Random Stuff!

[paul]

Rollo I remember reading that in the mail when I went past there last week there looks like some work is going on and some trees have been cut down

 

[Otisblue]

In the 1980's there was a rumour that Branson /Virgin were to buy the old Blues training ground in Damson Lane which was close to where Solihull Moors are now with a view to developing the land for housing but nothing came of it, last time I drove past it the old ground was just an overgrown field.

I think it was reported in the Evening Mail but I can't find anything in their archives.

Agree with you rollo. Back in the day, I used to play footie for the Bakelite Sunday morning team, whose sports ground was where Solihull Moors is now. The talk in the clubhouse/bar was that Virgin had bought that land in the hope of getting planning permission for housing. I drove past there a few months back and as paul says it looks like work has started in the field, but suspect this is something to do with Land Rover expansion.

And talking of famous people, Roger Hynd came to watch us at the Bake ground one Sunday morning, great bloke. Also does Louis Donowa count ? Met him in the Blues shop one day. Also, after we won the Ashes in Sydney, the 2010 tour, we flew out of Sydney and James Anderson and Geoff Boycott were on the same flight. We were getting off for a few days spotting in Dubai, and Geoff Boycott got in the lift to baggage reclaim with us as he was getting off there as well. He looked right miserable so did not take the opportunity to speak to him, and it was FA cup 3rd round day and I was a bit more interested in finding out how Blues had got on, and from memory we had won 4-1 at Millwall, so I was happy.

Onto this tour, we just got back from Aus on Saturday ( Swiss/Cathay out via HK and return Sing/Swiss via Singapore ). We only managed to get tickets for Day 2 in Melbourne, which was probably our best day of the tour. Great to see Cooky get a century. Could not believe the stick he was getting from pundits out there. I hope he carries on for a few more years yet. Cant see him catching Tendulkar for runs scored but he can certainly catch Ponting in 2nd.

KRO

 

[Glenn Eldridge]

Although not quite BHX its close-ish, 2 people sadly lost their lives in a crash in Worcestershire today, a Piper PA-28 en route to Gloucester Airport crashed on Bredon Hill near Pershore, I can actually see the crash site from my house but have refrained from taking any photos.

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/15814072.Two_die_in_light_aircraft_crash_near_Bredon_Hill/

 

[Ray Finkle]

I've just been reading about that, very sad indeed

Thoughts and prayers to their families.

 

[Ianbutty]

Way off topic but we lost one of the Moody Blues at the weekend. Ray Thomas: an extraordinary voice, great songwriter and funny funny man. I Watched their Isle of Wight Festival (1970) concert documentary last night on Sky Arts. An all too often misunderstood and overlooked band. And Brummie(ish)

I am at an age where my musical heroes are leaving us...all to often.

 

[Ianbutty]

I hope that they sort out Carillion. Will be disastrous. Not least for the 43,000 employees. How (and why) on earth a company with 5.2 billion in sales can get itself 1.5 billion in debt is beyond me. If it does collapse all those contracts will be tied up in the administrators hands possibly for months. The economic impact cannot be under stated.

 

[Jerry]

I hope that they sort out Carillion. Will be disastrous. Not least for the 43,000 employees. How (and why) on earth a company with 5.2 billion in sales can get itself 1.5 billion in debt is beyond me. If it does collapse all those contracts will be tied up in the administrators hands possibly for months. The economic impact cannot be under stated.

Yet Vince Cable is saying the government shouldn't bail it out.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-pol...out-would-send-wrong-message-vince-cable-says

 

[Ianbutty]

Yet Vince Cable is saying the government shouldn't bail it out.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-pol...out-would-send-wrong-message-vince-cable-says

He is expecting shareholders and banks to sort it out first. Lack of oversight. It is such a mess the board have created and screwing with the livelihood of so many people. No doubt there will be a knighthood for the CEO.

 

[58terminus]

How (and why) on earth a company with 5.2 billion in sales can get itself 1.5 billion in debt is beyond me.

It doesn't matter how big your sales are.If you are not selling at the right price and quoting just to get the work it will catch up with you.
The old saying owe a bank 1 pound and they will shut you down,owe them 1 million they they will do everything
to help you is becoming a thing of the past.

 

[a300boy]

Another one is that turnover is vanity whilst profit is sanity.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Things aren't looking too good this morning.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/15/carillion-goes-compulsory-liquidation-immediate-effect-7229183/

 

[Ianbutty]

This sums up the Carillion situation perfectly.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the House of Commons Public Administration Committee, said: "This really shakes public confidence in the ability of the private sector to deliver public services and infrastructure."

