Nurse, Turned Flight Instruction School Owner/pilot Extraordinaire
On a recent Sunday afternoon, this writer caught up with a successful woman business owner, whose flight instruction and general aviation business is physically located at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. But, how did Evelyn A. Carlson, a Nursing Instructor at St. John College in Cleveland, Ohio ultimately emerge as a partner in a Learn to Fly business on the West Coast and become a pilot extraordinaire. Here's the story.
As an intermediate step, Carlson began to teach both Nursing and Flight Instruction as an Assistant Professor in two different departments at Kent State University, one of which was Technology (think Flying). Lyn commented that both of these teaching endeavors were not so dissimilar as they might seem at first glance. Sure, the data itself was different, but not the process. Both had scientific and technical aspects; each involved manipulating equipment; and both at times required instantaneous decisions.
Of course, as we age and experience a wide range of different life circumstances, a number of unexpected choices emerge. Just ask Lyn Carlson if that didn't happen to her. Further, some of the chapters in our lives take place before age 50, while other parts of our life evolve later.
Along the way, Lyn served in the Peace Corps in Nyeri, Kenya, where she taught nursing. Further, during graduate school, Carlson received a National Institute of Health full scholarship and living expenses stipend. In 1974, Lyn completed her MSN from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. After completion of her Master's degree, she initially began teaching nursing at the baccalaureate level. But, then, her love for flying plus her advanced degree combined to also allow her to teach flying in Kent, Ohio, too. At the time, Lyn was 35 years old.
For the next four years, Lyn arrived at the airport early in the morning, where she served as the flying instructor from 7 AM until Noon. Then, she would teach nursing in the afternoon. Finally, she would drive back to the School of Technology building on campus at the end of the day to serve as an assistant professor in Technology, where she taught the evening ground schools until 9 or 10 PM. What a schedule this dedicated teacher and flight instructor kept in those days.
As a pilot, she joined the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) in 1979 as member # 006905147. During 1981, Lyn won the Amelia Earhart Medal by finishing 1st place in one of the events at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association meet, which was held at the University of North Dakota. By 1982, Carlson was already listed in Who's Who of American Women.
In her case, the circumstance, which led Lyn to move back to California "right back where she started from" went like this. Due to the declining health of her grandparents, who held a special place in Lyn's heart, she returned to the Golden State to spend time with them and help care for them. Back in California, Carlson also began to hand out resumes and, ultimately, wound up as Chief Flight Instructor at Sunrise Aviation in Santa Ana, California. So, she stayed in Southern California, where her family had long established ties, which actually went back four generations.
After joining the team at Sunrise as partner and Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), Lyn helped to develop FAA Approved Flight Training Programs, which included the writing of ground and flight training syllabi, as well as getting them approved by the FAA. She also supervised the training given by more than 25 other flight instructors. As Chief Instructor, she was ultimately responsible for certifying all student school records for accuracy and compliance. She also gave flight instruction herself and was responsible for Stage Checks.
Of course, Carlson was also a strong influence on the growth at Sunrise Aviation from just two smaller, single-engine aircraft at the outset to its 32 aircraft plus 25 flight instructors today. Raised originally in Redwood City, California, Lyn spent every summer in Newport Beach. Like her parents, she too attended UCLA, where she earned her undergraduate degree in Nursing.
In her late 40s, Lyn actually flew solo across the Atlantic in a Rockwell 114 from El Monte, California to Guernsey, Channel Islands via Lakeland, Florida (where she stopped for tanking) to Gander, Newfoundland and Santa Maria in the Azores. Why had Carlson taken such a bold step? As a pilot, she was intent on getting everything possible out of her lifetime flying experience. This goal on her part made the trip inevitable.
Obviously, upon her return from this adventure, she became highly in demand as a speaker before local 99s in her area. The Ninety-Nines organization, which was founded in 1929 by 99 women pilots, existed then and now for the mutual support of its members. Not surprisingly, Amelia Earhart became the first president of one of these local groups in her area. During 1992 and 1993, Lyn continued to make additional motivational talks about flying solo across the Atlantic, while she also engaged in one-on-one teaching for men and women, who were considering the same type of flight.
Of special note, during 1995, Lyn Carlson was also chosen for the prestigious FAA National Flight Instructor of the Year Award. Winning at the local and regional FAA levels, the national selection committee was made up of representatives from all the major General Aviation organizations, which included the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Business Aircraft Association, the National Association of Flight Instructors, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association in addition to officials from the FAA itself. In fact, the entire process actually took four months to complete. What an honor for Lyn Carlson!
By 1998, Carlson had also added the additional title of Director of Training at Sunrise Aviation because her job duties and responsibilities also included student enrollment. Further, from 1995 until the present, Lyn has also administered the FAA computer knowledge exams in her area.
