Blighter Pilot. According to your profile you are 36. Is that years or minutes? Get that great big fish hook out of your mouth!! ;)

Belvedere and Lyneham
 

James Arbuthnot speaking in the House of Commons has just said of Belvedere that the Chinook fleet should stay where it is.
(Arbuthnot is Chair of the Commons Select Defence Committee so should have some inside gen.)
Ainsworth speaking earlier hinted that he could not guarantee Lyneham staying in Defence hands in a reply to James Gray.

Excuse any misinterpretation, I'm sure Hansard will be quoted here soon.
Personally I can feel a quest for a brown field development being announced quite soon.

Breaking news there then. That wouldn't be the same James Arbuthnot as the one that is MP for North East Hampshire would it? The same North East Hampshire that has an RAF Odiham in it? :rolleyes:

It's all smoke and mirrors. They'll leave it as a ticking time bomb for the next government. Except Lyneham which, as we know, is closing at 4pm tomorrow...

Stoppers, have a drive around the station and see whether there's any major construction work in progress - building repairs, window replacement etc.

If so, be afraid...very afraid.

Remember the ULAS building roof saga at pre-pongo Abingdon? Thousands spent on repair - only for the RAF to pull out a year early.

Just had 'Baggers' at Odius today; very refreshing to see a starred officer in the RAF being so candid and straight with people. Bravo!!

Belvedere is still not decided so who bloody knows?? The Government finances are in a very bad state though. Like, very, very bad. Expect some pain over the coming years. We'll be off cap in hand to the IMF very soon I predict - and once we start to default on our debt (unthinkable - well, think again) the economy will fall off a cliff. Emigrate now and change all your £ into solid gold.

PS... I'd sell any shares you have left in this current 'suckers' rally. Much more bad news to come. Again, corporate bonds,cash and gold are the safe havens.....

Bloody hell. I've just wasted a (rare) day off reading rubbish on the net,
when i should have been packing my house up and having my last porcelain poo. only 3 hours left.
cheers Broon :ok:

I thought that all caravans were now being give the Top Gear Drop Test?

Beats meeting them on Wiltshire and Oxfordshire roads . . .

In my experience I can't help but agree that Lyneham closed early unless you were in Ops, Flying, Engineering, Catering or Movements -everybody else was gone at 1700!

So did it close today at 1700?

:rolleyes:

I know Ops didn't - the rest of the place is like a ghost town.

To be honest, I didn't know Ops had ever opened in the first place....

Well, sat here reading this, and I can hear herks on the pans.
so either
A. Lyneham didn't close at 17:00 hrs
B. Belvedere has gone ahead, and Chinooks have a new cloaking device.
c. I'm hearing things
:sad:

bythebackdoor

You could get your hearing checked out . . . but Medical Centre is closed !!!

CATARA/Future Brize-revised management team talk
 

"I think we need to hit the ground running, keep our eye on the ball, and make sure that we are singing off the same song-sheet. At the end of the day it is not a level playing field and the goalposts may move; if they do, someone may have to pick it up and run with it. We therefore must have a golf bag of options hot-to-trot from the word "go". It is your train set but we cannot afford to leave it on the back-burner; we've got a lot of irons in the fire right now.

We will need to un-stick a few potential poo traps but it all depends on the flash-to bang time and fudge factor allowed. Things may end up slipping to the left and, if they do, we will need to run a tight ship. I don't want to reinvent the wheel but we must get right into the weeds on this one. If push comes to shove, we may have to up-stumps and then we'll be in a whole new ball game.

I suggest we test the water with a few warmers in the bank. If we can produce the goods then we are cooking with gas. If not, then we are in a world of hurt. I don't want to die in a ditch over it but we could easily end up in a flat spin if people start getting twitchy.

To that end, I want to get around the bazaars and make sure the movers and shakers are on-side from day one. If you can hit me with your shopping list I can take it to the head honchos and start the ball rolling. I know you're not the sharpest tool in the box and may be a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but together we'll be the best thing since sliced bread.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and I think we have backed a winner here. If it gets blown out of the water, however, I will be throwing a track. So get your feet into my in-tray and give me chapter and verse as to how you see things panning out. As long as our ducks are in a row I think the ball will stay in play and we can come up smelling of roses.

Before you bomb-burst and throw smoke it is imperative we nail our colours to the mast and look at the big picture. We've got to march to the beat of the drum. We are on a sticky wicket, we'll need to play with a straight bat and watch out for fast balls.

I've been on permanent send for long enough and I've had my ten pence worth. I don't want to rock the boat or teach anyone to suck eggs. We must keep this firmly in our sight picture and not under our hats or it will fall between the cracks. If the cap fits, wear it, but it may seem like pushing fog uphill with a sharp stick. Did you all get that?"

Thanks to a previous pruner for that; and my bit:

...there's no way I'll be shooting the puppy, or trying to push the dead whale up the beach.:ok:

No 'thinking outside the box' then?



S78