May
28
Bear
Filed Under Human Factors, The World and everything | Leave a Comment
I read a piece in our local free paper that drew my attention, it as a ‘look what our local lads are up too.’ Crossing Everest under a paramotor was the story, two remarkable young guys were the ‘local color.’ I had met one of them, Bear Grylls, previously at a fund raiser. He [...]
May
23
Bob Buck – Aviator, writer
Filed Under Flying General, Obituaries, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
As I write this I look across the room to see two worn books sitting on the shelf. Weather Flying and Flying Know How were volumes that I pawed through as a lad hoping to glean something I could use ‘up there’ – I wasn’t dissapointed.
Bob Buck wrote beautifully and with great authority. It is [...]
May
20
A Gift of Wings
Filed Under Books, Flying General, The World and everything | 2 Comments
Richard Bach is an interesting soul, his writing was instrumental in shaping my early flying aspirations – mine and probably several million others. One book in particular, A Gift of Wings, captured my imagination completely; I have lost count of the number of copies I have bought and either given away or had ‘appropriated’ over [...]
May
20
The Big Show
Filed Under Books, Defense | Leave a Comment
Another remarkable book in the same class as First Light by Geoff Wellum.
What is striking about this work is the authors honesty. The book is constructed in a diary style and covers in the latter part the advance into Germany when the the retreating army left a lot of things behind – but hung on [...]
May
20
Bear & Gilo conquer Everest
Filed Under Lucky, Paramotoring, The World and everything | Leave a Comment
Since I first attended a presentation where Bear Grylls recounted his summit climb and conquest Everest, I have watched his progress with fascination and admiration. After after breaking his back in three places when a parachute jump went badly wrong, this SAS soldier (now retired) was offered the opportunity by a friend to climb Everest. [...]
May
19
The price of safety ~ humility?
Filed Under Air Safety, Airline, Human Factors | Leave a Comment
We used to start our five day CRM (Crew Resource Management) courses with a stark (and some thought provocative) statement. “71% of airline hull losses are caused by human factors” Perhaps a little confrontational given the audience, but it certainly grabbed everyone’s attention. When looked at a little more closely though, the truth was [...]
May
18
Giles Cardozo in a GKN Promotion Video
Is this the most fun you can have with your trousers on?
May
14
Strikes May Harm Airbus” 2007 Delivery Targets
Filed Under Boeing/Airbus, Governmental | Leave a Comment
Airbus needs a good clean run at its manufacturing effort to deliver on the promises that it has made to its customers. A undelivered promise is worth zip; the one that matters is the one that comes on cost, and performing exactly as it said in on the aluminum.
EADS/Airbus has a very short time window [...]
May
14
Another day – another Naira!
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Back in Africa again, probably the same next month as I missed a bid submission.
Abuja is a new city, the Nigerians decided that they needed their capital to be parked in the centre of the country. Cash wasn’t a problem so here it is.
Flying down the dark continent is an experience that I would [...]
May
14
It’s not that we don’t want the EU to succeed when it takes on major, high stakes technology based projects… is it? ESA has been a notable success and certainly made the US think when NASA had its hiccup with Challenger.
Goodness knows, we plough so much money into that giant quango, and like the [...]