Work Trips

Toulouse - A350 First Flight - June 2013

Saturday 8th June - A bit of an early start to fly at 6:55 from East Midlands with Annette. Land at 11:20, phone Darren, nothing much seems to be going on this weekend. Head to Castelnaudary first, stop for a sandwich. Head on to Castres and then Brassac. On the way see signs for Entire tour of Agout. Follow a very nice road into the hills. Go for a small walk near Grotto of St Dominic. Walk up the Chaos de la Balme. See Bamboo growing in the wild. Stop for a drink at Bar Americans, Lavaur. Bit of a rush to get back in time for 6pm at Darren and Anne's house, a little delayed due to last minute navigation issues. Park near to the Mercure, check in. Walk quickly down to Place Wilson, and then make contact with Darren. Mike Wigfield is there for a while. We have nibbles there. There is a festival on in town, so Darren walks to Place Capitol with us. Have a drink in 'Les Tenors' and watch the action. After a while I see PJ walk past with a girl, Spanish Olga. They join us for a drink. We move on to the Classroom for a couple and then next door. We have three wine glasses of Belgian beer, very strong. I walk home at about 3am. PJ, Olga and Annette go to Purple. Annette enjoys the dancing. A certain girl gives her a funny look. PJ makes up a story to explain it. He gives her a lift back in his car at 5am.

Sunday 9th - I feel terrible in the morning. Annette is fine. At about 3pm we walk down to the river and along. Get the tube back to the Hotel, first time on the Tube in Toulouse, they are great, no drivers, just like Johnny Cabs. I make contact with Dave Jones and we make arrangements to meet. We get the tube to Carmes, Dave walks from the Novotel. We get a nice table sitting outside 'La Braisière'. Large starters with lots of bacon and egg. Steak with Roquefort to follow. We all go back on the tube, first time for Dave.

Monday 10th - Leave the hotel at 7am. Have trouble getting into the car park. Heavy traffic on the way out of town. Drop Annette at Carcassonne and head straight back. She phones me to say that she has had to pay 60 Euros for overweight hand luggage. In the flight test office for 10:30. I park in a rather dodgy place. They let me walk on site. I go to the old office, PJ comes to get me. Over to MSN360 with PJ. We have picked up all the stuff for MSN001(A380) on the way. Set up the rugged Laptop to be an EMS. There are a few problems associated with it being the wrong vxWorks image. It is approx. 38 degs C in the plane. I am on there for approx. four hours. PJ takes me over to see MSN001(A350). The power has been cut just before we get there. Stay till about 7pm. When I get back they have clamped me. Wait to get it released. Drive back. Dave Jones works late. Meet him and Luke in the Melting Pot. Have a couple in there and then walk to Pizza Vecchio on Jean Jaures. We get there just before 11pm, and the staff are very rushed. Walk back for 1am.

In the Fight Test Office are :- Paul Jennings, Olga Bogmolova, Juliano, Darren Hayes, Nick Straker, Andy Roulston, Mike Wigfield, Carine Terradot, Harry Simpson. Also Dave Jones and Luke Snape are there. Duncan Webb arrives during the week.

Tuesday 11th - Up early and breakfast in the hotel. On the road for 7:30am. In work for 8am. On MSN001(A350) to try and investigate the CUB connection problem. The Number One EMS system just will not connect to CUB, number two is fine. I talk with Darren about Data Replay and he mentions that it would be good to be able to compare two data files. This leads me to re-write Data Replay from scratch starting from Feb 2014. The Full Rejected Take Off is at 6:30pm. We all cycle over to see it from the side of the runway. Hang around to check that the EMS all worked OK. Leave work at approx. 19:30. Get the tube down to Jean Jaures, and walk to the Frog and RostBif to meet Ben at 9pm. PJ tells me about Pete from 73rd not being allowed contact with children any more. It is difficult to believe that I have not been to Toulouse since 2005. Enjoy the beer there and have curry later. Get a bit lost on the way back, in bed for 2am.

Wednesday 12th - Tired in the morning, in work for 9:30. Task for the day is to fit the new EMS RTs to MSN001(A380) with RIPPS capability. Go out for lunch with Olga, PJ, and Mike. We drive into Colomier and go for Pizza at Le Florence. Very nice, sit outside. It is Olga's birthday, she is on the 5:2 diet. Continue in the afternoon to fit the RTs, very hot on the plane. Dave and Luke help to fit the RTs on the rack. Try to test the RIPPS function and run into a few problems. Leave work at 9pm, slow traffic all the way into town, back to the Hotel for 10pm. Walk down to Bar Basque, meet up with PJ, Dave and Luke, have a very quick one in there and then walk on to a nice Turkish place for food, called Cappadoce. Have a very good kebab, volaint, means bird. Mike and a friend from Marketing turns up. Also Olga and husband Dave turns up. We head for a couple more, at bar Episode, till 2am.

Thursday 13th - Up at 7:30, breakfast in the hotel. In work for 9am. The FTB flies in the morning, the EMS is fine. Duncan Webb arrives so I move into the telemetry room. Change my flight plans to return on Saturday morning. Debate with Duncan about how best to fix the RIPPS issues from yesterday. Me, Paul and Olga go for McDonalds for lunch, I have a French baguette style burger. Duncan sends me a new RIPPS client and I test it on the FTB, almost all good. Heavy showers whilst I am on the plane. Me and PJ head over to the A380 Iron Bird at about 4:30pm. Take out the old system, it was a Windows NT 4 installation. Put in the EMS just off MSN001(A380), all goes well after we change the vxWorks image. Reprogram EEC2 with 12.0.3 software, takes almost an hour. Leave at about 8:30pm. Heavy traffic again, PJ waits for me and we go round the end of the runway and past Eddie's and Stade Toulouse. Quick shower and walk into Capitol. Meet Dave and Luke in Winter Gardens just behind Crown Plaza. A very nice meal with very friendly staff. I have the Pave du Boeuf. Home for 1am.

Friday 14th - Up for 7:30, breakfast and PJ picks me up at 8:30pm. We have a quick go with MSN360. Walk over to the side of the runway with Olga and PJ. Loads of people by the side of the runway. It takes off on the dot of 10am. Walk back over to the office. After some indecision relating to dinner we walk to Nadine's. There is a large queue so when PJ turns up they drive and we walk up to L'Epi Gaulois. Sit outside for a nice sandwich. Back to the office for a little while. Then we decide to do ice cream before going to the official speeches. Go to McDonald's and sit outside. We still seem to have time to fill so head to the Bier Akademie for one. Back to the official event, listen to the speeches. There is very little comment about Rolls-Royce or its engines, as usual. Free baseball cap, poster and champagne. Me with Flag. Me, PJ and Olga are left at the end. Wander back when almost all the champagne has gone. Do a bit of photo shoot on the way back. Pick up Dave and PJ takes us into town. Me and Dave rush and head to 'La Bohème' for 7:30. Juliano is waiting there by himself whilst everyone else is in the Florida bar. Start eating at about 8:30pm. I have the Foie Gras to start followed by the Magret de Canard, very good. Paul Moorhouse drags everyone to the Rhum bar for about 11pm and sets a frightening pace. I leave at 12:15 and wander back. Say goodbye to Place du Capitol. At the meal Mark Wainwright, Ian Rainbow, Steve Hind, Andy Knox and a few other big wigs.

Saturday 15th - I text Dave Jones and ask him to come over for 7:30, because the traffic was bad last week. We have a very clear run down to Carcassonne. When we are in the departure lounge I realise why the traffic was so bad last time, it was Monday not Saturday morning.

Seletar - Auto Throttle - February 2013

Sunday 10th February - I set off at 13:30, I drive slowly to start with and then realise that I have not got loads of time. Very heavy rain, arrive in adequate time, spend a little time in the Singapore Airlines lounge. Flying on an A380. Business class has only got about ten people in it.

Monday 11th - My nose is blocked and the air is very dry. I have to go and ask for two bottles of water. Rather tired when we arrive. Arrive in Singapore at about 3pm, heavy rain on the way to the Regent. I upgrade myself to have lounge access. I am in room 1008. When I connect up and check my emails Duncan has sent me one saying that EMS-DF84 data drive has gone down. I phone him straight away. Duncan has got four new disks on their way on three hour delivery. I eat in the Regent Club and then unpack.

Tuesday 12th - I take a Nytol but only manage to sleep till 1:30am. Text the boys in the Jinnie. Go for breakfast in the Regent club at 7am. Taxi into work for 8:15. I get out at the first gate. After some debate they walk me down to the Main entrance. Meet up with Tony Nesbit and Jim Li. Have a bit of a demo of the Auto-Throttle system. The Trent 900, engine 91321 is brought into the bed. Since it is a national holiday, there is a bus laid on to take people to Jalan Kayu to eat, we all go to the Thasevi. In the afternoon we continue with the informal demo, and the TPR demand does not seem to be following TRA. Leave Jim to it. Leave work at about 4pm. I go for a wander round the Singapore Botanical Gardens, very pleasant. A French girl, called Virginie, asks me for direction. We spend a bit of time walking back to Swan lake together, she is a Buddhist and lives in Bali. Back to the hotel, very hot and sticky. Watch The Assassination of Richard Nixon, rather depressing film. Try the Canadian Club with sleeping tablet, seems to work.

Wednesday 13th - Sleep through the night, good breakfast, into work for 8:30am. I am escorted in by OK, an intern, meet Kyle again. Tony and Teo have started on the engine pass-off. I watch whilst they do a performance curve. They let me move the throttle during a two minute accel and decel. Lunch in the canteen with Jim. After lunch, do the 90 minute oil consumption run. Tony goes off to Bali for a few days. I leave at about 5:45. Get back, read my emails, talk to DJL, and then head to the Regent club, enjoy the food and the wine in particular. After this I wander round and find the gym and pool. I then have a walk down to Tanglin Gate and round the park. I call in at Tanglin Post Office, bar 1128, for a Grimbergen beer 6%. Tired and in bed for midnight.

Thursday 14th - Awake from 3:30am. Breakfast at 7am, in work for 8am. Jim goes through the Auto Throttle demo with me, Kyle and Teo. We have more of a debate about the top point. It transpires that 80.5 is the TPR demand to aim for. Also the fact that when at the top point there may be a need to pause the schedule. Jim agrees to make the changes. After lunch me and Kyle decide that the time has come to let the computer have a go. We let it do a dry crank and then an autostart, followed by a shutdown. Taxi back with Jim, In the lounge from 7 till 8pm, lots of great wine and food. Talk to Duncan and Steve Horton. Go for a run at 9pm, till 10pm, in the rain to the far end of the park.

Friday 15th - When I wake up it feels like I have been swimming. My nose is full of water. I write to functional to ask for the proper equation of the variation of TPR against TRA with T20. Talk to Steve Horton and he tells me that there is no variation below 25 degs C. Have to wait for a taxi because of the rain, travel with Jim again. Get a response for Functional, forward this on to Jim. I have a good session in the Regent club and then decide to go on the MRT. Go down to Marina Bay and have a wander round. I check in at Marina Bay and then Thomas phones me. Back for midnight.

Saturday 16th - Do the Full Run Test, no major problems except the issue of temperature compensation of TPR against TRA is not working properly. Teo gets me a chicken rice for lunch, hawker food, very good. Me and Jim think carefully and do some more tests. We find that the 80.5 TPR point is 0.3 out all the time. Burn through another $10,000 of fuel. We find a way of changing the T20 going to the EEC, thus easier to test the T20 compensation. Leave at 6pm, in high hopes of everything being fixed by Monday. Have another good session in the Regent Club.

Sunday 17th - I have a late breakfast. Wear shorts and t-shirt, head over to 'Gardens by the Bay', very good. I do the aerial walkway, the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. Walk back to Clarke Quay, eat ribs at Hooters. Head over to One Raffles Place, go to the Altitude bar minus one. Good view, but inside. Have a beer for $10, happy hour. Back to the hotel for drinks in the Regent club. Back out again to see the Altitude bar at night, $25 for a beer, check in.

Monday 18th - Large queue for taxis in the heat outside the hotel. Meet up with Sevi, he thinks that he can get the Auto Throttle procedure pushed through, he asks me to stay a little longer. The test bed load cells are being changed today. I read up about the new chairman, Ian Davis and his company, McKinsey. I eat lunch with Kai Wei and Kapilesh. We talk about the Altitude bar etc. We finish early, 4pm, heavy rain in the taxi home. I was planning to run, but my shorts seem to have been taken. Take the MRT over to Maxwell Road. Have a good wander round. Eat in the hawker centre, on the recommendation of John Marsden. Buy some Tiger from the 7/11 and watch the Philip Morris film in my room.

Tuesday 19th - Up earlier for breakfast, due to yesterday's queue for taxis. Engine 91322 arrives on the bed, it has a fuel leak. Go with Kapilesh to watch the Dragon dance and the free buffet. Lots of people are doing some traditional celebration with chop sticks. I fix the GUMS comms not working on the same computer problem. Do some work on TXWB EMU OMS. They start to pass-off 91322 using the manual method. Leave at 5:30pm. Find my running shorts. 7 till 8pm in the club. Run down to Tanglin gate, I feel heavy, talk to Duncan latter, EMS-DF84 is almost all back up and running.

Wednesday 20th - Engine 91322 passes off OK. Tony returns for holiday. Me and Jim do a calibration every one degree C for each of the TPR performance points. After some debate we build it into a 3D table. Work till 8pm, to try and get the T20 compensation working correctly. Errors of the order of 0.4 TPR. I extend by my trip one day. We end by saying that we need more points. The hotel is full, may not be able to stay. I have a good chat to Thomas, by the pool. Eat at California Pizza.

