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Edited by Dynamic Dave on 24/01/2008 at 00:48
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The Quantas 747 referred to suffered little damage and still cost $100m to get back in to service.
I reckon BA will simply keep one or more 747s and/or 767s in service a little longer than planned.
Once this has run its course I'll bolt it onto 218
PS Cheddar I guess you meant $100m dollars ! - PU
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 20/01/2008 at 19:55
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The Quantas 747 referred to suffered little damage
Maybe so - that engine is pointing at a funny angle though.
I reckon BA will simply keep one or more 747s and/or 767s in service a little longer than planned.
I doubt the 777 would fly with BA again anyway - Qantas passed the 747 on. The 747 was 9 years old too - a bit older than the 777.
All will come out!
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It's probably will be written off seeing the damage. Think it was the Beeb who said even using the seats again might not go down well with passengers if they knew.
It will never fly with BA because of the plane identifier. But interesting to think BA/Boeing might consider repair to avoid the thought of a lost 777... i.e. technically a new plane after all repairs done.
The Beeb said that if they were going to scrap it you might find they cut off the wings before moving. It would make it easier.... but they haven't.
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>>.... but they haven't.>>
Easier to move as a whole, also the AAIB guys have not finished, they want the infrastructure complete to determine why both engine would not respond on command.
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Sickningly - There was a an airliner crash in the Florida Everglades some years ago, I'll try to dig out the details, most if not all killed, they used interior fitments in other aircraft....shocking for a lily livered liberal like me.
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The Beeb said that if they were going to scrap it you might find they cut off the wings before moving. It would make it easier.... but they haven't.
>>
It was never a problem moving a load like that it a wide open space with no worries about the route.
They would never destroy any evidence regarding the cause of the accident and Boeing would also want to see how things survived.
IMO the Beeb reports have been very very poor day after day.
Many wild guesses and silly / inaccurate reports. They even had to apologise for one of the clangers.
I actually phoned them less than an hour after the incident stating some obvious points and suggesting some ways to improve their coverage.
It was many hours later they included one of my observations.
A Google map or two of the approach would have helped. I saw one map that noted a car hire company but ignored the adjacent filling station.
The Green Man pub also survived ( the noisiest pub in the world ?) :-)
The rebuild may depends on who would want a RR version if BA want to get rid of it.
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What power plants it has does not matter really. The plane can be fitted with amrican or british power plants at will.
They will want to haul the entire thing in tact for analysis as is, thats why its not being transported to Farnborough but to a nearby hangar. Usually the AIB gets the truckloads of debri transported there. They must be dancing with joy to have such evidence to work with for a change.
Ok so the gear is a write off, as are the wings and engine pylons/hangers (speculation is that one the engines my be serviceable, and blades in both power plants appeared to be in tact)
As long as the wings have not broken the fuselage (the passenger floor is key here) it could fly with new wings.
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RR Trents cost in the region of 10million quid each, doubt very much whether they'l be just scrapped if anywhere near serviceable.
That's the Everglades' crash.
aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=1972122...0
More from Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 20/01/2008 at 20:50
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seeing the pictures of moving the plane it does not look that damaged... Would not like to fly on it regardless.
BBC news do make howlers. They got football stuff wrong for my wife's team again. Email sent for third apology in two years.
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News is like every bit of other evidence, you gather as much info from as many sources as you can and somewhere there's a thread of truth that runs through it and identifying that thread is the reader's task. That's one of the values of the internet.
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News is like every bit of other evidence you gather as much info from as many sources as you can and somewhere there's a thread of truth that runs through it and identifying that thread is the reader's task. That's one of the values of the internet.
>>
Spot on PU.
I have been following such a discussion on an aviation forum that has many airline pilots contributing.
It is interesting observing their attempts at trying to piece things together from the limited info to date.
Their first thread was closed at 959 items and the new thread is up to 300 already.
This total is a heavily culled version as the poor mods had to throw out vast numbers of garbage entries as A. N. Others with little or no understanding have also contributed.
From what I read, and understand, the bottom line is we will await the official report.
In the meanwhile hoping that commercial pressures have not been the deciding factors in keeping 777s flying.
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>> In the meanwhile hoping that commercial pressures have not been the deciding factors in keeping 777s flying.
>>
I only wish that I shared your faith.
