WITH due respect to Bryan Lawson (Letters, September 18), I feel, despite his being in the RAF, he doesn’t really understand aviation with his final remark: “I repeat again that we mustn’t expect very old vehicles to do the impossible loops etc which they were not built for.”

His “loop the loop” statement is not strictly correct as the whole ethos of looping is to finish the loop at the same altitude as it was started from.

For a couple of years, I helped HM The Queen look after some of her Meteor 8 jet-fighters as an airframe mechanic, so have more than passing knowledge about the stringent controls which are in place with regard to anything to do with aviation.

There are always pre-flight and post-flight inspections carried out, whereby any faults are duly reported and logged.

Every part of an aircraft has a life and when the number of hours designated for a component is reached that component will be changed out even though it is performing faultlessly.

There is no doubt whatsoever this stringent approach to aircraft safety will have been applied to the Hunter which crashed at the Shoreham Air Show killing 11 people.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge

 

A COUPLE of weeks ago the Queen reopened the railway line in Scotland running from Edinburgh to Tweedbank in the Borders.

It will be both a commuter route and a major tourist route to this scenic location.

It is interesting to compare this to the Minsters Line from Beverley to York, which campaigners such as myself have been trying to reopen since 2001.

The Minsters Line is almost the same length, 30 miles, as the new line in Scotland, will cost approximately the same to complete and was closed by Beeching in the 60s.

The difference is that Scotland has a devolved government and can make such decisions and invest in their transport infrastructure.

Yorkshire of course does not.

Maybe it’s time for that to change?

Peter Hemmerman, Chairman, Minsters Rail Campaign, Langdale Road, Market Weighton

 

I CAN see it coming down to “when does the customer become the owner of any carrier bags?” if they are free for certain goods.

In my opinion, it is after the payment has been made and accepted by the cashier. The person then becomes the owner of the bags and is entitled to put in whatever they want.

Stores will beg to differ and say that while in the store they are the owners, so I can see some very heated debates, or arguments, between the customer and either staff or managers.

It could be like a retailer offering to sell goods at 1p and not £10 and noticing the mistake before it sends the goods and refunding the customer.

Dean Stockton, Rosemary Court, Navigation Road, Walmgate, York

 

I WOULD like to thank all those people who made donations and gave prizes in order to raise funds for the charity The Stroke Association function held at Dunnington Sports and Social Club on Saturday, September 12.

Entertainment was provided by Curly And Friends (Paul Wicks, Mike Rogerson and Tony Hoffman), Dave Garlick and after-dinner speaker/comedian David Kendall.

Thank you to all those who helped with the organisation of the event. The evening was a fantastic success and raised a total of £1,854.

Paul Wicks, Westwood Mews, Dunnington, York

 

WHAT is wrong with the No 6 Clifton Moor bus service?

It is supposed to be every 10 minutes but you end up waiting 20 minutes and then three buses arrive in convoy.

You would expect the service to be better as it has a shorter route now than when it used to go all the way to the university, but it was more reliable then.

John Slingsby, Deanhead Grove, York