In addition, Lyn Carlson has also had the distinction of serving in each of the following capacities, which have included being a National Transportation Safety Board Consulted Party (during 1997-1998). In this instance, for example, Carlson reviewed data associated with a fatal student accident and wrote an official party report, which was included in the final accident write-up. Then, as an AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic Lecturer from 1997 until 2003, Lyn traveled throughout the US to present and discuss topics required by the FAA. One such topic was an in-depth review of 14 CFR Part 61: Certification for Pilots and Instructors. For its part, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is one organization authorized by the FAA to offer the required 16 hour Flight Instructor Refresher Courses needed to renew someone's Flight Instructor Certificate. She also continues to serve as a Designated Pilot Examiner. In this capacity, Carlson gives Pilot Practical Tests for Private, Instrument and Commercial candidates (in airplanes). The examination, in this instance, includes both an oral and an in-flight practical test. The DPE position actually represents an appointment by the FAA and, as such, is considered a prestigious one in the flying community. While the FAA does give these tests, staffing does not permit them to do the majority of Practical Exam flights at the General Aviation level. Therefore, DPEs are designated by the FAA to examine for proficiency to determine who gets pilot certificates in many instances.
Dedicated nurse, teacher, college professor, flight instructor and trainer, Lyn Carlson has today returned to her home state of California to do what she really loves and what all of the experiences in her life have prepared her to do: teach and fly herself. Most of us cannot do either. But, for those of us who live in Southern California, who desire to learn to fly, Lyn Carlson and her company would be a great place to start.
After all, as Cessna used to comment in its ads of yesterday, "If I can fly, you can fly."
About the Author
James O. Armstrong, President of NowWhatJobs.net, Inc., http://www.nowwhatjobs.net, also serves as the Editor of NowWhatJobs.net. NowWhatJobs.net is the resource for job and career transitions for workers 40 years old and over, Baby Boomers and Active Seniors. Read NowWhatJobs.net for skills training, relocation options, opportunities and much more. In addition, James is the author of "Now What: Discovering Your New Life And Career After 50" and the President of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc., a media representation firm based in Suburban Chicago.
How to Build flight time as a private pilot?
I am a Private Pilot in Arizona trying to become a commercial pilot. Im trying to find other pilots in the area that freqently fly bythemselves, but is looking for a flying buddy. Im trying to build time, and experiance at the same time, but I am also a struggling college student tying to make ends meet. Anyone have suggestions that could help me out?
Try being a safety pilot for other pilots on a simulated IFR flight. You can both log the time, and split the cost, as one is the "sole manipulator" while the other is legally PIC responsible for the safety of flight (visual traffic separation). I did most all my multi time split this way. It was much cheaper!
Here is a list of some proven practical ways to build your flight time: http://www.flightinfo.com/buildtime.htm
There are several methods of customizing your shirts including silk screen printing, hand painting, tie and dye, stenciling and reverse stenciling, heat transfers, airbrush and stamping, appliqués and patches and many more. Embroidery and screen printing are the two most popular methods of customizing your apparel, corporate uniforms and promotional materials. One may wonder what the difference is between the two in the manner, process and budget or which one of is better.
Embroidery
Embroidery is the process of decorating a fabric with designs that are hand or machine stitched with thread. With technology, the old handicraft of hand embroidery has been transposed with machine embroidery which is heavily used for product branding, uniform beautification, and even corporate advertising. Small entrepreneurs have emerged with their customization, logo embroidery that started out with the simple hobby of personal sewing and embroidery turned small business. With machine embroidery, the design is uploaded and digitized. This is the process that converts the artwork into stitches then saved in a file that can be read by the embroidery machine and sewn in the material chosen. There are files that are programmed already but if you have your own design then it has to be digitized first. It is very important that digitizing is done by experts to ensure that you get the exact design you envision. A wrong shade of the thread to be used would make a huge difference in how it will look. Take for example a company logo which has several colors. If not digitized accurately may produce a logo that is one shade lighter than your company logo and if it is going to be embroidered on your company uniform could create a huge discrepancy.
Embroidery is often used for company logos or designs for work corporate uniforms, business shirts, corporate polo shirts, golf shirts, lab coats, medical uniforms, jackets, promotional materials such as caps, towels, bags and much, much more.
Different companies have different pricing options. Pricing for the embroidery is usually based on the stitch count. Pricing based on stitch count is usually broken down into per thousand stitches and priced accordingly. The first step would be to upload your design or logo so that a quote will be given to you. Usually you have to pay for the logo set up fee which is better known as the logo digitizing. There are companies though that does not have a logo set-up fee and embroidery pricing would depend on the intricacy of designs and colors to be used on the logo. They also have expert digitizers who will make sure that the exact image you envision will be 100% transferred to your corporate uniforms or apparel.
Advantages of Embroidery:
Embroidery of company logo on corporate polo and business shirts makes it more professional, classic and formal rather than screen printing.
Even casual apparel that's custom-embroidered with your logo builds identity and becomes more professional looking.
Embroidery would greatly set you apart from competitors as it gets your business noticed and establishes your corporate image.
Even with repeated washing, embroidery lasts longer on clothing as it does not crack or peel off.
Disadvantages of Embroidery:
One common problem encountered is matching exactly the color of the logo design with the thread because the shade might not be available.
Small intricate details and texts are difficult to read and embroider.
More expensive than screen printing but can be remedied by simplifying your logo.
Screen Printing
Screen printing is the process of transferring a design to a material with the use of a woven mesh and stencil and by forcing the ink thru the mesh onto the printing surface. This is more versatile than traditional printing methods which sometimes need pressure or only works for even or smooth materials.
Screen printing can be used in a wide range of materials such as textiles, ceramics, wood, and paper, glass, plastic and even metal. Thus, one would see screen printing being used on balloons, signage and displays but more commonly used on imprintable t-shirts, promotional items such as mugs, bags, clocks, decals and many more.
