derry

When I was training at Kidlington I stayed with Wing Cmdr Rupert Oakley DSO DFC DFM AFC in Woodstock, he flew Hampdens, Manchesters, Lancasters and Mosquitoes on 73 bombing raids ending up as a Master Bomber in the Pathfinders. To cut a long story short I was looking at his log book together with a scrap book his mother had kept, in it he was shown receiving his DFC for controlling a raid on the Dortmund Emms Canal. I pointed this out to him and he burst out laughing, "Bombed the wrong bloody place but wrecked it so well they gave me the DFC" He stayed in the RAF sfter the war. After the prototype Vickers Valiant 'V bomber'crashed killing the RAF project pilot he took the job and then was the first Valiant squadron commander. Involved in the Atom Bomb Christmas Islands tests in the fifties. He was a really interesting person to talk to, especially telling stories about crashes always emphasising some funny angle. Les Knight was one of those pilots killed in the DEC raid.

Early in the second half there was so much water at the Northam end the ball was leaving a splash trail in places.

The pitch was watered before the game and again at half time. Shaw slipped for the first goal and several of the others Clyne and Hooiveld included slipped several times.

Interestingly Eric, Bob Knights DSO DFC didn't fly on the dams raid but joined 617 later and flew on most of the raids undertaken by 617 under Leonard Cheshire and the sinking of the Tirpitz under Willie Tait. He had already flown a complete tour in 619 prior to that subsequently joined BOAC in 1944 on secondment from the RAF then stayed on. It was an Australian, PO Les Knight who flew on the dams raid, he was killed on a raid not long after. That must have been a lot of sideslip to hit that pod, presumably scraped the bottom. We were lucky because quite a few of the Captains were ex WW11 when we started out. Did you fly with Tony Liskutin Czech fighter pilot who instructed at Hamble, he used to do the aerobatics there?

Here's one for you Sue a connection between the two crashes. The Captain of the Staines Trident represented the Captain of the Elizabethan at the subsequent enquiry/disciplinary hearings after the Munich crash. A travesty, the cause of the crash was slush increasing the drag by the square of the speed not understood in nosewheel aircraft at that time. The Germans would never admit it and blamed ice on the wings which was proved conclusively wrong in time. The travesty was that BEA sacked the Captain for being the commander in the wrong seat although the training captain in the co pilots seat was fully qualified as he was to fly in either seat. Subsequently when Captains were on occasions on the BAC 1-11 asked to fly together I insisted the Operations Manual was rewritten so that the designated Commander was the Captain occupying the left hand seat so that the pilots could handle the aircraft in turn from their regular seat. They didn't want to do it but we refused to operate unless they changed it.

I knew the navigator on Ken Brown's F for Freddie, they were in the third wave and the second and last aircraft to attack the Sorpe dam. Dudley Heal won a DFM for his part and became a customs officer after the war. That was when I knew him from 1971 onwards when he was the senior customs officer at Southampton Airport. In between flights the customs officers could be found propping up the bar upstairs in the old terminal.

I wonder have they taken his passport. If he is charged it would make a transfer difficult.

There are two things poles apart, Cortese is a bloody difficult taskmaster and very demanding. He has done a very successful job here. You don't have to like him but I sure as hell appreciate where we are now.

I saw Delgado playing for Ecuador in the South American Copa. Ecuador were good and Delgado was awesome. The problem was twofold, he joined us with a knee injury and a world cup coming up. Having signed him Lowe should have sent him for an operation there and then. He didn't and he was pressured by amongst others the Ecudorean President to play, which he did presumably with Cortisone pumped into him but damaging his knee every time he played. He was never the same after that. The same happened with Pahar's ankle if I remember correctly. Liverpool are making no such mistake with Gerrard, having an operation on his shoulder immediately. Clubs know that some international teams don't care, they just want the player to play and damn the consequences. I hope we have learned.

Is that the one with the messages all over a 737.

