Ice and Snow and Soup

 Yesterday we were covered in a light dusting of snow with cool temperatures and later,some rain.  Today it has snowed lightly again overnight and the roads are left in an icy state.  A good day to be at home.

We are feeding our neighbours dog and cat as she is in hospital at the moment and the roads are not good for driving today.  Fortunately, we have a good supply of fresh food, though we have to choose our meals carefully our the Oven is not working. An electrical fitter is booked for a visit tomorrow.

Todays lunch is broccoli and white Stilton soup. 20 minutes to make and we have defrosted home made bread rolls.

The soup is basically diced potato, chopped tender stem broccoli boiled in water with a little salt and pepper, blended to a liquid and poured over a lump of white Stilton cheese.

I am looking forward to having the oven working again so that I can batch bake the next weeks bread.

The Great Glen Fault

The Great Glen Fault is a geological feature that runs roughly from Inverness to Oban, dividing the Highlands into two parts.  Today I decided to do some sight seeing, so as both ends have airports, I chose to fly an aircraft on my simulator along this natural depression.

Using the Default Cessna 172 SF from the X-Plane 12 hangar and starting on ramp 3 at Inverness Airport, I do the walk around to remover any covers, chocks and locks, set up the trims and then start the engine. A call to control to obtain permission to taxi and we are off.

Permission to take off, Fly out and enter the circuit .  Once over the Moray Firth, just checking the airspace over Inverness Airport and activating the flight plan.

Looking ahead, I can just make out Loch Ness on the horizon.  This is a typical Scottish day with a hazy view to the distance.  The Great Glen Fault has some big depressions that are full of water.  From this end we shall be flying along Loch Ness, Loch Oich, Loch Lochy, Loch Linnhe and into the Firth of Lorn.

This is the view at the North East end of Loch Ness.  The line of th Fault is clearly seen as a straight depression in the range of mountains. The Monadhliath Mountains are on the left and the Highlands are to the right.

At the South West end of Loch Ness I can see Loch Oich in the V shapes notch on the horizon.  There is a slight kink in the depression here and some firm ground between the Lochs.

Now we are above the waters of Loch Lochy and in the haze is the view of Loch Linnhe.  At this point it is just a matter of maintaining a safe height and keeping the flight path central along the Loch.  There are a couple of No-Fly zones to avoid, but on the whole it is a straight run.

Passing the end of Loch Linnhe into the Firth of Lorn, I can see Lismore Island and I need to keep left of that to fly over the Lynn of Lorn. Looking left I can see the entrance to Lock Leven.  This whole area has deep valleys, some of which are fault related and some are the results of Glacial ice movement.

Once over the waters of the Lynn of Lorn, it is not long before the destination airport is in sight.  Tine to let ATC know I am on approach to enter the circuit and ask for permission to land. Landing light on.

Check the airspace on the crosswind leg and set first flap position, speed at 80 kts. descend to 500 feet AGL - wheel brakes off. That's just pilot speak for getting ready to land.

Kiss the tarmac at about 60 kts with second flap position selected and gently apply the wheel brakes.  Look for the runway exit point which is on the right, second exit and turn off to the grass parking area.

Parking brake on, Lights off, engine off, switches closed, fuel off.  General walk around to cover up instruments and place chocks and locks. Be aware that I have sufficient fuel to do a return trip, so no need to refuel at this point.

Any flight that you can walk away from is a successful flight.

Christmas Tree

Last year we had a Christmas tree which was cut off from the top of a mature tree that had been felled for timber.  It was pushed into a pot of compost and used as a decorative tree.  In the new year, I re-potted the tree and put it out in the garden. and it has again been re-potted after it had produced a dense root ball.

This tree is now residing in out conservatory as our new and recycled Christmas tree.  It has been decorated and we shall add a string of small LCD lights to finish the job.

It is our hope that the same tree will be used for a few more years before it gets planted out.

Our other tree will look OK when we get some batteries charged up to power the lights.

Warm Weather

 Over the last few days, the weather has been damp misty and overcast for most of the day, with temperatures not exceeding 10 degrees Celsius.  It has been a dull and cool week.

