An Inconvenient Truth
Thread Starter
Chug, as long as the MAA is controlled by retired senior officer they will never be impartial. At the inception of the MAA I applied fora job and was bluntly told as I had not been an officer I was never going to get in says it all really. As for the DECUs I do remember when I worked on the chinook fleet at Gutersloh watching the actuators moving themselves with no-one in the cockpit.
Your alarming testimony of UFCM's during servicing is an example of the technical evidence that was conspicuous by its absence in the Mull BoI, let alone the SI into the accident which we still await, following on from the quashing of the ROs' findings by the SoS!
Dervish, many thanks for the link to to the Glasgow Herald story. Might I suggest that those interested do a pdf copy for themselves as I did. Repeated visits back seem to trigger the site paywall otherwise.
Just finished it but sadly can’t post a 5 star review as I haven’t spent enough dosh with Amazon recently.
Extremely well researched, written, technical and factual. Having had a flight control issue and put out a mayday on a VC10 as well as knowing what went on with the Staines Inquiry which killed my best mate and the losses in the RAF in the 60s where one year saw nearly a daily loss of airframes I was still surprised that this stuff went on to such a degree. But with the background of Covid and the politicians I am not surprised. A late very close mate was head of ROI army intelligence and one of the first things he asked me whilst sailing 25 years ago was about it. At the time it was pilot error but the press included details of the increase in life assurance and a telephone call to father or father in law to look after my family. In light of the Boeing Max accidents, again with some racist remarks on a British pilots forum wrt pilot error, nothing changes. I’ve seen sudden 1200 % speed increase on GPS and my last company had many issues with electronic interference from Nintendo game boys and old disc players. Lastly a mate on a large twin Boeing had double failure pages come up when he transmitted on HF. Lack of shielding which would have been post 1994. I flew the first DC10ER over the North Pole where we had a track discrepancy of 30 degrees which in the middle of the artic night with less than minimum fuel wasn’t fun although there was a simple remedy and the software fault was sorted but to dispatch continually unsafe and unserviceable aircraft with the top intelligence brass on board is either complete stupidity or deliberate political tactics. I haven’t a clue but I do know wrt the IRA attacks on BEA Tridents that there was collusion between both sides. It will never be answered as the truth of the Dublin Monaghan bombings.
Well worth the read.
Extremely well researched, written, technical and factual. Having had a flight control issue and put out a mayday on a VC10 as well as knowing what went on with the Staines Inquiry which killed my best mate and the losses in the RAF in the 60s where one year saw nearly a daily loss of airframes I was still surprised that this stuff went on to such a degree. But with the background of Covid and the politicians I am not surprised. A late very close mate was head of ROI army intelligence and one of the first things he asked me whilst sailing 25 years ago was about it. At the time it was pilot error but the press included details of the increase in life assurance and a telephone call to father or father in law to look after my family. In light of the Boeing Max accidents, again with some racist remarks on a British pilots forum wrt pilot error, nothing changes. I’ve seen sudden 1200 % speed increase on GPS and my last company had many issues with electronic interference from Nintendo game boys and old disc players. Lastly a mate on a large twin Boeing had double failure pages come up when he transmitted on HF. Lack of shielding which would have been post 1994. I flew the first DC10ER over the North Pole where we had a track discrepancy of 30 degrees which in the middle of the artic night with less than minimum fuel wasn’t fun although there was a simple remedy and the software fault was sorted but to dispatch continually unsafe and unserviceable aircraft with the top intelligence brass on board is either complete stupidity or deliberate political tactics. I haven’t a clue but I do know wrt the IRA attacks on BEA Tridents that there was collusion between both sides. It will never be answered as the truth of the Dublin Monaghan bombings.
Well worth the read.
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Thanks for the heads-up Chugalug2. Just downloaded, and I look forward to reading it. This was a dreadful, dreadful injustice that took way too long to remove the slur against the pilots.
Thread Starter
A great first post, thank you. Please don't leave it so long for your next one though. We need as much support as possible to reform UK Military Airworthiness Regulation and Air Accident Investigation.
Thread Starter
Bravo Whiskey 7A, thanks for your PM. Reply sent but your inbox is full, so please clear enough space to receive it. Thanks.
Please note this is not a shameless attempt to bump the thread back to page one. It really isn't!
Please note this is not a shameless attempt to bump the thread back to page one. It really isn't!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 22nd Jun 2021 at 11:24. Reason: missing e
Thread Starter
As promised, the paperback edition of The Inconvenient Truth has now joined its Kindle partner at a very reasonable price of £10.99, including delivery in the UK, here
A reminder that all proceeds from both formats go to charity.
A reminder that all proceeds from both formats go to charity.
Thanks Chug, on it's way. I've been waiting for this to come out in hard copy, I'm not good at reading stuff off a screen.
Blind Pew - your 'piccy', together with a recent memory jog with another member, takes me back nearly 50 years to a night call-out in Cyprus.
An RAF Regt night drop on Ladies' Mile had 'lost' one man. Long story short, we found him, in the sea, and the recovery produced a previously unknown (generally) important difference between the standard aircrew 'Mae West' and those issued to Paras. The orange 'lifting loops' attached to the front support lobes were continuous (around the torso) in the aircrew version, but only sewn to the front fabric in the Para version. The significance, which I discovered in the worst possible circumstances, was, literally, life affecting. I chased up remedial action as far as my limited influence allowed. The result ? - as far as I'm aware, zilch. Certainly no-one in authority ever got back to me, and, it would not surprise me if the equipment was similarly deficient today.
