Category: Penguin

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Task – Around The World – Status – Completed

What started as a bit of a “around the coast” trip to look at the scenery ended up being an around the world trip in short hops. I started this sometime in 2021 with a trip from Manchester Airport to RAF Valley, just to see what it would be like. Then I continued around the coastlines of all seven continents. See this communication for the start of the list. All airports landed at are listed in these communications:

So now we have the final list of airports. From somewhere in the Gulf Of Mexico to Manchester.

  • Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, US Virgin Islands
  • JAGS McCartney International Airport, Turks and Caicos
  • Providenciales International Airport, Turks and Caicos
  • Leeward Point Field – Guantanamo, Cuba
  • José Martí international Airport, Cuba
  • Naval Air Station Key West, USA
  • Florida Keys/Marathon International Airport, USA
  • Tavernaero Park, USA
  • Ocean Reef Club Airport, USA
  • Boca Raton Airport, USA
  • NASA Shuttle Landing Facility, USA
  • Daytona Beach International Airport, USA
  • Waycross-Ware County Airport, USA
  • Myrtle Beach International Airport, USA
  • First Flight Airport, USA
  • Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, USA
  • Atlantic City International Airport, USA
  • LaGuardia Airport, USA
  • Nantucket Memorial Airport, USA
  • Beverly Regional Airport, USA
  • Portsmouth International Airport, USA
  • Seacoast Airfield, USA
  • Portland International Jetport, USA
  • Saint John Airport, Canada
  • J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport, Canada
  • Gander International Airport, Canada
  • Narsarsuaq International Airport, Greenland
  • Bíldudalur Airport, Iceland
  • Reykjavík Airport, Iceland
  • Vestmannaeyjar Airport, Iceland
  • Hornafjörður Airport, Iceland
  • Vágar Floghavn, Faroe Islands
  • Tingwall Airport, Shetland
  • Sumburgh Airport, Shetland
  • Kirkwall Airport, Orkney
  • Wick John O’Groats Airport, Scotland
  • RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland
  • Oban Airport, Scotland
  • Glasgow Airport, Scotland
  • Campbeltown Airport, Scotland
  • City of Derry Airport, Northern Ireland
  • Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland
  • Belfast City Airport, Northern Ireland
  • Ronaldsway Airport, Isle Of Man
  • Keswick Airport, England – Fictional Airport
  • Warton Aerodrome, England
  • Manchester Airport, England

And there we have it. All the airports visited as part of this around the world flight. It’s taken around two years but I feel a sense of achievement. The next thing for me to do is to learn how to use navigation aids rather than VFR. That’s my plan for the next set of flight sim activities.

Final Flight - Manchester Airport
Final Flight – Manchester Airport
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Current Fortnite Stats

I’ve been playing Fortnite since about last October. I quite enjoy it, it’s not my favourite game but it is the only one I play where I get to interact with the family and run around killing things. I’ve played Navy Seals in the past and the online experience wasn’t great, especially if you’ve only just started playing online and don’t have all the time to get good at the game. Fortunately the Legend has guided me through Fortnite and I’ve got some kids who play better than me and carry me a lot. Here are the stats from the Fortnite game itself:

Fortnite Solo Stats
Fortnite Solo Stats
Fortnite Duo Stats
Fortnite Duo Stats
Fortnite Squads Stats
Fortnite Squads Stats

I get carried a LOT in squads. I think I’m most proud of the top 5 statistic in the Duos category. Considering a lot of the time the Legend and I are just driving around breaking things and generally having a bit of a giggle to get top 5 that much I think is impressive.

Fortnite Stats as percentages
Fortnite Stats as percentages

The above table is all of the stats but percentaged for each category. I honestly have no idea if the percentages are good. Also, to be honest, I don’t care. The thing about these games is to have fun. Once you become too competitive I think it becomes less fun and more stressy. This is the main reason why I don’t play Gran Turismo online that much. There’s too much stress. Oh, I’ve just passed 800 hours on Minecraft – yes, I’ll take that applause, thank you.

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The Best/Worst Place

I recently took a trip with the Legend to a part of the world that is very strange. If you travel in Kent towards the Marshes and then venture even beyond that you end up at a reclaimed part of the world that boasts loads of special scientific interest because of its geomorphology. I’m not sure what that means but basically it’s quite a special place. So, we have an area of land that is scientifically important so what should we do with it? Let’s place a nuclear power station there – it’s close to the sea and there’s not many people living nearby.