Today the sun is shining and the temperature is above 15 Degrees Celsius.  The day is bright and clear.

When Rosie went into the kitchen at 2.15 to make a cup of tea, she came across this beastie sunning himself on the lawn.

Autumn is here

 The leaves on the trees have been outstanding this season, but they are now starting to fall.

The Brampton is always an eye catching scene in Autumn, with its big trees.

The Dorothy Clive Gardens also gives a magnificent display of late season colour, and an excellent coffee at the top of the garden.

The Black Headed Gulls are still around as Westport Lake and they are starting to lose the black head feathers as Winter is approaching.

At the Potteries Museum, the Spitfire is adorned for Remembrance Day and this Gallery is right next to the Museum Cafe.

Back at home "Cheeky" is spending a lot of time watching us in the Kitchen, from the top lawn.  He is there every evening and often in the early morning as well. We currently have 3 regular Foxes visiting the garden and the odd stranger Fox.  A pair of local Badgers come some evenings and they tend to dig worms up in the lawn and open beds.

This picture if from earlier last month.

RAF Cosford Museum

 Just a short drive south from us is the RAF Museum Midlands which is a visit I like to make occasionally to look at new acquisitions.  Today I wanted to see the Hawker Hind trainer.

This was the RAF light bomber which entered service in 1929.  It was mainly powered by a Rolls Royce kestrel engine with a rams horn exhaust manifold. It was also produced as an army co-operation aircraft as the Hawker Audax and had a tropical kit adaptation for use in India.  This example is a Hart trainer, which was stripped of military equipment and fitted with a reduced sweep upper wing to improve its flight characteristics.

This type was also produced for South Africa as the Hawker Hartebeest, and Boulton and Paul manufactured the aircraft as a single seat fighter, The Hawker Demon.

The Hart can be seen behind this Hawker Hurricane, the Hurricane was the mainstay fighter aircraft in the Battle of Britain.

The Boulton and Paul Defiant was a very effective night fighter.  The engine panels have been put back onto this aircraft since I last saw it.

In the top league of effective warplanes is the first operational vertical take off jet, the Hawker Harrier.  This is a GR3 made in 1982 and decommissioned in 1991.

Inside the Cold War hanger are some significant aircraft of the period, The Avro York in the foreground may well have been one of the aircraft that my father worked on. The 3 RAF V-Bombers (Valiant, Vulcan and Victor) are also represented in this hangar.

The cold War hangar is a custom designed special building for the exhibits on display and it can be seen as an aviation landmark for miles around, reflecting the sunlight.
On our visit there was a military shooting event, as can be seen in front of the hangar - Cameras this time.

The PBN Catalina has been stripped back for maintenance.  The fabric removed from the trailing edges of the wing reveals the metal structure.

This final picture was taken by Rosie.  It is of me photographing the inner cabin of a Vickers Valiant bomber.  All in all, a good day out!

The joy of being on-line!

 On the 20th September, we had the fiercest lightning storm I have seen.  It knocked out lots of internet facilities in our direct location, including our Router/Modem.  On the 21st, I requested a technician.  There is no human interface on the Virginemedia.com help desk other than an AI system that allows you to request a visit after jumping through a few hoops.

Technician visit booked for 24th - cancelled by VM.

Technician visit booked for 26th - no-show, no explanation.

Technician visit booked for 1st Oct -Arrived early and fixed the problem to all computers running in 15 minutes.

In the process, I found out that VM is not really equipped for wide ranging outages and was struggling to get out to everyone.  The AI system cannot cope with missed visits and cancels the appointment.  There is no follow up for repairs other than a check that the techs who turned up did a good job.

Overall verdict.

1. Fast and efficient internet connection when running.

2. Help Line is not fit for purpose and does not give users an opportunity to explain their issues.  AI only copes with preset tick boxes.

3. When a technician arrives, they always do and excellent job.

Service satisfaction.

Not as good as it was after being faced with hundreds of E-Mails at once, and a whole bundle of updates to do after 10 days without internet and telephone land line.

Life goes on!