Are you missing a Tristar?
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Are you missing a Tristar?
Was that an RAF Tristar at Whenuapai yesterday, carrying Michael Hague and the UK CDS and about 50 or so shoe-polishers?
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Samuel - And are you extracting the Michael from our Willie?
Fergineer. It's or rather they, are only here for 30 hours.
Samuel, would that be Kiwi shoe polish?
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Thanks for that Samuel. Pity I didnt know earlier but thats the way it goes.
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That would be a ten year old who can tell the difference between between a L-1011 and a B757. Do you need clues ?
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Why when I see a particular ppruner's name to I think of a tin of sweet corn?
It is as good as imagining an interview with no clothes on.
It is as good as imagining an interview with no clothes on.
"Are you missing a Tristar? "
Thank heavens you asked - I am indeed missing a Tristar - his name is Archibald, and he is a light grey colour, and enjoys long walks and eating snack food. He's not house trained though...
If you seem him could you let me know and I'll lock him back in the house again...
Thank heavens you asked - I am indeed missing a Tristar - his name is Archibald, and he is a light grey colour, and enjoys long walks and eating snack food. He's not house trained though...
If you seem him could you let me know and I'll lock him back in the house again...
Are you missing a TriStar?
Soon will be apparently! The hot rumour at Cambridge is that the glass cockpit upgrade aircraft, still not in service, is to be scrapped for spares.
After 2+ years and a few £millions at Marshalls it will not be a suitable 'one off' to fit into operations. No sim or training aids, dedicated crew required as cockpit differences preclude two typing, and spares/ maintenance issues.
Any further conversions would be delivered later than the A330 AirTanker which is to replace it.
After 2+ years and a few £millions at Marshalls it will not be a suitable 'one off' to fit into operations. No sim or training aids, dedicated crew required as cockpit differences preclude two typing, and spares/ maintenance issues.
Any further conversions would be delivered later than the A330 AirTanker which is to replace it.
Last edited by cessnapete; 23rd Jan 2011 at 16:37.
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Soon will be, a mate at Brize tells me the glass cockpit upgrade aircraft, still not in service, is to be scrapped for spares.
If not, then MOD(PE) (or whatever it's called this week), the relevant contractor's staff, the relevant RAF staff, and the relevant Treasury staff need to be clapped in irons for a long time. Pour encourager les autres.
Between the Chinook HC3, the Nimrod MRA4 and now the Tristar, a lot of money has been literally pi$$ed away with nothing to show for it, save a pile of scrap and some 10 year old "new" Chinooks".
While checking the delivery date for the HC3s, I noticed there's a program to put glass cockpits in all existing Chinooks. So for the HC3, they will have had a glass cockpit ripped out for extraordinary reasons, an analog one retrofitted, which 5 minutes later gets ripped out for a glass one?
The UK has the third highest world defence budget, and it is not at all surprising, though not in a good way. Perhaps the officials dealing with these contracts need to be put on some kind of performance related pay so that when they screw it up, it hurts them. Should they do a sterling job, they perhaps ought to be motivated accordingly. And if they REALLY screw it up, such that billions of pounds of equipment has to be reduced to scrap, they should become acquainted with Wormwood Scrubs.
If the RAF is so short of AT (as opposed to tankers), what's wrong with buying a shedload of 767s out of the desert, putting them through their D checks that sent them there in the first place, and a job lot of grey paint. Total cost, slightly less than that of a glass cockpit. No shortage of 767 trained crews or engineers. If one breaks, bin it and buy another. The RAF did exactly that with the F4-Js, and everyone was happy with that.
Thread drift I know, but if this story is true, it is ridiculous.
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If the RAF is so short of AT (as opposed to tankers), what's wrong with buying a shedload of 767s out of the desert, putting them through their D checks that sent them there in the first place, and a job lot of grey paint. Total cost, slightly less than that of a glass cockpit. No shortage of 767 trained crews or engineers. If one breaks, bin it and buy another.
The 767 will no doubt cruise 5 knots slower (or faster) than the Requirement; the shade of paint in the cockpit will not be that of the Requirement; the glossiness of the black used on the pipes in the undercarriage bays will be too glossy; and so on.
What point is there in having an elaborately staffed and funded OR and procurement dept if you are suggesting they could all be made redundant by simply buying kit that does more or less exactly what you want it to do without 15 years of fannying about having lunch at Warton, Cambridge, Toulouse, etc.? Would you deny these fine men and women these lunches? Would you deny them their post-RAF career moves into defence equipment sales to, er, their own successors? What kind of cruel and heartless individual are you?
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Roadster and LookingNorth
Nail - head - hit
If only Defence was looked at with defence actually in mind we'd do a lot better, but that won't happen until [insert unplanned aggressor]'s forces threaten us directly; whereupon it'll be too late. In the mean time Defence means contracts, lunches, backslapping, photo opps, regional jobs, shareholders.....late kit, cost over-runs, expensive outdated rubbish, contradictions, glacial change and our old friend vast needless waste.
We won't get it until we get beat. But that won't happen cos we're British, right?
Nail - head - hit
If only Defence was looked at with defence actually in mind we'd do a lot better, but that won't happen until [insert unplanned aggressor]'s forces threaten us directly; whereupon it'll be too late. In the mean time Defence means contracts, lunches, backslapping, photo opps, regional jobs, shareholders.....late kit, cost over-runs, expensive outdated rubbish, contradictions, glacial change and our old friend vast needless waste.
We won't get it until we get beat. But that won't happen cos we're British, right?
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Roadster...
"You ARE joking, right?"
The thing is, after all this time, after all the things we have seen happen over the last few years, nothing, but absolutely nothing would surprise most of the contributors to this forum any more. This is but one of them. It really would not surprise me in the slightest if Cessnapete is accurate on this.
"If not, then MOD(PE) (or whatever it's called this week), the relevant contractor's staff, the relevant RAF staff, and the relevant Treasury staff need to be clapped in irons for a long time. Pour encourager les autres."
Not to mention, oh, I dunno, about another 3000 offences to be taken into consideration when it comes to sentencing.
It'd probably take the melting down of one of the carriers to provide all the irons necessary to clap said legs into for a long time without adversely affecting the global price of scrap metal....
Looking North:
Exquisitely put.
"You ARE joking, right?"
The thing is, after all this time, after all the things we have seen happen over the last few years, nothing, but absolutely nothing would surprise most of the contributors to this forum any more. This is but one of them. It really would not surprise me in the slightest if Cessnapete is accurate on this.
"If not, then MOD(PE) (or whatever it's called this week), the relevant contractor's staff, the relevant RAF staff, and the relevant Treasury staff need to be clapped in irons for a long time. Pour encourager les autres."
Not to mention, oh, I dunno, about another 3000 offences to be taken into consideration when it comes to sentencing.
It'd probably take the melting down of one of the carriers to provide all the irons necessary to clap said legs into for a long time without adversely affecting the global price of scrap metal....
Looking North:
Exquisitely put.