Thursday 21st - Good chat with the taxi driver on the way in about the stress of living and working in Singapore. Jim says that the method is flawed. After some debate I agree. Jim uses two tables. About noon he gives me a demo which is almost all within 0.1 TPR. Give a demo to Kyle and Tony. Then proceed to a Full Run Test. After about two hours, this concludes successfully. I move towards home. In the Regent club for 7:15, rather busy. At 8:15, I knock over my beer, one of the girls notice and bring me another one. She takes a picture of me relaxing in the bar. I have a last walk down to the Tanglin Gate and back.

Friday 22nd - Fly at 12:55 Headache most of the way back. Home for 9:30pm.

Tokyo - ASE testing - Jan 2012

Sunday 15th January - Des and Phil pick me up at 1:3pm, in a M1 BMW compact. Easy run down the M1, A43, M40 to Heathrow. We sit in the ANA lounge for a while, meet Keith, colleague of Des. Flight a little delayed at 7:30pm.

Monday 16th - Arrive at Narita, Take the Narita Express into Tokyo, David calls me on the train. Taxi from Tokyo central station to the Hotel Intercontinental Tokyo Bay for 19:30, room 1128. Good views over the river, looking upstream, from the hotel room. Meet up again at 20:30 and walk along Daimon street for a stroll. Eat in McDonald's.

Tuesday 17th - Awake from about 2:30, read the newspaper till 6am. Breakfast at 6:45am, Take the monorail to Haneda airport and into the Rolls-Royce office. Gordon briefs us on the standard earth quake procedure, i.e. if everyone else starts running for the door then follow them. Visit the test cell, meet the ASE guys. James takes us to a nice Sri Lankan place in the Haneda airport complex for a very nice beef curry for lunch, The ASE guys power up the EEC in the engine prep area later in the afternoon. We look at the fault words coming back from the EEC. Eat in the hotel, I have the Teriyaki chicken. Sleep by 11pm.

Wednesday 18th - Awake from 2:30am Feel OK in the morning. HS arrive on this day. They all go to the airport canteen for lunch, very tired in the afternoon. The EEC seems to be declaring some strange faults, such as TGT harness. I give the ASE guys the Wire Shark recording from 57 bed and also V7 of the Garry Devonish spreadsheet. Also feel rather cold and shivery, Sugiayama San gives us all a lift to the Haneda airport monorail station. Enjoy a bath when we get back. Meet again at 7:15pm and go for the buffet in the hotel. Loads of different meats, very tender beef.

Thursday 19th - Sleep till about 4:20am, lie there till 6am. In work for 9:30am. The usual office is in use for an Airworthiness authorities audit. Stay awake all afternoon, work on Philippa's script. We have a lift back to Shin-Seibijo station. Still tired in the evening. Walk out to the food court near Hamamatsucho. I have the choice pork cutlet, with cabbage and rice.

Friday 20th - Rain in the morning, we go into the RR office first thing. I do some more script work almost all day. Go to the RR office for the evening call. I speak to Duncan, problems with the EMS DF84 website. Cold and wet outside. We eat in the hotel, I have Spaghetti Bolognaise.

Saturday 21st - A rather long breakfast till 11am. Walk to Hamamatsucho in the rain. Get on the Lime Green, Japanese Railway Yamanote line, go anti clockwise. We get off at Akihabara, in search of Electric City, spend quite a while trying to exactly locate it. In the end I realize that the railway is under the street. Look at loads of valves, transformers, etc. After a bit of wandering round, we go to il pronto bar for coffee. We eat at Akihabara, have tempura. Back in the room for about 9pm. Sleep fairly well.

Sunday 22nd - Have another long breakfast from 8:30 till 10:30. After a bit of debate Des decides to come with me. We head to Shibuya first, see the busiest pedestrian crossing, have a look in Bic Camera and Tower Records. Move on to Shinjuku in search of skyscrapers. Have coffee there and a chat. Des is a black belt at Judo. We go the long way round the Yamanote line on the way back. Back to the hotel for 5pm. Cookie has arrived. We meet up in room 1023 for a wee dram, go out to eat at some place near to the hotel, sort of Japanese food. Cookie does all the ordering.

Monday 23rd - The engine 10024 is being moved into the test cell as we arrive into work. Signal checks for most of the day. Answer a few questions about AFDX from Jim. James Withey comes over to the test cell. He explains about the different monorail trains again, this time we understand. He drops us at the end of the line, so that we can try the express. We meet up at 7:30pm and borrow umbrellas from the hotel because of the heavy rain. Eat in the same place as last night. Get back to the room for 10pm, Des phones my room to tell me to look out of the window at the heavy snow. The jet lag seems to have cleared today for the first time.

Tuesday 24th - Mark phones me about Stamp and Deliver at 5am. Clear blue skies on the way in, we get a good view of Mount Fuji. Ski and Andrew tell us that the main electrical power is now available for electric start. Our engine moves out of the test cell for a PW engine to go on first thing. Cookie leads us to a seven storey building for evening meal. Try the fifth floor, but too smoky, we move on to the seventh floor. Sit at a traditional Japanese style table, take our shoes off. Have a good selection of dishes. Try Wasabi for the first time, rather strong. Also raw Tuna and Salmon, i.e. Sashimi. Back to room 1023 for a bit of cheddar and a wee dram.

Wednesday 25th - Another clear morning, see Fuji again from the train. Give the masked code list to ASE. I work on the instructions for DJL to make a new EIF version. We leave at 4pm to walk back to Shin-Seibijo, however Sugiyama San gives us a lift. We accidentally get the monorail in the wrong direction and change at the end of the line. Get the Rapid train back. Have an hour in the room and then back to Tennozu Isle. We walk to the T Y Harbor Brewery restaurant for evening meal. HS are paying for the meal, lots of us have the swordfish, very good.

Thursday 26th - Clear and cold again, good views of Fuji. Work with Jim in the morning. We find that there seems to be an extra byte on the end of the OMS packets going to and from the EEC. The engine is moved back into the cell. The ELC leads arrive from Seattle, unfortunately they have sent two ELC 9436 leads and not the EEC breakout lead. After some debate we decide that we can live with it. Eat very nearby for third time.

Friday 27th - BRR flight test phone me just after breakfast. I work on the Trent 900 Programmer software almost all day. The engine is in the cell but only have EEC power on late on. Things get going at about 6pm, stay till 8pm. Go to GuGu for an internal Japanese BBQ, very good beef, the pig's intestine is not good. Not get back to the room till 11:30pm.

Saturday 28th - Breakfast at usual time, 6:45. I feel the table moving and look up, nobody else seems bothered so I keep on eating. It was a magnitude 5.5 earth tremor. Into work for 9:30am. Spend a lot of time doing the pin crossing between the two ELC leads, almost impossible to read the pin numbers. Dry crank on VFSG 1 attempted, no joy. Dry crank OK on VSFG 2 at 15:45

Sunday 29th - Meet up with Phil and Cookie at 9am. Walk to Hamamatsucho, go on the Yamanote line to Shinagawa. Catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Odawara on the Tokaido line. Change there for Kozu, a bit of a wait then on to the Gotemba Line for the train to Gotemba. See good views of Fuji as we get closer. Get the bus to the Designer Outlet. Have a nice steak and then a bit of a wander round. The Levi shop seem to be very similar prices to the UK. Have a look in the Bose showroom. Same journey back. Enjoy watching the Shinkansen go through Odawara station at full power. Phone Des and he meets us at Ueno station. We go round the 100 yen shops, I buy a magnifying glass. We wander round the market for a while and then eat in a Thai restaurant called Mae An, very good.

Monday 30th - I get the EMS fully wired to the EEC. Ask for a separate Ground / Flight switch and High / Low Idle switch. I run the EEC commissioning batch files. Des starts with a nasty cough. Me, Phil and Cookie eat in the Sukiya again, very good. We try the Wasabi Kit Kat later on, rather nice. Phone Bob McNaughton late on, he reminds me that the Health Level of 10 is caused by lack of CDN. .

Tuesday 31st - I struggle to get out of bed for 6:45. Suggest that Des has the day off. All morning in the engine pre area with Jim and Tom, we look into problems with Approach Idle and Interactive Tests. The Approach idle problem is fixed by not setting the HiIdleReg bit in the BPCU packet. The engine goes into the test cell at 5pm till 8pm. I realize that the safety parameters are not reading correctly because we have got the wrong symbol table. Jim finds and fixes a problem with the tx of OMS frames, relating to the destination IP address. We eat at Miami Garden in the food court. Have a nice steak and large beer, back to hotel for 10pm.

Wednesday 1st February - Have a meeting in the RR office with Gordon and Sugiyama to talk about bed time, we request a minimum of 3 hours per day, they tell us that there have been a number of unscheduled engine removals. They make us a good offer for bed time. Me and Phil dump our bags and head to Ginza. We find the Sony building easily, however it is closed. Walk on to Ginza High Street. Not quite as good as I remember. It does not appear to be traffic free any more. Walk North East, very cold. Call in for coffee and mocha. Have a subway for tea, and then go to the Metro home.

Thursday 2nd - Get the 8:15 shuttle bus to Hamamatsucho. Problems with the KHI EMS all day. Swap the CMSC at noon and the fault follows the move. VFSG 1 was faulty to start with, now VFSG 2 is faulty. Des goes back to the hotel, me and Phil eat in Miami Garden again. I enjoy pepperoni pizza and a large beer. Talk with Duncan a lot about KHI, we decide that it must an Anti-Virus and firewall issue.

Friday 3rd - Fix the problems with the P2T2 probe. Do a successful P2T2 OMS test. A lot of ANA executives turn up mid afternoon and we try to do a start, it aborts because of low N3 in lane A. I have a few chats with Roger Ashmead. At about the same time we realize that the engine is declaring a dual igniter fault. It appears that Tom is cutting power as soon as the engine starts running. We walk down to Miami Garden again, with Des this time. I have the Caesar salad, followed by spaghetti bolognaise. Back to the hotel on the bus at 9pm.

Saturday 4th - Fantastic sunny day again, catch the 8:15 bus to the station, the three of us are confident that this is our last day. Andrew tells us that the replacement CMSC will arrive late on Monday. All of a sudden it looks like Monday's return is in jeopardy. We look at the EMS data from last night and decide that the Health Level of 5 was caused by the ignition power being turned off when the engine had started running. We establish that both EECs have the same problem with reading N3 in lane A. Try a backup mode start, but no joy. Perform a primary mode start and investigate idle modes. Health level 0 all the way until the engine shuts down. Me and Phil nip out to Sukiya, Des eats in the hotel.

Sunday 5th - Meet at 9am for breakfast. Have a long and relaxed breakfast. Des has changed the flights to Thursday. Extend the hotel stay by three days. Walk into Takeshiba for the first time, travel to Shinbashi on the automated Yurikamome line. On the metro to Ginza. Go into the Mitsukoshi department store, starts off slowly, but then we start to enjoy it. We look at some perfume delivery systems, I try some black soap. Have a few chocolate samples and also a free coffee. Move on to the Sony building, rather uninspiring. Have a Starbucks at Shinbashi station and then back onto the Yurikamome line. Stay on and go over the Rainbow Bridge, see a lot of reclaimed land. We get back at 5pm. I decide to go for a walk. Follow the covered walkway to Shinbashi and then on to Ginza, see the Lion beer hall. Stroll back for 7:30pm, very nice.

Monday 6th - Catch the 8:40 bus from the hotel. Raining when we get off the monorail. Wait for the ANA bus, but end up walking into the RR office. Talk to Gordon for a while about Kulite transducers. James gives us a lift to the test cell. The replacement CMSC turns up at about 3pm, fitted. We have an early finish. Eat in Miami garden again, we all go for the large spaghetti. Back to the hotel on the 8:30 bus. Speak to Roger Ashmead about Initiated Tests, and Duncan about Trent 900 scripts. He tells me that the Trent 900 programmer is now working.

Tuesday 7th - On the 8:15 bus, heavy rain, borrow an umbrella from the hotel. Umbrella is good for the first 30 seconds and then all three break. Fortunately, Sugiyama San is waiting for us. Get nowhere with investigating the generating issues, the GCU keeps on declaring a Sustained Parallel Source SPS fault. Run through the Initiated Tests which involve dry / wet cranking, i.e. VSV, Oil Cooler bypass valve, and AOHE value. Problems with the VSV test, in terms of selecting which VFSG to use. We leave early and go back from Terminal 1. Back to the hotel to dump the gear. Des stays in and me and Phil go round to Ueno and go to Mae An again, very good. Talk to Duncan later with regard to RIPPS.

Wednesday 8th - 8:15 bus, Sugiyama meets us with the van. Jody has received a software fix for the GCU problems. Do a run to prove the loading on VFSG1, up to 250 kW, we all go up onto the roof to feel the heat. Try VFSG2 up to 250 kW, all OK. Des and Phil go off to the 1pm, wash up meeting. I stay here and run through some more Initiated Tests. Do a unpowered EEC start. Try the Heating Bleed values, Anti Ice valve, SAS value. I am in charge of the running. All complete for about 5pm.

Thursday 9th - Get the bus direct from the hotel to Narita airport. Get settled into the ANA lounge, I try a bit of sushi. Depart on time. I am upgraded to First Class, seat 1D. Very good food and wine all the way back. I even put on the ANA supplied pyjamas and sleep for a few hours. A bit of a squeeze for three of us in the car. Back for just before 6pm.

Seletar - Test Bed Commissioning - Oct 2011

Sunday 16th October - Des Tait comes round and picks me up at about 2:30pm, easy drive down to Heathrow. I am down graded to Traveller Plus for a while. Fly on time at 20:30.

