Tinkicker

Letter arrived from Devitt today. All good, disaster averted, thank the lord. Glad I did not have to fight to clear my name. I can breathe easy now, its been quite a "challenging" week.

Helmet lock for the 175 arrived from Singapore today, so got that fitted. Not a particularly onerous task. One screw.

18:00 local time and the sun has set. I should arrive in Stockholm at 19:30 local, a quick count on my fingers shows I should have enough of a fuel reserve for 1.5 hrs flying (18 gallons) on arrival, so all good. The wind has got up, giving me a useful 10 knot tailwind and it is also shredding the fog bank. Even better, that fog was depressing. Unlike the UK, Sweden has very few streetlamps compared to the overcrowded UK. Large patches with no polution light at all. Looked up out of the side window and saw the milky way. Have not seen that in the UK since I was very small. Breathtaking. Just over an hour left to run.. 40 miles left to run and the lights of Stockholm are already filling the windshield. Taxying in at Stockholm after a gruelling 7hr 6min flight. I need a beer..

Mike comes out to greet me. Hi Mark, I have another trip for you. James has asked me to brief you, for some reason he seems to be keeping a low profile.. I know, every time he sees me approaching, he scuttles away in the other direction. I gather that things are still a bit frosty in the James household? Debs still not speaking to him? I gather not. She blames him for nearly getting her killed by insisting on flying a clearly, completely un airworthy aircraft home. So wither are we bound? Stockholm. Stockholm? Hells bells. Weather is going to be crap and over mountains too. Should I send the parts by Fedex instead? Ah no, I'll do it. I pull the weather for Brussels. Not too bad Scattered low cloud 1000ft ceiling, 12 degrees, so no icing. Pull the weather for Stockholm. Broken cloud, ceiling 300ft, 3 degrees. light wind 6kts. A bit problematic, but it may improve with age. I make my flight plan. six legs in total. Climbing out into a showery 7 octas , ceiling 300 ft, over the moorland just to the west of Leeds, We are treated to a double rainbow. Once I turn onto heading, I expect the weather to clear a lot by the time I reach the Nottingham area. One of the most fascinating things for me is looking down at open farmland. Often you can see the outlines of buidings, long since demolished still visible from the air, yet nothing to be seen at ground level. I once saw the outline of what looked to be a roman fort, complete with perimeter wall, foundations of buildings and even the streets. Here you can see the remains of a long torn up WW2 airfield still imprinted on the landscape. You can see the runway intersection where they cross, and over to the left, a little bit of concrete hardstanding still remains This airfield seems to be a likely candidate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Little_Walden Pretty much a flight from hell so far. Holland and Germany were fine, flying in and out of broken cloud. However Scandinavia is covered by a huge fog bank. Nothing to see. I will press on... Malmo below under the fog, just turned for Stockholm. 288 miles to run...

Well. About to fire up the old sim and go flying. No idea where yet. If you ever want me to fly somewhere, just tell me where you want your parts delivered. Must be somewhere in Europe and must have an airfield nearby. Oh and no long over water legs. Those are just boring and this is supposed to be fun. I will do my best to get your parts delivered...

Indeed. Olivers Mount Road Racing Circuit. Just five minutes away from Scarborough town centre. A very atmospheric place. You can almost smell the Castrol R from the 1950s racers on the wind... The best riders in the world have raced on the narrow, winding track over the years. Hailwood, Agostini, Granty, Sheene, Parish, Ivy..... This pic would have been taken at the esses, at the top of the hill where the track climbs up through the trees, then turns 90 degrees right, straight across the cultivated field. They are ordinary public roads and you can ride the circuit yourself on non race days. Just head for the mount and you suddenly find yourself on a road with blue and white checkered kerbs... When I was a young hooligan, I rode it on my CB900 at speed. Scared myself silly.

Well Done Yorky. But as Meatloaf once sang... Two out of three aint bad. I need specifics... Think one of my of my personal mentors, and role model, Mick Grant. Also Barry Sheene, also of course mr slippery himself, stavros aka steve parish...

Nothing crazy to report. The comanche just had a 100hr inspection and I conducted an engineering test flight in her. So. A where am I. Three places within a 20 min flight from Leeds and all within 5 mins flight time of each other. All are well known landmarks. 1. The hardest one. 2. A big clue to number 1. 3. Some on here may have spent the weekend..

