What book are you currently reading?

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TheGreenGoblin
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#421 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:42 am

Opsboi wrote:
Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:26 pm
PHXPhlyer wrote:
Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:06 pm
Just finished "Gong Solo" by Roald Dahl. :-bd
Not for me

Drum solos were bad enough back in the day, but a gong?
Nothing wrong with Gong, their album Camembert Electrique, was a psychedelic classic of sorts... ;))) Are there any other Gong mongs here? I guess not! =))

viewtopic.php?p=333200#p333200

As for solo, does anybody remember Skid Solo? He was annually present, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading those!
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#422 Post by Opsboi » Thu May 12, 2022 4:36 pm

Halfway through 'Nobody Walks' by Mick Herron

Published 2015 and a sort of distant cousin to the Slough House series

Engrossing, surprising and commended to the Crewroom

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#423 Post by OFSO » Thu May 12, 2022 5:45 pm

The new Mick Herron, Slow Horses 10? pre-ordered, arrived on our Kindles today. Not started yet.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#424 Post by Opsboi » Thu May 12, 2022 6:13 pm

OFSO wrote:
Thu May 12, 2022 5:45 pm
The new Mick Herron, Slow Horses 10? pre-ordered, arrived on our Kindles today. Not started yet.
Hope you enjoy it!
Just wanted to flag up that his other stuff is well worth a read

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Re: Try to read them in the right order...

#425 Post by Rossian » Thu May 12, 2022 7:23 pm

......I didn't. First I read "Merivel" by Rose Tremain ad now I'm reading "Restoration" by the same author - I should (ideally) have read them the other way round. OK they are historical novels but beautifully written. Think "Wolf Hall" and the others in the series about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell. These are not in the "and then" and then and then " all action tales. You might have to pause occasionally and think a bit on what you've just read. Or maybe go and look up someting about the period you've forgotten (or never knew). You know what the characters smell like, it's that atmospheric. Thoroughly enjoying them.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#426 Post by OFSO » Thu May 12, 2022 7:53 pm

Read and re-read all Slow Horses and much of his other work. The former, being set in both the City and the Borough of Islington, which I know intimately, is very true to life.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#427 Post by G~Man » Thu May 12, 2022 8:04 pm

Currently listening to "Say Nothing, A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" by Patrick Radden. Very poignant based upon what I am reading about the current politics in Northern Ireland. I also remember many of the big news items mentioned.
B-) Life may not be the party you hoped for, but while you're here, you may as well dance. B-)

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#428 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sun May 15, 2022 4:12 am

G~Man wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 5:08 pm
Just finished reading, (well listening to---I can do it while driving or flying cross country flights), this book.....HIGHLY interesting and has aviation overtones. See HERE FOR AN OVERVIEW

.71CwWiCJhuL-319x479.jpg
Just finished reading this.
Very interesting and well written. :-bd

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#429 Post by Magnus » Thu May 19, 2022 10:23 am

Lots of crappy stuff on the Kindle app, but in terms of a "real" book, it's Eddie Jones' "Leadership". Excellent, and not just for rugby fans.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#430 Post by limeygal » Thu May 19, 2022 11:34 am

Thanks to whoever recommended "Attention All shipping." A cracking read-and funny too. :-bd

Also reading "Baghdad Without a Map" by Tony Horwitz, and "Organic Book of Compost" by Pauline Pears.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#431 Post by Rwy in Sight » Thu May 19, 2022 7:19 pm

A book about Operation Harling. More about the operation here

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#432 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Jun 30, 2022 6:21 pm

Just finished "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka.
I don't remember whose mention caused me to get it from the library, but I enjoyed it.
It mentioned Babi-Yar, which was talked about in the Massacre thread.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#433 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:41 am

The Lanfranc Boys by Roslind Jones, which was written by the sister of one of the young boys killed in this tragic aviation accident when an ILS approach, inexplicably, went tragically wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Holt ... king_crash
In August 1961, Rosalind Jones was 15 years old when the Holtaheia plane crash in Norway occurred that killed her brother and his friends from the Lanfranc School in Croydon. It completely changed her life. The crash claimed the lives of 34 schoolboys, two teachers, and three Cunard Eagle crew members. In May 2008, Rosalind began to research a commemorative book for the 50th Anniversary of the Lanfranc tragedy in which her brother Quentin died. She had envisaged something simple - just a photograph and a page of 'Memories' for each of the victims. What happened was something far greater. In the three years that followed, she received thousands of emails, and a more complete story of what happened 50 years ago gradually unfolded. It was a long and difficult job to trace relatives and friends of all the boys and masters, but Rosalind never doubted that eventually she would find contacts for them all - and so it has proved. She was determined that all the boys, masters and the three crew members must be remembered for the 50th Anniversary. Her research revealed just how much the Stavanger Red Cross in Norway had personally given in the rescue and she is determined that all royalties from her book and Kindle (the paperback version is also translated into Norwegian as 'Flystyrten I Holtaheia' - Plane Crash on Holtaheia') should go in tribute to their sacrifice to help their International Aid work. Now she just hopes that her book and Kindle will sell well and raise funds that will go to help others in need through the Red Cross.
Well worth reading as Ms. Jones is a good writer who manages to catch the historical and societal nuances of the period and makes a good fist of the aviation details as well. On the downside, literally, it is a very depressing story.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#434 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:50 am

GA/GG Do we presume pilot error?
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#435 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:25 am

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:50 am
GA/GG Do we presume pilot error?
I suspect so Ex-A. The official report said the following "a deviation from the prescribed flight path for reasons unknown".