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>>In the meanwhile hoping that commercial pressures have not been the deciding factors in keeping 777s flying.
AFAIK, there's no reason at the moment to suspect that there's any systematic problem that affects 777s. The aircraft has an excellent safety record, and until the results of the investigation are published, no reason to ground the fleet.
Commercial pressures do dominate, no-one runs a fleet for pleasure! - you need to be very sure of your ground before you remove a fleet of vehicles from service. Although not aircraft related, I have been close to this situation with regard to a railway bogie type, and it isn't an easy position to be in - engineering logic and reasons for action become more than usually scrutinised, picked over, and argued with.
Number_Cruncher
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"the Beeb reports have been very very poor day after day"
Welcome to 24 hour 'news', which is 5 minutes of news and 55 minutes of opinion.
BA were quoted as saying they wouldn't speculate on the events leading up to the accident - that didn't stop news channels spending the next two days doing just that, until BA release a little bit of info.
Just like the day after when the papers were saying the Captain was a hero. He wasn't pilot flying at the time and so soon after the event we had no idea whether something the flight crew did actually caused the problem. BA allowing them to do a press conference suggest they are in the clear, but they weren't 24 after the incident.
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Its the general dumbing down of news at work here. The move of news into an entertainment genre. Its not just the BBC to blame.
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>>As long as the wings have not broken the fuselage>>
It is a matter of stresses caused to the structure.
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PU, I have read the book, The Ghost of Flight 401.
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A true tale as told by my father......in the 70s a plane was brought back into RAF service after a fatal accident resulting in the death of the Navigator but the eventual safe recovery of the craft. After a decent interval the plane went back into front line service........the new crews who knew nothing about its past regularly reported a recurring fault in the Nav's compartment that a "festoon" light used to illuminate each time they fired up the aircraft regardless of the switch position.....it was put down to a wiring fault that was never resolved......The light was found to be "on" when the accident happened....spooky or what ?
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 20/01/2008 at 21:17
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I remember reading this book as well. Very spooky.
Did n't they make a film as well? Or perhaps that was a dream.
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No its a matter of actual damage. The fusleage (in fact any part of the plane) is always under stress and always moving nearly all the time in flight.
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he fusleage (in fact any part of the plane) is always under stress and always moving nearly all the time in flight.
I have to laugh the old man was talking about Avro Shackeltons, these aircraft flew under so much stress bearing in mind the conditions they flew under (salt, very bad weather) and for the 40 odd years they were in service that they were described by crews as either the "vomit rockets" or "100,000 rivets flying in close formation". Pah ! youngsters and their Boeing 777s !!!
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No its a matter of actual damage. >>
AE, aside from repairable damage there is the matter of excessive stresses placed on the airframe due to the extreme rate of descent, i.e. how hard it hit the ground relative to normal perameters.
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And if those stresses have caused no damage then the airframe is useable
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>>news entertainment
RF, with you there. There's far too much bandwidth and not nearly enough news. Pretty much all English/American output is rubbish these days.
I much prefer the format of France24, but Sarkosy is pulling the plug on the English version of it (fair enough).
Will be interesting to see what caused the crash, iirc the autopilot was part of the cause of the Kenilworth crash (or the interpretation of its use).
If you want to see a re-used aircraft that I wouldn't fancy getting on, have a Google for the Swissair BAe146 that thumped onto City airport last year. It's still there, being repaired on a dock adjacent to the airport, but when you see the damage to the fuselage, not my idea of repairable aircraft. But then that's why work in IT, haven't really got the aviation background.
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OK, it was a Swiss International Avro RJ100 (looks like a 146 to me though).
Pictures here : tinyurl.com/2omqfl
I'm still not getting onto it ...
Edited by Citroënian {P} on 20/01/2008 at 22:00
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The Avro RJ100/146 are probably just changes in model name. They look the same to me.
In this case though... if the repairs okay and accepted they save a fortune. But why try if you're not sure it's fixable?
If this was a car, they get written off if not possible to fix within a particular cost. So the cuttoff point for a plane will be a lot higher in money terms. I fretted that my Passat 1.8T Sport after it needed about £3.5k of repairs would be a write off. Only fretted because the company were cutting costs and not buying new cars so I'd have had a hand-me down vehicle. In the end repaired and I got the Alfa 156 2.0 JTS for most of the repair time - only "allowed" a 1.4 Focus type car without manager approval ;-)
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OK it was a Swiss International Avro RJ100 (looks like a 146 to me though). Pictures here : tinyurl.com/2omqfl I'm still not getting onto it ...
