Tell us something really trivial about your life (Vol 28)
Discussion
This evening, I watched the Guy Martin prog on the llast Vulcan bomber to fly (XH558) - the programme was quite good.
Funny to think that my late maternal uncle (Uncle Philip) would probably have put in some of its wiring. He worked as a sparky at A.V. Roe's
for years.
XH558 was an early B2 (2nd generation) that first flew on the 21st May 1960 and last flew on the 28 October 2015.
I was one week off turning five on the day of the first flight. So now you know!
Funny to think that my late maternal uncle (Uncle Philip) would probably have put in some of its wiring. He worked as a sparky at A.V. Roe's
for years.
XH558 was an early B2 (2nd generation) that first flew on the 21st May 1960 and last flew on the 28 October 2015.
I was one week off turning five on the day of the first flight. So now you know!
Edited by davhill on Monday 24th July 03:45
davhill said:
This evening, I watched the Guy Martin prog on the llast Vulcan bomber to fly (XH558) - the programme was quite good.
Funny to think that my late maternal uncle (Uncle Philip) would probably have put in some of its wiring. He worked as a sparky at A.V. Roe's
for years.
XH558 was an early B2 (2nd generation) that first flew on the 21st May 1960 and last flew on the 28 October 2015.
I was one week off turning five on the day of the first flight. So now you know!
My dad was in aeroplanes and he took us to the Farnborough Airshow fairly often. One year there was a flypast by a Vulcan with one Olympus engine mounted beneath the fuselage. It was a flying test bed for Concorde.Funny to think that my late maternal uncle (Uncle Philip) would probably have put in some of its wiring. He worked as a sparky at A.V. Roe's
for years.
XH558 was an early B2 (2nd generation) that first flew on the 21st May 1960 and last flew on the 28 October 2015.
I was one week off turning five on the day of the first flight. So now you know!
Just looked it up. Turns out there were two:
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/Gpages/html/G163...
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/stories/pages.ph...
I think it was the later I saw as I remember it with a square-ish nacelle.
..........
Nearly five on 21st May 1960? Hah! I was already six.
Morning all. For anyone interested in all things Vulcanised, this is an extremely good book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Vulcan-607-Rowlan...
It's about the bombing raid on Port Stanley Airport during the Falklands war. My old brother was working at the MOD at the time and was involved in plotting the angle of attack across the runway. He was clever at stuff like that.
Wouldn't be able to answer too many questions on it now though. Poor bugger died in 2007.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Vulcan-607-Rowlan...
It's about the bombing raid on Port Stanley Airport during the Falklands war. My old brother was working at the MOD at the time and was involved in plotting the angle of attack across the runway. He was clever at stuff like that.
Wouldn't be able to answer too many questions on it now though. Poor bugger died in 2007.
DickyC said:
My dad was in aeroplanes and he took us to the Farnborough Airshow fairly often. One year there was a flypast by a Vulcan with one Olympus engine mounted beneath the fuselage. It was a flying test bed for Concorde.
Just looked it up. Turns out there were two:
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/Gpages/html/G163...
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/stories/pages.ph...
I think it was the later I saw as I remember it with a square-ish nacelle.
..........
Nearly five on 21st May 1960? Hah! I was already six.
I was born on 14 May 1955 so I'd just turned five! Just looked it up. Turns out there were two:
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/Gpages/html/G163...
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/stories/pages.ph...
I think it was the later I saw as I remember it with a square-ish nacelle.
..........
Nearly five on 21st May 1960? Hah! I was already six.
In 1988, Lightning XS903, a retiring F6, flew over the village en route to Elvington Air Museum. It was low enough for me to see the pilot's 'tache!
I got permission to use the aicraft as a location for a magazine shoot of the new TVRS.
It was January. The Lightning leaked fuel like a sieve. I had to unsheet it, taking off the cockpit shroud and jet blanks. Because of no fuel load, the cockpit ladder, fitted into its keyhole slots, didn't reach the ground. Scary... long way up.
Got the pics though.
Ooh, pics.
Pics of a Lightning with a TVR or two.
The Lighting had an incredible rate of climb; I'm not sure if it's ever been beaten. When the Russians came agitating UK airspace recently in some cranky old bombers I thought it would have been good to intercept them a Lightning. None still flying I expect.
The old boy worked on the hardwire phone link between the RAF controller and the pilot that detached itself when the plane started to roll. It was done so there was no radio traffic for anyone to intercept. I think I remember him saying there were always two planes ready to go.
He did loads of different jobs. Flight refuelling was one, working for Alan Cobham. Years later he had to go to the factory for something and recognised the gardener tending the flower beds and walked over to say hello.
"Hello, Sir Alan, I'm John Cutler, I used to work for you."
The founder of the company was seeing out his time keeping the place looking nice. Pleased as punch dad knew who he was.
Pics of a Lightning with a TVR or two.
The Lighting had an incredible rate of climb; I'm not sure if it's ever been beaten. When the Russians came agitating UK airspace recently in some cranky old bombers I thought it would have been good to intercept them a Lightning. None still flying I expect.
The old boy worked on the hardwire phone link between the RAF controller and the pilot that detached itself when the plane started to roll. It was done so there was no radio traffic for anyone to intercept. I think I remember him saying there were always two planes ready to go.