Monday 17th - Land at 5:30pm in Singapore. Clear immigration and Taxi to the Regent. It is Happy hour so we have a few Tiger Beers. Walk along Taglin road and Orchard Road to the food court. I have Beef in black bean with rice. Walk back and have a pot of tea on the Regent club. I feel tired for a while but sleep does not come. Read a lot, almost no sleep.

Tuesday 18th - Robert Taylor texts me from the Windmill at about 10:40pm UK time, 5:40 am local. I reply to say that I cannot make it. Breakfast at 6:45. Taxi to Seletar for 8am. Eric Schulz, COO Civil Aerospace is visiting today. Work with Andy Murphy in the afternoon on the thermocouple ATP. Long telecon with Pete Penny after the calibration method. Do a couple of calibrations and find variations in the order of 2 degs C. Heavy rain in the afternoon. Leave the site at 7pm. Phil has arrived this evening. Me and Des just make it for happy hour, have a couple in the Regent club. Walk out to Black Angus Steak place. I have prime rib.

Wednesday 19th - Sleep for about 2 hours. Breakfast at 6:45 and in work for the 8am meeting. Complete the spin tests in Primary mode. Then do a Dry crank. It transpires that the Wet Crank can only be completed using OMS. Attempt this but not much joy. After a little time, we work out that the Flight Ground status is probably causing the OMS is abort. We start using the EMS to investigate the reasons for this. Find that the EEC is unhappy with a number of the parameters being sent to it, including VCAS. Jim, the software man investigates. Long phone calls with Tom Lord, Alistair Smith. Eat in Basilico in the hotel, enjoy the food, I have Monk fish wrapped in Parma Ham. Up to the club for a pot of tea. Asleep from 11pm.

Thursday 20th - Sleep for about 4 hours. Usual breakfast at 6:40am. In work for 8am. All day investigating AFDX tx problems from the Cenco racks. Back to the hotel for 7:50pm, Have some more very good nibbles, beer and a glass of Syrah / Shiraz. Eat late in Dan Ryan's, not very good.

Friday 21st - I am asleep when the alarm goes off. In work for 8am. Wet crank in the morning. Work till about 7pm. We ring a few taxi firms and cannot find one. We walk to the bus stop and after a long wait for a bus, stay on till Salangong. Eat in Nex, have suckling pig and noodles. Not get back to the hotel till 10pm.

Saturday 22nd - In for about 9:45. I notice that the Throttle has frozen late on. We get a taxi without too much trouble. Straight to the club for about 7:15, I enjoy the beer, best part of the day. Have a quick look in the mall. We eat in the Italian just near the hotel.

Sunday 23rd - Sleep well. Enjoy a fairly leisurely breakfast. In work for about 9:45. I work on scripts most of the day for Martin Ashby and Phillipa. Post them off from my Hotmail account in the afternoon. Leave work at 5pm. Have a little wander in the Mall, I buy a pair of headphones. Have a bit of lounge time. Go on the MRT to Chinatown, very clean. Have a Thai meal, good selections of dishes.

Monday 24th - Alarm at 6:20am, In work for 8am. Problems getting the EEC power on because it is doing an 8 hour cal. Discussions about the P2T2 probe logic. Attempt an engine start but the drivers display freezes, abort the start. Phone Bob McNaughton and ask him about the P2T2 heater logic, it is on at all running above 5.5% N1. Ask him about the Channel Change logic, it changes lane after every start. We are in the lounge from 7:15. Walk out down Orchard to Mesetos. I have Diavola pizza.

Tuesday 25th - Cenco declare that they need more time at the 8:30 meeting. They worked on it till midnight last night. Laurent phones and I work on the script for Martin Ashby in the taxi on the way back. The engine runs to ground idle at 13:09, the speeds are rather unstable.

Wednesday 26th - Days holiday in Singapore. We come in for 9:45. I ask for a day to investigate the AFDX problems, get nowhere, disappointingly inconsistent. 787 has its first revenue flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. After some talk with Pat, manager from Cenco, I agree to let them work over night on the problem. We just make the lounge for 7:45, have some beer, wine and food. Extra wine and stay there till 10:30pm. Thunderstorms at midnight. I don't sleep very well.

Thursday 27th - Back to the 6:30am breakfast. Remove all the wires from the Blue AFDX switch and the transmit rates are a little better. Problems with lack of Throttle comms. Eat in Basilico again, sit near the pool, rather good food.

Friday 28th - I have a chat with Graham Fearn and he asks me to extend my stay. Back late, eat in the Black Angus, I have a very good rib eye steak at the Black Angus.

Saturday 29th - Tim Richner arrives. We produce an AFDX config with the rate of everything doubled. It almost fixes all the comms problems. I put some rate counters on the CAS, left centre and right incoming signals. I understand the reasons for the two Condor cards. It comes from the days of Trent 900, when they had a direct connection to the EEC in the same way that we did. Try to get down to the root cause of the problem and only end up with conflicting information. Late on connect up the Cisco switch, it reports no errors. Have the last half an hour of lounge time and then move on to the Patara, a Thai restaurant, upstairs in Tanglin Mall. Enjoy the food, quite different to a Thai in Derby. Qantas grounds the fleet.

Sunday 30th - Have a late breakfast with Des and Phil. Get in to work for just gone 10am. Looks like a fantastic day outside. Nobody else is here till 11am. Me and Tim get some level of consistence. We conclude that Lane B of the EEC, Blue has a wiring fault. Leave at 6pm sharp in a taxi, meet Des and Phil in the lounge. They have swopped to BA, Des is in Economy plus. I wave Des and Phil off at 7:30pm. Stay in the lounge and have some wine. Go for a walk out along Orchard, still too hot at 10pm. Back to the lounge for 10:30.

Monday 31st - In for 8am. Have a good lunch with the team. Prove that it cannot be the wiring by slaving in a long Cat5 cable, request a replacement EEC. Larry and Roger turn up from Cenco. In the afternoon we observe that the EEC is not behaving in the same way each time that it is switched on. I eat in the lounge and then move on to the Hotel bar for some Tiger and fantastic Olives.

Tuesday 1st November - Prove the EEC can receive good data, if things go well. We do a good P2T2 test and a wet crank OK. It then aborts the start as before. It was lane changing and thus getting bad data on lane B. Duncan sends over a WireSharp recording of the AIM cards output and the EEC here fails to read it OK. Pete Penny and Dan Ramsay turn up in the evening. It is their first time in the Regent, have a few drinks in the lounge and then move on to the bar. They are playing Billy Currington :- God is Great, Beer is Good and People are crazy again.

Wednesday 2nd - After considerable debate I decide to fly back on the Thursday evening. Siva wants me to stay and do more ATPs. Not really do much all day. We leave work at a reasonable time and head to the riverside area on the MRT. Easily find somewhere to eat even at 9:30pm. We have steak, chips and beer.

Thursday 3rd - Have a slightly later that normal breakfast. First take the MRT to Marina Bay, walk a little way and then catch my first glance of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, just mad. Go up to the SkyPark on the top, fantastic views from the top. Look out at the Singapore Straights. Take the MRT to the Harbour Front and get the cable car to Sentosa, go up the SkyTower, not very impressed. Back to the hotel for a while. Then on the tube again and go to the old part of town. Have a drink in Raffles bar. Watch some Singapore news when I get back and Tiger Woods is being interviewed at the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Go to the lounge from 6:30, but Pete and Dan don't show up. Taxi to the airport at 7:30pm. Board at 23:15 on a Qantas A380 with Trent 900 engines, flight QF9. All goes well. Not that impressed by the service.

Friday 4th - Land at 05:25 almost on the dot.

Waco - EMS installation - June 2007

Wednesday 6th June - Up at 5am, away by 5:30. Catch the 9am flight from Birmingham to Newark. Three hours there and then three hours to Dallas. Hire car is a bright blue Ford Focus. Get to the Residence Inn for about 9.30pm. Phone Matt when I get in. Drive out along Valley Mills Road and meet them in Shogun Steak and Sushi. Very good Japanese meal, cooked in front of us. Surprised to see Steve Chew here, he has been doing the instrumentation commissioning. Drive on to Oakley's bar, girls are in bikinis every Wednesday, Mark Foster, Gethin, Steve are all in. Give Steve Chew a lift back.

Thursday 7th - Usual struggle to get me through the security office. Steve Chew tells me how far he has got with the commissioning. Canteen for lunch with Neil and Matt, burger. Go over to the plane in the afternoon. The EMS rack is not powered at all, after some discussion get Howie to wire the two distribution boards into one. When we power up the EMS, the HST RT computer is not working. Me and Matt have to remove the EMS from the rack and reseat the memory and the Flash IDE module before it boots. Dripping with sweat whilst we are doing it. Give Matt a quick demo of the Fault Word Monitor. Drive out to near where the lads live. Go to Rosetis with Steve Bowen and Matt for Pizza, very good. Have a walk past the ALICO building to the old court house. Still a warm breeze at midnight.

Friday 8th - Call Duncan in the morning about the AFDX client crashing. Dig and Bert arrive. EEC arrives late on, Clive goes in to check that it powers up. Go into Crickets with Dig and Bert at about 8:30, continue the task of working along the bar, have a few lagers and a few interesting ciders. Matt and Steve turn up later, eat and go. Neil and Charlie turn up later still. I am there till almost the end.

Saturday 9th - Get in work for about 9am, Matt has been there since about 7am. Problem with writing invalid addresses to the EEC causing it to stop talking RBL. Put a fix into the EEC manager. Nip out to Jack in the Box with Matt for lunch, Neil comes along to meet us. Get the Fault Word Monitor working of a fashion. After some tests decide that the HMU needs to be changed. Leave at about 8pm. We all go straight to Crickets. Play pool with Matt, Neil and Steve. Have a go on the Wii with Mr Bowen, enjoy the golf, tennis and bowling. Stay for a couple more with Dig and Bert. Get to about half way along the row of beers. Home for 2:30am.

Sunday 10th - Bit of a headache in the morning. Walk along the Brazos river to Cameron park, very hot and sunny. Lots of people are playing frizz-bee golf very seriously. Climb up the steps up the cliffs. Drive down to the lad's apartments with Bobby for golf. He is a travelling mechanic with Jeff Smith and Martin Hough. Go to the Bear Ridge golf course. Steve, Bobby, Charlie go round in the first group. Me, Matt and Neil go round in the second group. I am moderately pleased with my golf, loose a lot of Matt's balls. Only give up on one hole. Over to Hooters after that. Have a large selection of starters and some beer. Natalie is very nice. Back to the Hotel early for a change.

Monday 11th - Get in for 8am. The plane has been fuelled and pulled out onto the taxiway. Things are all going well this morning. Go out to lunch with Matt, Dig and Bert. I fix a problem with the PLC inputs being lost when we re-select the Avionics file. Go over to the plane at about 4pm, the EEC is resetting continuously, probably to do with the HMU, stay till 10pm. Drive around Waco suburbs for a while, back for an early night.

Tuesday 12th - Get all the connectors off the EEC and it is still resetting. Fix a few software problems. Canteen for lunch. Nip out for a pizza with Matt, Alan and Clive. Stay on the plane with Matt till midnight. Call in for one late one in Crickets by myself.

Wednesday 13th - In work for 8am. On the plane almost all day. The engine gets to ground idle. Leave work at 9pm. Clive Barton offers to buy beer in Crickets so we all go over there. They stay quite late on we have some chicken on the bar. Have another one with Dig and Bert. Home for 1am.

Thursday 14th - In work for 8am to check out the alarm limits on the DAS with Mark Foster. Do a high power run in the afternoon. The driver's screens are working for the first time. The DAS had been set to receive data at low speed. Over to Crickets late on.

Friday 15th - At work till 9pm and then follow Matt to the Texas Roadhouse. Most of the people are there. I order a chocolate pudding. They are all talking to the waitress called Nikki. Phil O’Dell asks her to talk to me and distract me, whilst he steals my pudding, very funny. All good fun. Phil drives off the wrong way down the dual carriageway and the wrong way round the island.

Saturday 16th - In work at 9am and help set up some more EICAS gauges. Taxi runs are delayed by the intercom system. No real issues on the taxi runs. I find that there is a symbol table conversion problem with the Patch 4 software. Large meeting after the taxis, before you know it is 9pm. We all go over to Crickets with Dale Ranz and Denny Middlesworth. Late night in Crickets, Talk with Mark about his being in Jail in Mexico, etc. Play pool and shuffle board later, Barry, Gethin and the photographers are all in. Big Kimberley and her friend are with us until we get kicked out at 2am.

Sunday 17th - Heavy rain all morning, a bit hungover. Drive over to Mexia about noon. Lots of showers. Enjoy seeing some countryside. The weather clears up so I drive to Lake Waco. Very humid, enjoy walking with my shirt off. Do about six miles. Phone Matt later and meet him for a late quiet beer. Get accosted by a naked woman just as I walk into Crickets.

Monday 18th - Get into work for 9am. Find a problem where both lanes of the EEC stop receiving CDN for about 2 seconds. Do one last run to power in the morning, the LP turbine seizes on shutdown. Reconfigure the Cisco switch to use the top one for the Lane B communications. The Comms Translator then fails to communicate with the EEC and it will not start in primary mode. Do a crank to try and free the LP shaft, after that fails Charlie grabs hold of the front fan and gives it a good pull. I reconfigure the CDN, and they decide to fly. Fantastic to see it fly for the first time. Up for about 2 hours, Matt Horlor and Alan Deeley man our instrumentation. Phil O’Dell is in the cockpit. It does two touch and goes and then Phil lands it. Champagne in the office and then we all go to Crickets, arrive at about 11pm, lots of rapid drinking. I get down to the three Bishops. We all get kicked out at 2am. It takes Phil three hours to walk home. Steve declares tomorrow a holiday.

