Yep Fruity, the small print is a curse.
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I read that there were two fuel tanks so as one emptied you simple switched to a second - he refused an offer by ground staff to fill up both before take off and knew that the switch to engage second tank was behind his head in the cockpit [ gets complicated heh] and so failed to engage - second theory that came up as no one really knows is that he decided to suicide ? possible possible ?
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I donāt know where I got the idea he flew through bad weather. Possibly it was incorrectly reported in the press at the time.
I was trained as a maintenance error investigator, but only ever got involved with one crash investigation. Luckily for my employer I was able to demonstrate that our hardware was doing what it was supposed to do at the time, and thankfully both crew-members managed to eject safely.
Iāve just had a look at the NTSB report given at a public meeting for Mr Denverās crash, and it makes interesting reading.
The probable cause was loss of control by the pilot whilst attempting to change over the fuel tank selector valve just as you mention. In doing so he probably braced himself using his right foot so he could turn his body to the left to reach the valve, and inadvertently pressed on the right rudder pedal as he did so resulting in an unrecoverable yaw, wingover, and pitch down into the sea.
There were lots of other things that were wrong with the aircraft, such as having an engine not cleared for use by the manufacturer, but these were not considered to be causal.
*PROBABLE CAUSE
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause of this accident was the pilotās diversion of attention from the operation of the airplane and his inadvertent application of right rudder that resulted in the loss of airplane control while attempting to manipulate the fuel selector handle. Also, the Board determines that the pilotās inadequate preflight planning and preparations, specifically his failure to refuel the airplane, was causal. The Board determines that the builderās decision to locate the unmarked fuel selector handle in a hard-to-access position, unmarked fuel quantity sight gauges, inadequate transition training by the pilot, and his lack of total experience in this type of airplane were factors in this accident.
Itās a long time since I heard that word āWoggleā āShe walks with a wiggle and a woggle when sheās doing the Tennessee waltzā 
I loved John Denver God rest him, funny enough Fruity āAnnieās Songā was one of the few single records I bought, great song all about his missus, ah well, you know what they say, love and hate are horns on the same goat.
I really try hard to ignore politics but itās getting tougher by the day, wars, scandals, liars, plagues, famine etc., all over the media, there really is no escaping it in these times.
Maybe I should have been a monk, they seem to avoid everything, work, the media, women. They brew their own beer to any strength they fancy and probably grow their own weed. They leave all the heavy responsible stuff to the Abbott, and Iāve never heard of an Abbott been sent to prison since Henry the Eight rounded them all up and confiscated everything, yes the governments seem to turn a blind eye to the friars living the life of Reilly safe and sound out in the sticks somewhere, they donāt even get called up during wartime as far as I know. 
Our āleaderā, who is officially called tea shock, thatās the way itās pronounced and I canāt spell it in Irish, but most folks I know have far more suitable names for him.
Heās going around boasting to the world that he will take in 200,000 war refugees, while the country is facing the greatest housing shortage in itās history, how he proposes to do this is between the Emperor of Mars and himself because itās beyond the greatest brains in the nation, but our boy says heās serious, jaysus where do we get these ejeets from.
But then I look across the water and see we are not alone, there seems to be an epidemic of ruling gobshites spread across these isles.
A couple of dozen Hooray Henrys appear to be putting on an even better show than ours, oh dear God spare us all.
Why was I reminded of this sketch?.
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no one pens a reply quite as poetic; as descriptive and as to the sharp point as you can and do my man - can you spare a few more or has that exhausted ya now and ya slunk low in ya deck chair in the back shed with ya rollie tin on the go??
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I agree gumbud, but only on this occasion, donāt want this to become āAbbottā forming.
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oh dear your drollness drolls before ya - well today my eldest and only son is driving up from his seaside resort on the western shores of the west kimberley with his youngest daughter cos no on else wants to come!! - and will arrive with suitable victuals such as black puddings [ yes we do get them here] ; kippers them too - muscat not the date the fruit of maybe a bourbon or two and a few surprises for the old man- not much to do up here for the younger generation but the Ipad will suffice !
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Sounds good Gummy, to see the fruits of your labour , the Lad and I are off on an adventure on Saturday, in the old days, Ladās and Dadās just talked about adventures.
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yes I do feel the scribbles are getting more leisurely we just need to practice some re-incarnation perhaps then weāll have a team again including of course mr fruitcake [ no sorry sir sorry you do NOT need re-incarnating!] bring out ya dead bring out ya dead?? I have often thought that we have had a sorta Monty Python style atmosphere so anything goes heh? and as long as the sur on can spit fire we will be ok?
