Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Oozalum Bird


Flamin' Concordes! The training flights have returned! As a tribute, here's a short film I made a while back demonstrating just how crap it is to have knackered old 747s going over every nine minutes, a few hundred feet up. Doors and windows rattle and shake. Car alarms are set off.

Trouble is, there's no longer a complain button on the airport's website. With an important deadline to meet, there's nothing for it but to charge up the Priapus and charge up the M2 to the old London pied-a-terre for a spot of peace and quiet.

And there was me planning to spend a few sovs in the Millionaires' Playground tomorrow!

Update: Er, actually it's not a knackered old 747, it's this great big lump:

Meanwhile I see some doofus on the government's Spending Challenge website has proposed relocating freight flights from Heathrow to Manston. He/she/it says: 'Improvements to the infrastructure could be made at a lower cost than destroying villages in and around the current proposed Labour government preferred location (at Heathrow) [They've been scrapped, dillweed]. Noise and aircraft pollution would be directed out in to the North sea area.'

Pillock!

62 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is hugely disrespectful to the people of Ramsgate. If they show no respect how do we expect the people of Ramsgate to respect the town? Or take pride in it.
Who do we complain to? What about our new MP?

Anonymous said...

That's an Antonov Heavy Lift, probably bringing in the council officers' wages for the week.

Anonymous said...

Or full of bullshit for the airport supporters.

Anonymous said...

In my experience the training flights get going when they haven't got any real business to speak of. A pitiful attempt to make it look as if the airport is profitable and busy. Perhaps Carter is due in the town he doesn't know exists.

Anonymous said...

Make it look as if the airport is busy during the day to justify night-flights.

Anonymous said...

It was an RAF C17 Globemaster transport aircraft. The sort that supplies our troops and brings back the dead. I'm sure the training was felt necessary.

Anonymous said...

It was and is an Raf plane, dealing with our actions in afgahanistan.. Stop whinghing and support our troops you quislings

Anonymous said...

It was and is an Raf plane, dealing with our actions in afgahanistan.. Stop whinghing and support our troops you quislings

Anonymous said...

Blimey. If I'd realized that screaming around in circles over Thanet was killing the Taleban I'd never have questioned it.

Anonymous said...

If training was considered neccessary, it's strange they didn't use Brize Norton or one of the plethora of military airfields which the taxpayers fund specifically for military use. Manston must be of great strategic significance. Is Bin Laden hiding nearby or is it just a sheik?

Anonymous said...

It is of no significance if it is for military use or bringing in cabbages you defferential twerps. We have the right to live in peace and quiet. I don't give a stuff if it is for our 'boys' (who I support whole heartedly). But they should train their pilots somewhere else - Ramsgate is where people live.

Anonymous said...

....Ramsgate is where people live

...so is Crawley and Hounslow, their residents aren't grumpy old complainers like you!

Anonymous said...

As ever it comes back to the not in our own back yard ... personally Id rather have the sound of an aircraft every 30 mins than the drunken howling and loud music our neighbourhood has to put up with it would drown the social misfits apalling language!! If you really want to be disturbed try a spell at living on an RAF base where they ground run aircraft at 3am - you soon get used to it and sleep goes on!

Anonymous said...

If TDC start responding properly to searches, then the aquifer contamination for the long term future will blight property prices.

Thanet property equity will collapse.

You'll have nothing to lose by walking away. Problem solved. Then they can do training circuits all day and all night and no one cares.

Happy days.

Anonymous said...

Its the RAF exercising its right to do this ...part of the condition of selling off the Manston MOD land at a mere pittance.

Fly by night said...

Might I also add that Manston is one of the only airports that has a long enough landing strips to support the antonov and of course, the famed Vulcan..?

Considering it's a traning flight, it would be quite clever to use a longer runway, with no busy traffic? Far safer!

Rather they practise here and be in tip top condition to support our troops than be rushed through at an RAF base becuase they didn't have the time or airspace.

Anonymous said...

Seems like that tired old rhetoric gets copied and pasted into every third post here, 7:59AM.
Couldn't you wait until the caffeine kicks your brain cell into action before you comment in the morning?

Anonymous said...

Crawley and Hounslow are well known for being sh@t holes because of the noise grim the planes. Ramsgate has the potential to be great. Let's fight for it. Rather than just accept these low standards.

Bluenote said...

Dare you to go to Islamabad and shout out that Hounslow is a sh*thole. Most folk there have relatives in the borough!

Anonymous said...

there are no conditions allowing the RAF to train at manston.

Each circuit is another few quid in the coffers of New Zealand pension funds (Infratils biggest shareholders)and in this planes case, at the expense of the british taxpayer.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Here in my leafy London retreat, all I can hear is the occasional 'shush' of a Toyota Prius passing by. Bliss!

Anonymous said...

The excuse for Manston was WW2 and the following Cold War. The excuses have run out now. Fuck off Manston Airport.

Anonymous said...

How many of the above contributors came here BEFORE the airport?
I live under the flight path and have far more trouble with cars and knackered white vans passing just feet from my lounge (can't hear the Toyota Prius passing bye though!).

Anonymous said...

