ORIGINAL: Gazzer

I love our country. When someone does something different and bold all we wait is for the opportunity to criticise and degrade the attempt.

Has no one heard of the courage to fail?

I am particularly interested in the verbosity of Milliways attack, and wonder if there is some bad blood between him and Gordon?[:-]

I also think a fact check in order given the way the points have been delivered.

Firstly I know that Gordon has used sponsorship for such a large project but that he has also contributed a fair amount of money, thousands, to the project. Getting it built for him, not true, of course he had help as have other large scale models, but again, he has performed hundreds of hours of building himself. When you scroll through these forums and some of the large manufacturer sites, there are owners of models that have been built by professional builders and flown by well known pilots...... so nothing is wrong in principle with others doing it for you, but hey, that is not the case here. So what is the point here?

In France, the engine problem was not down to silicone as you suggest, but sorted by Gordon and the Wren team. Were you saying that the building techniques and materials were incorrect, because if you are, then you also infer the LMA inspection technique is lacking? But you then demand the organisation to get real, bit of a catch 22 there I think.

So losing a signal is his fault too is it....... look through the threads, radio issues prevail. Again, the LMA would be inspecting the suitability and failsafe systems so by implication they must have a problem. But you would hang Gordon for that.

The powers that be grant permission through sympathy......... Whose getting real now?

So if I may ask Milliways what is your contribution to the leading edge and pushing the envelope????

This project is an amazing feat. We know it works it has flown, and the pilot candidly admitted error on the crash of the first one. Brave, yes, honest yes, but Milliways sees fit to insult the guy. I have seen quite a few aircraft stuffed some of my own too due to that problem of pilot error, big small and the real thing..... But you feel it in order to ridicule the man and suggest he should go back to learn the basics of safe flying. I'll bet he has more than a BMFA B cert.......... So the BMFA is now at fault eh?

Bravo Milliways, with an attitude like that we are lucky enough to have people like Gordon whose pushing of the envelope helps develop and give us something to look forward to and where success can be wished for. Clearly you would not wish to be there when he flies it, would you, I mean it is so unsafe, why would place yourself in that position.........

With your disdain you reduce any part of your argument to a level of insult, and thus no lessons to be learned from your diatribe.

Gordon, if your reading this, I am sincerely sorry to hear of your loss, and would be most interested to understand the causation of this demise. I can only anticipate the heartache and financial loss, as well as that most precious commodity of time that goes with it. Whilst I am sure there are many views, at least you had the courage to fail, and without that, we would still be knocking people unconscious with a hammer than using the least intrusive chemical cocktail to anaesthetize people. You don't make progress without failure

Gazzer