This is the short version but I am doing a long version (click here to see how far I've got)
I was born under the sign Libra in late 1958 at the Bristol Maternity Hospital.welcome (.wav file)
I grew up in and around the Whitehall/Redfield area of Bristol, before moving to Yate in 1981 and then moving to Gloucesterhire in 2003.
Now 6 ft + Designer/ Draughtsman
Still single, living with my girlfriend, and Car owner/driver
At the age of 19 I hurt my back and didn't discover Chiropractic could fix it until 15 years later, thank you Parker Clinic, 130-132 Gloucester Rd. Bristol 0117-924-5842. Shuffled in bent over and was able to walk out.
At the age of 40 I found out I suffer from Dyslexia ! So excuse the spelling and grammar. Good job there are spell and grammar checkers, too bad they're mostly US.
Blood Donor - I'm Group A RH+ and have given over 325 pints although most was given as Blood/Plasma and most of that given when a young boy couldn't have frozen Plasma so a number of Donors agreed to give a pint of Plasma each week whilst he was having Chemotherapy. I'm also on the Bone Marrow Transplant Register.
If you'd like to give Blood or Plasma ring 0300 123 23 23, It doesn't hurt Honest PLEASE TRY ONCE you or a friend or relative might be glad of a pint one day. Plus you get a free cup of Tea and a Biccy! Check out theirWeb SiteSpare time used to be spent Baby Sitting, Fixing practically anything, fence, gazzebo, raised bed, shed and pond building, Chopping down trees, drinking tea and chatting alot. I'm also know to have helped with jam making, clipping goats hooves and many bizarre things. Now it's rebuilding our home
High Points - meeting and living with Carole and rebuilding a Cottage with her.
The not so personal - Winning the Austin-Healey (non Healey Class) Auto-Test twice in a row in my Reliant Kitten. Being quick around Castle Combe in my heap of a Sprite and being quicker than many cars that should have left me for dead.Low point - Finding out that the person I'd known for 30 years and called himself my best friend was actually the malicious caller who'd pestered me and my parents for years. Try trusting anyone after that.
Religion - I think religion is there mainly as a comforter, I don't worry that there isn't a heaven or whatever but alot of people need to believe in something and maybe grasp at the first thing or most popular thing that they come accross. I believe we should travel through life helping as many people as we can and hurting as few, if it turns out there is a God and I can't go to heaven because I didn't believe then it's not a place I'd want to be anyway. I believe in Spirits and the possibility of anything being possible. I believe we are all connect, just think if only on a physical level tons of space dust/rocks enter the earths atmosphere when we die we rot we become the, soil/dust plants feed on us they die/get eaten/ burned whatever end up as dust get breathed in, get absorbed by alsorts of things. Thus we are connected to everything is the universe on at least a physical level and then if you believe in the soul/spirit then we have to be connected.
I'd like to think mankind would live in peace and overcome famine etc. but in reality I think mankind will oneday destroy itself whether thro war disease or rouge GM foods, mankind will once again realise it's too late and blame the other everyone else.
I went to Carlton Park Infant School.
Then Whitehall Junior School where I managed to loose my front teeth after being tripped in the school playground.
Then St. George Comprehensive - O'LEVELs in Math's, Physics and Technical Drawing were past together with CSEs in English Lan, English Lit, Geography, History and Math's. I also did Latin for a number of years togeather with french but took no exams in them.
After this I spent 4 years at Soundwell Technical College - 1 year as a full time student followed by 3 years day release whilst serving an Apprenticeship at Spares And Equipment Ltd, Kingswood, Bristol. City & Guides G2, MET 2, MET 3, and MET 4 were past.
Then 6 months at Rolls-Royce Technical College - starting an 18 month course as a Trainee Draughtsman at British Aerospace.
CLAIT part 1 (Computer Literacy And Information Technology)
From an early age I played with Meccano and made all sorts of machines with it. I also love to take things apart, unfortunately they didn't always go back together or work again, but much was learnt from this and much of my early discoveries now pops up in my designs. This led to building push along go-karts and model Planes. The Model planes started as Free-flight then Control-line which finally led to Radio Controlled Aircraft. Early models were kit built but with time I designed and built his Aircraft and FM Radio Gear.
Between the ages 10½ to 15 I was a Scout ending as a Senior Patrol Leader with a Chief Scouts Award. During this time all the usual things were done Canoeing, Camping etc.
From early teens I started messing around with cars and motorbikes so by the time I owned one I was a dab hand at taking them to pieces and rebuilding them. Since then I've rebuilt a number. From 1975 onwards I have been Designing/Building Race and Custom Cars for friends as well as doing my own Sprite info site about modifing and maintianing Sprites, Midgets and A40's.
If someone wants something Designed, Built or Fixed they can always call on me as I believe no problem is unsolvable, it may take time, it may be uneconomic but it's usually doable.
I love Horror, Sci-fi, Thrillers and old Black and white movies.
