February 2010 Archives

Tucked away in the epic technical detail of the AAIB´s report on the crash of British Airways Boeing 777 G-YMMM is the human story of Capt Peter Burkill´s split-second decision to reduce the flap-setting. That decision is still being discussed by knowledgeable and not so knowledgeable people and doubtless will be for a long time to come.

Every time the damned Vulcan XH558 people contact me for support I promise myself this is the last time I do it. At least I had the honesty early on to voice my doubts. And every time I end up caving in.

This time I was absolutely braced to say 'no'. Fingers poised over the 'n' key. And then I watched their irritatingly good movie, and even then I was ready to stand up to them. And then I read the comments on the movie and something about the nasty little anonymous sods lurking there got to me, so here I am again urging you to at least take a look at it. Worth it just for the movie, up to you if you want to contribute.

Oh yes, and it gives me an opportunity to post an entirely gratuitous link to what is by some measure my favourite ever Unusual Attitude post. It being that time of year and all.

Finally got my first visit to Airbus's Getafe facility a few miles south of Madrid today and, even though obviously I'm currently biased towards my primary employer, it's hard not to be impressed by the ultra-leading-edge composites and other manufacturing technology there.

Obviously the pride of Getafe right now is the magnificent beast shown below refuelling an itsy-bitsy Boeing E-3F AWACS. In the refuelling community, as I've been learning, the very occasional hairy things that happen usually involve tanking to large aircraft rather than to fighters. So topping up the AWACS, with its dorsal radome, has given everyone a lot of satisfaction. Particularly as it so happened that when the loaned AWACS turned up at the rendezvous it did in fact need refuelling for real so the first 'trial' was actually done in anger.