Dungeness Map
Dungeness Map

Some other things to point out, which bother me a little. There’s an airport close by, about 4km according to the map above. This seems a little bothersome. Then there’s also a massive army weapon training area close by, again within about 4km. I know it’s desolate on those ranges because I’ve been there and shot at things. Nuclear power, weapons and aircraft. Nothing much happening there, very little to see!

Nuclear Power - Dungeness
Nuclear Power – Dungeness

There is a strange desolation to this place. It was sunny but windy when we went and you get an idea of how it must feel in a storm. It’s very open and, if I’m allowed to be horrible, feels quite backward. It’s the sort of place you wonder if you need to carry cash or whether cards will work.

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I Needed A New One!

A Barmah Hat Bought In Australia in 2006
A Barmah Hat Bought In Australia in 2006

This hat has served me well. After being bought in Australia it has travelled almost everywhere I have been. It has protected my head and absorbed sweat in many countries and atop a few mountains. But, the years have taken their toll and it was time for a new hat.

Barmah has as seen better days
Barmah has as seen better days

The leather is old and crusty, has holes in it and leaches brown dye onto my scalp. I searched for a new hat. I ended up getting a kangaroo leather hat from the same company, and in the same style. Why would I go changing things? I also have a few extras to make this new hat better. I’ve got a chin strap for when it’s windy and I have some conditioner for treating it. Hopefully this won’t leave the hat “sweaty” of dye.

New kangaroo leather Barmah hat
New kangaroo leather Barmah hat

The new hat hasn’t yet been worn outside because it’s been raining in classic England style. I’m looking forward to getting this stylish head-topper out in the sun and all weathers.

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Engineering Marvel

Had a lovely day trip to London Biggin Hill Airport today and got shown some amazing things. Private jets, small and large, helicopters, small and medium and then some second world war fighters, all small. It was a great day. I think I’m a little warm in the face from the sunshine though.

Such A Lovely Rotor Head
Such A Lovely Rotor Head

I think I’ve become a bit of a fan of helicopters. I used to only really enjoy aircraft with afterburners, maybe I’ve grown up a little?

Only The 'Copter Used By T Cruise
Only The ‘Copter Used By T Cruise
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It Gets Too Hot

When I use my phone in the car it can get too hot and shut down some of its services. On hot days with direct sunlight my phone will refuse to charge, especially if I am using a Sat Nav service on it. I don’t tend to run my phone at a low charge level but I also don’t want to damage it by making it too hot. I clearly needed an aircon unit for my phone and so I looked online. There are fans that could work but they won’t attach to my Quadlock kit – which I am not changing. So I tried to make a toilet roll tube ventilation shaft to feed air from the blowers on the dash to the phone, this did NOT work!

So, I wondered if I could find some flexible purpose built tubing to feed air to the phone. I ordered some from Amazon and then spent a while thinking how to fix it to the right places without damaging the car. After about a week of ponderance I came up with a small hole in the tubing to fix the device to the Quadlock holder and then cable ties to hold it to the air vent on the dashboard. My phone now stays lovely and cold. But, in classic British style, the weather hasn’t been that hot recently. I’m sure it will get that way sometime soon so I’m quite chuffed at my bodge job.

A solution to iPhone overheating
A solution to iPhone overheating
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CCF Camp HLW

I have just returned from a lovely week on summer camp at RAF Henlow. This is the third camps we’ve run there, mostly because it has a dedicated cadet block and we know our way around. We did plenty but we couldn’t do the usual Saturday through to Saturday as the block was booked by Beds and Cambs Wing [the gits], so we did Monday through to Sunday.

Phantom at Wattisham Station Heritage Centre
Phantom at Wattisham Station Heritage Centre

The week was your usual busy with the following taking place:

  • Indoor sky diving
  • Visit to the Army Air Corps at Wattisham
  • DCCT Rifle Training
  • Imperial War Museum Duxford
  • Military Intelligence Museum at Chicksands
  • Weapons training
  • Weapons drill
  • Falconry
  • Meal out at The Airman
  • American Military Cemetary
  • Nuclear High Ropes and Zipwire

I had a great time. It was lovely to see Theresa again along with spending time away with the staff from our section. I spent the week driving around a Mercedes Sprinter Minibus which had light steering and very soft brakes. I almost went through the window when I got back in my own car!

American Military Cemetery Cambridge
American Military Cemetery Cambridge
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Just An Annoying Ending

It’s been a while but it’s time for a rant. I’ve been thinking recently about the types of films and series that I like. They tend to feature space travel but ultimately end up being human stories. Science Fiction is just reality set off Earth. All the emotions and activities don’t really change. So, I want to posit a plot to you:

Aliens / discovered Earth creatures seem intent on destroying/enslaving/correcting humans/Earth. They justify this because they observe the terrible way humans treat each other with war and selfishness. But right at the last moment Earth is saved because humans have “love” or some other emotion or device that humans secretly produced and used because they are clever.

