THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

[Deleted User]

Check this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI0Sw4eS1TE

An inexperienced person landing an A320.

Have to say, the guy talking her down wasn't very informative, or encouraging.

DigForVictory

There's air traffic control for you.
Me, I'd hope to be in that old QI chestnut setup " if autopilot is engaged and the airplane in which you are flying has the ability to land on autopilot, then you have a sporting chance". If not, take up prayer &/or parachuting...
Besides which for all James May's worryingly credible breezy lines on landing an A330, he's got a Private Pilots Licence & is a ticketed multitasker what with that degree in piano playing. Us rookies who never quite 'got' chopsticks might well reasonably blench at the "land a plane" idea & reckon the parachute looks like a far more fun way to go. Without any of the responsibility for others bit.

That said, if it was a biggish plane & it had the autopilot gear and I had a deeply sympathetic Air Traffic Control coaxing me past all the blimming knobs & dials (while the rest of the crew extracted the incapacitated pilot & co out of the cramped cockpit so I could try to slide in without knocking anything awry), I'd give it a bash. As I have a very strong will to survive. (A "talent" my mechanic has commented on with appalled incredulity.)

Witless

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39564885

My ar5e it's 2.3%!

It's that time of year again - annual service (20000 or 12 months): 03/04/16 oil filter £2.66, air filter £3.81, cabin filter £5.79 total £12.26 + VAT =£14.71.

11/04/17 oil filter £3.33 (25.18% increase), air filter £6.00 (57.48 increase) cabin filter £13.00 (124.52% increase) total £22.33 (82.13% increase) + VAT = £26.80 (82.59% increase).

These are real 'essential' costs unlike the reducing cost of air travel (from the article linked "The main downward effect on inflation last month came from air fares, which was due to the timing of Easter.") which aren't part of everyday life for real folk but are used to skewer the results in TPTB's favour.

If inflation really was approx 2% then rises of 1% are justifiable: but with the examples shown above they're most definitely not.

Sorry - rant over.

Best prepping you can have is future proof your possessions and property by doing preventative maintenance / upgrades - while you still afford to!

Karmacat

Witless, thats a good post - lovely concrete examples of real world, necessary purchases, thanks. I know the food inflation - pesto that cost £1 at the end of last year is £1.25 now, own brand cornflakes that were 25p are now 39p, that sort of thing.

Witless

For sake of completeness - first fill of fuel in this car (08/02/19) £0.985 pl, last fill (27/03/17) £1.209 pl. (That's 22.74% increase by my maths)

GreyQueen

Yeah, the so-called inflation rate is a joke.

I bought the same service from my local copy-shop 24 months apart (spiral binding a document). I actually had the receipt from 24 months prior and the price increase? It had exactly doubled. Since I very much doubt one cm spiral wire and wage bills have doubled, I expect this can be filed under p-taking.

My mother bought a Roberts radio/ cassette thingummy 9 months ago for £84.99. Same thing is £99.99 or £100.00 everywhere now (suspect its the differing exchange rate accounting for some of that as probably imported).

Grocery prices are entirely arbitary. I've spoken before about cucumber-o-nomics but there is presently a 20p higher price on city centre whole cukes at little Tosspots as opposed to little Sains and M & S. Gawd 'elp us when Marks & Sparks are cheaper for vegetubbles than Tosspots!

I've just made a small contribution to the local economy by buying a can of woodworm treatment - the beggars have chewed on the handle of my spade in the lottie shed, we noticed on Sunday. Given the price of product and the price of replacement handles, I should've prolly burned the old one and re-hafted the spade.......... :rotfl:

Ne'mind, if they've got into anything else, I shall Be Prepared.

maryb

Have you prepared the cold hard steel, GQ?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4397168/Around-500-billion-slugs-expected-invade-gardens.html

Witless

GreyQueen wrote: »

..... I've just made a small contribution to the local economy by buying a can of woodworm treatment - the beggars have chewed on the handle of my spade in the lottie shed, we noticed on Sunday. Given the price of product and the price of replacement handles, I should've prolly burned the old one and re-hafted the spade..........

Witless (Snr) and Grandfather always insisted that woodworm treatment was a con: they reckoned soaking in paraffin oil, letting dry out completely then brush 'painting' with a couple of coats of white spirit and a final coat of varnish did exactly the same job for a fraction of the cost (probably because the materials were already in the 'shed of doom' so didn't need purchased). Grandfather's table that they treated this way almost 60 years ago hasn't had a return of the little darlings.

GreyQueen wrote: »

...I should've prolly burned the old one and re-hafted the spade.......... :rotfl:

Dunno about that! Have you seen the price of a spade haft recently? I haven't re-hafted a spade but when I needed a slashing hook haft it was cheaper to buy a new one than a proper hickory haft. (I did neither - PetrolHeadMate's son in law shortened the existing (cracked) one by about 5" - still perfectly usable)

That seems to be the rule of thumb now - proper replacement part more expensive than cheap import whole.

GreyQueen

I haven't got the makings of the home-made treatment at hand, so wouldn't have worked out for me.

The spade is seldom used as my plot is infested with horsetails and I dig with a fork to bring them up, rather with a spade to slice 'em and dice 'em and give them encouragement.

Dad had the spade out to dig post holes for my scaffold poles, and the little boogers had started tunnelling into the haft just below the handle where there was some worn-off varnish (second-hand spade). Other tools are unaffected including the hickory wood mattock handle nearby.

I shall nip up there tomoz after work to give 'em what-for and will also take the opportunity to do a boiled linseed oil treatment on a few unfinished bits of wood inc that hickory. I'm slightly paranoid about woodworm after the go-round we had with it at Nan's home and shed (nothing of hers that wasn't made entirely of metal came to my shed, so don't think I inadvertantly imported the damned critters). Anyroad, it was money into the tills of my century-old indy ironmongers, which I like to patronise as a bulwark against the bee-and-queueing of the sector.

I tend to keep an eye out for decent hand tools at bootsales because the old stuff tends to be far superior to the modern shiny carp.

Yup, saw that article about the slugs and the cold steel has been rasped up with the 'rub (carborundum stone) and I am poised and ready to inflict serious casualties. Old hands will recall the Great Slug War a few years ago, when hundreds met their doom each time I visited, and I've not had a problem since - bad news like me tends to get around.;)

mardatha

Been reading up zerohedge on Trump/Syria/Korea/ etc. Does anybody think this might really really lead to a war? or a skirmish? Because in my mind, Trump has a hell of a lot to lose, but Putin is not going anywhere..