The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread IV

[ricardian]

Here's one for Jimtherev , a little ditty entitled "If men go to Hell, who cares?". Alas, I don't know from which hymnbook this is taken!

[jimtherev]

Here's one for Jimtherev , a little ditty entitled "If men go to Hell, who cares?". Alas, I don't know from which hymnbook this is taken!

Hmmmmm. Reminds me of a mealtime conversation with a couple of our Moderators (Bishops, if you like) a few years back. One expressed the wish to appoint a Synod Assassin, t'other offered to arrange a jobshare, as he needed a Synod Arsonist. They were both staring at me at the time; really can't think why.

But as the sainted 'hymn' writer says, 'who cares'?

[Cacophonix]

I hereby nominate Boac for two Golden Globes Awards.

- ooh! Do I get to fondle them and put my head between them and go...............?

I accept the nomination!!!!!!

Boac sits and fondles his globe and some sexy young flibbertigibbet!

Oh no, sorry that's Michael Douglas fondling his own globe and his wife Katherine at the event this week

https://www.theguardian.com/film/golden-globes

Boac is on the nomination list for the next award.



Caco

[fin]

He sure looks like is Dad now.

[Slasher]

Morning. 10.20am. Outa bed about half hour ago. Ap's at work and the little bloke at school. Right now cloudy and chilly 21C.

The out-laws were up at 5am but stayed quiet. MIL made a great brekky for me and we're all buggering off into town to pick up Ap during her lunch break as they're shouting us lunch before I send 'em off to the airport for their Daffy south to Songkla (VTSS). The old man turned up the TV to Blare mode after I came downstairs and yelled "GOO' MOORING!" after which I whispered "I wish you would get a f**king hearing aid mate!" MIL is a damn fine cook and made me eggs just the way I like 'em - scrambled - with a tad of cheese mixed in.

I'll miss her as Ap will immed bung me back on the rabbit menu. I am not looking forward to dinner...if any!

[Ex-Ascot]

.........to look at the signs on the overhead gantries on the motorway ...........

Remember when PanAm landed at Northolt instead of Heathrow ? After that they painted arrows on top of a large gasometer ( gas holder ) to the North of Hounslow (?)

When I was operating out of there there was NO on top of the NHT gasometer. LH on the one by LHR. The biggest problem at night was the A40 the lights were brighter than the runway lights and it was very tempting to line up on the road. No ILS.

Getting that 707 out was a major operation. They had to strip it out put a teaspoon full of fuel in stand on the brakes with full power and get permission to land at LHR before take off.

NHT has a fascinating history. It apparently should have been built to the north of the railway line. The story is that the army got their map upside down. It ended up where it is but the area is marshland resulting quite often very localised fog. During the black plague they brought the dead out from London and dropped them in the marsh. When we were revamping defence plans for the station we were not allowed to dig trenches along the perimeter because of the bodies so they gave us armoured vehicles which were much more fun than trenches.

Bit cloudy today may have to run the genny. No rain so mammoth watering again.

[Ibbie]

Morning all

Busy yesterday on family matters.

Eye test this morning for me.

[ExSp33db1rd]

..........there was NO on top of the NHT gasometer. LH on the one by LHR.

Thank you, I stand corrected, I think my reference to arrows on one gasometer was an early suggestion, ( probably by Roger Bacon, in Flight mag. ) the individual, local ones eventually came about. 'course, I only ever saw the LH one occasionally, landing on 23L was a rare event. Nb. On my final Command check, on the 707, we were cleared for a visual approach to 05R, unheard of, visual ? you mean no ILS ? Not even sure of they had VASI's either ( probably did, anyone remember when they were introduced ? ) The Check Captain in the RHS fumbled the VHF change and we were NORDO for most of my circuit ! I passed. Imagine that today !

Reminds me .... ( can't think why, aviation content ) operating RHS into JFK one day, on final approach awaiting landing clearance, sudden permanent noise on the frequency, couldn't talk to anyone, short finals, what to do, land without clearance, overshoot and go to the back of the queue again, after already been held for nearly an hour during "that" Summer. The now Rt. Hon. Lord Norman Tebbit was P.3. and just shouted from the back something like "125 decimal 8" . I immediately selected that and asked for landing clearance. A voice advised that he didn't have the authority to issue a landing clearance but the runway was unoccupied, land at own discretion.

As we taxied in I asked Norman WTF was that frequency ? Turned out that there was a VFR advisory frequency manned by a spare body in the tower, light aircraft operating VFR into JFK ( if you can imagine wanting to do that ! ) called on that frequency and were advised of the traffic situation and whether it was even worth their while making an approach, or go away. Turned out that the Tower operator had gone bananas and screwed down his transmit key, totally blocking JFK Tower freq. comms.

Happy days.

[OFSO]

Arrived in Catalunia last night. Temperature in single figures and a force nine Tramontana blowing. Heating on, woodstove lit, a/c on....gale to last all week.

