Latest Posts   –  Page 175

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

What am I doing?

I’m flying. And I have a plan. I’m flying to the British Isles. All of them. Well, all of them that have an airfield. After a lot of peering at Pooleys and pondering maps, it appears that we have a total of 38 islands that fit the criteria of having a runway that is useable…

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Accident Analysis

The Anatomy of an A350–CRJ Collision at Atlanta

On the 10th of September 2024, an Airbus A350 took the tail off of a Bombardier CRJ at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, USA. Delta Air Lines flight 295…

Why KLM Cut the Steering Cables on Two Perfectly Functional Boeing 737s

Last month, we looked at the night of 28th of November 2004 at Barcelona Airport. KLM 1673 ran off the runway at high speed, stopping just short of a canal.…

Demystifying

How Important is Having a Sterile Cockpit?

This question was posted to r/flying by a private pilot who wanted to know: do airline pilots ever engage in small talk about irrelevant things during taxiing, run-up, takeoff, and…

Someone has to write the TAF

It turns out that there a person sitting there deciding what the weather is going to do. Which seems obvious, except that I had somehow never asked msyelf who “someone”…

History

The CIA's Shark Screen

Today we have a guest post from the CIA! In their archives, researching something completely different, I found the answer to a question I never thought to ask. I immediately…

The First Jet to Land on an Aircraft Carrier (Deliberately)

“The Vampire was the first jet to land on a moving aircraft carrier deliberately.” This quote from Airshow Luke, our MC at the Legacy of Liberty airshow, made me almost…

Fun Stuff

Bird Strikes, Balloon Landings and Falling in Love with a Boeing 777

The exciting news on Fear of Landing this week was a huge scare about critical vulnerabilities in PHP. PHP is widely used on the web, including in WordPress, which is…

Petrified, Petrified, Petrified

There’s been some interesting reporting in the UK media about a “near disaster” over Canary Wharf involving the captain having to intervene (the horror!) after air data systems failed on…