea…

The History Listen

I was on the radio on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in a show called The History Listen. They asked me to tell them about a famous story in Australian and…