The fight from Croydon was running late due to magneto issues on one of the engines during the pre-take off checks and when they departed some hours later, the aircraft deviated from the route as planned in order to make up time. In the interim the weather at Stavanger airport had deteriorated considerably with limited visibility with a strong cross wind that likely blew the aircraft east of the outer marker which was the point at which the procedure required the commencement of a 180 degree turn back to the marker to intercept the ILS for the final approach. It appears the crew lost complete situational awareness during this turn (for whatever reason) with the final tragic outcome.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#436 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:46 am

Thank you. Think I have been into there but remember Bardufoss was a bit tricky.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#437 Post by Boac » Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:59 am

From ASN:

"The Cunard Eagle Vickers Viking took off from London at 13:29 GMT on a charter flight to Stavanger, Norway.
Nearing Stavanger, the flight was given descent instructions in preparation for an ILS approach. The ILS runway at Sola Airport had a magnetic bearing of 185°. The outer marker was positioned 3.8 NM from the runway threshold. When approaching from the south the prescribed procedure is to cross the outer marker at 2000 ft (QNH) and fly north for 2.5 NM, descending to 1500 ft (QFE). A 45° procedure turn is then made to the left and after 45 seconds this is followed by a turn to the right to rejoin the localizer beam.
On re-joining the localizer, the aircraft descends to 1300 ft and, after crossing the outer marker, descent is continued on the glide slope to the approach minimum.
At 16:18 hours the aircraft overflew the airfield to the north. The last surface wind given to the aircraft was 200°/25 kt. However, evidence indicates that at this time a considerably stronger wind existed at the 1600 ft level and the aircraft's maximum angle of drift, while on the procedure turn, may have been as high as 26°. The aircraft likely followed the ILS approach procedure by turning left and then right after passing the outer marker. For some reason the aircraft began to track 105° instead of 185° for the ILS.
The aircraft continued until it impacted Holteheia, a steep mountainside running in a north-south direction, at an elevation of 1600 feet."


Sounds like a procedure turn without wind allowance. I had a very exciting arrival leading a pair of Harriers into Sola on a 'planned' visual approach - the last a/c to land before the airfield closed for unforecast exceptionally poor weather. I finished up with an unplanned, unpublished and non-standard TACAN approach to a 300' cloudbase (no ILS on the Harrier and no GVA available at SOLA). My young No2 did exceptionally well to hang onto my wing. He went on to the rank of Air Chief Marshall before his untimely death in 2010.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#438 Post by OFSO » Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:14 am

Mel Brooks autobiography. Hysterically funny. What a clever - and nice - man.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#439 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:51 am

Boac wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:59 am
From ASN:

"The Cunard Eagle Vickers Viking took off from London at 13:29 GMT on a charter flight to Stavanger, Norway.
Nearing Stavanger, the flight was given descent instructions in preparation for an ILS approach. The ILS runway at Sola Airport had a magnetic bearing of 185°. The outer marker was positioned 3.8 NM from the runway threshold. When approaching from the south the prescribed procedure is to cross the outer marker at 2000 ft (QNH) and fly north for 2.5 NM, descending to 1500 ft (QFE). A 45° procedure turn is then made to the left and after 45 seconds this is followed by a turn to the right to rejoin the localizer beam.
On re-joining the localizer, the aircraft descends to 1300 ft and, after crossing the outer marker, descent is continued on the glide slope to the approach minimum.
At 16:18 hours the aircraft overflew the airfield to the north. The last surface wind given to the aircraft was 200°/25 kt. However, evidence indicates that at this time a considerably stronger wind existed at the 1600 ft level and the aircraft's maximum angle of drift, while on the procedure turn, may have been as high as 26°. The aircraft likely followed the ILS approach procedure by turning left and then right after passing the outer marker. For some reason the aircraft began to track 105° instead of 185° for the ILS.
The aircraft continued until it impacted Holteheia, a steep mountainside running in a north-south direction, at an elevation of 1600 feet."


Sounds like a procedure turn without wind allowance. I had a very exciting arrival leading a pair of Harriers into Sola on a 'planned' visual approach - the last a/c to land before the airfield closed for unforecast exceptionally poor weather. I finished up with an unplanned, unpublished and non-standard TACAN approach to a 300' cloudbase (no ILS on the Harrier and no GVA available at SOLA). My young No2 did exceptionally well to hang onto my wing. He went on to the rank of Air Chief Marshall before his untimely death in 2010.
Thank you to Boac for that detailed breakdown of the approach as promulgated at the time of the accident. As he correctly says, the turning point when flying north was some 2.5 miles further north of the outer marker before commencing the procedure turn. I may be incorrect, but I can find no evidence that either pilot had ever flown that procedure before, as OPS at Cunard Eagle categorized the approach as simple! Some desk jockey might have had cause to reconsider such insouciance after the fact.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#440 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:53 am

Air Chief Marshall before his untimely death in 2010.
Yes indeed very tragic Boac.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

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