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ah well sir we look forward to plenty of pics and a good tale or two?
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Saturday is imminent now.
I do think the curiosity of life has disappered for a while - you know " the other day I was just wonderingā¦" and āhave you ever noticed ā¦ā and " it does make you think doesnāt itā¦" and " life doesnāt seem to ā¦" anymore???
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He does sing Hi thatās how the yanks pronounce aye ok okedokey!! - for me that must have been his worst song not the usual image for denver? but his life I think was down spiralling - he had by that time tried 2/3 marriages was very rich but not happy - started drinking and been charged with drinking whilst in charge of planes and cars - he was certainly not a happy chappy and could have moved into depression of some sort and I believe in his last flight became careless and sloppy because of this state of mind and I would put it as accidental death whilst of unstable emotions?
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yes the same old story heh - lad from rags to riches ; everything beneath his feet and just canāt hack the style? It should give all of us a prompt that āall that glitters is not goldā how many winning the pools stories have nose dived as well [to use a connecting metaphor]? the fans adored him of course his bank a/c must have been bulging unless he was robbed by his manager as many have been before ; even the beatles claimed to be pennyless almost when epstein was manager and always working !! I remember a tale once of Elkie Brookes who some of them yankees maynot know who had her house stolen from under her nose by her manager ; must have been very tempting to slice off a bit heh?
Good morning all and one. Iāve had a hectic week of DIY whilst the rains have stopped for a while. I still have to wrap up warm some days, especially when the wind is from the north. Well thatās better than the wind being from the bottom, or the top.
Speaking of windy-pops, we used to occasionally play games of belch tennis during evening shifts when the other half of the office was empty. Some of the chaps even played phart tennis if they had the digestive system to do it.
I wanted the department motto to be, Farts are funny, and even had the support of one of the lady enginerds, but alas our management team were less than accomodating in that respect.
At one point we moved the office and rig shop into a former storehouse. There was a competition to name it. The company had a habit of naming stuff made by the northern division. A dirty great tin statue of a combined bird with hairy-plane wings was put on a mound by the main entrance, and named Merlin. Well that was the name of a Derby engine, and it didnāt sit well with the us chaps and chapesses from the Bristol division.
Sir Stanley Hooker was a brilliant Bristol Engineer, so the majority of us that worked in the relocated office wanted the building to be called Hooker Hall.
Nope, management went with the nomination from one chap and the building was called Severn House instead. Itās the UKās longest river, and although some of it passed near the manufactory, to our minds the name didnāt represent our views.
There was a WW2 vintage air raid shelter next to the office. When it was decided to demolish our building an put up a massive state of the art combined manufactory, build shop, offices, and rig shop, I tried desperately to have the shelter preserved. It was the last one on the whole of the site, a piece of history, but alas it was destroyed as part of the total improvement package.
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no sense of british pride old chap could have easily painted an old nissan shelter with some bright paint fgs - this out with the old and in with the new will be to the death of the empire
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With you there Gummy, we need more nissans to store the nippons!
I do love your quips - keep quipping and spitfiring and put put put putting on a nissan or two ?
I once had a gearbox failure in a Nissan. It was raining Datsun cogs. 
Plenty of wonderful scribblings there lads, ātis a treat to look in and read them every now and then at my leisure.
Come to think of it, at my age (76) life is all about leisure and making oneself as comfortable as possible, peace and quiet and no silly arguments, especially when they are about something you can do nothing about, you know where youāre going so make the last ride a good one, if you follow me.
The wife has commandeered me from the shed and has me toiling in her garden, not my favourite pastime is gardening.
Talking of British pride.
Some things that are not a bit funny to others often make me laugh, donāt ask me why but I burst out laughing then other night while watching an old British film called āThe Green Man (1956)ā.
A BBC newsreader was upstairs in his home preparing himself for the late shift at the studio, he comes downstairs dressed in pinstriped suit, bowler hat, and carrying a black leather briefcase, only to find a vacuum salesman in what looks like an embrace with his wife, actually heās demonstrating the machine to her and the flex caught around her waist.
In typical toff fashion he belts out:
āDoris how could you!ā Then he turns to the salesman.
āBy jove, Iād knock the stuffing out of you if I hadnāt got to read the 9oc newsā
And off he dashes to the BBC.
Seems back in the 50ās the BBC news was far more important than it is today, the show must go on, you can deal with the wife later. 
Of course Phyllis did not see the humour in it.
