The Last Boeing 747 - and other aircraft


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Beekay, my brother always used to call me lil sis. Awwww. I do actually have a block of wood between the carpet and the floor in my car as I couldn’t reach the pedals when I first got it!

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My first flight was in a Vickers Viscount from Bournemouth Hurn to Jersey 1961. My second flight was a pleasure flight in an Auster (it was in fact quite 'austere', noisy and bumpy) from a field near

Earlier today the last Boeing 747 left the worlds' biggest building, by volume, at the Boeing plant in Everett Washington. The customer was cargo airlines Atlas Air. It was number 1574 of a produ

I flew from Dunkeswell in Devon to Lundy Island in a X-Air microlight with a Verner 133 engine. On starting up to make the return journey, oil spattered the windshield meaning no return that day and l

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One summer school holiday in the 50s when I was about 12 I went for an early morning bike ride with another aerophile  classmate to Tollerton aerodrome. When we got there we found 2 Avro Lancastrians parked near the north gate. Lancastrian was a de-militarised Lancaster. 'Shall we?'....Yeah!' The bikes went in the grassy ditch and we went  through the old fence and ran bent double to the nearer Lanc. The door wasn't locked and we somehow found ourselves inside. While my pal went exploring the interior I got in the pilot's seat facing a mind boggling array of dials and switches and I went through the fantasy motions of 'flying' this thing, a bonus being the flying controls weren't locked. I 'tried a few circuits' and 'steep turns' then I heard this horrendously loud bellowing noise, "Oi, what yow two doin' in ere Gerraht nah, let's aya aht NAH". Security, in the doorway, we're trapped. We were escorted to the gate where we got a class 1 bollicking addresses taken and threats of dire legal consequences if we ever came back. But no vandalism, no damage done. So we bikerd off to Langar to see what we could find there. Happy uncomplicated times.

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It’s great how other peoples memories stir one’s own memories on this site.   I’ve just thought of a time years ago when Sarah Ferguson arrived in our village to officially open an annexe to the local Macintyre Special Needs School. She was flown in on a Queen’s Flight helicopter that landed in a field opposite our house.  A couple of neighbours and I went to the school to get a closer look and when the royal party went indoors we thought we’d go and look at the helicopter, walked a few yards across the field and as nobody was about we sat on the steps of the bright red shiny ‘copter.  We didn’t realise that the pilot was hiding inside, he soon opened the door and told us to clear off!  We got photos before we were sent packing though, wish I could find them.  

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One Sunday afternoon I went for a dam busting flight with a friend in his twin engined Piper Seminole. We approached the Ladybower dam at low level doing about 150mph. I was in the right hand front seat and the startled look on the face of the fisherman about to cast was a pleasure to behold. My friend died many years ago so he’s immune from prosecution!

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20 hours ago, LizzieM said:

It’s great how other peoples memories stir one’s own memories on this site.   I’ve just thought of a time years ago when Sarah Ferguson arrived in our village to officially open an annexe to the local Macintyre Special Needs School. She was flown in on a Queen’s Flight helicopter that landed in a field opposite our house.  A couple of neighbours and I went to the school to get a closer look and when the royal party went indoors we thought we’d go and look at the helicopter, walked a few yards across the field and as nobody was about we sat on the steps of the bright red shiny ‘copter.  We didn’t realise that the pilot was hiding inside, he soon opened the door and told us to clear off!  We got photos before we were sent packing though, wish I could find them.  

I had a friend in the police. He was present on one occasion when Princess and landed in the helicopter. It was a little bumpy and her highness stormed out the craft and shouted up to the pilot. She probably spoke 20 words, 19 of which were very rude.

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My aircraft story - going off on a bit of a tangent but it does have an aircraft link.

 

Whilst working for Central TV, in 1993 I was involved in a live broadcast from one of the dams in the Peak District to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Dambuster raids. Actor Richard Todd (from the film) was also there and I spent some time talking to him. I'm not the world's tallest person, but talking to Mr Todd made me realise he was very un-tall; the top of his head only reached my shoulders.

 

Ever since then, I've watched films featuring Richard Todd and noticed how the camera angles are obviously arranged to make him appear level with everyone else, and hide his lack of height. He must've spent a lot of time standing on boxes, whilst other actors have to stay at a suitable distance and angle.

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When flying over the remote hills above Ladybower some years ago a number of wrecked aircraft could seen. These were probably wartime crashes where, although bodies would  have been recovered, it would not have been possible to recover the aircraft. These wrecks would have probably been scavenged for interesting parts by walkers. I knew someone who had a few instruments from an aircraft that came down in nearby Morton.

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 As a slight aside, I once had an occasion to go into the bowels of Ladybower dam wall. This back in 1977 , when I were a Park ranger and attended a long weekend course at Losehill Hall, Castleton, (now a YHA place)..It was a course called "Water recreation and interpretation " (still no idea what it meant).

At Ladybower, we went down a bank to the bottom and entered through an access door into a short tunnel. Then investigated all around the workings and water culverts all the way through to the opposite bank. I thought we would exit through another door, but 

no ! We had to climb up thirteen flights of ladders to reach the top of the dam wall. Being grossly unfit, I was knackered after 2 flights.

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I once stayed in that YHA in Castleton BK.Two parents and the scoutmaster from my son’s school took a party of scouts to Derbyshire during a February half term. We all shared one big dorm so it was a bit rowdy. Pillow fights and all that. We hiked over the hills from Hope to Ladybower and saw the giant plug hole. 

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19 hours ago, letsavagoo said:

I had a friend in the police. He was present on one occasion when Princess and landed in the helicopter. It was a little bumpy and her highness stormed out the craft and shouted up to the pilot. She probably spoke 20 words, 19 of which were very rude.

It was princess Anne not ‘and’. Spellcheck kicked in and I didn’t notice.

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