Well I never. Whatever next. Spag bol without the spag?

I used to teach my CBT pupils that roundabouts are just road junctions with grass in the middle. In your case you would just treat it like a crossroads. Left hand lane turning left and straight on. Right hand lane for turning right. Unless road markings advise differently. Again, although the road markings in your case say use either lane, be aware that the red line carries the greater risk.

I checked to see if the code has been viewed yet. It has not. Does not matter, the fact is that devitt wanted the written, explicitly stated info to authenticate my policy in writing. I have proved I sent the information. What devitt choose to do with it is not my concern... The noose tightens. Devitt pissed off the wrong guy... One has to wonder how many peoples lives the insurance industry have negatively impacted by cancelling policies unfairly and on a whim. Luckily for me, this time they encountered someone with a bit of legal training. Not a lawyer but a couple of years of night school. I needed another one and a bit full time semesters to be "legisperitus". I think it is time they were reigned in. Thinking on it... Any ideas? Obviously it needs start with statutory legislation. Insurance is big money, and money is the root of all evil. Just releasing a bit, well in fact a lot of stress. Should have been asleep long ago..., Yet this crap keeps going around in my mind...

Indeed. I just got the paper copy of the email they sent on Monday, saying they are cancelling my policy. It will be kept, along with everything else.. I am starting to make a case for the financial ombudsman to delve into, should my policy be cancelled, on the grounds that as the email containing the notice to cancel actually arrived before the reminder document landed on my doormat, clearly I was not able to rectify the mistake that the reminder was issued to advise of. In addition, I made several attempts to adhere to the scope of the reminder letter, only for further demands to be made, despite agents of devitts previously admitting everything was now resolved. I absolutely do not expect to have to put this into practice, it is just poor admin at devitts causing it all and everything will turn out fine. However, it pays to be prepared. From what I understand, given the grievous long term implications of a cancelled policy, the financial ombudsman takes a very dim view of unfair cancellations. I wish I had not been lazy and read through those policy docs.... Rest assured, once the policy expires, I will not darken devitts door ever again. Just typed out a timeline of events thus far. Luckily, in a previous life, a big part of my job was fighting ambulance chasing lawyers and fighting future court cases that probably may never happen. I have a certain "nose" for laying the groundwork for the professionals to get their teeth into. Let's hope I have wasted my time and I do not need it, but the evidence I have collated and jotted down is pretty damning, esp if they cancel and charge a cancellation fee, which they have already said they would do. That is the final nail in the coffin. as far as the financial ombudsman is concerned. In legal terms, they receive a "valuable consideration" if they cancel, therefore it could be proved, given the circumstances that it is in their interest to cancel, whether fair or not. Root cause of this predicament is my mistake, I am not a victim in that regard, however the ongoing incompetence displayed by devitt is really starting to piss me off. Not one of my emails or documentation has been acknowledged in writing. How long does it take to type " we have received your documents and found everything in order" and press SEND, actually less than 20 seconds, I counted...

Well, I gave in and sent them a new licence check code once again. The reason I gave in is the fact that the email and my reply is a convenient way of documenting that I have indeed sent what they asked for. It only takes a couple of minutes to get a code. Of more interest, DVLA records if the code has been read and when. The last code was checked on the 19th of Feb. Proof in writing that I sent it and they checked it. I no longer trust Devitt as far as I could throw them. What a piss poor organisation. Take away from this is always read the paperwork and do not forget to send them your proof of no claims (even though you can only use your no claims on one vehicle - probably why they ask you if you own other vehicles) and Driving licence check code. Here is where you get it.. View or share your driving licence information - GOV.UK

OK. Not a lot to go on, but just ease yourself in carefully. Bit like easing yourself down into your favourite chair after a,long and harduous day at work.. Thats just fine.. And welcome.

I think i am getting old. I have no concept of what a "balance bike" is.

