Who fly's the Royal family?

[Capt Hollywood]

Greetings all,

Just a quick one really. Who flies the Royal family about in the 76's. Are they Royal Navy or private pilots. I flew a young lady the other day who said her father flies the Queen around, she did mention that he was Royal Navy but I'm not sure if she was talking past tense.

Cheers,

Hollywood. :cool:

[SASless]

Also...a rumor abounds that the Royal Flight in the 76's do GPS appoaches! Now would that not be an interesting topic of discussion.

[Flying Lawyer]

Civvy contract since 1998.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/380000/images/_380492_heli300.jpg
S-76 in the Queen's back garden.

[Thomas coupling]

Yes some of them are RN and GPS self let downs might even be on their menu :uhoh:

[SASless]

But would a GPS self letdown be legal in the UK? Even if it were the Queen's personal pilots doing it? Of course...I can see the CAA might be a bit leery of taking that one forward! I can see ol' Bloggsy doing weather checks somewhere in the remotest part of the Falklands after violating the Boss Lady's pilots.

[ShyTorque]

TC,

Ex-RN. Some of them used to be RN but they have now recovered from it.

Some of them are even ex-RAF.

Hey, they even do ILS's and shock horror, VISUAL approaches!

None of them are ex Pongoes though... :p

[Thomas coupling]

Sorry I meant Ex - RN!

Weren't we talking the other month about a very large company's S76 doing a self let down at night on GPS, into the side of a hill LS.

:ooh: :ooh:

Why have the CAA turned a blind eye to it, they must know it goes on in the commercial world:confused:

[Capt Hollywood]

My mother, the English teacher, would roll over in her grave..............................if she were dead that is!

Can't believe I spelt "fly's" like that. They are starting to appear again here is sunny Central Australia though. Annoying little blighters, always crawl up under your sunnies just as you lift off!

Hollywood :cool:

[GLSNightPilot]

But the insects, plural, are still spelled 'flies'. Fly's (and almost anything with apostrophe s) is the possesive, & means something belongs to Fly. :8

Using 's to make a plural is just one of those things that irritates me. I see it all the time, though, so perhaps it will become the accepted way to do it. Language does change with usage.

[ShyTorque]

So where does the book title "Biggles flies undone" come into all this?

TC, Do you have a link to that part of the GPS letdown discussion please? I think I missed what you just referred to. Ta.

[Thomas coupling]

Shy: try here:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=68802&highlight=gps

TC

[teeteringhead]

GLSNightPilot
You oversimplify the grammar, and may cause confusion.

What of the apostrophe as a sign of an omitted letter, most usually in the oft confused "its" and "it's".

In that case, it's the "its" (without apostrophe) that indicates the possessive; eg "The fly grooms its wings with its legs"; while the apostrophised "it's" is a shortening of "it is"; eg "It's the way flies b<gger up barbeques that really p!sses me off".

We must maintain pproper english on pprune.......

[Robbo Jock]

GLS,

There was a chap interviewed on Radio 4's Today program the other day, who has founded the "Apostrophe Protection Society", you'll have to sign up:

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

Strangely, I don't have too many problems with apostrophes, it's that little blighter the comma that screws me up - I feel like sticking one between every word in a sentence in the certain knowledge that one or two of them will be in the right place.

[ShyTorque]

Thanks, TC.

I looked back and thought that might be it. The other month? It was nearly a year!

Doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself discussing more important stuff like apostrophe's.

....sorry, just couldn't resist putting one in there..... ;)

My penny worth.... GPS approaches are safe if they are properly designed, cross-checked for accuracy against / backed up by other aids and properly flown using adequate equipment.

[GLSNightPilot]

I knew I should have kept my mouth shut (or my fingers still). I get wound up about this stuff (grammar) too easily, but ignorance about the grammar of one's native language seems to me to be pure laziness, and I was reared to believe that laziness is a mortal sin. For non-English speakers I make wide allowances, because I'm completely ignorant of the grammar of most languages. :uhoh:

And I agree that GPS approaches are safe - in fact safer and much more accurate than NDB or VOR approaches. The accuracy is on the order of a localizer, better in many cases. I do roll-your-own GPS approaches all the time, offshore, and they're FAA approved. :ok: