Military flying has never been without risk.
Whether on operations overseas or training in the skies over the UK, crews operate complex aircraft in demanding environments, often at night using NVG.
For those outside aviation, it's easy to associate danger only with conflict zones. The reality is that training itself carries risk. It always has. Yet it remains essential, because competence and readiness are built long before they are needed. Train Hard, Fight Easy has always been a mantra.
Today is not the day for speculation. It is a day to remember three servicemen who have died doing what they loved, serving their country, and honing skills that others may one day depend upon.
My thoughts are with their families, friends, squadron mates, and the wider Royal Navy community.
Blue skies and tailwinds.
I can criticise
The King
UK govt
US govt
Any MP
Capitalism
Religions
UK army
Security Services
I can criticise
ANY foreign country EXCEPT if I criticise Israel ALONE, I risk serious personal consequences EVEN though Israel is carrying out terrible crimes including GENOCIDE
Crossing Eastern Europe this morning, a USAF C-17 passed above us, its contrails dark against the rising sun.
Despite the conspiracy theories, contrails aren't "chemtrails." They're simply ice clouds.
At cruising altitude, the air can be colder than -50°C. The hot, moist exhaust from jet engines mixes with that freezing air, and the water vapour instantly condenses and freezes into tiny ice crystals, creating the white trails we see stretching across the sky.
Some disappear within seconds. Others linger for hours, depending on the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere.
Nothing mysterious.
Just physics.
A reminder that some of the most beautiful things in aviation are often the easiest to explain and don’t let the conspiracy theorists tell you otherwise.
#avgeeks #aviation #pilotlife #military #C17
Remember the old days when we were part of Europe . . . before the Brexit liars won out . . . but then as we queue the economy crumbles as a result too . Lesson - don’t believe their lies ! https://t.co/1ztS4gilmh
The point of these attacks is twofold:
1. Flood people with nonsense until it feels true.
2. Grind people down until they lose hope.
We know the answer to that: fight back - with hope & a plan for change.
There is absolutely no way they win this.
https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp
Britain has the dirtiest rivers, the most expensive energy, the least reliable trains, the most overcrowded prisons, the worst access to healthcare and the widest gap between rich and poor in all of Europe. If you want a verdict on 40 years of neoliberalism, there it is.
Uncut grass keeps the ground at around 19.5°C
Grass cut to 10 cm raises the ground temperature to about 24.5°C
Bare ground in the middle of summer rises to over 40°C
It's important to raise awareness #NoMowMay
Britain is ruled by the ruling classes.
The Tories want it to continue.
Labour want it to continue.
Reform want it to continue.
Only the Greens will challenge the establishment and restore meaningful democracy.
Too on point not to share. This is great, but too bad the Orange Felon’s enablers won’t let him see it.
This Australian's reply to #Trump's rant about “NATO not being there for America” is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your f----- mouth."
- Tony Locke
So, it's come to this after more than a decade of warnings and no action taken by any Government or Whitehall.
This pretty much sums up the state of our UK armed forces in general, politicians (of all parties) milked the 'Cold War Dividend' far too long.
https://t.co/P4eq161SXJ