It's now been floated back and flown out of LCY to be readied for return to service.
Reading of the monthly bulletins on the Aircraft Accident Investigation website suggests that heavy landings/tailscrapes are pretty common. Bit worrying that this one was so bad they couldn't ferry it out to Stansted or Luton, but the establishment of a temp repair faciitly illustrates the real cost of a write off for an a/c no longer in production.
Not new either, BEA rebuilt a Trident that was badly damaged in 1968 when a freighter crahed onto it at Heathrow.
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JAL flight 123 was a 747 aircraft that suffered a tail strike on landing which was repaired seven years before it crashed killing 520, the 2nd worst air disaster in history.
The cause of the disaster was clearly pinned on an erroneous repair.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123
Regulations relating to reuse and certification of damaged commercial airframes are very tight now days.
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OK it was a Swiss International Avro RJ100 (looks like a 146 to me though).
>>
What are the light blue rectangles on the fuselage and engine?
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They are an attempt to cover up the airline operator (Star Alliance covers a number of airlines), but the story reveals all.
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ignored the adjacent filling station. The Green Man pub also survived ( the noisiest pub in the world ?) :-)
I continue to be impressed by your knowledge of the local area.
Especially the pubs!
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anyone remember the Gimli glider?
www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html
a 767 that ran out of fuel at 41000 feet.
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It seems that G-YMMM has been confirmed as a write-off this morning.
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So how will the metal detectors installed to look for knives not be triggered by metal teeth braces? Not as if teenagers have any orthodontal work.
Or just carry a ceramic knife just in case I guess :-(
Edited by rtj70 on 20/01/2008 at 21:09
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I bought (on behalf of my elderly mother) a Phillips 23" flatscreen LCD some 30 months ago. After little use, it has developed a vertical line, approx 2" wide, down the centre of the screen. Unfortunately, after paying some £500, I did not take out an extended warranty, having been informed that should it go wrong, it would do so within the first 12 months! Having returned it to the supplying retailer today, it looks like repairs will not be economically viable so she will have to purchase a replacement.
On the plus side, she does not have to pay for a TV licence and prices for LCDs have dropped!
Is it worth paying a premium for a 'branded' set or should I just pick up a similar sized TV at a low cost supermarket....I shall be paying as I feel very guilty about not taking out the 3 year warranty....and are they more reliable these days, my own tube type TV being 20 odd years old.
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Some right bargains in Tescos at the moment - non branded and branded.
Samsung (a reliable brand apparently) 23" with a free five year warranty for 499 at JohnLewis.com. I can fully recommend the suppliers.
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Regardless of warranty length you may have some recourse through Sale of Goods Act - products should last a reasonable time and 30 months for a £500 TV IMHO is not reasonable.
Before looking for a new TV I would have a quick word with trading standards.
Only this weekend we bought a Bush HD ready 19 inch LCD widescreen with digital tuner for £200 to replace the 15 inch portable in the bedroom. I had to fit some new coax, but even on a 20 year+ old aerial the picture is excellent.
The big compromise on this TV seems to be the sound quality which is very tinny despite a high base setting.
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>>despite a high base setting.>>
Why not place the set on a low table (to lower the base) and adjust the bass controls to improve the sound quality? ,,,:-)
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>>Samsung (a reliable brand apparently) >>
Samsung has close links with Sony and, in fact, the two companies jointly set up an LCD panels manufacturing plant in Korea in 2004.
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Hi
Two good friends of mine (who I don't really want to 'shop') both graduates a year before me in July 2005, but have yet to start paying back their student loans, despite earning way over the £15,000 threashold.
This really gets my goat as I have been paying from last April and it's not exactly loose change.
The slc website is useless and gives no indication of a penalties one hears about for not paying back the debt when you jolly well know you should be doing. Do these exist and is it in my friends' best interest to inform slc and their employers of the mistake?
Also consider my first sentence; what would you do (no judgement will be passed)?
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I cant remember any penalties, I thought you just got charged interest on the outstanding debt. But I could well be wrong, it was a long time ago when I paid mine off.
