WHBM

WHBM here, conscious that I should find time to rejoin and chip in on one or two interesting items above. Seem to have been more than a little busy in recent months - our industry, like so many in the UK, seems to have been noticeably on the up for the last 12 months or so. And there is (not really alas) another whopper project coming. Meanwhile things advance on other fronts. For those who know of Little Miss WHBM, today was in the bicycle shop, buying a first bicycle. Great excitement, which led to running over the salesman's toes

Not a lot of flying done recently, and G-WHBM has also taken a bit of a back seat this year (I'm completely out of licence currency), although yesterday I did step off a BAe 146/RJ from Dublin at London City, enjoying that the last classic UK-built jetliner continues to roll along. Cityjet, the operator, seems to have had a new spring in its step after looking a bit shaky, unfortunately not with their LCY services, but in operating for various main carriers across Europe. There are new Sukhoi jets on order, which however require adaptation (as all types do) for the London City approach, apparently it will take to the end of 2018 to do this, in the meantime their 146 fleet, which are the old Northwest Airlink fleet, some of the last and most recent ones built, continue to roll along, very nicely and always on time. They got a new interior with Cityjet, with nice new leather seats, and while the national carrier here, BA, continues to be something of a national embarrassment and has even started charging for catering, Cityjet continue the proper style. Had an enjoyable gin & tonic (in Y) on the way back.

There are articles on the BBC website today that it's 50 years ago today since the black weekend of UK holiday flights. On Saturday evening 3 June 1967 two separate flights with elderly piston-engine aircraft left for the Mediterranean. An Air Ferry DC4 flying from its Manston (near London) base to Perpignan in France, right down on the Spanish border, crashed into a Mountain on approach there, having lost their positional awareness. Then a British Midland Canadair 4 (which is an uprated DC4 built in Canada) got into a fuel starvation difficulty, and also crashed in the centre of the Manchester suburb of Stockport on the Sunday morning, just a few miles from Manchester airport when returning from Palma. All on the Air Ferry, and almost all on the BMA, about 80 tightly packed passengers on each, were lost. At this time the holiday flight business probably ran to less than 30 aircraft, scattered across several lesser players, and to lose two within hours was an industry disaster. The major holiday tour operators, who had gone for bargain basement type cheap operators, moved very swiftly, and teamed up with airlines who could order new jets. The One-Eleven 500 was just coming along, likewise the first 737s, and by the next season the old piston aircraft had disappeared, with turboprops going very shortly afterwards. The British Midland Canadair fleet was instantly grounded and never ran again after that weekend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-40095542

Maybe I'll chip in about the "Double Sunrise" when I get a further moment.

OK, a Quiz question. It's been a while. Shortly after walking in to the house yesterday from the Dublin plane, on a warm and cloud free evening, there was a very distant but somewhat familiar pulsing, droning sound outside, I stepped out, and there up high, very slow, lit on the port side by the setting sun, was a notable classic 4-engined propeller airliner making an intercontinental journey northeast-wards at 25,000 feet. I watched it for several minutes as the sound slowly disappeared. Any guesses what it was ?