The pricing for the screen printing is usually based on the numbers and amounts of colors used in the design. Each screen that is used will have its particular charge as well as a charge for ink per screen. Dark colored items would need a white underbase and thus would have an additional charge for that.
Advantages of Screen Printing:
Screen printing is less expensive than embroidery especially for wholesale and bulk orders.
Screen printing charge is not affected by the size of the design, just by the number of colors.
Screen printing can do bigger designs and is very versatile as it can be used on a variety of materials.
Screen printing can recreate very detailed logos and designs.
High end products can be created with shading and gradients.
Disadvantages of Screen Printing:
Does not last as long as embroidery. Screen printed logo could eventually crack or peel off, especially with repeated washing.
Fading may occur after repeated washings.
Some companies require a minimum order.
Each process has their own pros and cons, they have their own appeal, and each has their own uses. When choosing which method to use, first determine your budget and then the effect you want to get and then canvas the different companies that offer embroidery and screen printing service. Establish a good working relationship with the customer care support of the online store so making the necessary queries will be very easy and you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor the soonest no matter what customizing method you and your company used.
Complete Private Pilot Review - The Fastest and Easiest way to Get Your Private Pilot Licence
Ever since I was a child, I always dreamed of flying. In fact, I even planned on applying for the Air Force in order for me to fly jets. However, I never did get that chance and for many years, my dream of flying never did come true.
I still did want to fly but I didn´t have the money to get extensive formal flying lessons. In fact, I still have a hard time producing enough money every month to pay for rent for my apartment in the city. Now, what more for flying lessons?
I also have a friend who is now a private pilot and has a license for it. After meeting with him, he told me about the Complete Private Pilot Training Course and he told me that this is where he learned how to fly and how he got his private pilot license.
At first I was really skeptical but I decided to give it a try. Besides, this may be my last chance of learning how to fly a plane or a helicopter for that matter.
Once I started learning how to fly using the CompletePilot course I found that flying isn´t all the complicated. Everything in this product was really easy to understand. From the controls to fly planes and helicopters to knowing how to take off and land, basically everything was thoroughly explained by the instructor.
My passion for flying was truly revitalized upon finding out that flying a plane is not that hard to do. I got to know about the basics of flying a plane.
The instructor was really a professional. He had a track record of piloting 10 different aircrafts that ranged from the small DC-3 to the large Boeing 747 commercial airplane.
I thought the kid inside me was gone forever but thanks to this product, I now got that kid inside of me who love to fly back.
I have to admit that I read a lot of instructional books on learning how to fly a plane. However, none of them can really compare to CompletePilot. This product is one of the most complete and comprehensive flight instruction manuals I have ever come across with. This product has taught me a lot of things that I didn´t even learn on flight school and it really helped me go through my flight instruction course easily. I found the section on exam guides and answers extremely invaluable.
Today, I now have my private pilot license and now flying private planes almost every week. This is truly an excellent investment for people who want to learn how to fly and also to pilots who wants to learn more about flying planes and helicopters.
The CompletePilot Training Courseis the simplest, easiest, and also the proven way to attain a private pilot license. I truly recommend this product to all people who want to learn how to fly and also to pilots who wants to learn more about aviation.
About the Author
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My son wants to learn to fly?
Hes 14 and he want to get into aviation. Hes researched it and found out that he must be 16 before he can fly solo, 17 before private pilots liscense, 18 to go to ATP (hopefully). He really wants something that he could do now. Weve looked into civil air patrol but he just wants the flying part of it not so much to be a member of the civillian auxillery of the United States air force. He said that they only do one intro flight or something like that. So my question to you is if you know of anything he could do now that is centrally focused on aviation and actually being in a plane or some sort of "groundschool" (yes I just made that up)? Thanks so much for your help, I'd be super dad forever if I found something for him to do!
he can start flying now at the local fbo. he wont be able to get his medical cert until hes 15 which acts as his student pilot license but he can go ahead and learn everything in the air and on the ground to get him prepared to fly with the faa examiner. there are no laws against non pilots flying and his instructor would be pilot in command. it takes a minimum of 40 hours to get a license but the average that it actually takes is more like 73. so he might have more hours then the average student pilot once he gets his license but that just makes him a safer pilot. once he gets into flying im sure he will meet other pilots that would love to take him up to get some time. if he wants to be a commercial pilot he could find angel flight or lifeline pilots that fly indegent people. that will give him more real world commercial flying since as a private pilot its a simple go/no go question. ie if weather is bad i dont go or if i know 100% i can make it and weather is good i will go. commercial pilots have to make decisions based on people needing to get there so its not as simple. hope this helps
World in Action - Waterwell Drilling Rig - china Top Head Drive Drilling System
Origins
World in Action was the pre-eminent current affairs program produced by Britain's ITV Network in its first 50 years. Along with This Week, Weekend World, First Tuesday, The Big Story and The Cook Report - and the news-gathering of ITN - World in Action gave ITV a reputation for quality broadcast journalism to rival the BBC's output.
For the first 35 years of its existence, ITV had a near-monopoly of television advertising revenue. Roy Thomson, who ran Scottish Television famously described ITV as a "licence to print money". In return for this income, the broadcasting regulator insisted that the ITV companies broadcast a proportion of their programmes as public service TV. Out of this was born the network's reputation for serious current affairs, eagerly grabbed by program makers under Granada's founder Lord Sidney Bernstein.
