Ralph Jones

On 9 Mar, 12:30, Walter Kahn wrote:
Very sadly Ralph Jones, one of the 'greats' of British Gliding died in
hospital early on Sunday morning.

A truly remarkable man. The first I heard of him was from a Lasham
pilot who owned a K6e and had the misfortune to break the canopy in a
field landing. As soon as she got home she rang Bob Reece (Rematic) to
buy a new one, only to find that he had none in stock and couldn't
make one for a considerable while. He /had/ had one in stock, but
Ralph Jones had bought it just an hour or so before.

So she rang Ralph - who had, of course, heard of the damage through
the Lasham grapevine. Delightfully and helpfully he offered to sell
her the one he had just bought, the only one available in Britain. At
a one hundred percent markup. Plus fitting charge, although she was
perfectly capable of fitting it herself.

The result - she was hundreds of pounds out of pocket and had to
curtail her gliding activity for a year as a result.

Ian

And your point is?

Ralph had a business to run. He wouldn't have bought the canopy on a
whim to inconvenence a pilot, he would have a glider to repair to make
money so he could fly. Your lady friend had a range of choices,
including going to the Scleicher agents or Mecaplex, but took the quick,
easy (and by your accounts expensive) route. And knowing Ralph, got a
quality repair.

For everyone who found Ralph 'difficult' you will find another who has
at times benefitted from his remarkable generosity to someone whom he
though had their heart in flying.

The massive attandance at last Tuesday's funeral says much more about
Ralph than the rather petty post below.

And I at least post under my own name.

Peter Purdie

At 12:12 20 March 2009, The Real Doctor wrote:
On 9 Mar, 12:30, Walter Kahn wrote:
Very sadly Ralph Jones, one of the 'greats' of British Gliding died
in
hospital early on Sunday morning.

A truly remarkable man. The first I heard of him was from a Lasham
pilot who owned a K6e and had the misfortune to break the canopy in a
field landing. As soon as she got home she rang Bob Reece (Rematic) to
buy a new one, only to find that he had none in stock and couldn't
make one for a considerable while. He /had/ had one in stock, but
Ralph Jones had bought it just an hour or so before.

So she rang Ralph - who had, of course, heard of the damage through
the Lasham grapevine. Delightfully and helpfully he offered to sell
her the one he had just bought, the only one available in Britain. At
a one hundred percent markup. Plus fitting charge, although she was
perfectly capable of fitting it herself.

The result - she was hundreds of pounds out of pocket and had to
curtail her gliding activity for a year as a result.

Ian

Peter - thank you.

I've been mulling over this anonymous tripe all morning, trying to
formulate a balanced reply, and couldn't have put it better.

Business is business - simply that. Live with it..!

Al



At 13:30 20 March 2009, Peter Purdie wrote:
And your point is?

Ralph had a business to run. He wouldn't have bought the canopy on a
whim to inconvenence a pilot, he would have a glider to repair to make
money so he could fly. Your lady friend had a range of choices,
including going to the Scleicher agents or Mecaplex, but took the quick,
easy (and by your accounts expensive) route. And knowing Ralph, got a
quality repair.

For everyone who found Ralph 'difficult' you will find another who has
at times benefitted from his remarkable generosity to someone whom he
though had their heart in flying.

The massive attandance at last Tuesday's funeral says much more about
Ralph than the rather petty post below.

And I at least post under my own name.

Peter Purdie

At 12:12 20 March 2009, The Real Doctor wrote:
On 9 Mar, 12:30, Walter Kahn wrote:
Very sadly Ralph Jones, one of the 'greats' of British Gliding died
in
hospital early on Sunday morning.

A truly remarkable man. The first I heard of him was from a Lasham
pilot who owned a K6e and had the misfortune to break the canopy in a
field landing. As soon as she got home she rang Bob Reece (Rematic) to
buy a new one, only to find that he had none in stock and couldn't
make one for a considerable while. He /had/ had one in stock, but
Ralph Jones had bought it just an hour or so before.

So she rang Ralph - who had, of course, heard of the damage through
the Lasham grapevine. Delightfully and helpfully he offered to sell
her the one he had just bought, the only one available in Britain. At
a one hundred percent markup. Plus fitting charge, although she was
perfectly capable of fitting it herself.