"There needs to be a change in the mindset of many of many of these companies... if you're actually doing a very substantial amount of business at taxpayers expense for the taxpayer, you've got to treat yourself much more as a brand of the public service not as a private company just there to enrich the shareholders and the directors."

Feel for the employees.

 

[Ianbutty]

Cyril...a Legend. A true football legend. RIP

And then Dolores O'Riordan....what a sad day. Linger was one of the best songs of the 90's. That amazing swirling intro and perfect voice. RIP.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I think the biggest scandal is the company paying dividends year after year whilst not topping up their pension fund, and the government continuing to hand out big contracts after it was known that Carillion was in trouble, not least because of its profit warnings.

This sums up the Carillion situation perfectly.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the House of Commons Public Administration Committee, said: "This really shakes public confidence in the ability of the private sector to deliver public services and infrastructure."

"There needs to be a change in the mindset of many of many of these companies... if you're actually doing a very substantial amount of business at taxpayers expense for the taxpayer, you've got to treat yourself much more as a brand of the public service not as a private company just there to enrich the shareholders and the directors."

Feel for the employees.

And they've been handing out handsome dividends year after year whilst at the same time allowing their pension fund to run short knowing that in the end the tax payer will have to pick up that bill.

 

[58terminus]

"There needs to be a change in the mindset of many of many of these companies... if you're actually doing a very substantial amount of business at taxpayers expense for the taxpayer, you've got to treat yourself much more as a brand of the public service not as a private company just there to enrich the shareholders and the directors."

And what will be done about the other companies doing the same thing? Nothing.
Rail companies.Bus companies all taking tax payers money to pass on to shareholders
Maybe Carillion should have employed the same negotiators as the franchise holders on the East Coast rail line did.Take the money and when it seems the dividend will not be as good as expected walk away without a care in the world.

 

[jfy1999]

I saw on airliners.net that Lufthansa are “updating” their livery. I hope they don't make a hash of it. Meanwhile, here's a list of liveries I love, liveries I think need updating, and recently changed liveries I think were mistakes.

I love…

TUI – they have finally nailed the “holiday airline” look. Hard to see how they can improve on this – unless they all split up again and make the UK branch “Britannia”
Virgin Atlantic – another airline which I think has finally nailed it after several changes.
Delta – see Virgin...
Blue Air – maybe it’s because I love blue, but I think their colour scheme looks very swish. They’re one of the few LCC’s I know that have a logo apart from their name (Ryanair is another one). It adds a bit more class to the livery and makes it look less like a LCC.
Kuwait (new livery) – maybe it’s just because their previous livery was so bland and military looking in comparison but I love pretty much everything, the darker blue, the lettering. Also, putting the title on the underside of the plane is a practice of which I approve.
Etihad – the look of a desert viewed from above is one I think they’ve replicated quite well with their geometric patterns.
Emirates – recognisable from miles away and does so much with comparatively little colour. If Emirates change their livery I will lose all faith in humanity.
British Airways – basically everything that applies to Emirates above
Norwegian – it’s unique and instantly recognisable. It can look horrible if the colours are washed out but usually sleek and classy
Air Malta – another interesting geometric livery. The slashes of different colours among the red is what makes this one attractive to me.
Garuda – I’m not sure what the tail is meant to look like, the feathers of a bird maybe? The graduation from turquoise to darker blue is one I love though. I also love the logo.
Singapore – the black and gold oozes class and a fantastic logo to match.
Air New Zealand – pretty much every special livery they have is stunning, and the standard black and white one is very nice too – simple and with an elegant logo.

I think these need an update…

SAS – grey. Bland. The engines are a mess - some aircraft have them all red, some just have a band of red which gives them a patched-up look. I much prefer their retro liveried A319 with the “SAS” on a white tail.
Qatar – again, lots of grey with very little to break it up. In my opinion it needs more maroon, but they’ve done the oposited and made the oryx on the tail smaller.
Saudi Arabian – the fuselage just seems disconnected from the tail. Perhaps they could make the tail yellow? The lettering is also too small in my opinion.
China Southern – the thick stripe along the side turns me off because it reaches down to the nose (unlike Singapore Airlines). The 787 livery looks a lot better, but I don’t think they’re going to use it on anything other than the 787s.
LEVEL – it needed an update from the moment it left the drawing board! Struggling to think of a more unimaginative scheme.
Uzbekistan – the closest comparison I can make is a tube of toothpaste.
Niki – partly. It looks like they will go it alone, but here’s hoping they won’t go back to that horrible silver scheme with the scrawled cartoon fly on the cockpit. It would be much better if they finished painting the fleet in airberlin colours.
A few years ago this section would have included American, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern, EVA Air, Kuwait Airways, Etihad, Belavia, Rossiya, and easyJet.

