by Nick Anderson | Dec 27, 2024 | Plane Tales
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You are sitting in your airliner and the handsome, pretty or in a non-binary sense cute, elegant, lovely or in a non exclusive way charming, fine, interesting or personable flight attendant is standing in front of you to demonstrate the safety features of your aircraft. Hopefully if you enjoy the airline pilot guy enough to be listening to this you might have more than just a passing interest in what safety equipment there is onboard the average big, well equipped, airliner.
Most airlines show the gender-specific pronouns that are typically used to refer to people in the way they identify
Door Arming controls
Girt Bar system that can be found on older style aircraft
Steph beside ‘her’ emergency exit
Slide use in theory and in practice
Disobeying safety instructions can lead to increased danger and possible loss of life
The early days of air travel
Jack Grant, an Australian, who invented the modern inflatable slide and won the Cumberland trophy
Aircraft safety equipment
Halon (halo-genated hydrocarbons) are the world’s best fire extinguishing chemicals but banned from manufacture
Safety cards through the history of aviation
Images are used under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, Airbus, Oleg Bkhambri (Voltmetro), Boeing, Dr Steph, Marc-Antony Payne, Qantas Airways Ltd, John Collier, the Library of Congress, The Museum of Civil Aviation and SOC.
by Nick Anderson | Dec 17, 2024 | Plane Tales
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It is rare to have the opportunity to meet one of the brave young men who flew and fought in the Second World War so I was delighted to be able to talk to Flight Lieutenant Colin Bell DFC. At the age of 103, Colin recalls with perfect clarity what it was like to fly his De Havilland DH 98 Mosquito bomber into action as part of a Pathfinder Squadron. This Tale is just the first part of the interview with Colin, the opportunity for which I have to thank my old friend Bob Judson. Having had a high ranking career in the RAF, Bob is now a consultant in the field of psychological, life and executive coaching and has a podcast, Leading 4 Life, which explores leadership in the stories of his own life and those told by his many illustrious guests, such as Colin. Bob was kind enough to allow me to share in this opportunity to interview Colin. If you want to take advantage of Bob’s services or listen to his free podcast then check out his website, here: https://www.leading4life.co.uk/ and his great podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2227500
Flt Lt Colin Bell DFC RAF
The lonely and dangerous job of a tail gunner
The PT17 Stearman
The Vultee BT-13A Valiant
The North American AT-6 Texan trainer AKA the Harvard.
The Bristol Blenheim
The de Havilland DH98 Mosquito
Colin with Bob (left) and myself (right) at the RAF Club in front of a painting of the Mosquito gifted to Colin and then presented to the RAF Club to display.
All images are shown with permission or under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the IWM, the USAAF, the National Museum of the USAF and Fotoafdrukken Koninklijke Luchtmacht.
by Nick Anderson | Dec 1, 2024 | Plane Tales
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I’m moving things on a bit in my logbook tales as it seems to be taking forever to get to the end so here’s the next one. I’d found a temporary job with the aircraft manufacturer British Aerospace flying Tornados and Hawks but now I was getting invitations to interview for jobs with a number of airlines. After months of drought, the flood gates seem to have opened and after wishing for just one offer I now had the opportunity to chose who I would go to. First, however, I needed to get through the interviews.
A Monarch A300
A Cathay Pacific Tristar
Virgin Megastores worldwide
RB’s Manor House and the album cover for Tubular Bells
Richard Branson starts his own airline, Virgin Atlantic
Northwest Airlines put in a substantial order for Airbus A340s which were then flown by Virgin Atlantic
The BAe Hawk delivery team
One of the RMAS Hawk 108s
In formation and we’re off to Malaysia
First stop Nice
Then on to Tanagra
Luxor
Dubai
Mumbai
A little ‘hot start’ in Bangkok
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to RHL images, Virgin, Jaco Ten, Northwest Airlines History Centre,
by Nick Anderson | Oct 23, 2024 | Plane Tales
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My logbook tales continue and after 5 months without an income the bucket of shekels I had to keep us afloat was starting to run dry… I could see glimpses of the bottom. Luckily the mortgage on our modest 2 up, 2 down, 250 year old, Scottish stone, terraced cottage at Leuchars wasn’t excessive and we had pared our living expenses down to the bone. The sniff of some flying work for British Aerospace down at their factory at Warton, however, was very, very welcome.
RAF Warton during construction in 1938
The TSR2 and Panavia Tornado, both built at Warton
The Eurofighter Typhoon, soon to begin construction at Warton
The F3 Tornado in weather
The BAe Hawk
The Joint Tactical Information Display System
An F3 Tornado with a towed decoy
A Monarch Airways Airbus A300
Images shown under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the MOD, British Aerospace, British Aircraft Corporation, the USAF, the USN, DoD and Monarch Airways.
by Nick Anderson | Oct 9, 2024 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
Stories from my logbook continue with the last few weeks of my service career, which were a blur of form signing, return of equipment, formal dinners, informal parties, speeches and gifts, all accompanied by feelings of regret and excitement at to what my future held. I flew my last flight in an F3 leading a 3 ship out over the Scottish highlands and then, after everyone had landed, I beat up the squadron low and fast. I then planned to do a low, slow pass with a full burner pull-up into the vertical…
My full burner climb ended ignominiously when one reheat failed to light!
The mecca of all things truckie! Brize Norton.
The horrors of learning Morse Code!
The Campaign Against Aviation
The PA34 of British Aerospace which I flew at Prestwick
Finally, the proud holder of an ATPL
At last, the sniff of a job!
Images shown under creative commons licence with thanks to the MOD, the RAF, the CAA, Chris Lofting and BAe Systems.
