I’ve got the vivo leather boots and the trainers. It’s the wide toe box that makes them so natural and comfortable for me.

The sole rules out rugged walks for me as its a bit on the thin side. Still use my salomons for big hikes and my brooks for running, but for everything else, I wear my vivo’s.

It was indeed a dodgy flight plan on the French side of things that crashed the system.

I know it’s pricey but I got the MSR hubba bubba 2 man. It’s not much bulkier than my tarp and bivvy set up.

Loads of space and very small packed. I can even put my bike in one entrance for security, albeit the wheels stick out.

Morzine in Feb half term with 2 other families.

2 weeks leave at the end of March, so will wait out on the conditions.

Mate is coaching in Verbier next season so probably a couple of 3 day visits to him.

Was very disciplined and stayed with my old battered Rab jacket for skiing last season as I knew Norrona outlet would get stocked at the end of the season. It paid off. Got a Lofoten jacket for £260.

Garmin fenix 5x. Plot the route on it for point to point nav, then the phone (OSmaps) for cross checking/backup.

Used it for hiking in Portugal.

Bikepacked in the balkans.

Cycletoured from Southampton to Prestwick.

It can be mounted to the bar on your bike. Tiny battery lasts 24hrs in navigation and strava mode, but takes an hour to charge full from a charge bank, or I’ve bodged a mount so it can stay fully charged from my dynamo.

The only main downside is the memory for the route. It will give you turn for turn navigation up to 50 nav points but then it’s just follow the red line. Also, if the route is huge, it takes a little while to load so best to break the route down to manageable sections.

It varies between 2 and 5 years (depends on area) of full time training to do my job.

I honestly believe anyone can be trained up to the standard, it just depends on how much time and resources you’re willing to throw at the individual.

Obviously these are not infinite, so eventually there comes a point where you either qualify or training is terminated.

I’ve seen Oxford graduates fail and people straight from A-levels pass. I’ve got 5 GCSE, my mate studied part time for a PHD. It takes all sorts.

Someone, somewhere in the company who does the recruitment knows what they’re looking for.

I’ve got a hubba bubble 2 man tent and the bike mostly fits within the entrance I’m not using. Also have a rebus lock through the back wheel and frame. I did make a booby trap thingy connected to a rape alarm but didn’t end up using it.

@dantsw13, to be fair, we didn’t have a clue what was going on. When we landed at stravanger we all said, “he wasn’t kidding, that was fast!” Then we saw snow and hills and thought this isn’t Teeside?!

The loadie then pointed up as we went down the ramp and we all went, “aaaah, that’ll be why.”

After 3 months of snow holes and living out the back of my wagon, it was surreal sleeping in a massive double bed with clean sheets!

Just thinking about it @dantsw13, if you were one of the first C130J pilots, did you fly me back from Norway in March 02?

It’d be particularly memorable as the panel that covers the life raft in the wing came off mid flight and ripped a hole in the tail. We then made an emergency landing in Stravanger. We had a glorious night in the the Raddison SAS hotel on the RAF credit card whilst waiting on a replacemnt to come out from the UK. No dodgy tv channels or drinks were put on the room, honest……..

The only reason  I ask is that in the pre flight brief, the pilot was very proud that it was a new “J” and itd take x amount of time off the flight back to teesside. We were gutted when they sent out an old one the next day.

Overnight Bivvy on the SDW. Was a bit too hot to be fair but Cadance cafe had cold Ale. 😁

Like you, ive done the SDW in a day and the KAW over 3 days with bikepacking kit on a 29er hardtail.

KAW is easier than the SDW as there is less vertical but navigation is a bit trickier. I used my garmin fenix 5x mounted on the bars and it was great.

It’s a great route but pretty sloppy at the moment. It’s less chalky than the SDW and the ruts on the ridgeway can be a pita.

We bike packed in croatia/bosnia late Sept last year, albeit further south.

We were supposed to wild camp but realised how cheap we could find lovely spartments for about 30-50 euros a night on booking.com.

I commute 8 miles each way and it’s brilliant.

I’ve got a genesis longitude with a dynamo and Busch and muller front light which takes away the faff of making sure everything’s charged.

I’ve tried a few tyre combos for mixed road and cheeky path route.

Vittaro terreno tubeless. Managed to ride from Southampton to Glasgow on these without a puncture, but started getting a few on the commute. Running a high pressure the sealant just wasn’t up to it. I then changed to…..

Schwalbe hurricanes with tubes. Don’t, just don’t. Clingfilm would be better. Averaged 3 punctures a week. Fast rolling though. Then went to…..