[Slasher]

Lunch was had by all at the restaurant. This was my dish....


Before:

After:

The remainder was all poured into a doggybag so I can have it reheated at home for dinner to complement the expected raw salad. The outlaws have just boarded their Daffy. We'll stay and watch 'em blast off.

Edit: The Daffy ground girls just offered Apsara to accompany the trim sheet lady to the 737 so she can give her folks a final hug on board. Awww...

[ian16th]

I still have a load of maps in the car, NZ not being embedded in my brain, like my pre-teen memory of Yorks. and Lancs., none of this in-car GPS nonsense. A visiting friend got lost recently, having inserted "Direct to" in his GPS, and was eventually totally lost in the midst of farm tracks and semi-rural roads that the GPS had used instead of the more prominent, but not as direct, main highway. Nor do I get a constantly nagging "Digital Doris" telling me to turn left in 78 Km. ( Mrs. ExS does that ! )

Before our trip to NZ the NZ Tourist organisation supplied me with a load of free maps of NZ.
After our return SWMBO binned them all, 'cos we won't be going there again!

WRT being told to 'Turn Left in XXKm', We always laughed when entering the N3 in Bedfordview and heading down here in KZN, the instructions are to 'Turn left in 560Km'. A trip where cruise control comes in handy.

[handsfree]

Cold here. +1C, 10 km vis, broken clouds and a light wind.
House heating turned to scorchio until I stop whining

Breakfast was porridge followed by smoked haddock.
The doggy bag contents look delicious Slasher.

When Mrs HF emerges from the swamp she is down to lovingly stick a needle in my arm.
Erythropoetin time once again.

[Cacophonix]

.........to look at the signs on the overhead gantries on the motorway ...........

Remember when PanAm landed at Northolt instead of Heathrow ? After that they painted arrows on top of a large gasometer ( gas holder ) to the North of Hounslow (?)

When I was operating out of there there was NO on top of the NHT gasometer. LH on the one by LHR. The biggest problem at night was the A40 the lights were brighter than the runway lights and it was very tempting to line up on the road. No ILS.

Getting that 707 out was a major operation. They had to strip it out put a teaspoon full of fuel in stand on the brakes with full power and get permission to land at LHR before take off.

NHT has a fascinating history. It apparently should have been built to the north of the railway line. The story is that the army got their map upside down. It ended up where it is but the area is marshland resulting quite often very localised fog. During the black plague they brought the dead out from London and dropped them in the marsh. When we were revamping defence plans for the station we were not allowed to dig trenches along the perimeter because of the bodies so they gave us armoured vehicles which were much more fun than trenches.

Which reminded me again of the sad story of LHR, the A4, and poor Capt William Glen Stewart.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 61147.html

http://www.picma.info/sites/default/fil ... rticle.pdf

On that gasometer thanks to that wonderful site North West AIr News.

Southall recently.

If you buy a ticket on the world’s most expensive pounds-per-mile train journey, aka the Heathrow Express and you happen to sit on the right hand side of the train on the way to Heathrow, you will pass a large gasholder just after Southall station. On the top of the gasholder are the letters LH and an arrow. What most people don’t realise is that there is some significance in this.

Back in 1960, a PanAm 707 (N725PA) inbound from New York began an approach to Heathrow, but seeing what they thought was the main runway slightly off to their right and without the benefit of ILS in those days, the crew began to descend and landed on Northolt’s only runway at the 26 end. There was some consternation in the Heathrow tower when the aircraft didn’t actually appear on the runway and initially they thought it might have crashed. At about the same time, Heathrow got a call from Northolt asking what a PanAm 707 was doing on the runway! Bear in mind that at that time Northolt was the home of the VIP squadron and was used by visiting heads of state, so security was normally very tight. In fact it was effectively closed to civilian traffic for this reason.

There was much head-scratching all round, because the runway at Northolt was (and still is) only 5,500 feet long and on landing the PanAm 707 had finally stopped only 100 yards from the end of the runway. A decision was taken to remove anything that was removable from the aircraft, so that it was as light as possible for its short ferry flight to Heathrow. So, out came the seats and the carpets, most of the remaining fuel was offloaded, with just enough to cover the flight to Heathrow (plus reserves) remaining on board. Rumour has it (though I have never seen it confirmed officially), that the same crew were used for the ferry flight, on the basis the ‘You put it in there, you get it out!’

As a precaution, the A 40, which runs past the bottom of the easterly end of the runway, was closed to traffic until the 707 had taken off, but in fact the aircraft was airborne very quickly, as the photograph in this link shows:

www.abpic.co.uk/popup.php?q=1001607

Surprisingly, there was very little in terms of an investigation into what had happened, and then, in 1964, the same thing almost happened again. This time a Lufthansa 707 found itself on finals to Northolt, before it was alerted by Heathrow ATC, who were watching it on radar. But this was not the last incident. Just a few days later, a Spanish Air Force C-54 which was bound for Northolt, almost landed at Hendon.

