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Paul Marx said:
It is bloody dangerous.
I gave up riding to work after a near miss only to take it up again the last few years before retirement.
I reckoned I'd proven what I wanted to and being killed or maimed going to work wasn't worth it.

Will never forget though braking for a traffic light turned red and staying upright on ice and the car behind me going into a spin, 4 wheels locked. Needed doing once.

Paul
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I know what you mean , I retired a couple of years ago and think Thank Christ I don`t have to ride the 18 miles into work when I see what the weather is like outside...
I wouldn`t say riding to work ever worried me ( weather apart ) any more than riding in town does anyway.....every hour is a rush hour in most cities nowadays anyway...... having 360 degree vision would help though .

I actually enjoyed the ride into work for most of the year...it was a mixture of narrow country roads , faster main roads , and then busy dual / single carriageways once in town.....

As you say ice is another matter....fresh snow was ok because everyone slows down to 10 mph ( less than 20 kph sur la continent ) , but frost or unexpected ice , when everyone else is driving at near normal speeds is , like you say , not much fun .

About being hit from behind , that can happen anytime anywhere of course.....was once waiting to pull out of a side road when a white van stopped and signalled for me to pull out in front of him.....at the next red light he promptly ran into the back of me ........only a slight nudge and he was very apologetic about it .... I stayed upright , but jumped off the ER5 to check for damage ( it was ok , as being a Kawasaki it weighed a ton and was constructed out of scrap cast iron ) ....... Lady in a car in the next lane says " Everything OK ? ".....looking at the bike I reply " Yes , there`s no real damage "......She says " I didn`t mean the bike , I meant YOU ! ".........
 
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No ladder with safety climb, no safety belt or harness, no safety strap.
The good old days when men were immortal ;-)))
 

...and staying in the air ..... Saw the first British built Concorde take off from Filton , Bristol , in 1969 and saw the last land for the final time at Filton in 2003...... Houses are now being built on the old Filton runways ......
 
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chrisk said:
I went to school with a Macedonian kid with big drop nose, we nicknamed him Concorde 😂😂😂
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Can`t remember many from school ..... but there were plenty down the pub .....Tony the Truck , Tall John , Pete the Shirt , Jim the Hat , Alicante Alan ( he was having an apartment built in Spain ) , Dave the Bank Robber , John the Music , Mike the Veg ( vegitarian ) , Welsh Paul , Mind Games Norman , Jerry Hitler etc. ........ all related to their appearance , dress code , ethnic background , personal habits , or occupation ......
 
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rocketonarail said:

...and staying in the air ..... Saw the first British built Concorde take off from Filton , Bristol , in 1969 and saw the last land for the final time at Filton in 2003...... Houses are now being built on the old Filton runways ......
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In 1976 my headmaster made whole school watch Concorde fly over,he was a Hurricaine pilot. As a scout I watched the 9pm take off from outside the Queens building on the runway 50 yards behind it ( we had permission in those days..) incredible noise, acceleration and afterburners- like a huge firework. Lastly I was sitting in top row upstairs of a double decker bus at Heathrow and the sirens went, barriers came down and the towed Concorde over the road- I was eye level with the cockpit. Saw it fly over everyday when I worked in Taplow and it set off all the car alarms in Colnebrook, which was hysterical! Just remembered, I knew a lady that was Concorde air crew, she worked for BA & Air France. She told me that BA crew had different meals in case of food poisoning and French crew drank red wine with lunch!
 
rocketonarail said:

...and staying in the air ..... Saw the first British built Concorde take off from Filton , Bristol , in 1969 and saw the last land for the final time at Filton in 2003...... Houses are now being built on the old Filton runways ......
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Pretty impressive.
I lived under the flight path from Fairford so saw many of the trial flights takeoff. I also met Brian Trubshaw on a couple of occasions as he was a friend of our next door neighbour.
 
There is a spot beside the Sydney Harbour Bridge where I watch the RAAF Fast Jet Flyover on Australia Day and that's also where I attempted to watch Concord's one and only Sydney Flyover on its one and only trip to Australia, I just remember a dot on the horizon. That trip resulted in Mass Hysteria about Sonic Booms across the Desert Heart of Oz and Super Sonic passenger travel being banned forever from Australian Air Space. Media Beatup to the MAX. Kind of interesting considering a large part of that area was used as a Rocket Range, Woomera in South Australia in the 1950s and 60s till the Poms pulled out and our far-sighted Overloads sold the Launch Pads for scrap steel.
 
Shame the way Concorde left service after the crash in France which was caused , by some accounts , by a strip of metal on the runway that had fallen from a DC-10 on take off , which then punctured the left hand tyres of Concorde , rupturing a fuel tank and causing the fire which brought the plane down just after take off .

There was also the " Konkordski " , the Tupolev TU-144 , which beat Concorde into the air , and was also the first commercial airliner to exceed Mach 2 , but this came down during a demonstration flight at the Paris Airshow in 1973....some reckon this was down to the Russian pilot " showboating " in an attempt to demonstrate what the `plane could do.......

Apparently the TU-144 was noisier inside the passenger cabin space than Concorde , and people had to shout at the top of their voices to be heard : if you were sat at the back the noise was pretty much unbearable ...... .After the Paris crash the TU-144 was restricted to Russian domestic flights , and cargo and freight carrying , and also used as an aid for the Russian space programme and NASA`s commercial transport development programme .

It seems that after the Paris crash , every Russian domestic flight of the TU-144 was preceeded by Aleksey Tupolev himself inspecting the `plane , ....... just the sort of thing needed to calm everyone`s nerves ...... ( there were only about 100 domestic flights , and only 55 of those involved carrying passengers ) .

During trials , and the problems that arose with the TU-144 during this time , the Russians actually contacted the British Aircraft Corporation / Aerospatiale , listing the problems they were encountering , and asking for BAC / Aero`s opinions of how best to resolve them .

Kind of a pity really , as although not as graceful as Concorde , the TU-144 was still an attractive looking `plane .
 
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Richard 180.S2.81 said:
Take a look at 55°34'18.03"N 38° 8'54.23"E on Google earth...
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Blimey...how did you find that ? ...Russia is a big place .....One out of 16 produced it would seem .

After it`s failure as a commercial airliner attempts were made to foist it onto the Russian military.....It`s amusing to read to the Air Force and Naval Force commanders thoughts on that....... the Naval guy almost in a state of panic that he was going to be lumbered with something completely unsuitable for the purpose .....

Also shows the one and only Sukhoi SU-47 ...... must be a sort of holding pen for doomed failures and experimental one-offs .......
 
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Went through the Mach loop on my trip around the UK prior to the 70th anniversary rally in breganze. Unfortunately was very wt and lots of low level cloud so didn’t get to see any planes🙁.Was a beautiful part of Wales though😀👍
Tom
 
Up in the Highlands of Scotland, it was quite common to see them, through the glens, out playing.
I nearly lost a Canadian lass, from the pillion, once.
One came thundering up out of the valley alongside the road, less than a hundred feet away, with afterburners lit.
She was dozing, I think, and damned near jumped off the back in shock.
 
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