I would just like to say

Morning All
Up earlier today, been awake since 5
Have a lovely day.

Mornin volks
Be vine drai an braight doan yer, us boys injoyin warm zunzhine affer tekkin dugs doan river at 0600. Laikly uss'll get us bean canes up tudai, goan try tu get 60 in this yur an vill freezer. Then muck out Hippocrates an get leeves oat vrum injun bay afor em ztarts blokkin vents an geddin zmelly. Hippocrates goan Wales necks mumf zo needs tu be lukin orl vitty.
Opin orl us buds be well an appi, back zoon.

Look to the skies this weekend as this will be overhead at some point in a patch of sky near you (well if you are in England.....)

My Old Landy said:

Look to the skies this weekend as this will be overhead at some point in a patch of sky near you (well if you are in England.....)
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That's a Lancaster heavy bomber (I think).
My Uncle Victor was a Flight Sergeant on a Halifax, (was the "tailend-Charlie"). Sadly lost in 1944 in the latter stages of the war flying as part of the "Heavy Conversion Unit".
I think that was an aggregate of a lot of heavy bombers, but I have no access to records as such.
Was only a youngster.

DanClarke said:

That's a Lancaster heavy bomber (I think).
My Uncle Victor was a Flight Sergeant on a Halifax, (was the "tailend-Charlie"). Sadly lost in 1944 in the latter stages of the war flying as part of the "Heavy Conversion Unit".
I think that was an aggregate of a lot of heavy bombers, but I have no access to records as such.
Was only a youngster.

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If you know his full name, rank, squadron etc, maybe not even all of that, you may be able to get stuff from the Imperial War museum. They may well have a website that helps. I used them to research my great uncle who died in WW1 and got the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Also I'm sure some RAF thing will have been set up somewhere.
I finished not long ago a book on the German night fighters. Sadly very interesting. Never knew that allied bombers were mostly shot down by them, thort it was flak before, you live and learn.
If you're interested I'll give you name, author and ISBN number.

My Old Landy said:

Look to the skies this weekend as this will be overhead at some point in a patch of sky near you (well if you are in England.....)
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It can only be the Spirit of Lincoln as no other Lanc is still flying.
Part of the Battle of Britain squadron.
Lovely to see it!

DanClarke said:

That's a Lancaster heavy bomber (I think).
My Uncle Victor was a Flight Sergeant on a Halifax, (was the "tailend-Charlie"). Sadly lost in 1944 in the latter stages of the war flying as part of the "Heavy Conversion Unit".
I think that was an aggregate of a lot of heavy bombers, but I have no access to records as such.
Was only a youngster.

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Indeed it is an Avro Lancaster. This one did not see action in the war but has done duty in several arenas since it was built.

Stanleysteamer said:

It can only be the Spirit of Lincoln as no other Lanc is still flying.
Part of the Battle of Britain squadron.
Lovely to see it!

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Absolutely, that is why it will be in the air this weekend. I was lucky enough to see it on the ground last week, hence the pictures.

My Old Landy said:

Indeed it is an Avro Lancaster. This one did not see action in the war but has done duty in several arenas since it was built.


Absolutely, that is why it will be in the air this weekend. I was lucky enough to see it on the ground last week, hence the pictures.

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I've seen it at the Goodwood Revival together with its "friends" the Spit and the Hurricane.
It was flying FFin bloody low. so low I had trouble taking some photographs of it as it kept going behind marquees and stuff.
One year there they had the most amazing display of Spits and other WW2 fighters like Mustangs etc, they flew em like maniacs all over the sky, fake dogfights, the lot. Totally brilliant, one of the best days of my life!!! At least I have photos of it all.

One year W's birthday present was a flight in a Tiger Moth.
It went from the Duxworth air collection place where stuff like all this can be seen on display, brilliant place.
The guy flying the TM was a totally decent guy and let me do far more than he usually would, me having flown a bit with the ATC, and he also did some fantastic aerobatics once he knew I wouldn't be sick!!
He also kept me up in the air at least half as long again as he should have.
His day job was a pilot for BA and he said lots of them did this sort of thing to "remember what real flying is!"

Today the weather is good, again.
W still laid up with her sinusitis problem, plus a big head ache, she is supposed to have tested herself for CV but hasn't done it yet. and she has run out of the stuff she sticks up her nose and pumps in.
I think the headache may be down to her propping herself up on pillows to try to stop the sinusitis thing doing its nasties to her. i.e. muscular in cause as she does get this.
So now she is totally flat on a sofa, and asleep!
I have done the "stick the coolant system sealer thing in the system."
Cannot tell yet how well it's worked.
I ought to be cutting the weeds but cannot bring myself to risk my knee just yet as it is OK at the mo.
Left ankle came out in sympathy yessdi, so had to do a "strapping" on that too.
Ooops, just remembered I have to change the aux belt. This arvo or tomoz for that I think!
Have a lovely day folks!!