[Actually I've just looked at the SLC website and it looks like the system has changed now.]
After graduating I was self employed and was able to defer mine for a few years, but then decided I would prefer to get rid of it. With hindsight I'm glad mine is long gone and doesnt affect my credit rating for getting other loans, a mortgage etc.
If you are finding it a bit steep, I wonder if you could contact SLC and negotiate reduced payments? I think they used to be amenable to this under the old system, whether this is still the case I dont know?
Also consider my first sentence; what would you do (no judgement will be passed)?
Depends how much you like them! I wouldn't do this to a friend.
Perhaps console yourself in the fact that you will have paid yours off before them; SLC are not going to forget about their loans and let them off, they will catch up with your mates at some point.
How are they slipping through the net, are they fiddling their bank statements or something, or is it just SLC being dozy?
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It's just SLC being lazy, they're both PAYE and you can't really fake an NI number. Also one works in the law profession.
I'm not worried about payments myself, I can cope, but £60 per month adds up to £540 which I've paid but other people haven't.
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It's just SLC being lazy they're both PAYE....... Also one works in the law profession.
IMO It is very silly to be other than open and honest in that profession. :-((.
My offsring are on two different repayment systems. Son has payed his of quickly cos it its a percentage of income but daughter, on the older system IIRC pays a fixed amount.
Sons pay has gone up hastening repayments. Daughter now has a higer grade job but pay has gone down ( less shifts and anti social payments).
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One way or another your friends should be persuaded to honour their commitments.
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My daughters, aged 8 and 9, are getting more and more interested in films. Their current favourite is School of Rock (PG).
I would like to expand our children's collection of about 50 movies which is mainly animated and already includes most Pixar, Disney and Studio Ghibli from Japan. Live action includes classics such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Wizard of Oz etc. as well as modern ones. In total, I have about 400 movies on DVD and VHS which I have acquired over the last 20 years but 80% of these are for 15+ age group.
It is no good simply going on the film's certificate - Casablanca and Citizen Kane are both U (Universal) but I would expect the kids would find them boring at this young age. Black and white movies are at a disadvantage somewhat for the kid's attention so they have to be particularly good to make the list.
The Top Rated Family Titles on imdb.com is a good starting place but the imdb.com's Kid's and Family message board seems next to worthless.
So what I am looking for is a list of recommended films, sorted by kid's age. Anybody know where I can find such a thing?
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For some reason my iTunes has suddenly decided not to open! I used it yesterday morning and it was fine but when I came to use it in the afternoon it wouldn't open.
When I double click on the icon (shortcuts and original) the little egg timer appears next to the cursor for a few seconds before disappearing without doing anything!
I didn't do anything to iTunes yesterday...just added 1 album to the music library. Nobody's touched the firewall etc so I don't think it's that. I removed the application and installed it again which hasn't made a difference.
I've Googled the problem but haven't found a solution that worked (and most of the similar problems appear to affect Macs)
Any ideas?
Ta muchly.
FYI: Quicktime (which is installed at the same time as iTunes) works fine.
--
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished
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Hi Jane,
Sometimes this can be caused by a "broken"link from the desktop icon, have you tried opening it from the programme list under the "start" menu? or tried "right-clicking" on the icon and choosing "open" instead of "double-clicking"? - sometimes works!
Billy
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I tried this and same result...nothing :0(
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You could try:
Click on the My Computer icon (Desktop)>Explore>right click on your hard drive (usually C)>Properties>Tools tab>Error Checking section>Click on Check Now button>tick first box, or both if you wish.
You will then need to Restart your computer to run ChkDsk which will/should repair any damaged or corrupt files.
Once ChkDsk has run, try iTunes again.
Edited by Stuartli on 22/01/2008 at 14:51
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okay then! - try here! - may get a few pointers to help you out, seems to be a few things for you to try ;-)
tinyurl.com/2v4r4f
hth
Billy
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Jane,
I hope Billy25's link to the Norton firewall problem has got you going. If not, I have had some success with the Apple forums for iPod problems -
discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=150
I assume you have upgraded to iTunes 7.6 as you have re-installed. A few people seem to have had problems with this upgrade.
My iPod purchased pre-Christmas is my first close encounter with Apple for a long time - I am surprised how temperamental the software is. I have so far skipped the iTunes upgrade and two firmware upgrades for the iPod on the grounds that everything is working, more or less, bar an apparent absence of about 1/3 of the music when searching by artist - odd but liveable with.