The result - she was hundreds of pounds out of pocket and had to
curtail her gliding activity for a year as a result.

Ian

Another Ralph story.

A friend of mine was flying in a competition and damaged his glider.
Ralph said he could get it repaired overnight and having him flying again
next day.

At the workshop, my friend learned that Ralph had a duff radio in his
power aeroplane, and offered to try to fix it (he was a radio expert). It
took him about 5 minutes.

Next morning his glider was back at the comp. Ralph and/or his people had
worked overnight to repair it. When he asked for the bill, Ralph waived it
– saying “You fixed my radio, I fixed your glider.”

Chris N.

On 20 Mar, 14:30, Al Eddie wrote:

I've been mulling over this anonymous tripe all morning...

I've no idea why these posts are appearing as "The Real Doctor".
According to Google groups setup page, you should be seeing my name.

Business is business - simply that. Live with it..!

Business is business, but deliberate rip-offs in a small community are
distasteful. And a Ka6E pilot, for crying out loud. By definition
skint. Squeeze the Ventus boys till the pips squeeze, guys, but leave
the poverty end alone.

Regards

Ian

OK mate you've made your point whether it is true or not

Feel free to leave it at that

Andy

At 16:59 20 March 2009, The Real Doctor wrote:
On 20 Mar, 14:30, Al Eddie wrote:

I've been mulling over this anonymous tripe all morning...

I've no idea why these posts are appearing as "The Real Doctor".
According to Google groups setup page, you should be seeing my name.

Business is business - simply that. Live with it..!

Business is business, but deliberate rip-offs in a small community are
distasteful. And a Ka6E pilot, for crying out loud. By definition
skint. Squeeze the Ventus boys till the pips squeeze, guys, but leave
the poverty end alone.

Regards

Ian

Back in the mid 80s a friend and I travelled about 400 miles one weekend to
look at a glider that Ralph was selling on behalf of a friend for no
financial gain to himself . We were just a pair of strangers to Ralph
from the back of gliding beyond. We sorted out the business and then
asked Ralph for a recommendation for somewhere to stay the night to which
he replied: "You're staying with us tonight - Jane is expecting you for
dinner". We had a great evening of food, drink and conversation. That
was just pure generosity of spirit.

John Galloway

May I just add a Ralph story, I was unable to attend his day due to work
commitments.

Some years ago our brand new Discus has its back broken. We were
devastated and didn't want a repaired 'new' glider even if it could be
done.

Ralph understood and said he'd get a new fuselage. Discuses were very
popular and the queue was huge (two years IIRC), but he arranged to have a
new fus squeezed into the queue.

To keep us flying he organised a spare fuselage while the new one was
being built and swapped our instruments over. When the new fus arrived he
swapped all the instruments again (at no extra charge to us or the
insurers) and then arranged an aerotow at no charge from Membury to the
Standard Class Nats at Hus Bos.

Thankfully I saw him a few weeks ago when he rocked up in his Volvo at
Membury, said "hello my boy, how are you", shook hands and we had a very
pleasant chat.

Great chap.


At 23:00 20 March 2009, John Galloway wrote:
Back in the mid 80s a friend and I travelled about 400 miles one weekend
to
look at a glider that Ralph was selling on behalf of a friend for no
financial gain to himself . We were just a pair of strangers to Ralph
from the back of gliding beyond. We sorted out the business and then
asked Ralph for a recommendation for somewhere to stay the night to
which
he replied: "You're staying with us tonight - Jane is expecting you
for
dinner". We had a great evening of food, drink and conversation. That
was just pure generosity of spirit.

John Galloway

On 20 Mar, 13:30, Peter Purdie wrote:
And your point is?

Ralph had a business to run. *He wouldn't have bought the canopy on a
whim to inconvenence a pilot,

No. He bought it to rip someone off.


Ian "Real Name" Johnston

At 12:12 20 March 2009, The Real Doctor wrote:
A truly remarkable man.

You got that bit right.

Some 40 odd years ago as a youth in my first competition (in which Ralph
was flying) I managed to hole the wing of an Oly 460 with a rock in an out
landing.

Ralph had us take it to his workshop and it was back flying after only
missing a day for the price of a couple of pints.