Mike Ramsden
 

Just seen on Flyer that J M "Mike" Ramsden died on Sunday. To me he was foremost the Editor of Flight International when I read it fairly assiduously in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but I know he was much more.

The late Gainesy once of these pages, otherwise Mike Gaines also of Flight, "let slip" that Mike Ramsden was also Roger Bacon - or one of several - and I suggest he was "ahhhh de Havilland!" personified, a Total Aviation Person.

RIP.

Sad but not unexpected I'm afraid. We old "ahh de Havilland" folk can't forget that Mike was ten or so years ahead of us at the Tech. School and what that implies - as was Alastair Pugh who died earlier this year.
Happily Mike did manage to finish and publish his biography of Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, a work that draws heavily on Mike's interviews over the years with the senior members of GdH's original team.
As Editor of Flight International it was characteristic that he still found time to entertain us with "Straight and Level"
On a more serious level, when he and others were conned by Channel 4 TV's "Comet Cover-up" he led the fight to have Channel 4 shown for what it was. Lots here.

Yuk Speak
 

Was it Mike that used the term 'YUK SPEAK' for various official documents or statements that failed to cover the point in question !!!

As I recall that was his porcine alter ego!

"Captain Speaking" was another of his recurrent classics, which has entertained various non-aviation folk I have used the expression with.

We were delighted to find there is an aerodrome called Hoskins (HKN, AYSHK) in Papua New Guinea . . .
Let us also not forget "Roger's Thesaurus"

Another Straight and Level line I remember was "the old Constipation sat on the ramp dripping oil. Passers by fled in panic as its four Wrights burst into flames..."

...due to a failure of the knurled flange-bracket.

A line that hasoccasionally been swallowed and regurgitated by reporters ever since.

So, so satisfying!

And the American...`J.Burlington Widebody`...if you didn`t go to the `jobs` page first,it was usually to Uncle Rogers for his take on all things aviation.....

I seem to recall that for a time 'Straight and Level' was sub-captioned '...the page you turn to second...'

I was so reminded of this in an instant on a EuroManx BAe146, a short-lived shambolic operation about 12 years ago from London City to Isle of Man, operating half a day late. On the descent into IOM there was a sudden and substantial Ker-TWANG from the air conditioning ducts above the seats. There must be something up there in the 146 with a large spring. Everyone around pulled a shocked face, but I just thought "Roger Bacon". Given the overall operation, not even unexpected.

I see I wrote about it here at the time https://www.pprune.org/passengers-sl...ml#post4307062

Then there were the definitions. For starters:

"An air hostess is a lady who asks you what you want, and then straps you down so that you can't have it."

Perhaps his first name "Roger"was not for nothing, bondage perhaps? ;) Or maybe he just wanted bacon.

I always thought the name was a homage to the eponymous friar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon

You could probably fill a book with Uncle Roger's inventions.

Among my favourites were Rollo Freelunch (I've met a few of those in my time) and Reginald S Potter (ditto).

Yes memories of early aviation indoctrination.
The couple I remember was :
"He is so secure in his job he reads Flight from the front !"

and when RR was developing the RB
Government Man :" How is the new engine going?"
Rolls Royce Neddy : " Well the weight is what the thrust should be and the thrust is what the weight shoud be "

Another Straight and Level line I remember was "the old Constipation sat on the ramp dripping oil. Passers by fled in panic as its four Wrights burst into flames..."

Ha! I remember this one too, it was a send up of Stephen Piercy's enthusiasm for old prop liners.

.......and the excellent "Total Aviation Person" Christmas quizzes.

That'd be Angela Obvious as I recall it.

I just enjoyed half an hour wading through a few old copies of Flight, reading S&L...

Came across this gem:

Does anyone remember the;

'White Knuckles Cadet Mk2, with the Flesh Creep engine. Made out of a newly discovered composite of weetabix, and flown by a small family of hamsters'?

Captain Camberley Golfcourse, with his terrible problem of leaves in his swimming pool
First Officer R R Meelson
Citizen Lucking- a real person who asked awkward questions of the aviation establishment
Potters Bar International Airport
The prestigious Potters Bar - Keflavik route
The lake at Radlett that contained an intact HP42 (if only!)
"I say, are you married?"
"And by and by a cloud takes all away"
I became an official nephew of Uncle Roger by submitting a press cutting that claimed Baron von Richthofen shot down over eighty British Tiger Moths in World War One; for which I received a small cheque and a signed postcard, the latter of which I still have. I last saw Mike at James Gilbert's memorial service at St Clement Danes. "And by and by a cloud takes all away"

<I last saw Mike at James Gilbert's memorial service at St Clement Danes.>
Me too. Two great and sadly missed aviation journalists.