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Just a simple start > run and then type itunes.exe into the prompt box, hit return should start up iTunes no matter where it's stored on the PC, in the unlikely event it is just a file location problem.
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should start up iTunes no matter where it's stored on the PC
It used to be the case that that only worked if the directory containing the executable was contained in the PATH environment variable, or it was the current directory; searching the whole file system could take a while (Unix/Linux has a similar system). Has that changed?
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Hi! (again!)
I've checked in online 24hrs before my flight several times and I'm just wondering what benefit you actually get from doing this? The obvious one I can see is that if you're checked in already they can't bump you off the flight if they're overbooked. (I always get to the airport pretty early regardless of whether I've checked in online so the advantage of not having to get there so early is generally lost on me!)
The reason I ask is that I'm off to Aus again tomorrow and when I booked I was allocated a seat. Having looked up where the seat is on seatguru.com I've discovered that on the Dubai-Sydney 15hr flight the seat, a) has a bulkhead behind it (so may not allow much seat recline) and b) this particular bulkhead is the toilet wall. :0(
Normally I just resign myself to hours of discomfort but the thought of 15 hours of a semi reclining seat + the joys of toilet smells/noise of the flushing/people standing around your seat doesn't appeal in the slightest!
Has anyone had these seats before (or similar)(it's row 22 and a window seat on an A340-500)?
Can I request a different seat on the second flight even though I'd have checked in for the entire trip to Aus at LGW?
All comments gratefully received!
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Was there no option as you were checking on-line to select your seat? There is on BA.
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You can but I have seat 22k on 2 seperate planes, changing in Dubai. When you check in at Gatwick you are checked in for both flights....when you check seat availability during online check in it doesn't give you the option to change the seats on the individual flights. If the same seat is available on both flights I would be able to change during online check in but it's unlikely as normally one or t'other flight is jam packed!
I think i'll ask when I get my boarding pass tomorrow. They should be able to tell me whether both flights are full. Hopefully!
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Turn up early, wear your best smile and tell them you've stuffed your back in so when you checked th seat number on line you were a bit conerned about the recline on that particular seat and would they mind awfully checking to see if the seat number can be changed?
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Been looking at various a340-500 cabin seat plans, (enter A340-500 in search on seatguru), and it seems that each cabin layout is slightly different depending on the Airline operators, on most of them seat 22k is the last row of business class, and is a standard seat, cos of the bulk-head, but on some layouts, its in the middle of a block and is described as a lie-flat seat. The Emirates seat is next to the loos! (22k) ? Thai Airways its business class (36k loo seat) and Singapore Airlines its in the middle of a block, (33k in front of loos) cant actually find a plan for a BA a340 yet, but your seat may be ok after all!
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whenever I fly BA I always check in on line 24 hours in advance.
1/ I get the seat I want - (last time i got seat 1A !)
2/ You dont get bumped
3/ If you have bags, the fast bag check in is fatser then checking in at your designated desk
4/ If you have no bags you just turn up and walk on.
Brill!
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"(last time i got seat 1A !)"
What's so good about 1A? Is it opposite the stewardess?
You want to get the emergency exit over the wing, that's where you want to be. Gallons of free leg-room and first on the chute.
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1A is business class.
Yup the overwing exit seat is best plus you get to open and throw the door out the plane in an emgency. You can't leave stuff on the floor tho.
Oh and you wont be first out the chute, you will be second behind me.
Edited by Altea Ego on 22/01/2008 at 17:28
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I fly every week and always check in on-line, mainly for reasons stated above, but also if I am held up on the way it is one less thing to do as you rush through the airport. If you are on a very busy flight it is the best way to make sure you get a good seat. On odd occassions when I have forgotten to do so I end up in the dreaded middle seat!
It's a while since I flew with BA but with Lufthansa you can book in on-line, then when you arrive at the airport use the check-in machines to print/reprint your boarding card and change your seat. If you haven't printed your boarding card you will need to go to the check-in machine anyway to print it out, check if it gives the option to change. Otherwise just ask nicely.
One more thing.....with BA always ask if they can give you a better seat, if you are travelling alone you might well get a free upgrade. In my last job I travelled to the US 3-4 times a year, every time I flew BA I was upgraded on one of the legs.