Maxxis crossmarks. Best Compromise. Used these for 4 years on my XC and never had a puncture that’s taken longer than 5min to deal with. Never punctured on the commute which is 2 min longer than the hurricanes.

Pauly
Full Member
Some great info on the Challenger 2 tanks on this thread, thanks! Did a bit of extra reading and Wiki states that the C2 uses a mix of metric nuts & bolts for the turret, but imperial standards for the main chassis! Is that correct?

The C2 was basically an upgrade of C1. The main body of the tank had a lot in common with C1, (apparently 90% commonality) hence the imperial sizes as it was an older design, but the turret was a complete redesign with a mix of old kit (radios etc) and new kit (sights etc) so very possibly there would be a mix between imperial and metric. As I said, never worked on it. Our tool boxes had both metric and imperial tools. 13mm/0.5inch spanners/socket were like golddust…….

The C2 was deployed to Kosovo. Although not as kinetic as Iraq it was very quickly noted back then how reliable and maintenance friendly it was. An ex colleague was amazed at how little things went wrong with them. Although relatively new at the time, the trend continued through into Iraq.

As for the C2 that was immobile and received multiple hits in Basra, an ex room mate of mine was in charge of the recovery that day and received the CGC. I “think” it was that incident that resulted in plastic explosive demolitions being reintroduced (costcutting) into the recovery mechanice syllabus as the C2’s track was jammed and it had to be cut with a blow torch.

Once it was recovered it was swarmed over by the mechanics and techs and pretty much the only things needing replaced were the optics, which can be swapped out relatively quickly.

I never worked on C2 but it’s very highly thought of by the crew’s and A mechs.

Not worried about getting to aviemore on Wed for a couple of days. A bit concerned about the drive back on Sat throught the lakes and Midlands though.

I’ve go 4 days off, wed to Sat. Might head up to Scotland from Hampshire. Stay at parents wed night, head up early Thurs morning, back Friday night to parents. Home sat.

Just keeping an eye on winterhighland to see where to go.

Yeh it’s all a bit of a weird one.

The cameras are powered via the ethernet cable.

The DRB has individual inputs for each camera.

The boss doesn’t want more cables/conduit cluttering up the outside of the house. ☹️

There is a sky light in the roof that’s probably helped getting the temp that high. I did check it during the summer heat wave to be fair and the DRB was very hot to the touch.

I’m thinking the front of the house can be covered by the existing solar powered WiFi camera and the rest of the house and garden could be covered from the shed (mains powered with ethernet) by putting the DRB in it and have the cameras routed out of there.

If you haven’t guessed, I like to over complicate stuff.

Also used komoot for bikepacking in Croatia/bosnia.

Road route option put you on to some busy main roads.

Mountain bike option was far too hike a bike or very overgrown foot paths.

Gravel option was perfect. Quiet country roads with good gravel and cycle routes.

Strangely enough, just got an ipad from work and downloaded the cycle.travel app. Works well.

Cycle.travel

Planned and rode a route from Southampton to Prestwick. Very easy to use once you get used to it and if you subscribe it gives you an OS Map option.

Automatically plots the route on cycle routes and very quiet back roads. Can also put in a gravel option.

I had my vivo barefoots bikepacking in Croatia this year. Pack really small into saddle bag but have a proper sole for wandering about off the bike.

A bit spendy but I live in them during the summer.

SO32 so I’m safe enough, but………

I’ve got 24 bottles of flower pots finest under the stairs.

Can’t be bothered going through the hassle of loading up pictures.

I’ve got the tailfin rear rack but instead of the roll top bag, I put some Blackburn cages either side. Paired with some roll top bags I found this the best option for me.

I run a dropper with a small saddle bag with all my bike spares and tools in it so this ment it wouldn’t foul on the bag.

Alpkit frame bag and Salsa anything bar cradle. Very simple and easy kit carrying set up.

Yoga with Adrienne sorted me out. Her lower back work sessions vary in length so can fit in to your time scale. Helped me a lot with stretching as I commute a lot.

Started seeing a PT to build core and upper body strength. I’ve been doing lots of dead lifts and squats so ham strings have started getting tight again. I’m now using a hard ball to roll out my legs and only just bought a therapy gun. Seems to be helping.

Thinking about it, if you keep a hard ball at your desk, you could use it whilst you work. Just explain it to your colleagues or they might think you’re weird.

As a user of their skiing kit, I’ve been very impressed with Norronas MTB shorts. I checked strava and I managed about 3000km a on a pair before i had to add a few stiches to the seat area.