Tuesday 19th - A bit hungover in the morning. Have a long chat to Duncan about yesterday's Comms Translator CDN problem. About noon I set off to Cameron park, very hot. Park at the Anniversary park. Walk along by the river to start with. The trail is sometimes flooded so I have to go through the undergrowth. Reach a very bad stage and decide to head up to the Lover's leap, big scramble. Have a rest and some water there. Have a quick look at the trail map and then head into the jungle. See some massive butterflies and very dense undergrowth. After about an hour it occurs to me that I may never get out alive. Walk over by some pylons for a while. Eventually follow a track which becomes a road and then find Herring drive, walk back to the car. Drive round the cliff tops in the car. From Lovers leap I decide to walk down the Highlander route, very good. Get rather bitten since it is now dusk. Must have been walking for about 5 hours. Home for a shower and some water. Phone Matt and meet them all for beer and a massive pizza in Rosati's. Back to Cricket's for some more beer. The Golden Ticket holders, Kris Goode, Priti, Adrian and Simon and the photographers are all in. Get within eight beers of the end of the bar.

Wednesday 20th - Tired in the morning again. Spend a long time on the plane in the afternoon. Change to the onboard video card. Reprog the Cisco switches from version 8 to version 9. It is very frustrating trying to find the correct syntax, takes about three hours. Finish at about 7:30pm. Go to the Olive Garden, along Waco drive for tea with Matt, Steve and Charlie. Nice to have some pasta for a change and a rather nice bottle of wine. Stay afterwards having a long chat to Matt about life in general. Drive past Crickets on the way back. In bed for 11:30 but not sleep well at all.

Thursday 21st - In the office for 9am. More work on the start_analyser scripts, try to get PJ's data base working. Stay in the office with Matt working on the script analyser till 6pm. A first flight party has been organised at the Texas Sports Hall of fame. Turn up at about 8pm, talk with Clive Marner and his family a bit. Very good fajitas. The party finishes at 11pm. Some guy brings his truck round and we all put the beer barrel in the back, I get in with it. We drive off trying to get back to Rob's house. The driver is on the phone and says "I've got three beer kegs and some dude in the back". Phil O'Dell and Steve Bowen see us on the I35. Find Neil's place and make a few phone calls. Rob's girlfriend comes round to pick us up. Put all the beer in her car, I squeeze in the front. Have a few more drinks at Rob's house, his sister and her daughter, and girlfriend all live together. Set off walking with Dig and Bert, Charlie and Neil. Neil runs off to get the car. We do a walk though at Whataburger, very funny. Neil finds us and gives us a lift home at 3am.

Friday 22nd - Duncan phones me about a TCL script problem. Get all my gear packed and leave room 217 of the Residence at about 11am. Drive to work and discuss a few stories from last night. Leave at about noon, have a very leisurely drive up to Dallas airport. Board Alaska airways flight to Seattle.

Waco - EMS Installation - March 2007

Monday 5th June - Alan Deeley picks me up at 5pm. He is moving out there for a year or so, thus has lots of stuff. Go down the M40, see lots of Red Kites. Get to Gatwick for about 8.45pm. Big queues to cheque in. I have to go fast track. Nine and a half hour flight, drink 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape. Collect the hire car at Dallas airport and drive down the I35 to Waco, following Alan. Phone David to say that I will not be ordering beer tonight. Arrive at about 6pm (midnight at home). Wireless internet in the room, works with the PDA. The guys pick me up at about 8pm and we go to Crickets Grill. Clive Marner, Jonathan Lane, Neil Williams, Edwin Sharp, Steve Bowen. Enjoy a chicken and chips. Stay up till 11pm. Awake by 2.30am not sleep much more.

Tuesday 6th - Jon Lane picks me up at 7am. Get into work for 7.30am. takes till 9am to get a photo badge. Telephone call with Derby at 9am. See the Antonov unload engine 6. Steve has to sign for it. Garry phones with a problem regarding the FAD command. Problems with not having Visual Studio 2003. Also Avionics file select does not work if it is the first file. Leave at 4.30pm.

Wednesday 7th - Clive Barton arrives. He takes me to the aircraft, see Tim Checker modifying the IRP rack, he leaves today. Rich Hill, an L3 man shows me round the plane. Have a drive around in the evening, find my way to the plant and back OK after a couple of false turns. Walk up to Crickets and meet Steve Bowen and the C9 fitters, Paul Buxton and Steve Wooley. They are all playing pool, Steve Bowen is very good. Stay there all evening and have Beef Jerky back in the hotel.

Thursday 8th - I drive in with the two C9 fitters. Rich Hill comes over to tell me that the lead to connect the power from the Digbert rack to the EMS rack is missing. Decide that we can get away with the patched in non-UPS supply for now. Get the EMS powered up. The engine is almost mounted. Lesley arrives, is waiting in Crickets when I arrive, have a bit of a chat and then everyone else shows up, large group of us. We all move on to the Gratziano's Italian for a meal, big portions. Back to Crickets for one more, play a bit of shuffle board and bar football.

Friday 9th - Power on the EMS rack for most of the day. Waiting for EEC power and Cockpit power, plan to come in Saturday and Sunday. Meet at Crickets at 8pm. Have a few there, I decide to start from number one and work along the bar. Eat in the Mexican, have beef fajitas, not bad. More beer in Crickets and then go to the Wild West till it shuts, they all have cowboy hats on and it is almost like a barn dance. There till 2am. The drink is very cheap.

Saturday 10th - I am a bit hungover. Go into work for 10am. Get EEC power on at 2pm. No AFDX is being received. Work till late. We all go to Crickets, me and Neil end up playing a girl called Michelle at pool.

Sunday 11th - Daylight saving comes in and I get into work for 8am. All day on the plane. Get the test port working in the morning. Get the 664 comms to the DAS working late on. Shane Tracer comes in to work on the Comms Translator. Fantastic thunder storm, drive straight from work down to I35 meet Lesley, Jon Lane and Clive Barton at the Outback Steakhouse. Delays on the I35 due to an accident. Have a good steak. Good to be able to report some progress.

Monday 12th - On to the plane early. First thing, connect up the CDN properly and swap over the Tx and Rx for the secondary CDN. CDN now seems to work. Find that the Flight test isolator seems to give Lane A Safety HST errors. CDN Lane A goes off later, only comes back on when the EEC is reset. Crickets, talk with Shane from Hamilton quite a lot.

Tuesday 13th - Remove the transorbs from the Isolator and the HST errors mostly go away. We all go out since Alan Millichamp arrives out here. I had mistaken him for a leading tester.

Wednesday 14th - Last day at work in Waco. Finish my campaign across the beers at the one after Warsteiner.

Thursday 15th - Nip into work to get a few things. Have a slow drive up the I35 to the Airport. Wander off to the left up the 287 to drive past Joe Pool lake. In the end it is just a collection of houses, McDonalds, etc. Arrive at the airport at the same time as Alan Millichamp and the two C9 mechanics.

Friday 16th - Land at 7pm, chauffeur up from Gatwick with Alan Millichamp, he gets dropped at work, I go home and after a little while go to bed.

About two weeks later I leave Morley Hayes golf club on the wrong side of the road.

Toulouse - ZZT - August 2005

Wednesday 31st August - In the Flight Test Office for 3pm, stay till 9pm. Eat at Alex's house, bacon and onion omelette, watch Holy Grail.

Thursday 1st September - In for 9am, leave at 7pm Over to MSN004, Find all the breakers to get the EECs powered.

Friday 2nd - In for 9am, leave at 8pm. Program all four EECs on MSN004, engines 2 and 4 with the portable EMS. Eat in Pizza Marzano with Ben, Ripa, Ian and Kerry.

Saturday 3rd - Ripa picks me up at 7.30am - climb Pic du Midi and then on to Lourdes back for midnight.

Sunday 4th - Driving range with Ben at the Rame course. Hot in the afternoon, couple of nice beers and a chat. Ben goes out with a young lady.

Monday 5th - 9am till 7pm Rain all day. Meeting with FCh about data transfer - does not seem to bad. Get to MSN004 late on to talk about the seating plans. London Town with Ben for some Guinness, rains on the way back.

Tuesday 6th - Heavy traffic in for 9am Rain. EECPowerUpTestFlt on Eng 2 and 4 run the NVM_clr.sre to try and clear them. Problems with Office XP and activation on EMS-MSN004. Eat in the Killarney with Alex, very good simple food.

Wednesday 7th - 9am to 7pm Walk up to Mulligans with Ben and then back to the Killarney. Alex comes along later for a couple.

Thursday 8th - 9am till 9pm Go straight to MSN004 for the interactive tests. Try to get the EAT to connect to the EMU. Wire up the ethernet. Alex calls me into the office just after I leave Legardare to fix the office EMS. Reprogram the compact flash cards. Transfer to the Hotel de Brienne. Bar Basque with Alex, Ripa and some Kite surf guys.

Friday 9th - 9am till 4pm Have a quick look at MSN002, it has arrived at Station 18. Put the compact flash cards in the EAT. Reconfigure the EMS to send more Arinc data to CUB. Fix the EMU ethernet comms problems, missing connection on Airbus side. Go to a BBQ at Alex's house, fantastic meat. Have a few bottles of wine. Move on the Bar St Pierre for some more, stay till 2am. I leave the light and the telle on, don't sleep very well.

Saturday 10th - Just wander round Toulouse with a bit of a head ache. Go to the St Etienne cathedral and have a bit of a sleep. Then walk down to the Church of the Jacobins. Scheduled to fly at about 6pm, but it is delayed till 8.30pm. Drive back from Birmingham.

Toulouse - A380 First Flight - April 2005

Tuesday 5th April - Fly over to Toulouse. Go into work in the afternoon.

Wednesday 6th - MSN001 A380 is passed over to the flight test area. Bombay with Glyn and Andy Wright.

Thursday 7th - Engine cranking. We meet in the Florida at 8pm for drinks.

Friday 8th - Engine running till late on. Arrive at the Killarney at 11pm. Glyn does not wont to come. Stay till it shuts at 4am, back to Mr Byrne's apartment and then Mr Moorhouse's. I stay at Alex's flat.

Saturday 9th - Wide awake at 9am. Have a bit of breakfast. Throw up a little later. I lie on the settee most of the day. Watch 'Little Britain' to start with, then 'Dodge-ball', followed by 'Twin Town'. We go to IKEA, see Steve Hyde and this family, Alex buys a chair. Call in at Eddies to get some food. He gets called into work at 9.30pm by Ben to analyse some data. I go in too, we have a few EMS problems. Me, Ben, Paul and Alex have Duck salad for tea, fantastic meal. We try to watch 'Women of the Night', but cannot get the language into English. Watch ‘Kill Bill’ instead. I walk home, walk down to the car to try and charge the phone, bed for 3am.

Sunday 10th - Tired. I get lost walking over the Paul's place, arrive back in Place Wilson. Go cycling along the canal du midi, with Paul, we find some good jumps, do a 3 foot drop. Strong wind on the way back. I fall off near the end. Have a very good omelette for lunch. I am called into work to copy the data to Derby. I make a stupid mistake and copy the unzipped data instead of the zipped data. We head to Andy Wright's 30th birthday party, not many people are there. Garry Devonish phones to say that it would have been quicker if it had been zipped. I go back to work at 9.30pm to copy the zipped data. Go to the Bombay with Ben, Paul and Glyn.

Monday 11th - Have one to the Florida, then the London Town with the telemetry boys and then La Braisière with Glyn, very good food.

Tuesday 12th - Eat with Glyn, Dig and Bert at somewhere near the Arc du Triomphe, very good duck.

Wednesday 13th - Finish off the recreation of the TOC files for the runs on the 9th of April. I cannot get the TOC to run locally. Ring John Woolley to send the source code, but is reluctant, he thinks that I am on holiday. Get the start analyser to work. Pizza for lunch. Over to the A380 Iron Bird to upgrade the EMS with Tatjana. It goes well. Rake transducers arrive on the test bed. Glyn and the two telemetry men go home.

Thursday 14th - The EMS is dead first thing in the morning. The engine goes running at 9am without it. Diagnose an over-heated CPU in the afternoon. I play football for the flight test team, we win 4-3. Go for a beer in the Bier Akademie. Ian Chetwyn tells me how critical it is to get the rake transducers working on engine 91015. I have thoughts of being called back. Run over to Alex's house for fantastic sausage and potatoes.

Friday 15th - Conference call in the morning about the rake transducers. The reason that they cannot get rake two working is that there are no transducers on it. I am relieved that the software is not to blame. Rearrange to return on 23rd. Over the Paul's for sweet and sour chicken with rice, very good. Steve Hyde comes out. Have a few drinks round town, end up in the Bar Basque, I am home for 1am.

Saturday 16th - Replacement EMS and CPU card arrive at 10am. Change the CPU card with Uli. Leave at 2.30pm. Move over to the Hotel Garonne.

Sunday 17th - Walk over to Paul's for 10am drive down to Auzat. Start off with climbing. I lead the first one, a 5a+, all the routes are bolted. We do a few other 5b+, I am on my limit. After about four hours climbing, we change to mountain biking. Do a lot of pushing uphill, go though Sem village. Head up a mountain trail to a col at 1500m, get well above the snow line. Go past a few disused mines. Start heading down at about 6.30, fantastic run back down. Back to the car for about 9pm.

Monday 18th - Fairly tired at work. Get a bottle of wine and head over to Alex's for a bit to eat. I fall asleep watching some more Little Britain.

Tuesday 19th - Stay in and write the RclDiff utility in the evening. Works for 1am.

Wednesday 20th - Start off with a meal in La Braisière with a large crowd. Guy Norris's leaving do is going on downstairs. I have the demi cote. Move on for a few drinks round town, end up at the UBU club, empty.