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My granddaughter, off school with a sore throat, has just shown me that there is a young fox with an injured back leg - probably from a rta - in our back garden, with two cats circling around it. The animals are curious but nervous about each other. The fox would probably like to leave, but may not be able to make the jump to the top of the wall owing to its injury.
I don't want to get rabies or be bitten. The RSPCA doesn't answer its phones. It's too small a job for plod. Any suggestions?
Never mind. I am told the fox has managed to scale the wall, followed by the tabby tomcat (but not ours which is more cautious).
Edited by Lud on 22/01/2008 at 15:17
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Fortunately we do not have rabies in this country, even in the wild fox population.
I am suprised the local road safety mafia are not instantly cliaming to have humps and speed cameras installed every 3 metres to prevent the streets being awash with the blood of squashed foxes.
But we kow that the streets are awash with the blood of our human population murdered by mutant motorists, so who can tell which is fox blood.
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It's always best to phone the local animal rescue people (generally every town/district has one) for things like this. RSPCA is pretty sluggish to respond to things unless there's a tv crew following them!
A friend witnessed a cat get run over once. It dragged itself into a nearby garden. She phoned the RSPCA and they said if it was still there in 48 hours to call them back! She phoned the local animal rescue (WADARS) and they came within 30mins, picked the cat up and took it to the vet...it had a broken pelvis.
I wouldn't recommend attempting to handle a wild fox...they're feisty things even before you add an injury to the mix!
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She phoned the RSPCA and they said if it was still there in 48 hours to call them back!
I once got a similar response and lack of interest from the RSPCA when I saw a swan stuck on the roof of a pub. They probably thought it was a wind-up...
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 22/01/2008 at 17:26
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Just tell them if they don't get there then the poor thing looks in agony so you intend to shoot it with your air rifel.
They should respond.
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Tell 'em it was chased into the garden by a pack of dogs and a bunch of folks on horseback. They'll be there before you've put the phone down.
Kevin...
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A pack of pit bulls and the Royal Horse Artillery (which one used to see cantering past exercising the cattle, but I reckon they've moved)? I'm afraid that's all you would get round here, give or take the odd slight anachronism...
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After watching an amazing programme on BBC3 last night about the Andes plane crash (Alive), I thought I would buy the book to see if its as good as the programme was.
Can anyone recommend a good true story book of human acheivement such as Papillon or Dave Pelzer (which I've read).
Thanks.
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>>true story book of human acheivement such as Papillon
I thought that was proved to be just a 'rollicking good yarn' years ago.
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Cannot help you on the Andes plane crash. If you like first hand accounts of real events then any of Max Arthur's books fit the bill. His 'first hand' accounts from soldiers, nurses etc. of the Falklands war are very moving - and also made into a play we saw in Exeter, many years ago.
He is a genuinely nice man who has the ability to really listen to people. For this reason he was also invited to write the history of the Para's from the perspective of the men and was then given access to the archives of tapes at the Imperial War Museum. These were accounts of the Great War by the people who were there.
Edited by deepwith on 23/01/2008 at 12:25
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Alive by Piers Paul Reed is the story of the Andes plane crash, a very good book!
In a similar vein - Fatal Storm by Rob Mundle about the Sydney / Hobart yacht race disaster.
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For other true stories of human endurance/ survival, try:
The Long Walk - Slavomir Rawicz.
Blokes escape from WW2 Russian gulag and walk 4000 miles to India.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Aron Ralston. (Not for the squeamish!).
Bloke gets trapped in a deserted canyon by a 1 tonne boulder falling on his hand. There is only one way to free himself!
And of course Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, but you might have already read it/ seen the film. IMO the sequel, This Game of Ghosts, is good too.
might post some more when I remember them..
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Not so much to do with human achievement as just a true life biography from the early barnstorming days of flight ..
my all time favourite is 'Fate is the Hunter' by Ernest K Gann.
Reads like a 'boys own' ripping yarn ...but its all true.
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Second Fatal Storm, an astonishing tale.
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Also Chuck Yeager's biography is great.
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Enemy coast ahead, by Wing Commander Guy Gibson is better.
