Where do you work Cobrakai, out of interest ?

How could that be though, presumably to disappear from radar for 4 hours it would have had to have descended to a very low altitude ?
How low would it need to have gone ?
Obviously easy to disappear from radar over a large open ocean where there are gaps in coverage but between two countries where coverage would have been comprehensive ?

What’s TFR ??

Thanks very much chaps, most useful
:-)

Cheaper than burying it ?

Nah, nothing sinister. Just water stains in one car on light coloured upholstery from leaking water bottles and drips from the roof when opening the door, and general foodage-type stains in the other car on darker fabric.

You lucky bugger !
You hate beeches ? I don’t recall seeing many of that type of tree when I’ve been there before
:-)

You seen these ?

http://www.springbankleisure.com/

Not a fan of caravans, but there’s something about these that quite appeal

“that guy’s so stupid, he couldn’t pour sh!t out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel”

Are you replacing an existing hose with a new one or is this a first-time fit ?
If the former, how about this :
Get a length of wire, as stiff as you can and of a diameter that will fit INSIDE the brake hose.
Thread the wire into the hose from the headtube end and keep pushing until the wire emerges at the other end of the hose.
Then slide the hose out of the frame, along the wire, while making sure that the wire stays where it is in the frame.
Then slide the new hose in from the headtube end, sliding it over the wire that’s still in place in your frame.
Maybe ….
Never tried this myself but a bike shop mechanic told me once that this is how they fit new cable outers so I’ve always wondered if it would work with hoses.
Interested to know if it would work, please let us know !

Flying Fortress could take a real pounding, which is why they did the daylight raids

The Americans also had the benefit of a fighter, the P-51, that could go all the way to the target and back with the bombers, that’s why they bombed during the day. The British never had the luxury and so bombed by night.

Who remembers those chocolate bars called ‘Zing’ ?
They were a bit like a KitKat and we used to get them out of the vending machines at the swimming baths. Loved them.
And ‘Mint Cracnell’, remember them ?
A kind of clear minty brittle covered in chocky and in a bright green wrapper, two square bars in one packet. Whatever happened to that ? They were great too.

Had a brilliant trip down there to Patagonia a few years ago. We flew to BA and then on down to Calafate where we visited the Perito Morino glacier, El Chalten and trekked out to Fitzroy. Then we crossed over in to Chile and hiked the ‘W’ route around the Torres del Paine National Park. Absolutely amazing experience.

Me me me !
Cube Stereo 120 Super HPC SL29

Stop bloody raining !

If only they’d eat next door’s cat’s shit, that would be perfect.

Timely article on underground Brum :

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birminghams-secret-nuclear-bunker-6463021

We hired a boat on the Caledonian Canal for a week once, it was absolutely fabulous. It’s not a canal in the strictest sense of the word, just a series of lochs, including Loch Ness, joined up by short stretches of more traditional canal.
The boat was a cabin cruiser rather than narrow boat and possibly more spacious, being wider. The scenery was stunning and a week is more than enough to get from Inverness to fort William and back again.
I’d recommend that in an instant and would do it again again happily.

If you’re interested in underground spaces, have a Google for Subterranea Britannica

Interesting thread this, thanks for bringing it up.
I have a box of probably about 100 vinyl albums from the early 80’s, mostly heavy metal type stuff like UFO, Iron Maiden, Zeppelin, Whitesnake etc. etc.
I’ve recently been thinking about trying to sell them all if it were worth the bother, what do you all think ?
By the time I’ve catalogued it all and then sold them one by one (I guess) with postage etc. I imagine that it would be more effort than it would be worth.
Unless I could sell it as a job lot perhaps.
What do we think ? worth the aggro ?

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As the great Baz Luhrmann once said, “Look after your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone”

I have no idea who any of those people are.
I intend to keep it that way.

