According to our local flying doctor/councillor, NASA could land the Space Shuttle at RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport (Not according to this list - Ed.). In the small, wee-wee hours of this morning, however, it sounded as if they were launching one!I was having a nightmare about Biggin Hill anyway, when at precisely 2.48am by the luminous dial of my Rolex Oyster (Whitstable Edition), a thundering sound that would have woken the dead rattled the roof of my cliff top mansion, and dislodged all the Baftas from my mantelpiece. I had to spend the next hour reading the memoirs of the late, lovely, dearly-departed Sir Alec Guinness before slumber returned to the Eastcliff eyelids.
Anywhere else and they would have been fined for disturbing the beauty sleep of local residents. Especially that of sensitive, celebrity types like moi. But not round here. And the airport's boss, Matt Clarke, can't even be bothered to turn up to consultative committee meetings. What an absolute ruddy shower!
11 comments:
That space shuttle looks how my arse was feeling last night after a rather glorious chicken masala with bhuna tikka starters, sweet and lime pickle and a spicey nan bread with 2-dozen garlic papadum and several cans of Tesco economu cider. Rough. In fact ECR it wasn't a plane that rattled your windows and dislodged your Baftas......erm, me.
Sounds a bit like this
NASA did propose Manston as a emergency runway, but following local tests, they discovered an incessant whining noise whenever they flew near the place so abandoned the idea.
Thank f*ck for that.
But did you know that surveys were carried out in the 70s and certain pipework ?
Ready to make Manston a standby storage facility for North Sea oil ?
And that the survey (for ability to offload tankers some distance off shore) reported that Ramsgate could be developed as the central part of the largest enclosed harbour in the world (larger than Aden said the report)
The rumour was that when the Water Authority carried out extensive work in the area there was dual use design ......
If the "Morses" in the area tire, of theories about the Tivoli burn, perhaps they would like to re-visit ye strange stories of a couple of decades ago about oil spills at Richborough and the source of the oil being a mystery ??
If I recall thirty years ago the proposal included developing the golf course (Kingsgate) into a low level refinery facility.
These were government plans and they appear to have decided not to tell TDC about them.
Well would you have told them ?
Yeah
It is called North Foreland Golf Club.
If you check the map you will find a pipe suitable rural route, accessing the railway en route, from NF Golf Club through to Haine. A major Pipework contract went from Haine to Manston in the 70s I think.
The Milford Haven of Kent.
I seem to recall that shallow draft tankers (might have operated out of Poole) were envisaged as providing the rig offload and delivery to the Thanet backup facility (if the pipelines ashore from rigs were compromised.
Don't say you don't learn anything on ECR now.
another 80kg's.........
wasn't at home last night, but suggest you do complain to both the council and the airport. That is the procedure as per the noise nuisance police at TDC.
I'm sure all complaints are properly logged by TDC as they must be monitoring flight times, frequency, pollution, counting the 5 people who work there in and out, all that stuff.
Doesn't each night flight incur a 'contribution' to local charities/good causes via a 'fine' system by TDC? So your upset ZZZs may have done some-one some good?
I'm sure the objections are from one of our former bloggers!
He would not want the space shuttle flying around towing even bigger banners than his!
Incessant whining noises can be quite disturbing for pilots. I don't think the airport are that bothered about them, though!
And who on Earth gets a sore bum after a chicken masala? Do big girls' blouses have bums, these days?
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