Some of the dominant figures in 20th century British broadcasting helped to create World In Action, in particular Tim Hewat "the maverick genius of Granada's current affairs in its formative years" and his World In Action successor David Plowright: but also Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Parkinson, John Birt and Gus Macdonald and, its most long-serving executive-producer, Ray Fitzwalter. World In Action trained generations of journalists and, in particular, film-makers. Michael Apted worked on the original Seven Up. Paul Greengrass, who spent ten years on World In Action, told the BBC: "My first dream was to work on World In Action, to be honest. It was that wonderful eclectic mixture of filmmaking and reportage. That was my training ground. It showed me the world and made me see many things." He later told The Guardian: "If there's a thread running through my career it's World in Action - the phrase as well as the programme." Although its rivals produced many memorable programs, it was World in Action "slamming into the subject of each edition without wordy prefaces from a reassuring host-figure" which consistently gained a reputation for the kind of original journalism and film making which made headlines and won major awards. In its time, the series was honoured by all of the major broadcasting awards, including many BAFTA, the Royal Television Society and Emmy Awards.
World in Action's style was the opposite to its urbane BBC rival's, especially to the London BBC. By repute, especially in its early days World In Action would never employ anybody who was on first-name terms with any politician. Gus Macdonald, an executive producer of the programme, said it had been "born brash". Steve Boulton, one of its last editors, wrote in The Independent that the programme's ethos was to "comfort the afflicted - and afflict the comfortable." Paul Greengrass told The Guardian in June 2008 that the chairman of Granada TV once told him: "Don't forget, your job's to make trouble."
World in Action out-lasted all of its contemporaries in ITV current affairs, killed off as the commercial pressures on the network grew with the arrival of multi-channel TV in the UK. Eventually World In Action, too, was removed from the schedules by its own [but by now dramatically different] creator, Granada TV, following pressure from the ITV Network Centre. World In Action, with its worldwide view and coverage, was replaced in the schedules by Tonight. Investigative legacy
From the beginning, and especially from the late 1960s, World In Action broke new ground in investigative techniques. Landmark investigations included the Poulson Affair, corruption in the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, the exposure of the shadowy and violent far-right group Combat 18, investigations into L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology and, most notably, a long campaign which resulted in the release from prison of the Birmingham Six, six Irishmen falsely accused of planting Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombs in Birmingham pubs.
World in Action's appetite for controversy created tension with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the official regulator during most of the series run, which had the power to intervene before broadcast. Sir Denis Forman, one of Granada's founders, wrote that there was "trench warfare" between the programme and the industry regulator, the Independent Television Authority (ITA), in the years between 1966 and 1969 as World In Action sought to establish its journalistic freedoms.
The most celebrated dispute was in 1973, over the banning of The Friends and Influence of John L Poulson, the definitive film about the Poulson Affair, itself one of the defining scandals of British political life in the 1960s. Poulson was an architect, who was jailed a year later for corrupting politicians and civil servants to advance his construction business. The regulator, which was then the IBA, banned the film without seeing it and without giving official reasons other than "broadcasting policy". As a protest, Granada broadcast a blank screen - which bizarrely recorded the third highest TV audience of that week. After a public furore which saw newspapers from the Sunday Times to the Socialist Worker unite in condemnation of "censorship", the IBA held a second vote, having by then seen the film. By a single vote, the ban was lifted and the programme, retitled The Rise and Fall of John Poulson, was transmitted on April 30, 1973, three months after it was first scheduled.
In 1980 the programme examined the business practices of the then chairman of Manchester United F.C., Louis Edwards. Edwards ran a wholesale butchery business that supplied schools in Manchester; WIA exposed practices of bribery of council officials and the supply of meat that was unfit for human consumption to such institutions; Edwards' businesses were subsequently prosecuted and lost their contracts.
World in Action tackled the British intelligence services; as well as the Navy over its recruitment practices: senior Navy personnel famously 'door-stepped' the director of the World In Action's film in question. The programme broadcast revelations by whistleblowers from both GCHQ, the government's electronic eavesdropping and surveillance headquarters, and from the Joint Intelligence Committee.
Its most audacious investigation of the intelligence community was perhaps an extended edition in July 1984 titled "The Spy Who Never Was", the confessions of a former MI5 officer, Peter Wright. Spycatcher, Wright's subsequent account of the period when he and colleagues had, as he put it, "bugged and burgled our way across London", revealed what had in effect been a planned coup against the then Labour government of Harold Wilson. Wright appeared to have been in charge of the technical side of things. 'The Wilson Plot', as it became known, was corroborated to varying degrees both before and after the film's transmission in various other books by journalists and in volumes of memoirs by others involved in the conspiracy. Wright's book was the most explosive of them all. Wright, embittered by a still unresolved pension dispute, fled to Australia where the book was written and finally published - to the fury of Mrs Thatcher - with the assistance of the original programme's chief researcher, Paul Greengrass. Publication in Britain was initially banned outright by the government of Margaret Thatcher.
The series was rarely away from the courts and the threat of legal action. The Scientologists tried [and failed] to stop World in Action's broadcasts about them through the courts and In 1980, members of the programme's staff and senior executives at Granada TV announced that they would be prepared to go to prison rather than submit to a House of Lords ruling that the programme reveal the identity of an informant who had supplied WIA with 250 pages of secret documents from the then state-owned steel company British Steel. British Steel was at the time locked in an industrial dispute with its workforce.