Nice to see you Aerohack!

Of course, Mike Ramsden hadn't checked thoroughly enough about the Sea Hornet rear fuselage being extinct, there is the back end of VX250 at Salisbury Hall. ;) I imagine he'd also be thrilled at the prospect of TT193's vestigial remains acting as the basis for the type's reincarnation by Glyn Powell.

Be nice if `Flight` did a booklet of `S and L` as a memorial....

I've just spotted that the pic of the Hornet rear end also includes the missing bit of my garden fence restoration...

Hi Treadigraph, yes, it's been a long time!
Way back in the early '60s the Civil Defence folk had a large part of a Sea Hornet fuselage in their depot at Westhampnett, neat Goodwood. I don't know if that is the same one? Civil Defence Portsmouth also had the fuselage and wings of an ex-Fleet Air Arm Grumman Wildcat in their yard near the Town Station, but I saw that get burned in a training exercise.

Very sad news indeed, a great and lovely man.... I joined Fllight from Warton flight test in '74 and Mike was the inspiration for my writing career covering most of the succeeding 40+ years. He was a brilliant writer, a wonderful leader and tutor, and he assembled a superb editorial team, myself excluded!!
One of his mantras was that de Havilland must NEVER start a sentence (as that would mean 'de' with a capital D).
There is a fine obituary on the Fiight web site, but this system doesn't allow me to post it, BAH!!

I can post this link

On the Straight and Level page occasionally was the 'Reginsld S. Potter' award for pieces mainly from national newspapers which got it completely wrong regarding aviation.

ExWtnFTE, rather to my everlasting shame, the company I worked for was one of the main consultants/contractors on the monstrous students' residences which now sully the the hallowed Hatfield Aerodrome. It was a grim and harrowing battle persuading my colleagues that all written references should be to the "de Havilland Campus" but I persevered, generally won the day and am fairly confident that anything that went out via the marketing team used the lower case "d". Certainly if I got my mitts on it... I suspect something I read in "Straight and Level" some years earlier had stoked the vehemence!

Aerohack, apparently VX250's rear end was rescued from the fire dump at St Davids. I seem to recall that another fairly substantial Sea Hornet wreck survived into the 1960s down at Plymouth or somewhere. Oh for a Stephen Grey/John Romain/Glyn Powell/substantial cheque book back then. TT193's rebuild is based around a fairly substantial centre section recovered from Canada.

In 1965 'Flight' advertised for a trainee journalist. In a fit of enthusiasm, which makes me cringe with embarrassment now, I applied and got an interview. It was one to one, with Mike Ramsden on a grey and depressing day, in the somewhat grey and depressing surrounds of Dorset House, Stamford Street, London E1. During the course of the interview he asked me, given the choice, what would be my favourite aeroplane to fly. 'Flight' had recently exchanged the Gemini for a Beagle Airedale, so - grovel, grovel - I chose the latter. (Support the British aircraft industry against these damned new Cessna and Piper interlopers, eh?) I was briefly informed that, in JMR's opinion, the Airedale was a heap, and the choice had not been his! I didn't get the job, but was interested to see that the Airedale subsequently departed, to be replaced by the Baron G-ASDO.

I think it was after a change of ownership of the magazine, and the move to Tolworth Tower off the A3, that something in 'Straight and Level' caused threat of legal action and the column disappeared for some considerable time. Eventually it came back with the opening line; "Right, as I was saying, before I was interrupted ..."

Sir Charles Boost of Plummet Airlines and his GLOW-PUFF cigar - that was another one.

Beagle salesman asked a Tiger Club member with a slight speech impediment what he thought of the Airedale. The TC member began to stutter and the salesman cut in with a smooth, "no it isn't up to much is it?"

It has often been quoted, and may indeed have come from a piece Mike wrote, that a Beagle-Auster demo pilot -- possibly the late Ranald Porteous whom I was lucky to count as a friend or 'PeeWee' Judge -- would invite journalists to "come and fly the Airedale, we can have lunch during take-off!"

Alas they have mis-spelt his name in the end signoff, which for their former editor with high standards seems particularly unfortunate.

One has to suggest that it makes the former standard of proofreading by Angela obvious!

Here's the review of the Airdale in 'Air Pictorial' in late 1962. Its price in 2019 GBP would be approx £110,000.