I see the desperate old "the airport was here before you" argument is being trolled out again.
Does this criteria apply to slavery and open sewers too?

Anonymous said...

Scum I tell you...utter scum!!!

Ahab Cpt (formerly known as Jonah)

Anonymous said...

The old codgers who think noise is a good thing are the kinds of twerps who used to send small children out to work in mines and factories. Anything goes in search of a fast buck. These greedy pillocks have no place in a modern society. They should all go and live in Hounslow if they like it so much.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Richard Eastcliff said...

'Sfunny but that pretty much sums up my opinion of his post.

Although you forgot to mention he also dabbles in cod psychology, just to prove how, er, well rounded he is!

Anonymous said...

I have just written to Laura Sandys about this. Interestingly in her maiden speach she talks at length about the beauty of Ramsgate. Let's hope that she is progressive and wants to control the airport.

Richard Eastcliff said...

And I'll be reminding her in the coming weeks that she made an election promise not to support night flights.

Anonymous said...

Yes I think we should all write to her. Richard can you encourage this?

Anonymous said...

All I can say is that the airport will still be there when all the moaning has died away. I think if a poll of residents was taken certain folks would be unpleasantly surprised by the result and it wouldn't be for closure. Having driven past Heathrow yesterday and seen the chaotic traffic conditions I hope that Manston expands. If you want a quiet life find a graveyard which is what certain parts of Thanet are becoming. Interestingly the economy of Thanet collapsed when the Americans left the airfield. Perhaps we should invite them back-only with Stealth planes though, to appease some moaners.

Anonymous said...

10-57.... Pratt without the Whitney.

Bluenote said...

Oh, 11:25, how I just love a well researched and reasoned argument. Shame about yours though!

Fly by night said...

10:57 hits the nail on the head, and certainly not the coffin!

Doesn't matter if the airport was active in WW2 it's been active in far more years that not, since. I could understand if Manston had been closed for decades.. but it always has been a working airport.

If you didn't want to live in a flightpath, you should have done your research before moving here!

Everyone I know in my area are very pro- airport... So I'm guessing most of these comments are from the same few people!

Anonymous said...

What you don't realise is that you have much more chance of prosperity without the airport. It's location means that it will never offer significant employment. All it does is constrain investment from those who are attracted to the special qualities of Ramsgate. If you damage the environment with the airport you encourage listlessness and negativity.

Anonymous said...

"much more prosperity without the airport" And how is that conclusion arrived at? Much more prosperity without this council more likely. What about free packs of earplugs for the moaners and if that doesn't work, sugar coated dummies to pacify them. Also sirens/church bells could be sounded when an aircraft is due to allow them time to insert them. I'm only half joking. They don't like it flying over them!

Anonymous said...

"Having driven past Heathrow yesterday and seen the chaotic traffic conditions I hope that Manston expands."

What brilliant powers of reasoning 10:57. Great to know that Thanet's finest minds are on the case.

Anonymous said...

I explained that. Or don't you understand that it has so far done nothing for the area and never will. New blood will invest and improve the land that time forgot. The only thing that might stop that happening is the airport which has no chance of contributing anything.

Anonymous said...

Well, live in your island in the poorest part of Kent away from reality. The airport will stay despite the moaners and have you noticed the new building for engine servicing-something that the owners invested in for the future. Seems to be a lot of ostriches around these days wishing they hadn't. Now don't burst a blood vessel in your frustration, go and take your tablets and have a lie down. Oh, and my comment on Heathrow chaos was to show that too much is concentrated in one area, but that point was obviously not what you wanted to hear.

Anonymous said...

Sorry bluenote...you must be prat, not pratt then.
Also your points are blinkered & bigoted. As it would seem you can't allow anyone to disagree with your view.

Unknown said...

4-05, we heard all this 10 to 15 years ago. Still bugger all and making no real money for the area that it blights.

Bluenote said...

So, 4:09, I contribute little to the debate, have no strong views on Manston airport one way or the other and suddenly, out of nowhere, up you pop calling me a prat and accusing me of having blinkered and bigotted views. Bizarre! Suggest you go look in the mirror if you want to see a bigot.

Anonymous said...

Cllr bayford says in todays gazette that he doesn't want 24 hr unrestricted flights.

Perhaps he should look at the lame 106 agreement his council stands behind which allows unrestricted flights up to a Boeing 747 24 hours a day.

This bunch of morons will be walked all over by a cute little company using language which confuses the hell out of mike Harrison.

They've done it before and will do it again.

Anonymous said...

Concentrated in one area is what airports need to be. They work best when they are hubs so you can transfer goods and passengers (dumbo). As Manston demonstrates, airports in the middle of nowhere don't work.

Anonymous said...

bluenote:
Bigot=

"a person who is intolerant of any ideas other than his or her own"

Prat=
Slang; " an incompetent or ineffectual person"

Nuff said.

Bluenote said...

6:18, as always you are so eaten up with your paranoia about me for some reason that you totally miss the point. I have no view on Manston so how can I be intolerant of the views of others on the subject. As to my competence or otherwise, to justify the prat label you hoist on me, how would you know?
You seriously have a problem and need to lighten up a bit for you simply cannot go around slagging off everyone you assume has different views to yourself.
Perhaps you should consider a course in the art of reasoned debate.

