I thought the pictures streamed on TV were good, as are the pictures in the Daily Mail, which then disgraced itself with its incredible, shrieking headlines (almost like a 1914 issue if you follow me). Amazed by the hysteria whipped up by some of the press-they truly need to calm down.
Interesting that both Navies (Russian and RN) have now adopted similar armed sentry levels on deck these days. And they also had one of their helo's running on deck as it passed through straits (armed and ready for response if required)? I remember the days when everyone was unarmed and simply could walk around willy nilly (at the height of the cold war, ironically)! Things rapidly changed after the rise of AQ.
They had two fire engines onboard in Fly 1 which I think is pragmatic- we should copy this for our QE class, but we have no plans as far as I've learned from colleagues still in.
Materially the ship looked in good condition on the outside, freshly painted probably. But somehow it doesn't look exactly worked up, I find that hard to articulate but maybe its still a bit of a show pony>?
Looking again at the phots, the whole top part of the ship has been repainted including the flight deck. No oil spots are really evident. Only 1 flight deck tractor and no sign of the crane, forklift or associated ground equipment. Also, the jets have ladders attached, but seem devoid of any blanking, ground pennants etc, why so- they are at alert 5? They weren't seriously expecting to launch them from only halfway down the deck? Plus they had an obvious tail wind anyway.
Still, I wish them well. I'm fully with Pax B up above, we all need to find and maintain a continued peace. That Daily Mail leader writer needs a word. HS.
Last edited by Hangarshuffle; 22nd Oct 2016 at 07:28.