Week of 2nd June 2014

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Monday, 2nd June

We've received the new tax disc for Jane's car, and I've installed it. See here for more details, albeit relating to Nicole. The USB power lead for the Fuji digicam is also here.

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Tuesday, 3rd June

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Wednesday, 4th June

I've swapped to 12s for the last 2 days of this fortnight - today and tomorrow. Much more civilised. So it's checking short-form material, and the occasional own production,as they pop up in the spot-check screen.

Plus, in the evening, checking edited material that hadn't uploaded when the early bods left.

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Thursday, 5th June

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Friday, 6th June

70th Anniversary of D-Day

Lots of TV coverage of the commemoration service at Arromanches, just inland of Gold beach. I recorded and DVDed the edited highlights package of 1 hour duration (the main live coverage ran about 10 hours, which is too much, even for a completist like me) There are also some documentaries, under the "Normandy '44" banner, which I will also record.

I've tested the USB power lead for the Fuji digicam, and it appears to work. now to see how useful it is in anger - Sunday.

After the problems I had last year, when Ulysses overheated in a traffic queue, I've decided to excurse to Cosford by train. The fare, as an off-peak return, is just under UKP53, which is not much more than it would cost to drive. Besides, if I buy a Senior Railcard, at a cost of UKP30 for a year, I can get a third off most train fares. Two excursions like this, and I'm in pocket.

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Saturday, 7th June

So I've done that - cost me UKP69 for this trip. But Yeovilton, in July, will only run about UKP35, instead of UKP50, so the railcard will have paid for itself. Dunsfold, at the end of August, is a different matter - train is virtually impossible for that, and besides, Jenny wants to come.

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Sunday, 8th June

RAF Cosford Air Show

The day started about 6:45 a.m. when I rolled out of bed to get breakfast. Had to do it that early in order to catch the 08:11 from Ealing Broadway to Reading, and then onward via Birmingham International to Cosford, which rail station is right outside the air base. UKP25 to get in (no Senior concession) plus UKP6 for a souvenir programme, which has blurbs about the various aircraft appearing, and a timetable of appearances.

Of course, the timetable bore not much resemblance to actuality. First thing - find the Planes TV tent, and pre-order the show DVD. Then lunch - burger, chips and a pint. Good, but expensive. All this while less-interesting (to me) aircraft displayed.

Then the Eurofighter Typhoon appeared - first I knew of it was the roar as he pulled a (probably) 4G turn away from the crowd under full afterburner. Loud is an inadequate word to describe this - a Typhoon is probably the loudest thing on 2 wings. Of course, most of the time he's on reheat - certainly nearly every time he turns away you can see the fires in the tailpipes. Dry thrust is 13,500 lbf from each of the two engines, boosted to 20,000lbf with reheat. He also made a slow pass at what is technically known as "high alpha" - nose-up at about 45 degrees. Very few aircraft can do this, but a Typhoon makes it look easy - without vectored thrust.

We also had the Breitling Wingwalkers, the Blades, the Red Arrows, the BBMF (no Lancaster, unfortunately) a dual display by a Canberra PR9 and a Hunter, and, of course, the Vulcan, in its first display of the 2014 season, after the wing leading edge modifications. And she was in fine form (and voice) The 2014 display seem to omit the initial full-power pull-up we saw last year, but makes up for it with a high-power (90%) pass. I say 90% power because she howls at this point - and that howl is unique to the Olympus-200 engined Vulcans. It's caused by a resonance in the air intakes, which is excited at 85-93% power (approximately) by the 2 tons/sec of air blasting through the tapering pipes.

Of course, it being a British Summer weekend, Jupiter Pluvious made an appearance for a few minutes.

I also managed to visit the Vulcan Village tent, and picked up some schwag - a baseball cap, embroidered with the logo, a new Vulcan lapel badge (I've lost the first one) some raffle tickets (first prize - a flight in one of the Blades' Extra 300 aircraft beside the Vulcan.The Blades claim that they are the only aerobatic airline, and such Vulcan flights include some loops and rolls) The highlight of that visit was to find Martin Withers, Chief Pilot for the Trust, and Captain of XM607 for the first Black Buck raid on the Falklands during the brouhaha of 1982, signing autographs. Well, what can one do? I got mine.

Once the displays were over, I made my way back to the rail station, and after queueing for a while,embarked. The return trip (via Birmingham New Street, rather than Birmingham International) was entirely routine, and I got home just after 22:00.

So, a long day - but a worthwhile one. Next such excursion will be to Yeovilton, at the end of July.

I didn't take many photos, and the existing set of Mallory AAs in the Fuji digicam survived, so I didn't need the USB power lead, or the big Tekkeon battery I carried. More about this another time - it's 2 a.m on Monday as I type this.

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