Favourites Films :- Aliens (the Directors Cut), Android, Blade Runner, It's a Wonderful life, Starman, The Bishops Wife, Toy Story and anything by Hitchcock to name but a few.I did a 4 year Apprenticeship as a Fitter/Machinist at Spares and Equipment Ltd then moved on to British Aerospace, Filton, Bristol, where I started as a Trainee Draughtsman and finished up in the Full Scale Layout Dept after spending time in the Electrical and Structures Depts.
From there I moved into sub-contract work starting at Westlands Helicopters.
After this I moved around Sub-contract Houses working on various Aircraft and Helicopters, for various companies BID, Elgood and Dye, Fastec, GED, GKN-Wynnwith, Morsons, MID, SAC and Sitec
Then spent a short time with the Ministry of Transport's Vehicle Inspectorate. Maintaining Commercial Testing Centres around the country.
Then a 2-4 week contract at BAe Wind-tunnel turned into 6 years both as a contractor and permanent staff member. During this time I worked on various projects including HOTAL intakes, the Flying Wing, 2D wings, TPS test rigs and various Airbus Models. A lot of time was spent producing CAD solid models for N/C or StereoLithography (a way of creating accurate solid plastic parts).
After this I went back to Contracting and became Self-employed and have done contracts for most the major Aircraft and Automotive Companies as well as a number of small Motor Racing Teams.
I'm also a dab hand on CAD systems Anvil - 1000, 4000 and 5000, Catia Ver 3 & 4 and a bit of 5.
I also drove a Mini-Bus part-time for some great kids for a few weeks, which was probably one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever done.
More resently I've been back at BAe Filton(AIRBUS UK) doing 3D Modelling on Catia Version 4, Geometry work and supporting the A380, A320 and previously Anvil Parasolids on Project Rocket and a test rig for Concorde and it's final big mod the security cockpit door (project Stargate), and Kinematic Models on the A300 Slat assembly and figuring how to convert files between Anvil, Cadds, Catia V4 and V5. Converting old manually drawn loft/foils into CAD files and creating and updating the In Service Support Dept Web site
Nik's thoughts on aircraft
My involvement with computers started at College with a Pet 2000, then thro' a home built 1k Acorn Atom with an upgrade to 4k owned by an acquaintance. Through messing with others BBC's and Spectrums in 1984 I took the plunge and ordered one of the first Sinclair QL's this was the cutting edge £399, 128k expandable to 640k, twin 200k microdrives, and the superb 'Super Basic' which still hasn't been beaten. I then started writing programmes (software for this machine was sparse) which led to writing a suspension programme for Dymag, who were responsible for the Ecurie Ecosse Group C2 World Sports Car and who won the Championship that year.
Next I moved on to a new XT PC this cost £1200 and consisted of 12MHz 08086 (and later had co-processor added) 768k of ram, 20 Meg hard drive MS-Dos 3.3, 3.5" 720k and 5.25" 128k floppy disk drives and a 3 button Genius mouse. This is still in use contected to a old pen plotter.
I'm well versed in Operating Systems - MS-Dos, Dr-Dos as well as Windows 3.1, 3.11, NT 3.51, Win9x and Unix. I've used most of the word processors and spreadsheets etc.
I'm is also a dab hand on CAD systems Anvil - 1000, 4000 and 5000, Catia Ver 3, 4 and 5.
These days I have a number of different removable hard drive so that I can boot into Dos, Win 98, Win 2000, XP or Linux depending on what I'm doing, for instance this web page in done in Windows 3.11 using Netscape Composer in Communicator 4.05
I also set up and designed the Westerleigh Village website for the village a few miles from where I used to live and now the Slimbridge Horticultural Society website plus sites for various other clubs.
Blood Donor - I have given over 325 pint of Blood or Blood/Platelets, both have been painless and it's an easy way to give something to those who really do need it (it might be someone you know or love) it takes only 20 minutes of your time to give a pint of blood and an hour or so if you want to give Blood/Platelets. Platelets are made up quickly and as a donor you can give once a month. A pint of Blood will take longer to make up (something in the order of 2-3 months) this does you no harm as you are producing and excreting cells all the time. You could even think of Blood donating as a form of exercise for your system.
If you'd like to give Blood or Plasma ring , It doesn't hurt Honest PLEASE TRY ONCE you or a friend or relative might be glad of a pint one day. Plus you get a free cup of Tea and a Biccy! Check out theirWeb Site
While your there if you ask they'll take a sample of your Blood to send to the National Bone Marrow Transplant Register, they will not stick you with anymore needles it's just a sample taken through the pipe that collects your Blood, the only thing you have to do is sign a form to say they can test the sample.
I was contacted by the Bone Marrow Registry to say I was possible match and had to give more blood samples for further test to determine if I was a match or not. It can take up to 14 weeks to test these sample and if selected then would be fully counselled by a Doctor and further Blood test would be done for various diseases, and chest X-ray and ECG would also be done. Then after that I'd have to give a written undertaking, as they don't want to continue and destroy the patients immune system and then have the donor back out. Anyway 7-10 days before the Marrow donation blood would be taken, which will be given back after they've removed 1 - 1.5 pints of Bone Marrow (this is done under a general anaesthetic).
I wasn't a match so can take it easy again, who knows I maybe a match for someone else in the future, watch this space!