On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 at 01:56:52 in message
, Greg Esres
wrote:
David CL Francis

David, I think you mentioned that you were retired aeronautical
engineer of some sort. Can you relate something about your
background? I'm just curious

You remember correctly Greg! Who is this guy eh?

I took a degree in Aeronautically engineering many years ago and got
involved mainly in missile design at Filton (It was Bristol Aeroplane
Company then). I did a lot of structural work and then moved into
Engineering management. As the years passed I moved into more and more
other management type jobs but I was delighted that for the last two
years of my career I was able to move back into engineering management.

I have now been retired some years and a lot of my earlier detail
knowledge has drifted away from me. At my age that is not surprising!

I did start learning to fly, went solo but then I gave it up, partly I
was not sure I had the abilities that I thought I should have and also
because I felt I would never be any good at radio work! That tells you
something about how long ago it was because the aircraft I flew had no
radios despite sharing the airfield with a modest number of commercial
flights! One of the highlights of my instruction was a brief spell of
spin recovery training in a Tiger Moth (which does it for you unless you
are quick).

I did a lot of model work later with radio controlled models but
eventually dropped that and found flight simulators.

My first ever flight was with my father in WW2, would you believe, when
he
smuggled me up in a DH Dragonfly! It was being used as a communication
aircraft. My father was a full timer in the RAF and flew in Hendon Air
Displays in 1928-30. My Uncle was also a full time RAF pilot who ended
his flying career as an Instructor in Canada in WW2.

More recent highlights were a successfully take off, circuit and landing
at Hong Kong in the REAL Concorde Simulator at Filton (with just a
little help from the 'instructor') and a ride in the jump seat of a
747-400 flying into Kennedy on the 6th Sept 2001. I'll never get the
chance to do that again! We drove away from New York to Philadelphia on
the 10th Sept 2001 and found all about it in there in company with my
friend who is a regular and respected contributor to this newsgroup. My
wife and I stood on top of the South Tower on Sept 8th 2001.
--
David CL Francis