Had knee issues for many years, mostly brought about by running in my yoof.
Right now, they’re pretty healthy and feel as good as they have in a long while.
My advice would be, there’s not just one thing to try, it’s a combination of many, here’s what worked/works for me :
Go see a good physio, get them to suggest exercises to improve strength and flexibility. One or more muscles around your knee will be weak causing an imbalance, get in the gym and work on those weaknesses.
If the physio refers you to a surgeon, consider an arthroscopy clear-out type of thing. In my experience, takes about six months to feel the benefit.
Only go down the major surgery / knee replacement avenue when you absolutely can’t manage the pain that you have. It will never be a new knee, with or without surgey.
Keep your knees warm, don’t try to be a he-man and wear shorts all year round.
Take glucosamine. The liquid form seems to be more effective, but it’s more expensive.
Get a bike fitting done. They will measure all your joints and angles and set your bike up specifically for you. They will adjust your pedals and cleats to minimise aggrovation of the ole’ knees. And make up tailored insoles to go in your shoes to control your foot movement.
I went to CycleFit in London and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
When they’re feeling achy or sore after a ride, liberally cover the offending knee(s) in ibuprofen gel with a support tubi-grip thing over the top to keep the gel in and to keep them warm and go to bed. In the morning the pain will be gone.

Have been to Corsica twice, to walk the GR20 path. Absolutely love the place. Was particularly taken by Port Vecchio in the South East and Bonifacio. Lots of fantastic mountain scenery inland, very rugged terrain and quite high too. We were there in June and there was loads of snow still high up in the hills. There’s a mountain railway that you can use to get around the island, starts from Ajaccio and runs to Calvi and Bastia. Calvi looks interesting too. Would highly recommend the place.

Even the flowers in the garden are purple !

Constantly fettling / cleaning bikes in the garden and garage obviously isn’t normal behaviour round our way. “What’s that all about” the they’ve been heard to say.
These are the folks whose teenage son went out in tiger print onesie the other night, complete with ears, and whose daughters take their bunny rabbits for walkies on leads.
And I’m the nutter !

Presumably you need to be a pilot to start with, in order to do a conversion course ?

The problem with flying in warbirds in this country that the owners of these aircraft aren’t allowed to take fare-paying passengers. The only way you could fly in, say, a two-seat Spitfire would be be to become a part-owner. Now there are some that allow you to become a short-term part-owner but the cost is mahoosive. With a capital MAHOOSIVE!
And there are only a couple of two-seat Spitfires in the country.

There are one or two other types where you can work for them as a volunteer and earn the right to fly as part of the crew (as I do on a Catalina).

I did notice at RIAT this year that you can pay to fly on the Breitling Constellation, it’s based in Switzerland. That might be on my next ‘big’ birthday list.
Or you could go to Canada and fly on Buffalo Airways’ DC3 scheduled flights out of Yellowknife. That’s on my list too.

Oh, I seem to have gone off at a tangent again ….

The Phantom ? NOT cool ??
I’m sorry Sir, but I’m going to need to ask you to step outside
:-)

And they used to have USAF markings and ‘Stars and Bars’

No, they weren’t black in the 60s, that was applied later. I believe they were left in polished aluminium. That photo is much more recent.

Presumably those U2s piloted by the RAF still carried US markings and not RAF markings, like those RB45s did ?
Not so easily deniable for the US if that was the case.
The U2s were actually a CIA asset at the time rather than USAF. All of the US pilots were actually CIA too (officially).

This was in the era where the US didn’t trust the UK, they had taken all of their (nuclear) toys away after a succession of spy scandals in the UK had resulted in all of the secrets crossing the iron curtain. The UK were desparate to get back in the US’ good books, so I suspect there was plenty of ass-kissing opportunities that weren’t overlooked.

It was the F111s that went to Libya, not the B52s or B1s, or even B17s

He’s a hiving a laugh, isn’t he ….

/* Homer Simpson voice */
Mmmm, thigh gap …..

Booo, sorry mate, that’s sad. He’s lovely….

People often don’t show for flights because they want the flexibility of being able to decide at the last minute if and when they want to travel, a lot of (the more expensive) fare types are fully changeable and / or refundable.

Thanks chaps