Thursday 21st - Arrive at 10am, very tired and hungover. Very busy all day, get the microphone working on the FTB. Fetch the pizzas at lunch, lots of people are waiting for the A380 to fly. Back onto the A380 to try and test the EMS to FTI comms, no power on the CUB. Leave at 7pm. The hotel receptionist is very excited about seeing the A380 fly. Head over to Alex's place, put together an IKEA settee and bed. Have duck and potatoes later on. I fall asleep watching 'Little Britain'. Bed for 1am.

Friday 22nd - Fabien complains about all the fault words going off when the EEC is depowered. I write the Arinc mask option into the mapping client, that afternoon. He comes over to test it at 7pm. We look into the refresh bit 32 issue, I tell him that it is the parity bit. I configure to send him an alternating bit for him to test. Work till 8.30pm. Over to Alex's, Alex has his brother, Ben, staying over, also Paul, Kirstie, Ben Lic are there. Have lardons with a pasta and tomato sauce. A couple of bottles of wine followed by Port with some brie. Walk over to the Killarney, a couple of pints of stout and then the shots start flowing. I leave at 2am. PJ meets them later and they go to a club.

Saturday 23rd - I try ringing Paul Moorhouse in the morning, but get no answer. Eventually get hold of Alex. After a bit of confusion, I head to the coast with Alex and his brother. I feel rather ill in the back due to the high speed driving with sudden swerving. Go to La Franqui for the kite surfing championships, however there is no wind. A lot of standing around. We meet up with his French friend, David. He takes us to a large shallow lake. Alex has a go, it looks fantastic fun. I am rather cold all day. Head back to Toulouse for 9pm. Have pizza for tea and watch Papillion at Alex's. Very tired, sleep well.

Sunday 24th - Alex and his brother head down to the coast. I meet up with Paul and Kirstie and we go for a walk near Auzat. Me and Kirstie get the navigation a little incorrect and end up on a road blocked by snow. Me and Paul walk back to Vicdessos.

Wednesday 27th - First flight day. I am in for 7.30am to set the EMS off, me PJ and Uli stay on the plane for 1½ hours watching things get set up. It flies at 10.30am exactly for four hours. I cannot get into the champagne area afterwards. We all meet up in the Florida bar, then move on to bar St Pierre and Bar Basque. Do some free climbing later on.

Thursday 28th - I wander in for 11am, but we still cannot get on the plane. We all go for lunch at the Bier Akademie. I pick up Annette from the airport at 2pm and don't bother going back to work.

Friday 29th - I work late to wrap everything up. Paul Moorhouse has some friends over, we all meet in the Florida bar at eight. Go for a meal in 'La Bohème', then walk down for one at the Beaucoup. They walk over to the Killarney for a session, we go back to the Hotel Garonne.

Saturday 30th - Annette gets impatient waiting for them in the morning so we decide to go to the coast. We get there and it is a little windy. Decide to drive back to the Cathar region and have a look at some castles, go to Queribus and have a look at the one near-by. Go to the Bombay late on for a curry.

Sunday 1st May - Drive to Roquebrun to canoe on the river Orb, go down the paege to Beziers and up from there. Get there for about 1.30pm. The man tells us to go the Blue Lizard to get some sandwiches. Enjoy the trip down the river, have a bite to eat by the bridge at Ceps. Plan a long drive through the national park and then realise that we are short of petrol. Try a few petrol stations but they all need a Carte Bleu and none are attended. Not only is it a Sunday but also May Day. At about 9pm we decide to stop by petrol pump and wait for someone to arrive with the right credit card. We wait about 20 minutes. Drive about ½ a mile and the next petrol station has a very bored looking attendant. Drive back via Mazamet.

Monday 2nd - Drive down to Carcassonne to have a look at the castle, problems finding it. There are lots of shops, hotels and restaurants inside the castle. Drive back and have a meal at the Hippo. Fly at 8pm, just have time to call in at the Windmill for a couple as we go past.

Toulouse - A380 MSN001 - March 2005

Monday 7th March - Drive down to Birmingham, fly at 12.25 Paul Jennings meets me at the airport. Follow him in the hire car to the new A380 assemble buildings, see MSN002, MSN004, MSN007. Drive around a little bit to familiarise myself with the roads. Stay in the Grand Hotel D’l Opera. Very smart hotel, but a small room. A little disappointed at how expensive the internet connection in the room is, 22 euros per night. I had brought a load of pictures with me, with the intention of updating my web page. Walk out to get a warm steak hache, very nice.

Tuesday 8th - Into work for 9am. Work on the Trent 900 configuration in the morning. In the afternoon put the new EMS software on MSN360. Problems with the mapping client. Work till 7pm. Learn that the ground running has been put back from March 19th to April 2nd. Have a Quick burger on the way to meet Ben in the Frog and Rostbif to watch the football. Have a few pints of ‘Aero’, Paul Moorhouse and Alex come along latter.

Wednesday 9th - Have a fantastic pizza for lunch. The MSN360 RTs are all very unreliable. Realise that we should have been defraging the RT files not trying to make vxWorks read them. Work till 7pm. Back to the hotel and work on the Defrag software till gone midnight.

Thursday 10th - Spend all day getting the Defrag software working. The sun comes out for the first time. Have a drive out towards Albi in the evening.

Friday 11th - Put the new defrag software on MSN360 and it still does not work properly, realise that the Defrag must be a separate executable, since the hst_list.hst must be de-fraged just after it has been written. Annette arrives on the 15:35 flight, pick her up from the airport, go to my hotel to get my stuff and then up to Pas de la Casa, roads have deep snow at the side of them. Arrive at about 9pm. Paul Moorhouse and his girlfriend, Kirstie have found a couple of hotels, book into the Sporting for the first night and the Casada for the second night. Go out for a meal and some drinks. Ben and Alex arrive later, I start calling him bad boy.

Saturday 12th - Headache in the morning. A lot of queuing to get skis, passes etc. Start at about 11am. Spend a lot of time on the radio, calling bad boy. Fantastic days skiing, very impressed by the linked area. Not very impressed by lunch stop in La Tartar, bowl. Annette is a little unsure to start with but does very well, has a great day. A couple of beers straight off the slopes. Geoff takes us to the best restaurant in Pas, very good food, BBQ.

Sunday 13th - Get going for 10am. Do for very fast runs with Ben late on. Stay for a meal and drink in Pas with Annette and then leave at 7pm, back in Toulouse for 10pm, tired. I have a very burnt nose.

Monday 14th - Get access to A380 MSN001 for the first time. Fit the quick computers. Annette has a good wander around town. Finish work at 6.30, just in time to get Annette to the airport. She is home for gone midnight.

Tuesday 15th - Tidy up some of the defrag code in the morning. Also fix problems with the HST overflow calculations and the fittings of NC parameters into the list. Me and Paul on MSN360 in the afternoon. The EMU plate has the wrong connectors completely. Borrow a connector but still no EMU comms. Finish at six and have a pleasant walk down by the river. Paul Moorhouse calls and I walk up to the Frog. Have a couple of jugs with Paul, Sue Warburton and Malcolm Marchant.

Wednesday 16th - My jeans keep on slipping down, need a belt.

Thursday 17th - Decide that I should stay for one more week. Go shopping at Eddie's for more jeans, etc. Ben goes for his first single flight, we celebrate by going to the Killarney Irish bar. I don't realise that it is St Patrick's day until I get there. I leave at 1.30, home for 2am. Moorhouse and Alex stay out till 4.30am.

Friday 18th - I am rather tired in the morning. Test out the Arinc to FTI comms in the morning. Curry for dinner. Confirm that the EMU ethernet wires are missing in the afternoon. Read down by the river for a while. Tired.

Saturday 19th - Paul Moorhouse picks me up at 6am and then Ben. Takes 1:40 to get to Pas de la Casa. Have an English breakfast and then go to hire skis. On the slopes for 9:30. Have a great morning skiing. Head to the James Bond bar for lunchtime, Alex and girlfriend Anna meet us there. PJ also meets there. Someone takes my skis. I have to get the lifts down to Pas. Hire some more skis, have to pay 200 euros. Meet PJ and Emma in a bar straight off the slopes. Have a few beers and a meal. Back to the Sporting hotel to get changed and then back to the Irish bar. Lots more beer and shorts. Move onto the Underground club till 4am, then I go home. Paul and Ben stay out till 6am.

Sunday 20th - Still hammered in the morning. I am very loud and swear a lot. On the slopes for 10.30am. Alex and Anna ski with us all morning. Do lots of mad jumps. I enjoy going down the little gullies. Alex and Anna leave at 3pm, it takes them two hours to get out of Pas. We ski till 5pm and then go for a pizza. Drive over the Col du Puymorens and then along the Gorges of St George, via Quillan and onto the A61, takes 3½ hours. Home for just gone midnight, very tired.

Monday 21st - All day on MSN360, PJ comes and has a look and it behaves very badly. Stay till 8pm and it almost works quite well. Discover problems with the Health client.

Tuesday 22nd - I go over to the iron bird in the morning. Decide not to install the latest software, just put on the CD writer. MSN360 EMS misbehaves in the morning. I go over with PJ in the afternoon, the EMS does not put a foot wrong. We trim the new EEC on engine 4. I enjoy a walk along Rue du Metz, it seems an area that I have not been along for a while.

Wednesday 23rd - Pack my gear and leave room 471 of the Grand Hotel. Check into room 14 of the Hotel Garonne, very arty. Meet up with Ben and Alex for a couple in the Killarney. Moorhouse is too ill to come out.

Thursday 24th - On MSN001 with Uli. The EMU ethernet wires have been installed and we test them. Sit down by the river with the laptop and work on the EMS title panel. Alex phones and I meet him in a bar just near to the hotel. Walk down to pick up Ben and then on to Paul Moorhouse's flat. Have tagliatelle for tea and then on to the Killarney, Ben has one, we have a few more. Home for 2am. Annette has a funny moment and books a flight over and then has to cancel it.

Friday 25th - A little dry in the morning. Finish the EMS title panel. Spend all day on the Start Analyser. Quite pleased with the results. Pizza for dinner again. Paul Moorhouse is pleased with it. Do the calculation of lite-up times etc.

Toulouse - T900 FTB - April 2004

Sunday 25th April - Drive down to Birmingham, take a Flybe flight to Toulouse, arrive in the afternoon. Pick up the hire car and drive to the Crown Plaza. Fantastic hot day wander around Toulouse all afternoon.

Monday 26th - Go into work, short sleeve shirt, very hot. The main package has not even left Derby yet.

Friday 30th - Annette arrives at 14.35, I finish early and pick her up from the airport. Try to get it at the Cote de Boeuf but they are full, even though there is no-one in there. Go to the Bombay for a good curry, Annette says that it is the finest that she has ever had.

Saturday 1st May - Set off early and drive down to Carcassonne, stop to look at the castle from the Peage. Drive on down and turn right on Narbonne. Drive along and take the turn for Argeles sur Mer. Nice sunny weather, have a stroll along the beach and a coffee. Spend a long time on the phone to 57bed about an EMS symbol table problem. After a little while there decide to drive up into the mountains. A long but great drive past Pas de la Casa and then on to Andorra La Vella. Fantastic place, arrive there at about 8pm, have a wander round. After a bit of debate decide to stay the night there, in the Hotel Europe.

Sunday 2nd - Wake up in Andorra La Vella, good weather. It is great to see the city in the daylight. Have a wander round and then set off for Toulouse via Foix. Get back to the hotel for noon and Annette decides that the flight is three hours later than expected. Go for a coffee in Place St George. Go up to the Hippo for our last meal in Toulouse.

Tuesday 4th - Glyn Fox comes over during the day, he leads us to La Braisière for his first meal, have the salad gourmand to start, pave de boeuf, and chocolate mousse, fantastic meal.

Wednesday 5th - Digbert men arrive, Dave Cowley and Paul Ellse.

Friday 7th - Go to the Bombay with Glyn, try the vindaloo after it is recommended by Paul Moorhouse.

Saturday 8th - Go into work with Glyn, no real need to go in. Glyn plays around with the Quick. Meet Dave Cowley in the hotel in the evening and we have a drink in the Florida. Try to eat in La Braisière but it is full. Decide to go to the London Town instead and Ben and Paul Moorhouse joins us. A lots of drinks are involved. Visit Bar Noti, Bar Basque and the Kebab shop, ask for 'Tres Piquant' sauce. At one point I am shouting very loudly about the date of the battle of Waterloo. Me and Paul Moorhouse steal a plant from off the square.

Sunday 9th - Long lie in bed with a hangover. I have a very badly bitten tongue. Ben and Paul go mountain biking. Me and Glyn sit outside the Florida for a coffee.

Tuesday 11th - Endless debate about the need for a good N1 signal. First ground run to idle. Carpaccio with Digbert men and Clarke, meet in the Melting Pot and then on to the restaurant.

Wednesday 12th - Go to 78% N1, very loud, finish work at gone 9pm. Digbert men, Clarke, me and Glyn go to a small bar just off Capitol after work. Move on to the Bar Note till 2am. Talk with Paul about Killi and Fuji.

Thursday 13th - Finish at 10.30 pm. Have one in the Florida bar and then a McDonalds.

Friday 14th - High speed taxi to 120 knots, extent my stay till Wednesday. Annette is not very pleased. Florida bar with Ben and Glyn.

Saturday 15th - Drive to Biarritz with Glyn. Hot sunny day, go via Auch and Mont de Marsan on the way there. Have a great steak sandwich, then on to St Jean du Luz. Back for 11.30pm, have a beer in the Florida with Ben and Glyn, nice to wind down.