In 1995, Susan O'Keeffe, a World in Action journalist, was threatened with prison in Ireland for refusing to reveal her sources. She had investigated scandals within the Irish meat industry in two films in 1991, setting in motion a three-year Tribunal of Inquiry in Dublin, which found that much of her criticism of the industry was substantiated. The Tribunal, though, demanded that she name her informants, and when she refused to do so, she was charged by the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions. The case became a cause clbre in the Republic of Ireland, and in January 1995 she faced trial for contempt of court but was cleared of the charge. She was honoured in the 1994 Freedom of Information Awards for her stand.
In its last few years, the programme was involved in two high-profile libel cases. It won the first (along with The Guardian) against the former Conservative Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken, and lost the second, against the high street chain Marks & Spencer.
On April 10, 1995, Jonathan Aitken (himself a former journalist for Yorkshire Television) called a televised press conference three hours before the transmission of a World in Action film, Jonathan of Arabia, demanding that allegations about his dealings with leading Saudis be withdrawn. In a phrase that would come to haunt him, Aitken promised to wield "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play ... to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism." Aitken was subsequently sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjuring himself in the libel case.. World in Action followed the collapse of Aitken's libel case with a special edition whose title reflected the MP's claim to wield the "sword of truth". It was called The Dagger of Deceit. Television techniques
Although the series' lasting reputation is for its investigative work, it also led the way in introducing other techniques to mainstream TV. In 1971, years before reality programming became the staple diet of the TV schedules, World In Action challenged the Staffordshire village of Longnor to quit smoking, a forerunner of many of the popular-challenge documentaries which enjoyed success in the 21st Century reality boom.
In 1984, World In Action caused a sensation by challenging a rising young Conservative Member of Parliament, Matthew Parris, to live for a week on a 26 unemployment benefit payment to test the reality of his own critical views on the unemployed. (Parris subsequently abandoned Parliament for a career as a broadcaster and writer.) The same year, World In Action revealed the tricks behind political oratory by coaching a complete beginner, Ann Brennan, to deliver a speech which won a standing ovation at the annual conference of the Social Democratic Party, using techniques developed by Professor Max Atkinson. The eminent political commentator Sir Robin Day, covering the conference for BBC television, described Mrs Brennan's performance as "The most refreshing speech we've heard so far."
World In Action helped to pioneer the technique of using covert cameras, not just in investigative work but also in social documentary, including, from the earliest days, the treatment of gypsies, the old in care ("Ward F13") and poverty in England. The arrival of high-quality miniature cameras allowed ambitious projects such as Donal MacIntyre's award-winning programmes in October 1996 on the illegal drug trade, and the future Conservative MP Adam Holloway's disturbing reports on the reality of life among the homeless in 1991.
World In Action gave rise to a number of spin-off series, most famously the Seven Up! documentaries which have followed the lives of a group of British people who turned seven years old in 1963. The most recent, 49 UP, was shown in 2005. Michael Apted directed most episodes; parallel series have also started in the last decade in South Africa, the USA and Russia. ITV's popular consumer series, House of Horrors, in which shoddy builders are invited to carry out minor repairs to a house festooned with covert recording devices, originated on World In Action.
More recent current affairs series on other channels, such as the MacIntyre series on BBC and Five, and Channel 4's Dispatches, commissioned by Dorothy Byrne, a former WIA producer, may be seen as having inherited certain aspects of World in Action's hard-hitting journalistic style. World In Action and popular culture
One of the programme's hallmarks was its willingness to embrace popular culture, at a time when its competitors preferred a more highbrow approach. One of the very earliest editions reported on overspending at the Ministry of Defence in the style of a contemporary gameshow, Beat The Clock. The programme was so controversial it was banned from being shown on ITV by the then regulatory body, the Independent Television Authority (ITA); instead, ten minutes of it were shown on the BBC as an act of journalistic solidarity. The gameshow device re-emerged in 1989, when an academic study of the uptake of tax-funded benefits by the middle-class was transformed into a mock quiz show named Spongers, fronted by a well-known star of game formats, Nicholas Parsons.
Popular music played a significant role in WIA's history. An early edition, in 1966, carried a fly-on-the-wall account of daily life aboard one of the then pirate radio ships, Radio Caroline, at a time when the British Government was determined to preserve the radio monopoly of the BBC by driving the "pirates" off the air.
In 1967, a young researcher named John Birt established his early reputation by persuading the rock star Mick Jagger to appear on World in Action to debate youth culture and his recent drug conviction, with Establishment figures, including William Rees-Mogg of The Times, who had written a famous editorial defending the singer. Jagger so enjoyed the experience that he invited the Granada team to film The Rolling Stones at the band's free 1969 concert in Hyde Park, London. The resulting film, The Stones In The Park, was one of the iconic concert films of the Sixties. John Birt rapidly moved on to edit World in Action and eventually run the BBC as its Director-General.
