Hi. I went yesterday noon to Robledillo aerodrome. I had a couple of things to comment in site with the President and Vice-president of the Aeroclub de Guadalajara Board of Directors (I'm a member of this Board).

The President, José Luís, did not show up, but the Vice-president, David, was there...

After a cup of coffee in the canteen, we've checked the signalling of a terrain zone not available for the moment for planes taxiing in it, due its very rough surface. Then we examined a piece of concrete chunk (in the form of a small beam) that we're trying to use as a piece of a centreline taxiway in the terrain, parallel to the runway...

Just moments before leaving up the field, I knew that it, my beloved Robledillo de Mohernando airfield, had been desecrated Friday evening... and, suddenly, all the extremely good memories accumulated there since mid August 2009 were wiped out in a second... I couldn't believe it...!


Some people have a complete lack of sensitivity and loyalty to certain facts.

Bye

Picture: An Evektor EuroStar departing RWY 01 at Robledillo AD with the snow covered Ocejón pike in the background.

Hi to all. The French Air Accidents Investigation Board (BEA) released yesterday July 5 their Final Report on the accident of an Air France Airbus A330-200 that plunged into the South Atlantic ocean a couple of hours or so after departing Rio do Janeiro/Galeao airport as flight AF 447, inbound to Paris/Charles de Gaulle airport, on July 1 2009.

I've downloaded this report from BEA's website. It's available in French (the official one) and in English. I've begun reading it and it promises a lot. 224 pages plus 12 annexes. The picture on the left is the cover of the document.

For those of you interested in Air Safety, just to say there are some important latent faults in the roots of the event, and that some of the barriers established (the Ransom Model) didn't work at all in this case: procedures and training.

You can get your copy of the report and annexes in English at:

http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.af.447/flight.af.447.php

You can get it too in French, if you wish (who uses French nowadays for aviation matters? It's simple: the French themselves, and nobody else... :-)))

I love you all. Have a nice night.

TWRman

Picture © aeroman3

This picture shows the front instrument panel of a Republic F-84F 'Thundrstreak', like the one flown by Richard Back from France in the past century 'sixties, and which is, together with Richard, the characters of his book.

As it's said in the book, 24 dials to watch (some in this panel and the rest in the two side consoles and the two auxiliary panels) and an immense amount of switches and warning lights.

It is a typical instrument panel for the fighters designed from the mid-'forties to the mid-'seventies. Modern fighters (from the F-16 up) have a very different instrument panels

This pic shows a pair of Republic F-84F Thunderstreaks in flight, like te one flown by Richard Bach in Europe in the past century sixties... These ones seem to be part of the Montana ANG...

The Republic F-84F Thunderstreak was a though plane to fly, and Richard tells a lot about it in his book. It was smaller and lighter than her contemporary North American F-86 'Sabre', the hero in the Korean War, but not as succesfull in air combat...

Get through the book, if you have an aviator soul and have some knowledge about aircraft systems and operations. Fighters, in some way, are not much different than airliners when not fighting... You will be delighted with it...

Have a nice night.

TWRman

Good evening to all. I've begun using this evening my new e-book's reader. And I've begun with Richard Bach first book, 'Stranger to the Ground'. The book was published for the first time in 1963. By that time, he was an F-84F Thunderstreak pilot with the New Jersey ANG (Air National Guard). His unit, 141st Fighter Squadron, 108th Fighter Wing, was deployed to Europe in TDY (Temporary DutY) in 1960, having his home base in France (not Belgium, as stated before), at Chaumont Air Base.

He's scheduled one evening  to fly to RAF Wethersfield in Essex, East Anglia, UK, just to pick up a locked bag weighing 39 lbs, containing some Top Secret documents, and drop it off at his home base...

The event was real, and Richard tell us in his book all the feelings he felt during this flight...

NOTE: As always, I deeply recommend to read this book to anyone with an aviator soul... The book is mainly technical, relating all just how to operate an F-84F and fly it across the European skies... Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to understand all the technicals... As I said before, you have to be a pilot, and know a lot about fighters, to enjoy the book. Due to it, I strongly don't recommend to read the Spanish edition, 'Ajeno a la Tierra'. I've don't read it in Spanish, but according with the quality of the translations of Richard's books into Spanish, I'm completely sure is rubbish...

Love you all...

TWRman

By the way, the device came with about 100 titles in Spanish installed... I have reading material for almost my whole lifetime here!...

Bye...

Well, I've entered today in the e-book's universe. I've bought this morning an e-book reader. Well, it's not exactly an e-book reader. It's a small Android tablet (7 inch screen), with a colour touch capacitive screen, that suits perfectly my needs. 149 EUR...

I've download and installed in it the Amazon Kindle App for Android. Works perfectly well, so I've bought two Richard Bach's books there. I read one of them long time ago: 'Stranger to the Ground'. The other is new for me: 'Biplane'...

My aim is to have in electronic form most of Richard's books, even the ones I have in paper...

Have a nice night all of you. I love you all...

TWRman