Sunday 16th - Bit of a lie in. Round to Ben's flat to do a bit of painting. The paint cost 60 euros and does almost a third of the job. All the DIY shops are shut. Try to hire bicycles from behind the town hall, but no joy. The three of us go for a long walk along the canals. Head to the Cote du Boeuf, but shut. Eat on Place Wilson.

Monday 17th - First flight, a little champagne as we watch it take off. Bier Akademie with Robin at 6pm. Stay for another one and then decide to go to the curry place in Blagnac. Drive around followed by Clarke and Ben. Glyn takes off someone's wing mirror and we give up on the idea. Bombay with Glyn and Clarke.

Tuesday 18th - The sandwich shop is shut for the week. We seem at a loss for lunch so I suggest the 'Bier Akademie', very nice lunch. Go with Paul and Dave.

Wednesday 19th - Second flight goes well. Quick burger for lunch. I work on software to log maint words all day. Fly back at 8pm.

Tullahoma - EMS Installation - Nov 2003

Sunday 9th November - Pick up Phil at 8am and then Chris Turner from Oakwood. Fly to Newark first class. The Atlantic is as smooth as a mill pond. Great views of New York as we approach. Fly on to Nashville. Have a walk round the Gaylord Opryland hotel complex. Eat in Applebee's. Manage to stay up till 9pm. Wake up at 1.30am.

Monday 10th - Early breakfast and then I drive down to AEDC. Meet Dave Duserhaus and Joel Wood. Get a fair bit done. Eat at Cracker Barrel very good for the first time.

Tuesday 11th - Eat at Cracker Barrel not so good again. Phil says the phase "When Good King Harry Got His Hampton Court", and it stays in my head all week.

Wednesday 12th - Eat at O’Charlies in Manchester. Have a large rack of ribs.

Thursday 13th - Eat in Davy Crockett's, nice steak.

Friday 14th - Eat in Davy Crockett's, have the 16oz Prime Rib, it is absolutely huge and very tender.

Saturday 15th - Drive up to Nashville. Call in at a shopping mall on the way back. Have three hours in Newark Executive lounge.

Sunday 16th - Get back to Kilburn at 8am.

Ann Arbour - ADI and EMS Integration testing - April 2002

Sunday 21st April - Drive down to Heathrow for 10am, have a very good run, only takes 1¾ hours. Fly direct to Detroit. Tom French comes over to the hotel, and takes me into town. Go for a Cajun meal and then to the Arbor brewing company for one.

Monday 22nd - Ring the Windmill from the office at 10pm UK time and order a round for the lads. Drive over to Tom's hotel and then into town. Have some very good English beer is Ashley's, over 60 real beers there.

Tuesday 23rd - I phone 911 by accident while trying to phone Tom's hotel, causes a lot of bother. Tom stays in after that.

Wednesday 24th - Go over to Steve Lockyer's house in the evening. He lives in Beverley Hills, 20 miles north of Detroit. Have problems getting onto highway 23 but after that it goes well, takes about an hour. They how have two sons, Alistair and Marshall (I think), Steve is working in Dearborn still for GenRad, although they have been taken over by Teradyne. Rachael is working for a traffic light company. Have a nice meal, some beers and stay till 11.30.

Thursday 25th - Go out with Tom again to Ashley's, very good beer.

Friday 26th - Go out to lunch with Tom, Harry, Darlene and Ken, Italian meal. Me and Roger try to find some of the ADI bugs. I have a long drive down highway 12, Michigan Ave all the way to Cold Stream.

Saturday 27th - Have a lot of trouble finding the Henry Ford Motor museum. Spend all day there.

Sunday 28th - Drive in Greenfield village, get caught in the rain for a while. I am angry at myself when I wander round for ages looking for the hire car returns. There seem to be no directional signs anywhere.

Monday 29th - Get picked up by the chauffeur at 7.30am from Heathrow. It takes a long three hours to get back. Have a sleep in the afternoon and then I am recovered. Phone Helen and she tells me that she is pleased that I am back safely.

Toulouse - A340 MSN371 - May 2001

Friday 25th - I go into work in the morning and then travel to Toulouse via Paris. Go for a drink in the Florida bar, have a 'Bier Formidable', i.e. 2 litre stein. Stay at the Capuole.

Saturday 26th - Work all day, strip down the green box out of MSN360 and replace the power supply wiring, glue fans on the top of each RT CPU. It runs much better after that. Alan helps me put it back into the aircraft later on.

Sunday 27th - Set off early and drive down to the Corbieres area. Eventually find the Cathar castles, very impressive. Find Aguilar and then Queribus and Peyrepertuse. Drive on to Perpignan and then back along the country roads to Carcassonne and then Toulouse. It is warm till midnight.

Monday 28th - Try the new software on MSN360, it does not do the checksum correctly and it stops the Arinc from working.

Tuesday 29th - RT number 1 starts playing up on MSN360, ask Duncan for another one.

Saturday 2nd June - Go into work to install the new RT that Duncan has sent me. Put it back onto the aircraft and RT1 is still broken and I have forgotten to connect RT 3. Go to Pizza hut for tea, the waitress writes a nice note on my bill about my patience. Go for a drink in the Florida bar and see Andy Sparks. Kris Goode and his girlfriend Ade turn up later, we head off to 'La Maison' for more beer.

Sunday 3rd - Go in again and reconnect RT 3. Try to get RT1 going but it will not work. I ring Duncan at home and tell him that we must have some soldered in EPLD cards soon. Tired by the end of the day.

Monday 4th - Bank Holiday. Read books all day, later on by the river.

Tuesday 5th - Glyn Fox arrives to do a noise test and test the Quick computers. Go to the 'Cote du Boeuf' for the first time, very good food, good value.

Wednesday 6th - Go to the 'Assiette Rose' with Andy Sparks and Glyn. This was Pete Trowman's favourite restaurant.

Thursday 7th - I was due to go home tomorrow but extend the stay for another week.

Saturday 9th - Fit the soldered EPLD RT's into the MSN 360 box, it seems to work well after this.

Sunday 10th - Attempt to have a day fixing the list upload software. Get it working ok.

Tuesday 12th June - I check out of the Capuole. Go to 1001 pasta's with Glyn and Kris. Very filling, Kris goes back to work. I sleep on the floor of Glyn's room at the Crown Plaza.

Wednesday 13th - Go to the RR apartments for a swim after work. Enjoy playing with a football. I do a lot of diving in and catching the ball. After a while a dive into the shallow end without realising it. Hit my head on the bottom, I get a large bruise. I drive into town later and go to Pizza hut with Glyn and Kris. Have a good nights sleep on Kris's settee.

Thursday 14th - Eventually get into 'La Bohème' with Andy Wright and Glyn. Very good food, a fair amount to drink. ZZT staying where.

Friday 15th - A little hungover in the morning. MSN 360 flies off to the Paris air show at "Le Bourget". The video of Claude Lelaie is great. Andy Wright, Kris Goode and Andy Sparks drive off to the Blackpool of Spain, i.e. Lloret de Mar for the weekend.

Saturday 16th - Fix the engine isolator unit power supply in the morning. Help Glyn fit the fourth Quick onto the aircraft. It appears to have a power supply problem. Do a full strip of the unit. In the end discover that if the battery is flat then the unit cannot be turned on for 20 seconds after the mains is plugged in. There all day. Go to La Braisière with Alan and Glyn. I have a huge 'Salade Gourmande' and Glyn has a slab of Cote du Boeuf.

Sunday 17th - Alan picks me up at 9am. I am tired and very full of duck in the morning. We drive down to 'Bagneres de Luchon' and then on to Lac d'Oô. Walk up to the lake and then on to the refuge Espingo, fantastic views of the high peaks.

Monday 18th - First flight of MSN 371, we have champagne again. EMS manages to record three out of four engines. Go to the 'Cote du Boeuf' again with Glyn, excellent duck.

Tuesday 19th - Realise that the data recorder was not set to amalgamate the data. Put the setting in the registry and test it, I feel very confident that I will not hear from France for some time.

Wednesday 20th - Go straight to the Iron Bird rig and install the new EMS software on the rig there. Meet Ian Hoar, Pete Summers, Mark Harrison and some TRW guys at the airport.

Toulouse - A340 MSN360 - April 2001

Monday 9th April - Fly out to Toulouse from Birmingham. A full team are out there, Robin Bryson, Alan Deeley, Paul Jennings, Nigel Charman, Chris Bevan, Kris Goode, Andy Wright, Clare Chapman, Valentine. Go out for a meal with Alan, Clare and Paul. I have a terrible Rabbit starter and duck to follow. We go on to the Frog and RoastBif for a couple more drinks. ZZT which Hotel.

Tuesday 10th - Feel very ill in the morning. Struggle to leave the hotel for 9am. Lots of traffic delays me till 10am, go straight to the aircraft to install the Quicks, heavy rain.

Wednesday 11th - Not very good weather, work late, eat in the Hotel.

Thursday 12th - Have the steak in the hotel, fantastic.

Friday 13th - Wet cranks late on reveal a few problems. Eat in the hotel.

Saturday 14th - In to work for 8am. First ground runs. I am on board with Alan and then also Paul Jennings, very interesting to observe the use of the EMS. Florida bar and then a curry. Go down to Bar Basque with Paul, his girlfriend Debbie and Clare.

Sunday 15th - Drive down to the Mediterranean, turn left and head along the coast. Go to various beaches near Agde. Finish off Anna's book ‘Stars Tennis balls’ by Stephen Fry.

Monday 16th - Set off at noon for the Atlantic coast, stop near the Pic du Midi and drive up into the mountains. Glyn Fox turns up late on and we go to the Florida bar. Move on to the Hippo bar for food.

Tuesday 17th - Me, Glyn, Andy and Clare meet up for a pizza and a few drinks.

Wednesday 18th - Slow speed taxi, we watch from the top of the AbraVoir. Meet up at the Florida bar later and we go to L'Entrecote. I talk to Alan about the EMS all night.

Thursday 19th - I try to install fans into the rack but it makes no difference. Turning off the optical makes all the difference. Stop the main fan with my finger to test the theory. Everyone is still working on the Fadec System fault problem.

Friday 20th - The plane does its first high speed taxi. Problems occur with the throttle control system. Robin gets a slating, for not telling them about it earlier. Andy Whinray and Rob Pendry and called out from Derby. Meet Glyn, Andy and Mike Morrell for drinks and then go to PizzaHut for a great rack of ribs, I seem to have entered the zone.

Saturday 21st - Alan goes in to work with Andy Whinray and Rob to decode the maintenance messages from the EMS. Meet Glyn and Andy in the Florida bar at lunch for a couple of pints. We go to McDonalds to sample 'Le 280'. Me and Glyn go for a wander down by the river. We meet up later and go to 'La Reserve' for a very good meal.

Sunday 22nd - I pick up Alan at 8am and we drive up to Pas de le Casa, Andorra. It takes 3 hours and we are supposed to have snow chains. Hire some skis and boots. The snow is in perfect condition, most of the runs are open. We ski most of the resort. The sun occasionally pops out, but mostly cloudy. After skiing we meet the others, Glyn, Andy, Mike and Kris. They have come up for tax free shopping. Have a bite to eat and then drive down. On the way back I realise that my face is very burnt.

Monday 23rd - See the A340-600 fly for the first time, I stand next to Colin Smith and Ian Kinnear. It has a very steady take-off and everyone holds their breath. The EMS records the whole flight but one of the real time computers crashes when it lands. Go out for a very good curry with Alan, Andy and Glyn, very slow service.

Tuesday 24th - Go into work to finish off a few things. Arrive back in the UK.

Toulouse - A340 Flight Test EMS Installation - Feb 2001

Monday 12th February - Fly to Toulouse at 10.05 am from Birmingham. Large traffic queues on the way. Meet Robin and his family at the airport. It has rained all weekend and this morning. Into work in the afternoon and it is fantastic sunshine. Meet Andy Wright, externals man, and Chris Bevan, TRW man, in the flight test office. Walk into the Florida bar on the 'Place du Capitol' for a drink outside. Go for a pizza in Place St. George.

Tuesday 13th - Rain in the evening so I eat in the hotel, very nice.

Wednesday 14th - Walk into town, try for a curry but I am turned away. Realise that I am not going to get in anywhere so I head home.

Thursday 15th - Go with Andy and Roy Newbrook to the Bier Akademie for lunch, still not very hungry. Pete Trowman's first leaving do. Go with Robin. Go back with Andy Sparks, Pete's replacement. We have some fun navigating the way home, go via the airport.

Friday 16th - I have pushed Robin for a car for this weekend but no chance. Try to cage a lift up to Andorra but no luck, I have to put up with a weekend in town. Paul Jennings and his girlfriend, Debbie turn up for a pre-assignment visit. Go with Andy Wright and them to 'La Reserve' to eat, very good.

Saturday 17th - We all meet at Florida bar again. Have a beer and 'Croque Monsieur' for brunch. Go to the Frog and Rostbif to watch the Six Nations rugby. We all go to L’Entrecote to eat, very nice steak. Go to Pete Trowman's second leaving do, upstairs in the Florida bar. Very good do, talk a lot with Robin and his wife Karen, discuss their return date in 2003. Meet Pete's girlfriend, Andy Sparks falls asleep. Good evening.

Sunday 18th - Meet the others for lunch. Wander down by the river. Me and Paul have a nice 'Magret de Canard' for lunch, Debbie watches. I walk along by the river and over 'Pont Neuf', nice walk.

Monday 19th - Eat in the hotel.

Tuesday 20th - Pizza hut for lunch with Andy, he buys a huge 33 inch TV. The EMS connects to four Trent 500 EEC's for the first time. Help him move it into his apartment so he buys me dinner, American burger, later.

