A mile of runway can take you anywhere
Hello all .. I seem to have a few viewers and I’d be really keen for any feedback .. good, bad, indifferent to help me steer what sort of content people would like to see … happy to carry on rambling but feel free to let me know ..
Just on holiday and drafting a story for Pilot magazine about the build .. got some nice air to air shots planned for those summer days ahead for the story 😎
So checked with my local friendly Chief Engineer , Bob …
The repeat form looks fairly straightforward …
Well .. the form is … it was a problem with the ‘part’ holding the pen !
Having sent the form off duly signed up I got a nice email from the LAA engineering advising that I hadn’t quite completed it correctly … on re checking I had managed to take the figures from the empty weighing page on the LAA Weight and Balance workbook instead of the page that brings all that together with the variable weight elements .. ie fuel, me, pax, etc !
As I was about to get on the boat for a rare holiday I thought this would be a painful delay as I would only have 1 week to complete in return before the permit ran out … and .. on checking the form it is easier to keep it IN permit than let it expire …
Anyway .. Jerry (Parr) from LAA engineering acknowledged my apologies for being a dummy and entering the incorrect figures (advised an apology wasn’t necessary .. which was nice touch) and accepted my correct figures via email
Got an email back that afternoon advising it should all go through later that day
Many thanks LAA .. very efficient service
WordPress have just kindly offered me the ability to set my default settings for GDPR
I do have a number of posts that have people either shown or named or both and it was all part of the general fun and sharing of the entire build. Now it all starts to look very serious ….
So .. my general override is that any picture blog words notes etc are there in good faith and not to be used for any devious or underhand reason .. but happy to remove if anyone is worried 😟
Now that said .. here is a little story about the utte stupidity that this law has engendered …. so .. there we were .. flying back from a sunny Luxembourg in a very old but solid PA28 … the bad weather everywhere West of Paris was set to clear around 13:00 local and we were set to arrive around 14:00 local … weather didn’t clear and in fact stayed pretty much until around 18:30 local …
Anyway after a divert to Beauvais on the way .. wait 2 hours and then a second divert on the next leg to Alderney because Guernsey dropped about 30 miles before we got to it .. we were standing in the small check in building on Alderneys small airport filling in the gendec
For those who haven’t visited Guernsey or Alderney .. they still use carbonised gendecs that you fill in by hand … have done for years so I can fill them in almost blindfold now.
I filled it in with the duty fireman telling me the landing was free (thank you local Jersey resident Charles Strasser for arranging that at 90% of UK airfields … to save diverting pilots worrying about cost of landing when making a divert decision …such a sensible and Very English arrangement) .. Beauvais will charge me 😉
Anyway .. gendec duly completed I handed it to the very friendly chap … he held his hands up and said I can’t see or touch it …. WTF …. I said to him .. don’t tell me it’s GDPR .. and yes, it sure was … what an utter load of Bxxxxxxx !!!!
So yes, .. the pilot has to tear off the top page fold it and put it in a secure box … And effectively it is not checked until someone comes and opens that box at the end of the day
Not unsurprisingly Guernsey and I guess Alderney are getting badly completed forms .. I guess I could have put D Duck and M Mouse had arrived from Botswana in a Boeing 777 and declared yes we did have goods and yes they were semi automatic …. the world has gone mad .. I for one would be more than happy that arriving at a non local field I am checked .. for the good of ALL
France wouldn’t put up with this crap … every airfield in France you are met by minimum 2 sometimes more, gendarmes .. armed to the teeth … and checked and smile and wave .. they are generally friendly … Beauvais had around 20armed troops patrolling the airport .. perhaps .. given the numbers of people traveling through that place and to a massive range of European cities it’s seen as a far greater threat …
The world we now live in …
Jersey Sherwood Ranger 