I think these airlines made a mistake…

Flybe – I simply can’t bring myself to like it. If the entire aircraft was purple…maybe. But it’s another paint job that just looks half-hearted, thanks to the tail. Given the choice I would have gone with a much deeper purple/indigo over the entire plane.
Air Transat – I thought the “welcome” livery was nice. The new colours are nice too but they’ve got the lettering all wrong. What other airline has its name written in two different fonts on the same line? It worked when the word “Air” was positioned above the word “Transat”. Now they’re next to each other it just looks messy.
Azores Airlines – SATA was another attractive “geometric” livery with its blue bird symbol made out of interlocking shapes. Happily this livery remains on their regional fleet. The mainline fleet are a mixed bag, however. The A330 is beautiful, but the A320s are bland and the new A321neo’s have hideous QR codes and tags slapped randomly on the sides – for what purpose? Can you scan a plane with your phone?
American – colours a big improvement, but they dropped the timeless “AA” logo in favour of a logo so nondescript it’s almost invisible.
Iberia – another distinctive and well-known logo dropped and the typeface and colour scheme aren’t an improvement either. It’s minimalist, like Emirates, but in the wrong way because the tail is a splodge of red rather than an elegant waving flag.
Avianca – their livery was distinctive before, but now it just isn’t. Was it designed by the same people who rebranded Iberia? It's a bit more interesting than Iberia's, but not much.
LATAM – The LAN and TAM liveries were fine as they were. I don’t know why they had to make up a new livery for the merger? This new livery is just a couple of squiggly coloured stripes on the tail – and did the background colour of the tail have to be grey?
Transavia - the hoops of blue and green round the fuselage and the logo were pretty unique. But no, they had to go and "improve" on this and put the airline name in huge letters in a weird font and replace all the vibrant colours with one of the blandest shades of green I've ever seen. And the underside of the plane now has random-looking blobs of red and blue.
Ryanair – Barely noticeable, but the harp logo has been tilted slightly. On the fuselage, fine. But on the tail, it looks all wonky. If it ain’t broke…
Wizz Air – the two-tone purple went well together and the fact it covered the nose and cockpit made it recognisable from any distance. I don’t think the pink and dark blue go well together in the new livery and they’ve made the logo all ghostly and hard to see.

I’m done for today. Feel free to critique and add your own suggestions!

 

[rollo]

Well going back in time the B.O.A.C. scheme as on the VC10s and Pan Am are two of my favorites but the old Seaboard gold scheme tops my list even if though Channel Airways tried to nick it or was that Continental? Also British Airways current scheme is pretty good.

As for Flybe both are horrible to me.

 

[flymetothemoon]

Loved BUA and British Caledonian colours and British Eagle. Also loved the old SAS scheme

 

[GliderPilot]

Decided this post would be best for the random stuff page rather than the weather div thread as its slightly off topic. Don't know if anyone has seen the flight path playback for KLM83F/KL1421 this morning

Does BHX have any publish holding 'points' or 'stacks' i think Heathrow call them? Looks like the KLM was just being vectored all over the place and if the airspace had been a bit busier (arrivals wise) I cant imagine to think where they would have been going.

The flight was in the hold for a duration that was longer than the AMS-BHX leg itself which surprised me, and I thought the hold would be just the usual right-hand turns 5-mile legs but it was far from it.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Does BHX have any publish holding 'points' or 'stacks' i think Heathrow call them? Looks like the KLM was just being vectored all over the place and if the airspace had been a bit busier (arrivals wise) I cant imagine to think where they would have been going.

The flight was in the hold for a duration that was longer than the AMS-BHX leg itself which surprised me, and I thought the hold would be just the usual right-hand turns 5-mile legs but it was far from it.

Yes, BHX does have holding stacks. They are CHASE to the north (pretty much over Cannock Chase) and GROVE to the south west.
The following FR24 screenshot shows their locations -

I also seem to recall a hold named EBONY, but can't find any reference to that.

Kevin