He did loads of different jobs. Flight refuelling was one, working for Alan Cobham. Years later he had to go to the factory for something and recognised the gardener tending the flower beds and walked over to say hello.
"Hello, Sir Alan, I'm John Cutler, I used to work for you."
The founder of the company was seeing out his time keeping the place looking nice. Pleased as punch dad knew who he was.
Bomma220 said:
Some time back, I'd get a text message from Mrs B asking if we needed anything on her way home.
I'd often ask if she could pick up a 'Chron' , which was the name of our local newspaper at the time.
That would come up as Bison on predictive text. Thankfully she never brought one back.
You know the difference between a bison and a buffalo, of course. I'd often ask if she could pick up a 'Chron' , which was the name of our local newspaper at the time.
That would come up as Bison on predictive text. Thankfully she never brought one back.
You can't wash your hands in a buffalo.
DickyC said:
You know the difference between a bison and a buffalo, of course.
You can't wash your hands in a buffalo.
Not unlike the business I was discussing with Pushfit recently.You can't wash your hands in a buffalo.
'What's the difference between an elephant's bum and a pillar box?'
'No idea old chap'
'Never mind, I'll post it myself'
I got lost today. In Sussex.
This is weird cos a) I thought it was pretty much impossible to get really lost in the UK and b) I've lived here pretty much all my life
But I managed it. In fact, I was so lost that even when I popped out onto a road I actually knew, I thought I didn't and went the wrong way. Took me miles to reassure myself that I was both a f
kwit and heading in the wrong direction
This is weird cos a) I thought it was pretty much impossible to get really lost in the UK and b) I've lived here pretty much all my life
But I managed it. In fact, I was so lost that even when I popped out onto a road I actually knew, I thought I didn't and went the wrong way. Took me miles to reassure myself that I was both a fkwit and heading in the wrong directionDickyC seemed keen on seeing some pics so here we go...
This is from the Dec/Jan 1990 issue of 'Classic Replicas'.
The English Electric Lightning was 'BA', which was retired to Elvington Air Museum near York.
The TVR is an S1, 2.8i V6.
Poor poverty-stricken Redalpha, which was publishing 'Kit Car' at the time, couldn't afford to run all
my pics in colour.
The magazine ran as a bi-monthly for a while until it became 'Classics and Replicas'.
In the same issue, I ran an article featuring some of the builds in my past at the time...
This is my first proper car. I learned to drive in a Bond Bug (on my motorbike licence) and passed my
test in Dad's SWB S2 Land Rover - an ex-army radio vehicle with 24v electrics.
Over the summer of '76 turned my Herald into this. In case you're wondering it's painted
in B.R.G. (naturally). 1147cc, Solex flowerpot carb, no power to speak of. I loved it though.
I made enough of a profit on the Spartan to build this...
My GTM was a post-Cox car that I built in 1985. I used a 1275GT donor car, adding a naughty cam,
LCB exhaust and an IDA Weber. Note the contrasting black 'brightwork'. Being 6ft tall, I needed the sunroof
for headroom. Fun car.
Lastly, as editor of 'Kit Car' and, later. C&R, I had to test stuff like this on a monthly basis. Hard life!
This is the Dax Tojeiro V12, which I had for a week and drove from Harlow to York and back. It pissed down all week
look at the ground..
XJ12 lump with many IDF Webers and the thirst of a raging alcoholic. 300bhp and probably just as many decibels..
baffles are for cissies.
The location was the sugar beet factory just outside York. The sweetest smelling/tasting skidpan I've ever used.
This is from the Dec/Jan 1990 issue of 'Classic Replicas'.
The English Electric Lightning was 'BA', which was retired to Elvington Air Museum near York.
The TVR is an S1, 2.8i V6.
Poor poverty-stricken Redalpha, which was publishing 'Kit Car' at the time, couldn't afford to run all
my pics in colour.
The magazine ran as a bi-monthly for a while until it became 'Classics and Replicas'.
In the same issue, I ran an article featuring some of the builds in my past at the time...
This is my first proper car. I learned to drive in a Bond Bug (on my motorbike licence) and passed my
test in Dad's SWB S2 Land Rover - an ex-army radio vehicle with 24v electrics.
Over the summer of '76 turned my Herald into this. In case you're wondering it's painted
in B.R.G. (naturally). 1147cc, Solex flowerpot carb, no power to speak of. I loved it though.
I made enough of a profit on the Spartan to build this...
My GTM was a post-Cox car that I built in 1985. I used a 1275GT donor car, adding a naughty cam,
LCB exhaust and an IDA Weber. Note the contrasting black 'brightwork'. Being 6ft tall, I needed the sunroof
for headroom. Fun car.
Lastly, as editor of 'Kit Car' and, later. C&R, I had to test stuff like this on a monthly basis. Hard life!
This is the Dax Tojeiro V12, which I had for a week and drove from Harlow to York and back. It pissed down all week
look at the ground..
XJ12 lump with many IDF Webers and the thirst of a raging alcoholic. 300bhp and probably just as many decibels..
baffles are for cissies.
The location was the sugar beet factory just outside York. The sweetest smelling/tasting skidpan I've ever used.
Edited by davhill on Monday 24th July 23:00
Edited by davhill on Monday 24th July 23:01
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