Wednesday 21st - Start off at the Bier Akademie and then go on to 'Chez Fazoul' with lots of the RR fitters, good meal with lots of free red wine.

Thursday 22nd - Wake up with a terrible headache at 5.30 am, use the last nurofen. Mike Weighill arrives up with his wire. Go shopping with Andy at Eddie Leclerc's for household items, put all the stuff in the back of my car. Meet them and Andy for a drink in the Florida bar later. We have some tapas.

Friday 23rd - Pick up Mike and his wife in the morning, take them into Aerospatial. Fly back at 13:30. Drive back from Birmingham in heavy rain and hail.

Toulouse - ZZT - Oct 1999

Monday 25th October - Fly to Toulouse with Andy Whinray. Get to the Hotel quite late, stay at Hotel Capuole. Go out for dinner, next door in the Roman restaurant. Andy's French is very good. He spent 3 month's here last summer and will be here for 6 months next summer.

Tuesday 26th - I show Andy the flight test office. Have a chat with Robin Bryson. Go and see Pete Troman at Centrada. Not do any actual work. Arrange to meet Pete later in the Florida bar. Go out to 'Eau de Folles' excellent food and wine.

Wednesday 27th - A bloke from Lucas turns up. We go and fetch the EMS from Hubert's stores. Set it up in the same cabinet as the PWM. Go out for a Mexican meal.

Thursday 28th - Eventually get the EMS wired up, with some help from the Lucas wiring. Fly back to the UK via Paris. Meet Charles Talbot and Ian Hoare at Toulouse airport. Home for 11pm.

Toulouse - A330 Flight Test - June 1998

Tuesday 30th June - Fly to Toulouse on the first flight in the morning. Chas picks me up from the airport in his A-series Mercedes. Go and get the Renault 19 again from Centrada. The equipment has been delayed in Derby, John Brown raises a quality failure. I check into the Novotel near the centre of Toulouse. Meet Chas at Pizza Hut on the Place du Capitol and then go on to the Bar Basque to watch Argentina beat England on penalties. Lots of atmosphere there, meet Phil the trainee again and Pete's American woman friends.

Wednesday 1st July - Spend most of the day waiting for the equipment to arrive from Derby. Eat in the hotel, Sausage du Toulouse and a very nice Buzet red wine.

Thursday 2nd - First try to get version five working but it does not. Then try the version four disk from Boeing. Still no success with copying files to the optical disk. Decide that the SCSI card must be broken in the rtVax. Carry on the Boeing rtVax. Work late to get the PWM ready for the flight at 9.30am tomorrow. Have the lamb ribs in the hotel, very nice but very fatty.

Friday 3rd - Arrive early with Robin, the aeroplane has been moved, they found a problem with the right undercarriage last night. Lots of hanging around, fix the optical disk drive on the Iron Bird and then finish early. Meet Charles in the Bodega, eat in L’Entrecote with Charles, Simon Parke, Pete Troman and his two wild American woman friends, Denise and Holly. Go back to the Bodega later for the dancing and Sangria. Pete's friends are just outrageous. Finish at 2am and walk back past Pete's house.

Saturday 4th - Hungover in the morning, the maid has to ring to ask to be let in. In the afternoon drive to Albi and have a wander round, see the birthplace of Toulouse Lautrec, and the large cathedral by the river. Drive to Cordes-sur-Ciel. A very good medieval village, long climb up to the top of the village. Walk into town, have a pizza in the Place St Georges, not as good as last time.

Sunday 5th - Have a large breakfast at the hotel on the terrasse. Set off at about 10.30am. Drive though Albi and Rodez, some fantastic views, takes about four hours. Amazed when I first drive into the Gorges du Tarn, it is huge, with people canoeing everywhere. Drive up and down the gorges admiring the scenery, stop in some of the towns and have a swim in the river.

Monday 6th - The spare parts for the wheel strut have not arrived from England and so there is no flying today. Getting a little fed up with eating out all the time. Go the McDonald's for tea and then walk down to the Florida bar.

Tuesday 7th - Robin tries to get me on the flight in the morning but cannot. I have no lunch in preparation to fly. The Tahiti five disk drive gives ‘No buffers’ messages even on the ground, so therefore Robin does not want me to fly. Meet up in the Florida bar with lots of people from the Trent 500 team. Go to the Cote du Boeuf, lots of red wine and a wonderful lump of beef. Move onto the Bar Basque for more beer.

Wednesday 8th - Wander into work at 9.30am, the plane has gone for a five hour flight. Give someone a lift home to Place Wilson. Meet a few people in L’Entrecote again and then down to the Bar Basque to watch the France Croatia game. No chance of getting in so I phone Charles and ask if we can go to his room. We stop and watch it in Place du Capitol on the way. I phone Helen whilst everyone is honking their horns. Watch the celebrations in Place du Capitol, very busy.

Thursday 9th - Go into work to demonstrate a few things to Robin, fly at 12.15 via Brussels, on a BAE 146. Home for 5pm.

Toulouse - A330 Flight Test EMS installation - May 1998

Sunday 31st May - Fly from Manchester to Paris CDG. My connecting flight has gone by the time that I arrive. Long queues to book another connection and then a 3 hour wait. At his third attempt Robin Bryson meets me at Toulouse airport at 11pm and takes me to the Sofitel Toulouse Aeroport Hotel.

Monday 1st June - Bank Holiday in Toulouse. Get a taxi to the Place du Capitol go via the airport and change some money. Walk round almost all the streets of Toulouse. Essential to stay in the shadows since the sun is very hot. Have a beer in the Florida bar in the main square and then eat Duck leg and chips there as well. Very nice to sit there and watch the world go by.

Tuesday 2nd - Robin picks me up from the Hotel. Shows me around the Airbus site. We go to the sandwich caravan for the first time, sit outside, very good French bread. Go out for a meal with lots of people. Meet in Place St Georges for drinks outside and we then move on to La Bohème. Robin and his wife Karen, Charles Talbot, Martin Hough, Pete Troman from Centrada, Angus Abrams and Helen Wilson from Product Support Derby, Tony and his wife, friends of Pete. I have the traditional bean stew with duck's leg, sausage and bacon.

Wednesday 3rd - Start setting up the ground station in the office. Get the Renault 19 car, 4538 WR 31 after work from Centrada. I drive the route between work and the Hotel a couple of times. I am concerned about the islands in Colomiers, they are the only village in France which still have the priority from the right rule. I extend my original return date of the 5th of June.

Thursday 4th - Re-arrange my flights and Hotel to go home on Thursday the 11th. The monitor is playing up. I totally dismantle the monitor and discover that it works when you press down on the back left hand corner. Put it all back together and place two books on the corner. Get a lot of ribbing about my repair. Go to the Bier Akademie, follow Martin in my car. We sit outside in the sunshine and have a nice relaxed chat. Chas comes along later and we have some more duck to eat. Follow Chas home and get some petrol.

Friday 5th - Receive the second rack into the aircraft. One of the mechanics helps me to move all the equipment from one rack to the other. I power up both racks from the battery power. Go to Sweaty Jack's for lunch with Robin. Go to a supermarket after lunch. Put the mains plug on the printer for the ground station. Drive into town, have difficulty finding the parking place which Robin recommended. Eventually park under Allees Jean Jaures. Try to get into L’Entrecote but it is too busy. I then go for a pizza in Place St Georges, it is the best pizza that I have ever had. Try to find Martin and Pete in the Florida bar but they have gone.

Saturday 6th - The weather starts off as overcast. I drive down the Peage via Carcassonne to the coast. Look across at the large castle in Carcassonne. Very straight road. At Narbonne turn south along the coast. Drive to La Franqui as recommended by Robin. The sky is overcast and it is raining, seems very scummy. Paddle a little and then give up on the Med. Decide to drive up into the mountains. Drive down to Perpignan and then take signs for Andorra. Unfortunately I did not take my passport with me. Drive through Font Romeu and then over the Col du Puymorens. Rains most of the day. Drive down via Foix. Headache from my contact lenses and sunglasses. Get very hungry but all the restaurants are shut till 7pm. Tired from driving all day when I get back.

Sunday 7th - The weather starts off the same as yesterday. Almost not bother to go out. Have a wonderful drive under tree lined roads to Castres, Mazamet, St Pons to Roquebrun. By the time that I get there the sun is very hot. Drive into a magical National Park. Hire a kayak for 2 hours. They drive us up the river for a while to Ceps and then just let us go, no helmet, no instructions. Some of the rapids are quite significant. The river is described as sporting in the brochure. Get out of the kayak a couple of times and swim in the river, very relaxed. After I finish I drive back up to Ceps and swim in the river Orb again and sun bathe. It is an idyllic place. Set off at 6pm for the three hour drive back. Go into town and find the Jourdain car park. Go for a McDonald's in Place du Capitol late on.

Monday 8th - Get external power onto the rack from the aircraft and also power for the simulator. Drive into town and walk for two hours around near Place du Capitol to try and find the shop that I say the other day. Eventually find it at 8pm near Place St Georges.

Tuesday 9th - Find out that the simulator is data sensitive when it has the small amount of memory. Take the simulator to the aircraft but they have removed the 240 volt supply. Sit outside reading a book until the sun goes down.

Wednesday 10th - The weather changes significantly from now on. Lots of rain but still very warm. Problems since the network connection between them becomes undone, I suspect that the rtVax will not boot because of the optical disc. Work late to try and make some progress. Go to Eddie Leclerc's supermarket at lunchtime and buy some things for the office.

Thursday 11th - Connect up the ARINC and it just works. Connect up the HST and it does not work at all. Get a scope and trace the signals. We assumed that the engine interface plug definition had not changed. Robin is most annoyed. Work though lunch and Chas fetches me a Poulet French stick and a Gateaux Basques. Realise that there are serious problems with the wiring. Have a meeting with the Aerospatial guys to try and sort out the HST and ODP wiring. Scandal that there is no drawing to define the Rolls-Royce engine interface. They accept responsibility to fix it. Rush into town after work. Large queues since the first World Cup match in Toulouse is on, Austria against Cameroon.

Friday 12th - I am available for training in the morning but they are both too busy. Go out with Chas and Martin to the Bell in Pibrac. Everyone is English and we drink English beer and they have fish and chips, I have beef curry. When we get back the HST and ODP wiring has been fixed and works first time. Demonstrate the system to Robin and Chas. Robin tells me to book a flight and then gets annoyed when the ‘No Buffers’ message turns up. Work late to try to get it all finished. Have the foie gras pate and steak with a good wine in my room, very good.

Saturday 13th - Check out of the Sofitel and get a lift to the airport. The weather is just starting to clear, good for Robin Bryson's BBQ. Get the 10:45 flight from Toulouse, change at Paris CDG, arrive at Manchester for 3pm. Hire a little Polo and drive back via Macclesfield and Buxton.

Madrid - TBAS problems - April 1998

Monday 20th April - Wake up early and pack for the trip. Gordon comes round at 11.45am, I drive up to Manchester Airport. Gordon navigates via a strange National Trust property. I go straight across at a set of traffic lights. Two hour flight and 2 hour drive. Stay in the Hotel Suecia. Eat in the hotel restaurant with Gordon.

Tuesday 21st - Get up for a 7.30am breakfast. Gordon drives to INTA. Not a cloud in the sky. Have some problems with the card configurations of TBAS and PWM. After lunch things go better with TBAS and worst with PWM.

Wednesday 22nd - At the end of the day I talk to Thomas about the Aeronet and realise that there is no dedicated computer for it, decide to extend my stay. Go out for a meal with Gordon, grilled swordfish, very good.

Thursday 23rd - All day on the Aeronet, find a faulty cable and then it works OK. Help Figaro with a problem with RAPU. Go round the Tapas bars with Gordon, Thomas and Pepe. Have surprisingly little to drink, but lots of squid, fried vegetables. Amazed at the back streets.

Friday 24th - Meet the Madrid rep at Manchester airport, he knows Kipper.

Dahlewitz - MLP problems - Feb 1998

Tuesday 17th February - Leave home at 4.30am in a dreadful Fiat Punto. Catch the 7am flight direct from Manchester to Berlin. Fly in an Embraer 145, very small plane only 3 seats across, about 50 people. Hire a car in Berlin, take Paul Essen with me, easy drive but very busy traffic. Get to Dahlewitz just before lunch. The MLP keeps on having problems building the binary image. Eventually find that they were renaming the file to code.sre and not control.sre, embarrassed faces all round. Watch the PWM being used for its proper purpose as they investigate a stalling problem.

Wednesday 18th - Have the usual breakfast in the Berliner Ring hotel. Get into work for 9.30am. Andy Wood has tried to put in a new trim and MLP has failed, discovered that Duncan had copied on a bad VME image on Friday. Talk to Steve Adamson about some STF PWM problems. Leave at about 5pm, drive round the ring road and then into the centre for a look around. Fly back with Guy Stevenson, Pete Bannister, Steve and Tom. Get a hire car back with them, home for 11.30pm.

Dahlewitz - NAB problems - Jan 1998

Monday 5th January - Day trip to Berlin. Set off from my house at 4.30am and return at Midnight. Fly from Birmingham and via Amsterdam. Get a hire car at Tegel airport, arrive at BMW-RR for noon. Work with Klaus Peter Lansch and Bob. Leave Dahlewitz at 5pm, rush across Berlin, get to the airport 5 minutes before take-off, difficult to hold everything together in my head. Change at Brussels on the way back.

Oberursel - MLP work - Oct 1997

Monday 27th October - Leave home at 4am. Take off at 7:30am to Frankfurt. Taxi to BRR Oberursel. Forget to take the SCSI terminator with me, have lots of problems, changing the SCSI address of the external hard drive, very quick lunch. Get the 715 MLP working at about 5pm, very fast taxi back. It has LCD GPS navigation. Very empty flight back. I parked in Domestic short stay car park, but look in International short stay when I get back. Takes a while to realise and find my car.