Devitt are beyond the pale. What an outfit. Had one bloke on the phone confirming everything is fine. Documents received. Then this email arrived today. Documents required to confirm your insurance policy Thank you for returning your documents. We are unable to confirm your insurance policy on the documents received as the correct documents have not been supplied or some parts are missing. Need DLN or LIC summary from your end . (If there has been a gap between the start of this insurance and the expiry date of your previous insurance, please let us know the reason) Unfortunately statement of facts, policy schedules and certificates of insurance are unacceptable forms of No Claims Discount proof. However you can request your No Claims Bonus letter directly from your previous insurer. What you need to do now You will need to send us these items within the next 7 days. Click here to upload documents. Alternatively you can forward these to: [email protected] What happens if we don’t get the documents we need? If we don’t get all the documents we asked for we will not be able to confirm your policy Yours sincerely Bharath Mohan Raj 0345 300 4870 Ext: 1005 North House | St Edwards Way | Romford | RM1 3PP. Phoned customer services once again and spoke to another customer service agent. Oh thats just an automated message that comes up, you may get two or three of them, just ignore them. In any case he checked again for me. Everything is fine and dandy. What a shower. One hand does not know what the other is doing. I have had enough. I am considering selling little yeller on. 5 vehicles to insure every year is far too much. In fact I am considering flogging the DT175 and VFR too and buying something like an Africa Twin in a year or two when prices have dropped signifcantly. Bike market is in the toilet in the US and what happens there, happens here a bit later.

I did enjoy his scream as he flew past the shop doorway.

I think the better part of the oxygen thief's character that morning would have been found at the bottom of the toilet bowl.

I would like to give him painkillers. Ones that do exactly what they say on the tin. Oxygen thief.

Finally gave them another call. The guy I spoke to got all the details up on his screen. Acknowledged I sent the required documentation and all good. Nothing untoward. The problems would have arisen if the policy termination notice time ran to its end. Rarely does one come back from that without a lot of future pain from what I have read. I hope everyone learned from my stupid lazyness. RTF. Just because I have never been required to send licence details for a long time, it does not mean that is the same with every company. There is a lot to be said for staying with the same company. Cuts out all this crap. All my vehicles are insured with same company except little yeller that they would not insure because it was a US import. I think I spent more time talking on A.G. Bell's hateful device today than I have in total for the last 10 years.

Well screenshot attachment and the relevent ref numbers has been sent to their customer services address with the hope they contact me if any other problems turn up. They have not acknowledged the email in any way, nor any of the others. Dunno whether this is good news or bad. A quick missive telling me everything has been resolved would have been nice...

Spoke to customer services this morning. I am not in too much bother yet, but I have to pull my finger out. They have confirmed my driving licence is class A and clean. The code I got from Swinton account for ncb is not recognised. I contacted swinton and they emailed me proof of ncb. So I guess I just take a screenshot of the document and send it as an email attachment. Cannot do more till I get home on the PC. I am garbage with phones. Hate them with a passion. Once again..... RTF.

Insured little yeller for 3rd of Feb. With Devitt. Duly got the policy crap through the post, had a quick look at the policy details and ignored the reams of other terms and conditions and financial law BS that comes with the insurance docs. Got home from work today and a letter was on my doormat. It was a reminder dated 13/2, appears that they wanted to see my driving licence and proof of no claims. Yup, amongst all the garbage in the policy envelope, there it was. They said they needed the info. This was a new one. I have been asked about no claims before, but never my driving licence details via a government website. Once, years ago had to send a photocopy. Oh crap. Fired up the PC immediately and jumped through the hoops. Driving licence check code duly sent. Code number for no claims proof duly sent by email. Tonight, more at my leisure, I checked my emails. It appears that as of today devitt are giving 7 days notice of cancelling the policy. Shit. Serious stuff. I sent customer services an email pleading my case and pointing out I immediately sent them the info via their contact email address as soon as I received the reminder. It is pretty shit sending out a reminder by post on the thursday, and cancelling the policy on the following monday. Moral of the tale, read through the boring crap. ... I await developments...

When I saw the autopilot was glitched, I confess that I engineered the "engine failure". I was not going to sit for 12 hours, hand flying an old crate back to blighty. However, the rest, including the stuck open throttle was genuine. I sense that you are rather taken with Debs. I call her Debs because she looks very much like my Debs, my very best mate ever, we were inseparable when we were young. Everyone thought we would marry one day. Sadly her parents split up and she moved away. I bumped into her again about 20 years later, married with kids. She looked very much like the digital "Debs". Told you, all my tales carry a large element of truth about them.