The First Cuckoo of Spring

Following EU noise pollution directives the biggest cuckoo clock .....in the world follows the rules just like the aircraft at Frankfurt Airport. Alles Gut!

How to Wear Oxfords in Oxford

1. Have a nice pair of Oxfords made for you.

2. Drive to Oxford and park in park and ride.

3. Wait 25 minutes for park and ride bus, give up and start walking and chat to an American trick cyclist who has come to give a lecture: Topic = psychology of religions. I regail him my extensive subject matter knowledge gained by reading Pirsig's ZMM.

4. Visit two colleges with some personal interest and Primark.

The Crafty Cook Book

There is only one cook book worth having and thanks to Amazon I have now managed to regain a copy.

Another DELL Delivery - Another Era

I suspect that I made another tactical penny pinching error by not electing to go with Windows blabla on my new netbook PC.

St Patrick's Day in a Nutshell

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day to all of Irish descent!

ITHACA

As you set out for Ithaca,
hope that your journey is a long one,
full of adventure full of discovery.
Lestrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not be afraid of them:
You will never find things like that on your way,
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a
rare sensation touches your spirit and your body.
Lestrygonians and Cyclops, wild Poseidon you won't encounter them,
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope that your journey is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings, when,
with what pleasure, what joy
you will come into harbours seen for the first time.
May you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother-of-pearl, coral, amber, and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn again from those who know.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for;
but do not hurry the journey at all.
It is better if it lasts for years;
so that you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now;

and if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

C.P. Cavafy

The safest form of transport

84 pages and counting on the pprune forum:- Today we simulated the Turkish scenario in a B733 simulator. At 1800 feet AGL and established on the ILS, we retarded the throttles to idle, simulating what the Turkish B738 autopilot did. The aircraft started trimming slowly at first, and then more and more rapidly to maintain the glide slope. We allowed the stick shaker to activate and after around 8 seconds of stick shaker we applied full thrust and attempted a recovery without reconfiguring. With the control yoke pushed as far forward as it could go, the aircraft started to accelerate and a climb was initiated and it appeared that we were recovering. Note that this is with the yoke pushed forward against the forward stop. Then, all of a sudden, the aircraft entered a deep stall as the rudder lost effectiveness and the aircraft forward speed rapidly bled off and we entered a 6000 ft/min plus rate of descent until impacting the ground in an apparent tail low attitude. The reason for our not recovering was due to the extreme amount of trim the autopilot had applied while attempting to maintain the glide slope. The only way that we could have recovered would have been to apply extensive nose down trim during the initial recovery. We performed this exercise twice and both times produced the same result. We firmly believe that this is what was the cause of the Turkish crash.

Spot the Spout

Hellau* to the man(?) dressed as a watering can for the Wiesbaden carnival.

*Editors footnote: The German folk appear to have difficulty spelling "Hello".

Greek Order

The fitting of pavement railings by Dora the last Mayor of Athens has at least prevented parked cars blocking every available pavement in the capital of Greek order, democracy and freedom. The freed up space can now be used correctly.

Dilusions of Dakar

It's always a bit of an adventure buying a secondhand vehicle: Following the initial excitement of delivery little transgressions of confidence dribble out. Take this for instance, sand and two dead flies discovered in the air box. Has this bike been thrashed through the Sahara? Or maybe it's last owner went to Pendine sands on a speed trial? Stop worrying and just fit the new battery!

Please do not adjust your set

We apologise for the extended intermission: We hope to resume normal service when my dispute with 3 is resolved.