The rise of Thatcherism and the misery of mass unemployment saw WIA examining the phenomenon through the eyes of another emerging band, UB40, in A Statistic, A Reminder (1981), a line taken from one of the band's songs. Six years later, a special edition of the programme was devoted to the Irish rock band U2 and their charismatic front man Bono. Like The Rolling Stones before them, U2 allowed World in Action to film one of their classic concerts in 1987 in Ireland. This footage, shot by the future Hollywood director Paul Greengrass, was shown only once on ITV because of copyright restrictions, although it circulated among fans of the band as a bootleg. A small section of the film was posted on YouTube in 2006. The full documentary was made available on the itv.com website in 2008.
In 1983, Stevie Wonder, at the height of his popularity, gave the programme a musical exclusive when he agreed to let a World in Action crew record him performing an unreleased song, written to help the Democratic politician Jesse Jackson's electioneering, for The Race Against Reagan. Another popular singer, Sting, appeared in a more critical World in Action episode, which questioned the effectiveness of his Rainforest Foundation.
Perhaps the most bruising encounter between WIA and popular entertainment was the 1995 film Black and Blue which featured a covert recording of a performance by the veteran comedian Bernard Manning as the star of a charity function organised by the Manchester branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers. Manning's racist and homophobic performance, loudly applauded by those present, caused outrage when WIA broadcast excerpts, sparking an intense debate about the willingness of British police officers to embrace a diverse culture. Leading contributors Journalists
World in Action employed many leading journalists, among them John Pilger; Michael Parkinson; Gordon Burns; Nick Davies, Ed Vulliamy and David Leigh of The Guardian; Alasdair Palmer of the Sunday Telegraph; John Ware, BBC Panorama's leading investigative reporter; Anthony Wilson, whose second career as a music impresario was immortalised in the feature film 24 Hour Party People; Michael Gillard, creator of the Slicker business pages in the satirical magazine Private Eye; Donal MacIntyre; the writer Mark Hollingsworth; Quentin McDermott, since 1999 a leading investigative reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Tony Watson, editor of the Yorkshire Post for 13 years and editor-in-chief of the Press Association from December 2006; and Andrew Jennings, author of Lords of the Rings, who has campaigned vigorously for more than a decade against corruption in international sport.
Two former World in Action journalists uncovered one of the biggest broadcasting scandals of the 1990s. Laurie Flynn, a central figure in the British Steel papers case, and Michael Sean Gillard revealed that large parts of a 1996 Carlton TV documentary, The Connection, about drug trafficking from Colombia, had been fabricated. Flynn and Gillard's expos in The Guardian in May 1998 led to an inquiry and a record 2 million fine for Carlton from the then regulator, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), as well as provoking a passionate debate about truthfulness in broadcast journalism. Presenters
Unusually for a current affairs programme, WIA's standard format was as a voice-over documentary without a regular reporter although a handful of WIA journalists did appear in front of camera, including Chris Kelly, Gordon Burns, John Pilger, Gus Macdonald, Anthony Wilson, Nick Davies, Adam Holloway, Stuart Prebble (who later became the programme's editor), Mike Walsh, David Taylor and Donal MacIntyre. Guest presenters were used on rare occasions, among them Jonathan Dimbleby, Sandy Gall, Martyn Gregory, Sue Lawley and Lynn Faulds Wood. Perhaps its most celebrated guest presenter was the distinguished American anchorman Walter Cronkite, who came out of retirement to cover the 1983 British General Election for the series.
A small group of narrators delivered the vast majority of WIA's voice-overs. The science presenter James Burke did a number of commentaries on early editions of the programme. Other main contributors included David Plowright, Chris Kelly, Jim Pope, Philip Tibenham and Andrew Brittain. Among the guest narrators who contributed occasional commentaries were the popular actors Robert Lindsay and Jean Boht. Producer-Directors
The series was known for its gritty visual style, almost always shot on location, and a number of its producer-directors went on to work on major film projects. Those working on the series in its early years included Michael Apted, later to direct Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist and the James Bond film The World is not Enough, as well as the Seven Up! documentaries, and Mike Hodges, who went on to direct Get Carter and Flash Gordon. Later, Paul Greengrass, director of the feature films United 93, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum and of the drama-documentaries Bloody Sunday and The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, cut his directing teeth on World in Action. According to The Guardian, Greengrass was listed in 2007 as "the 28th smartest" person in Hollywood.. Leslie Woodhead, director of The Stones In The Park, the award winning A Cry From The Grave, many "Disappearing World" films and also regarded by many as a founder of the drama-documentary movement, worked on World in Action for many years as a producer-director and executive. Long-time World in Action alumni who went on to direct and produce Granada's international award-winning "Disappearing World" films include Brian Moser, its instigator and original producer, and Charlie Nairn.
Among the more recent generation of film-makers to emerge from World in Action were Alex Holmes, who became editor of the BBC2 documentary strand Modern Times and went on to write and direct the Bafta-winning dramatised documentary series Dunkirk for the BBC; and Katy Jones, a former WIA producer, who became a key collaborator with the screen writer Jimmy McGovern as a producer on his award-winning drama-documentaries Hillsborough and Sunday. Broadcasters
WIA was a starting point for several key programme-makers who went on to major roles in British broadcasting. John Birt became Director-General of the BBC, having been Programme Controller of the London ITV franchise LWT, where he created the company's current affairs flagship, Weekend World.
Several WIA staffers were promoted to significant roles in Granada Television, among them David Plowright, who became its chairman and later went on to become deputy chairman of Channel 4. Steve Morrison became chief executive at Granada. Gus Macdonald held the same role at another ITV franchise, Scottish Television.