Went to edgar's omebase yesdi ferra look at the plants assits biggerer than mine. Came away wivva rasberry plant fer 4 sovs at arf price un some more compost. Sadly eye gottid the 100L bags instead of 120 fer the same price. Discount fer buying free. Before that eye went to anuvva garden center to avva look at the plants. Eye seen the loopins. Eye is gunna need a lorra pots to home the ones am growin. Bin given some baby unyuns to plant so eye av. Me delfinnyums is growin anorl. About arf of them is above soil now. Bin oot in garden to test diggin up me nettles. Tis good fun following the roots. One over a meter long to anuvva nettle. Only 15 minnits assits ott. Eye is back inside now. Going ferra nap.

I have loads of both the BoB squadron and the other planes both in the air and on the ground.
They had a "concours d'élégance" for planes. FFS! You could have eaten your dinner off any part of them.
also a Chimpunk like what i used to fly in, apparently quite rare now.
So here are a few of the best I think.




And finally, the Chipmunk!

You can just about see the heritage of the Tiger Moth in it.
I've posted enuff now, I'll get into trouble if i put any more pics up!

Stanleysteamer said:

I have loads of both the BoB squadron and the other planes both in the air and on the ground.
They had a "concours d'élégance" for planes. FFS! You could have eaten your dinner off any part of them.
also a Chimpunk like what i used to fly in, apparently quite rare now.
So here are a few of the best I think.
View attachment 265071

View attachment 265072
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And finally, the Chipmunk!
View attachment 265074
You can just about see the heritage of the Tiger Moth in it.
I've posted enuff now, I'll get into trouble if i put any more pics up!

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Funnily enough, they still train on the Chipmunk. It is at Coningsby with the rest of the fleet. The guide told us they have to complete 20 hours in it before they are allowed in a Hurricane or Spitfire

Not BoB but still one of my favourite pictures

For 25 years I sailed as crew and helped maintain a Thames Sailing Barge which had taken part in the Dunkirk evacuation. Every 5 years we sailed with the Dunkirk little ships on the anniversary of the evacuation, very emotional long weekends (and lots of fun n boozing). On the Sundays the little ships mustered in the outer harbour and sailed in a wide circle, the Battle of Britain flight flew low and dropped a wreath in the centre of the circle. The last sailing was due in 2020 but got cancelled due to the virus thing . Don't sail now though as I swallowed the anchor when I moved back norf.

Been a busy Wimblowdriver today. Got some bike stuff delivered early doors, and my tap glands turned up - all the way from the south coast to the frozen norf in under 24 hours . So did some bikey stuff in the morning and fixed me baff taps in the afternoon. And greased some squeaky door hinges anorl. First can down, second about to be opened. Cup final this afternoon. Wot more does a bloke need . Tratter still needs a wash, but that will have to wait for another day.

My Old Landy said:

Funnily enough, they still train on the Chipmunk. It is at Coningsby with the rest of the fleet. The guide told us they have to complete 20 hours in it before they are allowed in a Hurricane or Spitfire

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I ought to ask my grandson as he is an RAF mechanic there.
Typical of him, he never tells us anything.
But 20 hours is something like what you'd have to do to get your PPL so I can't imagine them letting anyone loose in a single seater Spit with just that under your belt. There are a few twin seat (tandem) Spits around, maybe they put them in that first. but who knows!!
One of the big problems is the massive torque of the engine, open the throttle too quick on take off, or on landing if you panic, and it'll flip the plane over.
This had happened just before I took my TM flight. some plonker had bought a two seater Spit and was landing it when he panicked, prolly thought he was going to stall, wacked the throttle open to recover and flipped it over. At least one of them died if not both.
At the time it hadn't been determined but I had a chat about it with the guy flying my TM and we both agreed it was the likeliest thing to have happened. Narrow undercarriage didn't help either for landings.
But I daresay the Chipmunk handles similarly, just with nowhere near the power. I loved being in one!

So today I did the coolant sealant thing and yes I did do the aux drivebelt change, without removing the fan, which made it a feck's sight more fiddly but succeeded in the end, with a measure of bad language at the end. Despite having the tensioner completely over, and held in one hand, I was just not getting the belt over the last pulley, with the other.
Right bastid! Regret to say I had to resort to prising it on with a screwdriver. Mind you, didn't make it easy for myself as I was putting the last bit onto a ridged wheel rather than a smooth whatchamacallit wheel. That one was just too hard to get to!
BUT I then did what I should have done in the first place, checked my service history what I always writes up and discovered that I had changed it only 35k miles ago, and the wretched thing is supposed to only need changing every 96k miles.
I panicked a bit when checking absolutely everything over on the cooling system I noticed how the ridges on the inside of the belt were fractured/split every few mm. So I just decided to change it.
Once I got it off I checked the whole thing and although there were these little cracks all over it it was in fact sound in that not one part of the interior of the belt had come off. Sh!tpart if anyone is interested, I replaced it with a Gates belt I carried around as a spare.
Someone is going to come on now and tell me I did this pointlessly!!!
Anyway the old belt has now become the spare!
No steak for me tonight as W didn't put it on the shopping list! Pork chop instead.
Have a good evening folks!

Ricard and fizzy water going down very well by the way!!!