Anonymous said...

How is it that whenever Bluenote gets involved in the discussion, it deteriorates into a slanging match? All focus on the original issue is lost. I can only assume that this is the intention.

Bluenote said...

9:01, I suggest to read through the comments on this topic to see where the name calling started. Someone seems to go into 'bull and red flag mode' as soon as I write anything so it is hardly my fault. Whatever happened to 'love they neighbour' even if he is a Tory.

Anonymous said...

Zyxt is listed as the last word in the online Oxford English Dictionary, an obsolete Kentish word that is the second singular indicative present form of the verb.

That's the last word & bluenote didn,t get it.

Bluenote said...

Seriously impressed with the research even into ancient Kentish speak. What a happy little chap you must be.

Richard Eastcliff said...

This just in from Chippy Tone:

Your posting "Oozalum Bird" has a couple of rather vile comments, I ask you to please remove these both that of anon 10:44 and yours which concurs.

There is no justification for personal abuse, levelled at me, I don't wish make anything more of this and leave it up to you. I will however respond on equal terms if you don't and or if you wish to compound matters the choice is entirely yours.

Truly sorry that you feel it necessary to allow such vile abuse.


Happy to half oblige, FT! I've left mine there as without the prior comment it doesn't really amount to 'vile', just 'truth'.

By the way, please don't take this as evidence that I'll cave in to every hamfisted, thinly veiled attempt at blackmail!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I keep hearing the old chestnut Manston has always been here,it has, just a litle postage stamp field miles from four towns and severall small villages,but those towns and that small field have grown hugely over the years and with the help of two wars,until they are now stepping on each others toes.the aircraft that are useing the airfield are far bigger than anyone ever invisaged would use it,we have reached the ridiculous situation where we have 2000 acres of land employing about 100 people,thats 20 acres per job,a few large retail outlets sports complex running tracks a super pool built there could employ a thousand people,with acres left spare for afordable housing.
Stargazer.

Richard Eastcliff said...

More threats from Tony Flaig:

References to bikers, forums, dust ups that either you have posted or "anon" on your site, steers me to conclusion that you are somewhat of an expert on the threats and offensive messages posted on biker sites some time ago.

As I said the choice is yours, innuendo implied threats or moving on.

If you wish to continue on the same track I will respond on level terms, I have shown you respect, despite being characterised as a Neanderthal.

It's seems that from your response you're willing to accept a level playing field as well as responsibility.

Maybe you could clarify, even now despite trashing me at every opportunity I have no desire to box you into position you may be uncomfortable.

If you think I will continue to passively soak one-sided abuse detrimental to my reputation, you need to mull it over, frankly it's a no brainer, you've already concurred that I'm sub human and a prick.

Take your time!


My response:

Tony - if people ask nicely, and with reason, I will usually remove offensive comments. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't offer me the same consideration on your blog.

However, I don't respond well to being bullied.

Moreover, I think you're getting disturbingly obsessive and paranoid. I have no idea where these anon comments have come from. Perhaps someone else remembers your dust-up with the bikers? If so, could they make themselves known to Tony so he can leave you endless abusive voicemail messages and send you a constant barrage of hate mail? Ta.

Anonymous said...

ECR, I am sorry that the two comments I have left on your blog have prompted these unfortunate emails to you from Tony Flaig. I left them solely because of the carping references in one of his recent posts to your past exchanges and "differences" with him, and his apparent wish not to let these past issues lie. Hence my comment about goading. Whatever, I have no wish to cause problems for you, so best, perhaps, to take the whole lot down if it is causing such a reaction.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Thanks anon. I have removed your other comment.

Hopefully that will soothe the poor chap's fragile ego.

Tony Flaig said...

Try some perspective for some honesty

My reply

It's simple, **** if you allow comments on your site which are abusive and incorrect, you can hardly expect me not to alert you particularly when the most recent case you decided to endorse those comments.

If you don't want me to contact you again it's a no brainer, remove abusive comments, and defamatory references as they occur.

Most bloggers remove abusive remarks automatically, clearly you're a rarity.

This correspondence would never have occurred!

Tony Flaig
- Show quoted text -
Reply
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Richard Eastcliff to me
show details 20 Jul (1 day ago)
No. Really. Fuck off.


EASTCLIFF RICHARD
Squeezing the news pimple on the arse of Thanet since January 2006

Anonymous said...

He (Tony Flaig) cannot let matters rest and is spoiling for a fight - with anyone. He has become a complete laughing stock. Sad.

Tony Flaig said...

8:00 I find it boring that ECR cannot simply remove lies when requested.

"Ask nicely" says the author having earlier stated "that pretty much sums up my opinion" referring to a someone who has just called me a prick and suggested I'm sub human.

Yes its a yawn

Anonymous said...

Enough said!

Anonymous said...

I'm reminded of the JFK joke about Kruschev. A Russian was sent to prison for 5 years for calling Kruschev a lunatic - one year for insulting the Head of Government, and four years for revealing a state secret.