An RAF Regt night drop on Ladies' Mile had 'lost' one man. Long story short, we found him, in the sea, and the recovery produced a previously unknown (generally) important difference between the standard aircrew 'Mae West' and those issued to Paras. The orange 'lifting loops' attached to the front support lobes were continuous (around the torso) in the aircrew version, but only sewn to the front fabric in the Para version. The significance, which I discovered in the worst possible circumstances, was, literally, life affecting. I chased up remedial action as far as my limited influence allowed. The result ? - as far as I'm aware, zilch. Certainly no-one in authority ever got back to me, and, it would not surprise me if the equipment was similarly deficient today.
Sadly Jack things haven’t changed; the paragliding industry is a largely unregulated cottage industry generating loads of cash and gear failure is far to common. I could write a long list but a typical design/manufacturing failure was on my last harness and the attachment point of a foot stirrup where the webbing was sewn into the harness fabric. Rather than any reinforcing and multiple attachement stitching there was just one line of stitching where the webbing ran between a joint of fabric and this line of stitches hadn’t been stopped with the result it failed immediately when I used the stirrup to get my ar@e into the harness. An Irish cobbler modified it for me.
Lordflashheart post will appear out of sequence but refers to Red5 and another book by the author which was written prior to the inconvenient Truth, the result of censoring. There is a thread on the Red 5 book which I haven’t really read but the book was excellent; David’s other Chinook book starts with a preface..bit obvious..which includes asking the amount of potatoes a victim ate with the purpose of reducing the insurance payout (allegedly). I had written my post after watching the film “THE POST” about the American politicians trying to stop the freedom of press at a time of tricky dicky and another PBS documentary on the irish flight for freedom which included the irish civil war that no one talks about over there but the resentment is still simmering under the surface. My post mirrored other inquiries and practices which affected me, my father going to prison, my best mate dying in the trident crash, Afghanistan and the Gulf up to the present day with the anomalies of covid. Nothing changes and there will always be censorship and the old boys act.
Lordflashheart post will appear out of sequence but refers to Red5 and another book by the author which was written prior to the inconvenient Truth, the result of censoring. There is a thread on the Red 5 book which I haven’t really read but the book was excellent; David’s other Chinook book starts with a preface..bit obvious..which includes asking the amount of potatoes a victim ate with the purpose of reducing the insurance payout (allegedly). I had written my post after watching the film “THE POST” about the American politicians trying to stop the freedom of press at a time of tricky dicky and another PBS documentary on the irish flight for freedom which included the irish civil war that no one talks about over there but the resentment is still simmering under the surface. My post mirrored other inquiries and practices which affected me, my father going to prison, my best mate dying in the trident crash, Afghanistan and the Gulf up to the present day with the anomalies of covid. Nothing changes and there will always be censorship and the old boys act.
Last edited by blind pew; 6th Jul 2021 at 11:12.
BP said: "Nothing changes and there will always be censorship and the old boys act."
To improve our lives, we can only do that which we can - while others can do that which they want.
To improve our lives, we can only do that which we can - while others can do that which they want.
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I hope I may be forgiven a silly question: above are several examples of successful purchases from Amazon: I,too, would like to buy the books named, but having identified myself to Amazon,i receive a brief code from them but no indication of what to do with it. Help,please. an ancient Cafesolo.
Cafe - Are you buying a paper book or the €-Book ? If the latter, you may need to download the Amazon Kindle programme to read it on an iPad or other compatible device . It doesn't work so well on WIN 7 desktops. However, If you're already a customer of theirs, and you get the kindle program, acquiring the €-book should work OK. Good luck. LFH
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LFH: Thanks for your reply. I wish to buy the paper book: Just tried again to feed the code appearing on my phone back to Amz on the sale page; no joy.
Kind regards, Cafe.
Kind regards, Cafe.
Thread Starter
Cafe Solo, this might just be part of Amazon's security process. Do you have an Amazon account and password? If so, they sometimes require you to enter a code that has been sent to your email, mobile, etc, as part of the log in process to be entered on their site. Once logged in you can then order your book. A lot of online accounts are requiring a similar authentication procedure these days. Tiresome, but it is to protect your account. I can't think why else they would send you a code. Hope that helps.
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This fascinating story has many aspects from which each submitter selects his preferred without considering how each part reflects the whole;
The salient questions seem to be;
Why was this aircraft released for service in an operational situation when the test system doubted it's fitness
Why was this aircraft selected for this mission in questionable circumstances
Why did it depart with marginal; weather on route
Why did the pilots enter cloud when approaching high ground at a coastline
Why did they fly at right angles to that coast instead of a lesser angle
Why did the pilots continue in cloud below safety height
I had previously been at Aldergrove as a Canberra tp on the MU and knew little about the helicopter activities but from what I could see there was a blurring between operational missions where lives (squaddies) were at stake and other trips
The salient questions seem to be;
Why was this aircraft released for service in an operational situation when the test system doubted it's fitness
Why was this aircraft selected for this mission in questionable circumstances
Why did it depart with marginal; weather on route
Why did the pilots enter cloud when approaching high ground at a coastline
Why did they fly at right angles to that coast instead of a lesser angle
Why did the pilots continue in cloud below safety height
I had previously been at Aldergrove as a Canberra tp on the MU and knew little about the helicopter activities but from what I could see there was a blurring between operational missions where lives (squaddies) were at stake and other trips