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Terror on the Cliff by Eileen Dover
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>>Terror on the Cliff by Eileen Dover
:)
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On the Dave Pelzer line I have just finished Clarissa Dickson Wright's autobiography - the half of "Two Fat Ladies" who isn't dead, but drinking 2 pints of gin for 12 years makes you wonder how this can be the case.
A "riches to rags, rags to riches, riches to bankruptcy, bankruptcy to survival" tale.
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The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard is absolutely brilliant. It tells the story of the author's winter journey in Antarctica to collect penguin eggs to better understand their biology. This was a part of Scott's expedition to the South Pole. The book also describes the author's experience of being part of the search party looking for Scott and the rest of the polar party. Very long but I found it difficult to put down.
A totally different book and different sort of human achievement is Bridge Across My Sorrows by Christina Noble. An Irish orphan who had a terrible childhood herself who one day decided to go to VietNam to set up a charity to help the street children. She had no money, no permission, no contacts and did not speak Vietnamese. Again, absolutely brilliant.
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'Miracle in the Andes' by Nando Parrado who was one of the survivors is a far better read than 'Alive!' - just read it last week.
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Almost anything by Ranolf Fiennes.
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I've got 'Mad, bad and dangerous to know' by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as my next one to read after I've finished 'The Death Zone' by Mat Dickson. Looks like it'll be a great read.
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A (or The) Life of My Choice, by the late Wilfred Thesiger, and anything else by that extraordinary figure.
Chickenhawk, memoirs of a Vietnam helicopter pilot. Can't remember the author's name but it's a terrific read, best book on flying I can remember.
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Chickenhawk - Robert Mason, very good book. One I've re-read more than once which is rare for me.
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While we're on the subject may I share a great disappointment with you? Some years ago I was going through a nautical phase and came across the biographical books by Tristan Jones - tales of single handed sailing through storms and shipwreck with feats of endurance, ingenuity and an indominitable spirit. Turns out he'd hoodwinked us all; they were works of fiction :(
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Naples 44 by Norman Lewis, widely recognised as one of the best books which deal with events during WWII and which is an astonishing account of how a people dealt and in some cases failed to deal with the occupation.
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Chickenhawk - Robert Mason very good book.
Oh yes one of my all time favourites, I think I've read it at least 3 times.
Another one for the OP is:
If This is a Man by Primo Levi. His harrowing account of how he ended up in Auschwitz but managed to survive.
Also if you like WW2 stuff, some of the best books I've read are the "Currahee!" series of 4 books by Donald Burgett. I think they are only available on Amazon.
His graphic account of the mud and blood reality of the ordinary soldier in the front line (as in the Forgotton Voices books), freezing in foxholes, shooting the enemy and being shot at; without the academic analysis (plenty of other good books in which to read all that).
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 23/01/2008 at 15:17
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Murray Walker's autobiography is a great read - he's had, and still is, enjoying an amazing life.
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Primo on BBC Tv this Sunday with Anthony Sher as the man himself - should be worth a look.
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WOW!
Thanks all. Some good recommendations there to keep me busy.
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Can I join in?
One of my old favourites, now in paperback "We Die Alone" by David Howarth.
"Four men set out to carry out sabotage operations in occupied Norway during WWII, arranged by London. An unfortunate set of circumstances leads to their discovery before they have a chance to even get going. Isolation, extreme temperatures, lack of food, lack of medical aid, constant real threat of capture and therefore death." From a review on Amazon.
Can I also recommend some "history books" which are good for the "personal level" - ie the suffering/triumphs of the people involved rather than just the history aspect (tactics/politics etc)
1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow (Paperback)
by Adam Zamoyski
Any of the books by Antony Beevor - "Stalingrad", "Berlin - the downfall" and "Paris after the liberation" - he has done others also.
Oh, and another old favourite
"Endurance": Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (The reference to Cherry-Garrard above reminded me of the Antarctic - there is a good biog of Cherry-Garrard available also by Sarah Wheeler)
By the way, Amazon has lots of reviews by customers if you want to get the flavour of the books.
Enjoy your reading!
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Very interesting to read this. Thanks also from me. I have just added 11 more titles to my Amazon wish list.
I am also a big fan of these tales of courage against all odds and I can second some of the above recommendations and perhaps add some more:
Ranulph Fiennes - Living Dangerously (I have a dog-eared copy of this autobiography)
Ranulph Fiennes - Captain Scott (one of my Top 30 Best Books Ever Read)
Fiennes is the only Scott biographer to have "manhauled a heavy sledgeload through the great crevasse fields of the Beardmore Glacier, explored icefields never seen by man or walked a thousand miles on poisoned feet".