Very light and flexible. Sign up to the website and you will be alerted when the outlet is restocked. 40% discounts!

Bumped into a lad in Croatia 3 weeks ago who was cycling from Oxford to Turkey. He was desperate to see Greece but was having to skip it and go straight to Turkey because of the 90 days thing. Que 3 blokes on bikes in the middle of nowhere having a good old moan about the “benefits” of brexit…..

Edit, we were actually just outside Mostar in Bosnia and I said he’d left shengen to go back in but he then said about the 180 days thing so still didn’t matter.

Maybe not a banger per se…..

Mk5 golf r32. 5 door in blue.

Bought in 2013 for 10k with 35k on the clock. FSH

9 years later with FSH and 85k on the clock.

Only major thing was rear diff went and had to be replaced for 1500.

Don’t think I’ll ever sell it so genuinely owes me nothing now. Not as sprightly as a gti but doubt they’ll ever go beyond 4 pot turbos now so unless it gets written off I’ll never get less than I paid for it.

I’ve finally got it. I was beginning to feel a bit left out as everyone I know has had it!

Joking aside, it’s the same symptoms my wife had when she tested positive last month. Very achy and lethargic with random sweats. By day 5 she was almost sypmtom clear so I’m hoping it’s the same for me.

As with any flu I’ve ever had i just want to get out and do some exercise to “sweat it out” but looking at people’s experiences of long covid, this may not be wise. I’ll maybe try a bit of light gardening……

Garmin fenix 5x user for 3 years.

Negatives;

Screen is small.

Memory only big enough to store 50 turn instructions, then after that you just have to stay on the red line.

Positives;

Its a smart watch you get to use all the time, not just when you go out for rides.

Really smart mount on your handle bar.

Battery in nav mode easily lasts 12hrs.

Tiny battery so charges on no time from dynamo or power bank.

I’ve navigated the SDW, KAW and from Southampton to Glasgow using it on its own. Don’t feel the need to get a dedicated device.

I live local to the Winchester end and rode it today. I’ve got my summer tyres on (29er hard tail), Forekaster up front with a crossmark 2 on the back.

A very fast combo for the downs but to be fair, I’m not getting much lean angle in my turns!

The descent of Old winch Hill to the meon fisheries is greasy but that’s the only bit I’ve been on. Local weather has been mainly overcast and wet so I’d exercise some caution but should be fine for the weekend.

I can only comment from an ATC point of view.

If its unsafe to let an aircraft get airborne, we won’t let it. This really annoys the tower controllers but there is a phrase “a plane is safer on the ground”. There are many reasons why this will happen but usually boils down to 2 types.

On a tactical reason, it’s usually because the aircraft is unable to fly the standard departure route due weather. This may bring it into confliction with other departure routes or holding stacks. This is particularly relevant in congested airspace such as over London and the South east.

Strategically, too many aircraft flying a particular route can easily overload a sector which means controllers will not be able to manage the workload safely. To that end, departures or arrivals flying through that sector will be “flowed”, ie instead of 30 an hour, only 20 will be allowed.

The tactical decisions are made on a minute by minute basis so there is no way to update the aircrew as to what and why the delay is for.

The strategic decisions are spread over a few hours worth of ATC management so still quite hard to effectively up date the aircrew.

I’ve been sat on a plane, on stand and the pilot has announced we’ve been delayed for ATC reasons. I’ve phoned work and they’ve told me there has been no such restriction imposed on our flight. Sometimes, shit happens.

Phone the police, tell them you’re going down for a look. Take a mate.

That was indeed a calibration flight into Fairford. Was quite a nice chap.

I liked saxons, they were a piece of piss to fix. Electrically anyway…..

I’ve been tellieing for 20 years now. Changed from duck bil to NTN a few years back. Don’t feel as pure but when I get knackered they can be more forgiving to ski alpine.

Just had 2 B52’s trundle through my airspace, getting in the way.

I loved working on it to be fair and spent most of my time just driving between the dets getting fed bacon sandwiches by you lot. I think it was guilt because of the state they ended up in! Got me away from a mechanised Bn for 6 months and i wore uniform twice. Once for my arrival interview and the other for my end of tour interview!

Blokeuptheroad, I was a wheelbarrow technician for 321 back in 2003. Best posting I ever had.

Just spent 2 hrs walking around Thursley Common with an ex colleague. He reminded me that 2 weeks ago that I said “pootin would have nothing to gain from invading so I can’t see it.” He disagreed.

At the end of the walk the only thing we agreed on was that all the recruits that were patrolling about the common had better kit than we did…….