Stuart Prebble, a former editor, became chief executive of ITV, and Steve Anderson became Head of News and Current Affairs for that channel. Both have since moved on to the independent production industry. Ian McBride, who led the team which made the Birmingham Six programmes, became Managing Editor of Granada TV, and was Director of Compliance for ITV until 2008.
Dianne Nelmes, who worked as a researcher and executive producer of WIA, was the founding editor of Granada TV's hugely successful This Morning with Richard and Judy and went on to head daytime and factual programmes at ITV.
Dorothy Byrne, a former WIA producer, is Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4. Julian Bellamy, who worked as a young researcher on one of WIA's last big foreign investigations - about arms deals between Britain and Indonesia - later headed Channel 4's entertainment channel E4 and was programme controller of the BBC digital channel BBC Three before re-joining Channel 4 as its Head of Programming in the spring of 2007. TV production companies
A number of WIA veterans went on to set up and run their own independent television production companies. John Smithson and David Darlow, who set up the production company Darlow Smithson, responsible for the feature films Touching the Void and Deep Water and many factual TV programmes including Black Box and The Falling Man, worked together on WIA. Claudia Milne founded twentytwenty tv, which made a successful current affairs strand for ITV, The Big Story, as well as popular factual series such as Bad Boys' Army' on ITV and That'll Teach 'Em on Channel 4. Brian Lapping set up the much-garlanded Brook Lapping company, which made The Death of Yugoslavia and many other landmark contemporary history programmes. Stuart Prebble, a former editor of World In Action, runs Liberty Bell, best known for the popular Grumpy Old Men series on the BBC. Another former editor, Steve Boulton, started an eponymous company, which made Young, Nazi & Proud, a Bafta-winning profile of the young British National Party activist Mark Collett.
One of the biggest British independent production companies is All 3 Media, which controls several other leading companies, including Lime Pictures, formerly Mersey Television, makers of Hollyoaks. It is run by Steve Morrison, a former WIA producer. Political connections
Although in its early days World In Action was reputed never to employ anyone who was on first-name terms with any politician, a number of British Parliamentarians since have World In Action on their curriculum vitae. The most recent is the Conservative MP Adam Holloway, elected to the House of Commons in 2005. The British Cabinet Minister Jack Straw worked on World in Action as a researcher, as did Margaret Beckett who served as Tony Blair's last Foreign Secretary. Chris Mullin, Labour MP for Sunderland South, played a major role in the programme's campaign on behalf of the Birmingham Six. Gus Macdonald, now Baron Macdonald of Tradeston, and from 1998 to 2003 a Government Minister, was formerly an executive on the programme. John Birt (by then ennobled as Baron Birt), was personal advisor to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair between 2001 and 2005. Editors
Editors of the programme (sometimes with the title of Executive Producer) were, successively, Tim Hewat, Derek Granger, Alex Valentine, David Plowright, Jeremy Wallington, Leslie Woodhead, John Birt, Gus Macdonald, David Boulton, Brian Lapping, Ray Fitzwalter, Allan Segal, Stuart Prebble, Nick Hayes, Dianne Nelmes, Charles Tremayne, Steve Boulton and Jeff Anderson. Anderson also became editor of World in Action's replacement Tonight, before becoming Head of Current Affairs at ITV in 2006. Mike Lewis, a former WIA producer, was appointed editor of Tonight in October 2006. Academic connections
Professor Brian Winston, Pro-Vice Chancellor (External Relations) at the University of Lincoln, who has also held leading posts at the Universities of Westminster, Cardiff, Pennsylvania State and New York, was a researcher and producer in the early series of World in Action.
Ray Fitzwalter, WIA's longest-serving editor and the man behind the ground-breaking Poulson investigations, became a Visiting Fellow at the University of Salford School of Media, Music and Performance.
Gavin MacFadyen, who worked on early series of World in Action as a producer-director and was best known for his under-cover human rights films, was made a Visiting Professor at City University in 2005. He is also Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism. David Leigh, who made Jonathan of Arabia, the film which provoked Jonathan Aitken's self-destructive libel action, was made Britain's first Professor of Reporting at City University, London, in September 2006. Camera work
Although a great many director/producers, journalists and editors passed through the programme, one cameraman played an overwhelming role in shaping the appeal of the series. George Jesse Turner, born on the Lancashire coast, close to Granada's roots, served on the programme from 1966 until its end. By his own count, he shot the principal footage for some 600 of its 1,400 editions, as well as filming all of Michael Apted's documentaries in the Seven Up! series. Turner was shot himself - in the backside - by an Israeli bullet whilst he and Allan Segal were filming a clash between Fatah guerrillas and the Israeli Army in 1969. Shortly before he retired from Granada, Turner was honoured by Bafta in 1999 for his work as a documentary cameraman.