Jon Krakauer - Into Thin Air: Personal Account of the Everest Disaster (another Top 30).
Antony Beevor - Berlin: The Downfall. (Recently read this; very good).
Just finished Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago so was very interested to see The Long Walk recommended above.
Paul Brickhill - Escape or Die; True Stories of Heroic Escapes. (A few month's ago, I read my father's copy that he was given as a boy and I found Brickhill's understated writing style very poignant and moving. Very British. Top 30)
Stephen E. Ambrose - Band of Brothers (Top 30) Also good are First Light - Geoffrey Wellum and Fighter Boys: Saving Britain 1940 - Patrick Bishop.
R A Bagnold - Libyan Sands (recounts first-hand the development of vehicular travel in sandy deserts.)
WB Kennedy Shaw - Long Range Desert Group (The forerunner of the SAS with many tales of long desert walks back through enemy lines.)
I visited Auschwitz two years ago (by car) and I can thoroughly recommend:
Art Spiegelman - Maus which is a graphic novel (as in cartoon). It is #1 in 3 of Amazon's bestsellers lists and in my Top 30.
The Amazon review: the story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.
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Dangerous Beauty by Mark C Ross. He is a Safari guide who was leading a party in 1999 in Uganda when two of his clients and six other tourists were murdered by Hutu rebels. Wonderful accounts of wildlife, danger and beauty in Africa
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Hi All,
When I bought my flat, a quarterly service chage bill came. The bill was for £300 and the first month of the appropriate quarter fell into the time when the previous owner had posetion of the flat.
I have achieved nothing in a year with her solicitor who has offered me £50 as 'good will' which makes my blood boil as it's clearly their responsibility to pay the full £100.
I am going to threaten them with small claims court action which I fully intend to back up if needs be. The question is:
Can I threaten them in my final letter, that if I take action through the small claims court, I will include a claim for
* compensation for takinga day off work
* compensation for 1 hour of my time per letter that I have written so far (say at £20 per hour which is about what I earn)
* compensation for mental distress and annoyance caused by having to pursue the matter
Or can I only apply for the actual costs?
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Have a good look on the HMCS Money Claim on LIne website tinyurl.com/yrqkx9.
Generally one can claim real out of pocket expenses including the court fee for issuing the summons. I think a mental distress claim where the sum at issue is £50 might raise some eyebrows.
You need to think carefully about whether this is worth pursuing for £50. In a previous life I worked on the public counter of a County Court. Claims made "on principle" tend to be a nightmare for all except the defendant; he's seen it all before.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 23/01/2008 at 21:50
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I'm hoping that the threat of action will make them pay up the £100 as there is no question that it is there responsibility & they are based hundreds of miles away in Bristol (I am in London). Can I claim for losing a day's holiday from work though if I quantify it, say at £150 or so? Or just the court fee? Also will they have to come to the court in London to defend themselves & if I lose do I have to pay their travel expenses?
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if I lose do I have to pay their travel expenses?>>
I once brought a small claims court case (for a modest amount) against a well known mapping company - it engaged a leading Central London firm of solicitors to defend the case.
This firm, within days, wrote to me indicating/warning that its initial expenses claim would be for £2,000; tit also requested copies of correspondence and phone calls which I had undertaken and which I duly provided.
A few days before the case was being heard, the firm asked if I had any objection to one of their witnesses being present for the case (it was a 400-mile round trip)? I agreed.
At the court hearing no witness appeared, no defence was presented and I was awarded all to which I had been entitled.
The judge was pleasant, helpful and clearly somewhat angry at the way I had been treated by the firm of solicitors.
Fortunately I knew the procedures of magistrates, Crown and County court cases and was not fazed by threats (I regularly reported on court cases at all levels for many years).
If you feel you have a strong case, go for it...:-)
Edited by Stuartli on 23/01/2008 at 23:11
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Pop into your local county court and get HMCS leaflet EX307 "The small claims track".
You can also get it from:
www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex30...f
Look carefully at the section entitled "What other costs might I be able to claim if I win?". Look carefully at the whole thing, in fact, and you will find your answers.
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