Your reply is awesome and really nails the issues we’re discussing. I wish I could do space travel, the relevance (or lack thereof) of piloted craft, engineering and scientific achievement in the nine words you did.

My dear chap - there is always a need for wry British humour and excess ‘u’s in appropriate circumstances, but you do have to recognise when your time is over.

Forgive me for focusing on the human aspect here. Probes and telescopes are fantastic tools but, if you’re like me and countless others, we would quite like to go and see it for ourselves, thankyouverymuch.

You’ve been talking to my wife...

Sadly, both military aviation and the space programme do have ergonomic restrictions. Civilian aviation is less restrictive but there comes a point where your legs will be taken off at your knees in ejection seats and you can’t join the fast jet clique of the Sons of Valhalla, you’re too short or too tall for the…

More space on the ISS equals more funding from corporations who need zero-g experimentation time. Which enables more positions available for astronauts from a wider variety of backgrounds which leads to more....

Public (or more accurately, uncontrolled) airspace begins at ground level and, depending on where you are in the world, goes up to the first bit of controlled airspace, or the limit of class G airspace. This is usually 700' agl in the States.

What a fantastic read and I really enjoyed your analysis of the old text. Not just ‘here’s a bunch of olde Englishe stuffe I found on the web’ but a proper, technical breakdown of what it means. (The extra ‘e’s are mandatory for enticing Chinese, Japanese and American tourists to oure faire shorese...)

La Palma. Off the right wing on the approach to Tenerife when the weather isn’t acting up and source of terror (and hasty house moves) for many east coast Americans.

I never really got to meet anyone from the US Navy during my military career which is something I regret. I know these videos are ‘certified safe for civilian release’ but these people genuinely look like they’re really bloody enjoying what they’re doing whilst serving their country and doing a damn fine job.

Well he’s probably buggered for insurance for a while after this little stunt.

Slightly posher, but the point was to emphasise the wide variety in sentencing in the UK. You can commit the same crime in London or Glasgow and get two very different outcomes. As different as ‘jail’ and ‘freedom with a slapped wrist.’

Wind was easterly TEMPO northerly which is a little bit unusual to say the least.

I think you’re right on that but I’m still wondering how this guy got off with just a two month ban when people who accumulate a few very minor offenses over several years often face longer...

Speed on its doesn’t kill - we know this. What you have appeared to have conveniently forgotten is the distance required to react to something unexpected happening, or merely other traffic, increases exponentially as speed increases.

I shit you not. The previous Labour (left-wing) government introduced a huge amount of nanny-state laws. Think of the children!

Colleague of mine out there who saw the aftermath just emailed.

Touche!

It’s nothing like an autobahn. In the interests of fairness I posted the straightest, widest bit of it as we don’t know where he decided to see if the Seat would actually take off.

Sentencing in the UK is a postcode lottery and can depend very much on how wealthy/connected you and your family are. No different to the States, really.