Among the many cameramen who also contributed to WIA was Chris Menges, who went on to become a distinguished cinematographer - Kes, The Killing Fields and The Mission are among his credits - and a film director in his own right, on features such as A World Apart. Title sequence
The programme's distinctive identity owed much to its striking title sequence. The music, based on a descending series of organ chords, was called Jam for World in Action and is usually credited to Jonathon Weston, though the American musician Shawn Phillips disputes this. He has posted his claim of authorship on YouTube. The programme's logo, and the centrepiece of its titles, was the Leonardo da Vinci drawing, the Vitruvian Man. Controversy
In August 1978 World in Action aired reports from the United States that microwaves were dangerous and caused cancer which later proved unfounded. This fallacy was encouraged and further reinforced which resulted in the compounding of peoples fear that these appliances were dangerous. UK microwave sales plummeted immediately after the documentary aired. Potential purchasers were particularly anxious that radiation would somehow escape through the oven walls or door. External links
British Film Institute database of World In Action programmes
TV Ark archive of World In Action title sequences
Encyclopedia of Television
ITV North West England - World in Action titles for 1963 and 1995
Network DVD - World in Action Vol. 1
Nostalgia Central - The World in Action 1963 to 1998
Paul Almond - 7 Up
World Socialist Website - 14 March 1998
'Televrit' hits Britain: Documentary, Drama and the growth of 16mm Filmmaking in British Television
'Scandal at the regulator' (World in Action and the Poulson affair)
ITV's official WIA page, containing links to four classic episodes
World in Action at the Internet Movie Database Books and articles
Jonathan Aitken (2003), Pride and Perjury, London: Continuum International Publishing Group - Academi.
Ray Fitzwalter (2008), The Dream That Died: The Rise And Fall Of ITV, London: Matador.
Ray Fitzwalter, David Taylor (1981), Web of Corruption: The Story of J. G. L. Poulson and T. Dan Smith, London: Granada.
Denis Forman (1997), Persona Granada, London: Andre Deutsch
Peter Goddard (2004), 'World in Action', in Glen Creeber (ed.), Fifty Key Television Programmes, London: Arnold.
Peter Goddard (2006), '"Improper liberties": Regulating undercover journalism on ITV, 19671980', Journalism, 7(1): 45-63.
Peter Goddard, John Corner and Kay Richardson (2001), 'The formation of World in Action: A case study in the history of current affairs journalism', Journalism, 2(1): 73-90.
Peter Goddard, John Corner and Kay Richardson (2007), Public Issue Television: World in Action 1963-98, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Luke Harding, David Leigh and David Pallister (1997), The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken, London: Penguin Books Ltd.
Jonathan Margolis (1996), Bernard Manning, London: Orion Books
Chris Mullin (1990), Error of Judgement: Birmingham Bombings, Dublin: Poolbeg Press.
George Jesse Turner, Jeff Anderson (2000), Trouble Shooter: Life Through The Lens of World in Action's Top Cameraman, London: Granada Media. Notes
^ Political Studies Association pdf
^ John Birt's MacTaggart Lecture 2005
^ Discussion recorded at London Frontline Club, May 2008
^ *Ray Fitzwalter, The Dream That Died: The Rise And Fall Of ITV, London: 2008.
^ a b Guardian 4/12/2004 Tim Hewat Obituary by Philip Pursar
^ Denis Forman, Persona Granada, p. 222
^ Peter Wright, with Paul Greengrass Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, Australia: Heinemann, 1987, p54
^ Denis Forman, Persona Granada pp. 216-7
^ "The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood". 28 November 2007. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/11/smart-list-intr.html. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0810478/
^ George Jesse Turner & Jeff Anderson, Trouble Shooter, p. viii
^ George Jesse Turner & Jeff Anderson, Trouble Shooter, pp. 7-13
^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/electricdreams/1980s/microwave Categories: 1960s British television series | 1970s British television series | 1980s British television series | 1990s British television series | 1963 in British television | 1963 television series debuts | 1998 television series endings | British television documentaries | ITN | ITV television programmes | British television news programmes About the Author
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New changes to mortgage insurance premium fees for FHA loans make it easier for home buyers to purchase a home. The FHA is lowering its upfront insurance premium from 2.25 to 1 percent of the loan amount.
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That means home buyers will face smaller upfront costs. That's good news for cash-strapped home buyers, especially first-time home buyers. The trade off is higher long-term ongoing costs because of the higher annual MIP.
The new fees will also help current homeowners seeking an FHA mortgage refinance - at least in the short term. The new fees cover the FHA streamline mortgage, a program that waives credit and income checks for homeowners who already have an FHA home loan and who want a new mortgage refinance.
Mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans with terms of 15 years or less remain unchanged at 0.25 percent for loans to value over 90 percent. Another piece good news for homeowners is that they should eventually rid themselves of the insurance payments after they build up equity in their homes. For instance, homeowners with terms of 15 years or less and a loan to value of 90 percent or less don't pay an annual MIP.
If you get an FHA loan, you pay the MIP monthly as part of your monthly mortgage payment.
After subprime lending disappeared when the housing price bubble burst a few years ago, FHA-insured loans became the only low down payment mortgage program around. You can buy a home with as little as 3.5 percent down with an FHA loan. Other types low down payment mortgages, also known as high loan to value mortgages, have still not returned.
As borrowers swarmed to FHA-loans, defaults on its loans jumped and many observers worried about lax underwriting and poor loan quality.
The FHA says it wants to meet the needs of the housing market while at the same time increasing its Mutual Mortgage Insurance fund without disrupting the housing market. FHA doesn't offer home mortgages itself, but insures home loans that made through private lenders it has approved.
Private mortgage insurance companies hope the increase in the FHA MIP will give them an advantage and help them regain lost market share.
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