Recent Posts

91

The Pub / Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

« Last post by mrcharly-YHT on Yesterday at 02:59:09 pm »

Last year I contacted the local outdoor ed centre about volunteering to help on DoE and other activities.

They got back to me today, asking me to fill in a form.

It is a full employment application form.

See also: Trying to get paid for a one-off anything by a university.  Although that's firmly the government's fault.

Not just the UK. Son gave a one-week course in English to science students at Strasbourg university and was over six months getting paid.

Just to be clear, this is for unpaid volunteering. Stand on a windy moor for most of a day, count the soaking wet miserable children walking past. Then return to a campsite and try to make sure they don't set fire to their tents.

92

Audax / Re: Eric "Merckx" Millington

« Last post by LittleWheelsandBig on Yesterday at 02:52:02 pm »

Before my time but I hope there is a piece in Arrivee. I might ask Barry Parslow what he remembers of Millington.

93

OT Gallery / Re: Interesting or unusual planes?

« Last post by TimC on Yesterday at 02:41:00 pm »

The SBS were more fun to drop, as their tasking was basically loopy, whereas the SAS (and other Special Forces like 2 Sqn RAF Regt) at least considered survival as a potential benefit. But most of that kind of crazy stuff no longer happens. However, exposure to real warfare tends to bring it back...

Oddly enough it seems the opposite has happened. My neighbour (until last summer) was a former officer in the SBS. He told me that there was real concern that the SBS were losing their maritime skills as a result of such a heavy commitment in Afghanistan for such a long period of time.

I was never involved in that theatre (it seems crazy that it's 26 years since I retired and a lot of wars have happened since then!), but I imagine that it didn't call for many of the SBS's specific maritime skills. One of the sillier things SF (47 Sqn Special Forces Flight) did with them was dropping a troop of guys in a large Zodiac-style semi-rigid speedboat into the sea from very low altitude (around 7-10ft), using a little drogue chute to pull them out. Barking, and unlikely to have ever been tried in Afghanistan.

94

OT Gallery / Re: Interesting or unusual planes?

« Last post by TimC on Yesterday at 02:35:40 pm »

What you see was actually trials of a totally top secret new system whereby electromagnetic trampolines, disguised as haystacks, were used to catapult SAS members up into the sky and through the open door of said Hercules.

You joke, but the Americans had a system known as Skyhook colloquially (the Fulton recovery system) which could pick up troops from the ground while flying at around 120kts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system

95

OT Gallery / Re: Interesting or unusual planes?

« Last post by Hot Flatus on Yesterday at 02:35:17 pm »

The SBS were more fun to drop, as their tasking was basically loopy, whereas the SAS (and other Special Forces like 2 Sqn RAF Regt) at least considered survival as a potential benefit. But most of that kind of crazy stuff no longer happens. However, exposure to real warfare tends to bring it back...

Oddly enough it seems the opposite has happened. My neighbour (until last summer) was a former officer in the SBS. He told me that there was real concern that the SBS were losing their maritime skills as a result of such a heavy commitment in Afghanistan for such a long period of time.

96

Audax / Re: Eric "Merckx" Millington

« Last post by postie on Yesterday at 02:34:26 pm »

How sad, I remember him well from my early years of cycling, class rider,hard as nails and very friendly.

Was a regular on the old Windsor chester as I remember

97

OT Gallery / Re: Interesting or unusual planes?

« Last post by TimC on Yesterday at 02:33:04 pm »

It's a Eurofighter Typhoon.

Indeed. In fact it's a Tranche 1 aircraft which will leave service early next year, along with 29 others, and will be 'reduced to spares' (ie scrapped). That will leave just 107 Typhoons in service, along with around 47 F-35 Lightning 2.

98

The Pub / Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

« Last post by T42 on Yesterday at 02:23:34 pm »

Last year I contacted the local outdoor ed centre about volunteering to help on DoE and other activities.

They got back to me today, asking me to fill in a form.

It is a full employment application form.

See also: Trying to get paid for a one-off anything by a university.  Although that's firmly the government's fault.

Not just the UK. Son gave a one-week course in English to science students at Strasbourg university and was over six months getting paid.

99

Health & Fitness / Re: Cross Training: Swimming

« Last post by mike on Yesterday at 02:18:34 pm »

Are you still getting on with them three months later?

I went for my first swim for a long time this morning. Going to try to get back into the regular habit. If I do, then I will be able to justify to myself the investment in some kind of tech to measure my distances - because I'm really crap at counting lengths. I mean, I think I did 30 lengths this morning but it could in fact be anywhere between 28 and 34 lengths. And when it's a 50m pool, that adds up to a significant difference. Not that it really matters, I just like having numbers to put on Strava.

Anyway, I'm interested in smart goggles as an option. Or some other fitness tracking device that works in water, if anyone has any recommendations - my Garmin FR620 is not really any good in water, only useful for measuring time not distance.

yes, still love them.  They're *awful* for looking out of, it's not just that there's no peripheral vision, there are actually weird, occasional reflections of stuff happening in the other direction on the sides of the goggles which has taken some getting used to, but apart from that minor detail, they are brilliant.  Having a realtime stroke rate, heart rate and speed is really good at keeping me consistent, and the coaching functions do seem to be working too and I'm averaging under 1.45 / 100m for the main part of the session, down from about 1.55/2.00 in December.  Programming the workout before the swim is a bit too much of a faff beforehand to do every time but is quite nice to be told what to do without looking at the soggy bit of paper stuck to my drinks bottle!

They count much better than my 2 year old garmin too. Hardly ever miss a length compared to the garmin which undercounts a few every session.  Mine are the Form goggles - this is the level of data you get on the app, from my Monday swim:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zwRGCjwluVkHoYtoZLmRE4WK4yx7E8HnQf0LD9LW8c8/edit?usp=sharing
(swim was 300 easy, 3x100 drills, 5 x 300, 100 easy, 4 x 25 hard, 2x100 easy).

100

OT Gallery / Re: Interesting or unusual planes?

« Last post by Cudzoziemiec on Yesterday at 02:12:01 pm »

Flying ‘below the hills’ doesn’t mean that it was flying unusually low - or doing anything wrong, which is the implication of your statement that it was at ‘175ft altitude’. The 250’ MSD limitation means that 250ft is the closest the aircraft can be to any land, water or man-made obstruction. It does not mean that it must be 250’ above any land within a few miles. The whole point of low-flying training is to use the land to obscure your presence - and not just from electronic detection, but visual detection too.

I remember as a youth looking down on a Hercules as I walked on the Malvern hills, as it was on the west side I imagined that the SAS were practicing jumping into haystacks.

What you see was actually trials of a totally top secret new system whereby electromagnetic trampolines, disguised as haystacks, were used to catapult SAS members up into the sky and through the open door of said Hercules.