This time an inquiry was launched, not least because even pilots familiar with Heathrow were saying that having two gasholders of very similar proportions on the approach to both airports was causing confusion. Among the ideas put forward was to paint them in different colours, or to paint warning signs on the threshold of 26 at Northolt. At this time Northolt did not have an ILS system and it was suggested to the MoD that the expense of fitting one would be justified if it prevented a potential disaster. In the end it was decided to paint letters at the top of the gasholders. NH was painted on the Harrow gasholder and LH was painted on the Southall gasholder. However, after a while it was considered that the two could easily be confused simply from a glance and the Harrow gasholder was changed to NO. The Harrow gasholder was demolished some years ago and is now, surprise, surprise, a retail park.

In the diagram below, the Southall gasholder is on the left and the Harrow one on the right.

And so the Southall one remains to this day, complete with its markings, which are apparently renewed from time to time owing to weather damage. Just how much notice is taken of it in these days of automated landing systems is, of course anyone’s guess, as is the score of how many mistaken approaches to Northolt have been avoided. Incidentally, there are many who think the letters are actually LHR. This is incorrect - they are simply LH, as the photo clearly shows.

Caco

[4mastacker]

Morning folks.

It's that time of year for me various MOTs and the vampires nursey is after me bloods. I'll book the appointment for next month once the Christmas intake has had a chance to dissapate.

It's a wear-more-than-one layer kind of day.

[Ex-Ascot]

Reference NHT ILS. It was not a case of cost. 08 is a curved approach we can't remember why. An ILS on 26 would involve the system the other side of the A40 which would mean stopping all the traffic when an aircraft was on the approach. If I recall this was the case with the ILS for 08 at BZN but it was only a small country road.

Capt what on earth was that thing on your plate? Looks like half a dead animal.

[Octopussy2]

Today's top weight-loss tip for anyone interested (albeit rather extreme): spend 2 hours at the dentist having old-fashioned, train track braces fitted (to remain for probably a year). Try eating. Decide that subsisting on vodka via a straw for the next week or so may be a preferable option. It may also take my mind off the fact that when I smile I look like Jaws from the Bond movie...

I'm expecting the extra 1kg I acquired over Christmas to come off rather quickly - maybe even followed by the further 2 kg which would take me to my perfect weight!

Meanwhile, top investor tip may be to acquire shares in manufacturers of paracetamol and ibuprofen. And dental wax

Happy New Year, all

[Ibbie]

The main stand at Griffin Park, home of Brentford FC is on the approach to Heathrow and had for many years "Fly KLM First" painted on the roof.

I believe that Qatar Airways adverts now occupy the space.

[Groundgripper]

My parents used to live in South Harrow close to the gasholder and we were treated to the sight and sound of a Swissair DC8 (I think, but it was the mid 60s and they say if you can remember that era you weren't there) suddenly realising the error of his ways as he homed in on the NO gasholder. Fair made the windows rattle!

4mastacker wrote: ↑
Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:01 pm
Where's the bit marked "Here be dragons"?

In Lancashire.

You've met the wife, then, Ian.

It may also take my mind off the fact that when I smile I look like Jaws from the Bond movie...

then, again, Octo, who's going to argue with you?

GG

[ricardian]

NHT has a fascinating history. It apparently should have been built to the north of the railway line. The story is that the army got their map upside down. It ended up where it is but the area is marshland resulting quite often very localised fog. During the black plague they brought the dead out from London and dropped them in the marsh. When we were revamping defence plans for the station we were not allowed to dig trenches along the perimeter because of the bodies so they gave us armoured vehicles which were much more fun than trenches.

I was stationed at RAF Northolt 1964-65 in between tours at Sharjah & Akrotiri. I worked shifts in MOD Main Building and had a season ticket on the Tube, very handy when off duty as I could get into town for free, rock up at the Malcolm Club and get free tickets for the shows. The downside was that when coming off night shifts you tended to doze off and instead of getting out at Ruislip Gardens you'd wake up at Ongar and have to travel all the way back down the Central Line! Nice RAF camp though, lovely ladies from the AIDU and one or two from P&SS.

[ricardian]

Here's one for Jimtherev , a little ditty entitled "If men go to Hell, who cares?". Alas, I don't know from which hymnbook this is taken!

Hmmmmm. Reminds me of a mealtime conversation with a couple of our Moderators (Bishops, if you like) a few years back. One expressed the wish to appoint a Synod Assassin, t'other offered to arrange a jobshare, as he needed a Synod Arsonist. They were both staring at me at the time; really can't think why.
But as the sainted 'hymn' writer says, 'who cares'?

And Isaac Watts was a prolific writer of hymns but had a strange obsession with bowels