You are spot on there Eric, sometimes we didn't have much choice. A crew positioning to Cuba in a subsidiary of Air Jamaica Dornier was flown into a Cu Nim, pretty much barrel rolled and lost a lot of height, we dropped them and would you believe went to Cubana, positioning on an An 24 until they lost a F27 and a An 24 the same day. That finished that. A mate from Boorley Green positioned on the Learjet that Payne Stewart was killed on a few weeks later. I refused to fly on a Venezuelan Let 410 after checking the dates on the life jackets and no handle on the emergency exit. It was lost in an accident a couple of years later.

Probably the fastest you've ever moved. Glad it wasn't me.

Can't even get the batteries right on the B787, generators often fail, APUs fail to start, the pilot's unions will kill this one. What price getting insurance.

I was doing a flight into a cat C airport with a Captain who had to do a familiarisation on the jump seat before being cleared to operate. He was in uniform, halfway through the flight he wandered up the back to chat up a hostie. While he was away I went to the toilet. Before I could open the toilet door the nearest passenger in panic asked me who was flying the a/c. I explained the F/O and that the other Capt wasn't operating.

:lol: I bet the 747 glider passengers were glad pilots (and a flight engineer) were on board. My mate says he wouldn't want to have to do it with only two pilots, especially as he wasn't on the flight deck when it happened. I hope they will put ash detectors and lightning avoiders on them, never mind crosswind limits of 15 knots. Autopilots aren't certified to deal with severe turbulence and running out of fuel. There is no autopilot on a current airliner that can do a take off. I can see the news now, maiden pilotless flight cancelled due lack of passengers.

She said it was a matter of principle and gave the award to a Kenyan Childrens Charity that she regularly visits to do voluntary work. The PF were advised that they had a cast iron case but the forces lawyer took a punt on the appeal £50K insured but Hants Police have to pay £100k. Pretty dumb.

Watford have a massive problem if they go up. They are not allowed to sign anybody and the loan signings will have gone back. Due to breaches of FA rules.

Nobody wore replica shirts in those days, it seems that since supporters started wearing the teams shirts the yobbish behaviour started. I went to plenty of Saints matches at Fratton and never felt threatened including the 1984 FA Cup. Nowadays the pack mentality from some causes the problem. It is really only football that suffers from this low life behaviour. Other sports are much more grown up.

I had to go around at MAN after a PIA 747 entered the runway without permission when I was about 300ft cleared to land. In the seventies when I was a First Officer flying an empty a/c the Capt let his hostie girlfriend into his seat. She had done it before and was quite good, however I expected the Capt to take his seat before landing, but he left her there and I basically landed the a/c. This particular a/c only had steering on the Capt's side so as we stopped on the runway, he got back in his seat. Not the smartest thing to do, but the Capt was an ex RAF WW11 Typhoon ground attack pilot so I suppose his risk threshold was a lot higher than mine.

Fiorentina, to move Ramirez from SMS firstly have to negotiate with Cortese, secondly find better than £12m up front, good luck with that.

Yes, because along with a lot of other conservative voters I wanted to send a message to the Tory party. Sort out the Liberal PM and start acting like Tories if you want my support in the next GE. If the Tories act like Tories the vote will return in droves. Nail down a referendum and let the population decide the EU question.

Fonte was uncomfortable on the left whenever he played there. That means that Yoshida keeps out Fonte and if Hooiveld is injured Yoshida switches to the left to allow Fonte on the right.

moving it up, looks relevant to me.

Sad news, Life is not fair. RIP Kevin.

Lallana has a lot of talent and for me performs best as a wide left midfielder. Unfortunately he has been allowed to roam about and too often wanders infield and becomes on the periphery. We then become unbalanced leaving empty wide areas, depriving the midfielders of a quick outlet as happened a lot on Saturday, making them pass the ball sideways and backwards rather than driving at the opposition after passing wide, giving Lambert and Rodriguez the opportunity to make runs. We were very static against WBA. He often takes a while to get back to form after injury. I'm not sure that the way we play gets the best out of him and that he may be better reverting to his wide left roll with less interchange for him.