Dentist
 

I was thinking the 'dentist killer' tag applied to fast singles in the USA might be a bit close for comfort for the Lad in the air race -

In HD on iPlayer the altimeter shows he started at 700' into the tight turn over the lighthouse at about 60* AoB, gained 100' then lost about 200' as his mate warned him. Also pumping the pedals in the buffet :ooh:

And then they said let's get down to 3?

Bit more practice I'd have thought.

I today's episode they mentioned the 'High winged Cessna 125'...new model obviously :ugh:

I was concentrating more on the attractive young lady who seemed totally sold on aviation, to be honest ;-) Great to see.

Had to laugh at the production around the Gatwick protesters, moaning about noisy aircraft in approach tracks near the ground, which kept cutting to pictures of airliners trailing along at FL350 or so!

Protestors? Mad-eyed wimmin and weird beards (or both) looking for any excuse to become a public nuisance....

I wonder if those who complain about night flights ensure that they never purchase anything that may have come in as air freight?

I wonder if the aircraft that I fly from my club are "amongst those authorised to fly in London airspace" I must ask next time.

And I wonder how many of those in the field, protesting about Gatwick, fly off on holiday.

Many years ago, when I was a civilian instructor in the ATC, we took the squadron to the Fairford airshow and when we dismounted from the coach we were approached by a quite formidable "lady", part of a large group of protesters who were against the airshow because, she said, it was a noisy intrusion into their lives.
I asked her if she went on holiday and if she flew?
She muttered something quite unladylike and buggered off, hypocrite.

Well, just watched the last episode on iPlayer (I am in UK not at home) and I have to confess I enjoyed the series. it was not perfect, and it was not designed for aeronautical anoraks, but I do think it will have given Joe Public a better understanding of aviation in the UK. I especially like the coverage of the first solo, took me back 55 years, and reminded me why flying, even in a Ryanair 737 (which I will be in on Sunday) still make me grin, a bit of dust in the air too. Thanks to the producers.

I sort of enjoyed the series in parts but there was far too much misprepresentaion of private flying along the lines of us being either incompetent plonkers who can't keep out of CAS or high net worth individuals who think that "if you have to ask the cost you can't afford it". I do have to ask the cost and I have friends who spend more on being Rugby spectators than I do on flying . I was also intrigued to hear from someone at London Info that light aircraft aren't maintained like "real" aircraft and just have the equivalent of an MOT. Clearly we've been wasting our money on 50 hour checks, snagging other issues and even our time doing proper A checks.

I had the impression that for the segments on GA the programme's researcher had contacted the RAeS and possibly a couple of London flying schools but hadn't heard of the LAA or the BMAA. A shame as that would have opened up whole worlds beyond those with their own fast aeroplanes and private strips.

Interesting that the controllers were clearly rather alarmed that the air races were taking place at Ascot.

The high spots for me were the mountain rescue flight and the young lady doing her first solo- that did bring back memories from a quarter century ago though fortunately my own instructor didn't give me any prioor warning.
When the aviation enthusiast mentioned the value of his collection I was practically yelling at the screen that for that sort of money he could afford a PPL instead. I know that's not on everyone's wish list and maybe not his but I'm convinced that there are thousands of people who would love to fly but have somehow got the message that flying is a millionaires' sport and most definitely not for the likes of them.

Irony?
 

Did anyone else get the sheer irony of the Gatwick protestors taking an aerial photo of their gathering with a drone? Priceless!