I have decided this is most likely an incorrect conclusion to all those stories. Humans are terrible creatures and I think the net morality of humankind is waaay over the side of the bad. Look at what we do:

  • We produce enough food to feed the world, but we don’t distribute it fairly.
  • We could solve disease problems across the world but we don’t.
  • We are very clearly destroying the climate of our planet, have known about it for years, but have done nothing.
  • We have individuals who are richer than the poorest countries.
  • We still have wars even though we recognised that there was a “war to end all wars”.
  • We look the other way from people trying to seek a better life and leave them to drown in the oceans.
  • We cause pain and suffering to children through adult-led organisations and yet allow them to shelter abusers – All churches and many youth organisations.

I don’t think that the feeling of love we can have for each other outweighs these things we do. I don’t think the central pillar of humanity is love. The central pillar of humanity is selfishness and power hunger. I’m not saying all people feel like that but I’m arguing the case that when observed from afar humanity is a pretty shit species. I don’t think the net result of humans being in the universe is anywhere near positive. I suspect the universe would collectively sigh with relief if an alien species decided we should be disappeared [now I’m thinking about the morality of destroying objects/things that have net negative contributions to the universe].

Maybe this is why we haven’t heard from aliens yet. They’ve seen what we’ve done and decided to shut us off from the universal trade system. We have been blackballed.

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Good Plant Placement

During our visit to the Harry Potter Studios I made sure to do a “deep look”. There’s no point just observing the surface stuff. It’s more fun to casually observe that and then look closer at the design and construction of everything else. Enjoy the overall spectacle and then look to see how it’s put together. During a drink break I noticed these:

Leavesden Being Really Clever
Leavesden Being Really Clever

These plants were visible through one of the sky lights and I decided that the studios were either really clever or just plain fortunate. So, plants are great. They like the sun (mostly) and they produce natural shade. The make places “warmer”, we all like plants in rooms or buildings, they add nature back into our sterile buildings. So, firstly, just seeing plants was nice. Then, they also filter the sun light heading into the building, making it less harsh, providing a more comfortable indoors. Finally, they just look good.

This has made me think more about the imminent crisis of climate change – I say imminent but it is happening now and has been happening for a while, history will judge the 1980s as the start of it all – we have to start doing things now to maintain a habitable country. We need to start planting trees in our streets. Right down the middle. We need to reduce car usage. But the trees would be nice. Imagine looking down most streets and seeing trees and flowers. The impact of extra trees in terms of CO2 capture would be minimal. But the cooling effect and shade provided by those trees would be immeasurable over the country. Actually that’s hyperbole, it could be measured, quite easily, but I’m trying to make a point. Now I’m starting to think that I should start a movement to push for trees and plants along all streets, let’s turn our country into one of boulevards.

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The Studio Experience

The Legend and I went for a tour around the Harry Potter studios near Watford in the recent past and I thought I would add my impressions of the place here.

Welcome To The Office
Welcome To The Office

It was a hot day when we travelled and I was very glad that there was some form of cooling system in the buildings. Our tour started at a particular time with some small talks and a grand entrance to the Hogwarts dining room hall. I was impressed and the production and direction was impressive. They did shove us out of the hall quite quickly but I had seen enough of it by then. None of the staff were rude, they were all remarkably upbeat and chipper.

Being able to see the movie sets used in the real films was really quite amazing. I really liked the Great Hall. Some of the smaller sets were really interesting and to see the level of detail that the prop makers had achieved was amazing. Every book had proper writing all the way through and all flasks were labelled etc. Absolutely amazing.

There were plenty of animatronic beasts lurking around and the detail and complexity that went into all the beasts was second to none. I was reminded of how much effort and planning goes into making a movie like this. After the script based on a book you then have all the art work that helps make the creations come true. After the development art work there’s more development and making the animals, sets and costumes. Then there’s the main act of filming it all.

Hogwarts School Of Wizardry
Hogwarts School Of Wizardry

It was a curious site to see the sets built up and looking remarkably real inside but then noticing that the outside is just scaffolding with wood work. Such a simple background to a complex interior. Of the large sets on display the interior of Gringots Bank, I think, was the one that I was most impressed with. A magnificent sight of marble (fake), gold (fake) and dragons (fake). Diagon Alley was recreated along with Kings Cross Station Platform 9 3/4. The whole tour is a very impressive sight. To see these places in reality was like those dreams when you are just waking up, seemingly real and unreal at the same time.

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