Binghamton - MLP work - 28th July 1997

No records exist

Trip to Lockheed Martin in Binghamton with Steve George, Keith Harpur, Ed Davies, Penny ?. This is basically a management trip that I tag along on. I am there to work on the Memory Loader Program for the EEC. We fly in New York and then we have two limousines to transport us to Binghamton. It is a three hour drive, mostly though woodlands. On the way we fill up with fuel, it only costs $18. We stay at the Holiday Inn. Keith will be paying all our expenses, so he just says let him pay for everything. I get the MLP working by the end of the week. On our return to New York we arrive over the George Washington bridge and stay in the Crown Plaza on Broadway. We check-in at about 10pm, and all go out for a quick meal. We check-out at 5am. I stay on about the 23rd floor, approx half

Ottawa - EDAS work - 11th May 1997

No records exist

Travel with Ed Hemstock and Paul Buckley. Paul had been delayed on a previous Air Canada flight and had been given an upgrade to First Class. He argued strongly for his two colleagues to be upgraded as well. Eventually he got his way. We flew on Air Canada, First Class. We had champagne all the way and I would have been happy if the flight was a couple of hours longer. Due to Rolls-Royce efficiency we each have our own hire car, and stay in different hotels. I stay in the Novotel. On the first night we are taken to a strip club called the Barefax. I am very jet lagged. Paul Buckley keeps on saying "I am married". Ed works with Eve on the Dynamics software. Paul overseas the operability. I help with the Arinc 429 software. We eat out at the Rose and Crown or similar.

Dahlewitz - NAB testing - May 1995

Wednesday 20th December - Leave home at 4:30am, lots of snow at Birmingham. The flight is delayed, miss the connection. Arrive at Berlin Tegel at 3pm. Get a hire car, Corsa and head for Schönefeld. Buy a map in East Germany, arrive at about 5pm, meet Klaus Peter Lanshe. Work till 12:30am. Drive around for an hour to get to the Berlin Ring Hotel, bed at 1:30am, sleep well.

Thursday 21st - Get into work for 8:30am, Parmjit wanders in at 9am. Run the engine to test the NAB unit. Eat lunch by myself. Everything seems to be OK, leave at about 3:30pm. Drive into Berlin, find the Brandenburg gate and the Reichstag. Meet Parmjit and Volker at the Indus. Let Parmjit order everything, very good meal.

Friday 22nd - Breakfast at the hotel, cheese, ham and bread rolls as usual. Drive into Berlin, eventually find somewhere to park. Wander round KeWeMe, very expensive. Start driving to Tegel at 12:30, get a bit lost again. Meet Parmjit at the airport. Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt is delayed by ice. I miss the connection, Parmjit catches it. Wait 5 hours at Frankfurt. Luggage goes on a different plane. Get a Taxi home for £58. Miss the venture party. My luggage gets stolen, including my Diary for 1995.

Erskine Bridge - Tay Test Set demo - May 1990

Monday 14th May - Set off at 9am with Kip, arrive at the Spey Conference for 3:30pm. Stay at the Erskine Bridge hotel. Set up our equipment. Go to a cocktail party for a while and then have a large meal.

Tuesday 15th - All the delegates are in the main hall for a meal. We have a meal for £8 with the rep from Olympus. Have a lot of drinks on the tab at the bar, McLennan Malt Whiskey, £10.50 for three.

Wednesday 16th - Go to the Glasgow City Chambers, 100 year old. Have quite a good meal, then we were going to have a choir but George Knight plays the piano for half an hour. Talk with the Rolls Royce rep from the Philippines. More hospitality on the 6th floor, more whiskey.

Thursday 17th - Set off at 9am, rain as soon as we get to England. Stop at the Dog and Partridge for a meal. Go to Mickleover and give Mike Price his simulator, discuss why he can't take version 4.3 software out with him.

RAF Wattisham - Feb 1990

Thursday 8th February - Get up at 3:50am. Scott comes round at 4:15, go to RR and pick up the gear. Drive to RAF Wattisham for 7:30am. Meet Jim Sweet, RR rep, also Brian Perrett. Do some testing of the BLC sensing unit. Have lunch in the officer’s mess. Sit in the back seat of a Phantom during some of the running. I give the command for "Full Reheat", "Both Engines", it feels like it will shake itself to pieces. Get back for 5:30pm.

RAF Coningsby - Phantom Test Set demo - Jan 1990

Wednesday 10th January - Scott comes round at 6:30. Drive to RR pick up the gear. Drive to Stapleford and pick up Steve Heath. Drive up thru Grantham and Sleaford to RAF Coningsby. Do testing with the Phantom Spey test set. Put 1uF capacitor on to make the type 38 amplifier unstable, demonstrate loss of control, also demonstrate the fix.

East Kilbride - Tay Test Set work - October 1989

Wednesday 11th October - Mike comes round at 6am, drive to East Kilbride. Get there for 10:45. Lay in all the cables and then go for lunch. Do two IGV tests with each test set and finish by 2:30pm. Drive up to Stirling and then Callender, Aberfoyle and Loch Lomond. Have a bath and then lunch at Lafiles, not a bad meal.

Thursday 12th - Have breakfast at about 9am. Get a bit lost getting onto the M74. Come back thru Stoke. Get back for 3pm. Talk to Kip in America.

East Kilbride - Tay Test Set work - October 1989

Wednesday 4th - Have a lie in. MBr picks me up at 10am. We drive up to East Kilbride. Get there at 5pm. Go via the Lake District. Stay at the Bruce Hotel. Walk down to the Stuart for a meal. Have a huge gammon steak at Burton services.

Thursday 5th - Get into EK for 8am. Meet Danny More and Graham Coventry. Wait a while to get onto the engine. Do the static tests and confirm compatibility between UT593 and UT1339/2. After lunch we start on the dynamic tests. Find a problem with the T1 canister. Verify the throttle extrapolation.

Friday 6th - Verify the accel / decel system. Decide to change the 37 degs to 64.1 degs for IGV. Have a long talk to Kip about Visas and going to America. Set off for home at noon. Get stuck in Stoke. Get back to RR for 6:15, home for 6:45.

Amsterdam - Tay Test Set work - October 1989

Monday 2nd October - Get up at 5am, drive to East Midlands Airport, get a flight at 7:20am to Amsterdam. Meet Peter Kewley at the airport. Do some engine testing. Go out for a nice lunch. Stay till 9pm doing the testing. Go to the Donkey bar for drinks and a meal. Book into the Okura, stay on the 21st floor in an executive suite, two TVs, four rooms, two toilets. Amazing view. Tallest in Amsterdam.

Tuesday 3rd - Get lift with Jeff Smith. Pick up the spare Right Hand drive car for Terry Holland. Have discussions with Bruce Boden about the UT440s. Catch the 19:20 flight home.

East Kilbride - April 1989

Tuesday 4th April - Go with Andy Mackinnon up to East Kilbride, set off at 7:30am. Drive up though the Lake District, stop for coffee in Kendal, nice and sunny. Get to EK for 2pm. See Graham Coventry, drive up to the East Rogerton test beds to discuss what to do. Drive 40 minutes to the Dean Park Hotel in Hillington. Rough part of Glasgow, eat in the hotel.

Wednesday 5th - Get to RR for 9am. Drive to the test beds, great problems with the amplifier all day, broken test bed cable. Go to the MacDonald Hotel, walk out for a meal.

Thursday 6th - Drive back from East Kilbride, stop for coffee in Cumbria, call in an Andy's mothers for dinner in Warrington. Get back to RR for 3pm.

RAF Leuchars - Mar 1989

Wednesday 1st March - Drive to Leuchars RAF base, very large. Have the test bed all day. Test set will not pull down or measure X2. Set up the BBC and change the software, not have the right software with us on disc. Wire on X2 transducer, not finish till about 6pm. Have dinner with Daniel Moore.

Thursday 2nd - Do aircraft tests, put a Phantom on the ramps, do some tests, rather bad, on the FFR pull down checks, pulls down too much, finish by 2pm. Nearly check out but do not bother. Drive up through Dundee and up to Glenshee ski area, about one foot of snow on the road, I drive back. I play Mike at chess.

Friday 3rd - Drive back, set off at 9am, I drive the first 230 miles. Go quite fast along the A7, Mike drives the rest of the way. Arrive back at 3:15.

RAE Warton - Jan 1989

Friday 13th January - Go to BAE Warton on my own, set off at about 4:30am. Drive up through Buxton, takes 3½ hours. Go to see Colin Bebbington. Try the boxes which I have made with transformers, they work OK. Do static checks most of the day. Hawk 200 NL loading. Get back by 8pm.

Saturday 14th - Go to BAE Warton with Kip. Set off at 6:15am, go via Trentham, only takes 2½ hours. Find a lose wire in the amplifier functions connector. Do an engine run, very noisy, back by 5:30pm.

RAF Wattisham - Nov 1988

Friday 4th November - Go to RAF Wattisham with Kip, Mike and Scott for Phantom Test Set work. Connect up the test set to make sure that everything fits. Also do static checks on both engines. They seem to like it. Get back for about 8pm.

East Kilbride - July 1987

Wednesday 15th July - Get up at 5:15am to fly to East Kilbride with Kip, go in a company car to East Midlands. Fly at 7:25am. Have long discussions with Willie Ross, Jeff Knot, etc. about torque in the Phantom amplifier. Talk with Dick Becket about AMX test set. Talk with Lomond McDonald about the Tay. 2½ hour delay at Glasgow airport. Fly back in a Viscount, see Courtaulds and go over Ratcliffe Power Station, back home for 10:15.

Amsterdam - Fokker 100 work - November 1986

Saturday 8th November - Leave home at 6am, fly from East Midlands to Amsterdam in a Fokker F28, land at 9:20am local time. Go straight to the Fokker plant with Jim, see the Fokker 100. Go to my Hotel Apollo for a while. Have a look round, get soaking wet. Go back to the plant at 7pm. Work with Jim all night. Have dinner at Jim's, finish at 10:30pm. We are convinced that both amplifiers are broken.

Sunday 9th - Have breakfast in my room at 8:30am. Terry Holland picks me up at 9:30. They have been trying to run the APU. Try two new Tay amplifiers, no difference. Inject from the Test set, -40mV, but measure 33mV at the amplifier Open circuit wiring between them. Have dinner at Terry Holland's flat.

Monday 10th - Start at 8:15. Investigate the wiring on left and right engines. Connect a cable directly from the T/C junction box to the amplifier, Datum works but I have to change outer cable for actuator indication. Terry adjusts the datum. Hotel by 7pm, have a nice meal with John Turnbull from East Kilbride, have snails and all sorts. Go out for a drive into the city, get very lost.

Tuesday 11th - Meet John Turnbull at 9am and drive to Fokker. Fokker claim that they have fixed the wiring. Take the aircraft out, APU won't start. Go for main engine start at 2pm. Jim Higgs is on the flight deck, reads engine speeds from the test set. TGT is reversed on the right hand engine, we knew this on Saturday. Stay with Terry and set the datum's of both amplifiers. Fokker find the cause of all the trouble, inconsistent engine drawings, leave them to fix it.

Wednesday 12th - Get up early, breakfast in room, watch Music Box, go down to the Foyer for 8am. Terry Holland takes me down to the Airport. Fly on an F27 back to East Midlands, land at 11am, taxi to work. The Fokker 100 first flight is 30th Nov 1986.

RAE Dunsfold - May 1986

Monday 12th May - Set off at 5:20am for RAE Dunsfold. Accident on the M1, completely closed for 24 hours. Arrive about 9:20, meet Dave Edwards and Paul Hawks from Bristol in the RR office. Do installation checks on the single seater Hawk using the UT3041 box. Lunch at the Crown, Directors Bitter. Some problems with the Pass-Off schedule. Go to the pen with the reps, they have a Harrier tied down and running. Get shown round the GR5s. Watch the GR5 (Harrier with carbon-fibre wing) doing accels on the runway. Follow Mike Simmons to the Hotel. Have dinner at the Hotel.

Tuesday 13th - Wake up about 8am. Breakfast in the Georgian Hotel at Haslemere. Set off at about 9:10am, take it steady, country lanes to the A3, then M25, then M1. Have a few stops, quite sunny. Get back about 1:30pm, have a meeting with Paul Watts, we are to build a prototype for August.

East Kilbride Test Beds - July 1985

Sunday 7th July - Drive up to East Kilbride with Dave Naylor and Mike Brownsword. Arrive about 8pm. We start at the Stuart Hotel. Have a fillet steak and then talk to Jim Higgs in the bar.

Monday 8th - Drive over to W block to see Alex Cameron and his chaps. Go over to the East Rogerton Test Beds, get the cable attached to the engine. More steak, drive over to Ardrossan and Largs, see Arran.

Tuesday 9th - Stay on the Test beds all day. Spend all morning trying to fix a temperature module error, link fell off the Datum board. Drive out to the Clyde waterfalls, very impressive, feel very full.

Wednesday 10th - Give demo to Jim Higgs, Roy Cummins, others. Start giving second demo, but get called to Test beds urgently, on the engine for about two hours, very successful, measure resistance, cannot connect to the amplifier, problems with the T26 lag. Go to Loch Lomond, very wet, stop at Luss. Drive past the Clyde submarine base, see the Faslane peace camp.

Thursday 11th - Give second demo to Harry Shepard, Jim McEuan, Lamond McDonald, others. They ask lots of questions. Drive down, get back at about 4pm, rain on the way. I drive from the Scottish border. Very tired, stay in.