The walk to St Giles'

[MaggieFS]

I hope Camilla has changed into some flats!

The guy commentating on sky news was very good. I don’t know who he was

They really need to be able to secure the coffin properly. That can't do that in a normal plane with seats. Sometimes people just don't think!

Assume there is a hoist and designated area for the purpose, if this aircraft is regularly used for repatriations.

Hope there is a comfortable seat for Anne

Do you think the bloke at the back would manage to hold the coffin if it slipped

Oof, a sticky moment there - the men looked like they were struggling to carry the coffin up the ramp.

Do you think they will swap the flowers as well as the flags?

Nicola Sturgeon needs a bonnet. She's not coping with that hat.

Seems to be taking a long time to get moving which is a surprise from a security perspective

They seem to be looking out at one of the engines that wasn’t running until now.

fingers crossed there’s no issues - that would be such a shame as everything has gone so smoothly so far

How do they stop the kilts blowing in the wind?

Weights in the hem?

Combination of sporran, kilt pin and kilt weight mean they generally don’t blow up easily

That's what the sporran is for, keeps everything weighted down!

That was a rather jaunty tune played there after take off, or is that just me?

I just switched it on as the plane was taxiing and he said something about her father being proud of her and now I’m in floods again.

I’m not sure if it was him on, but I believe it was - Alistair Bruce has been doing a spectacular job this week en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Bruce_of_Crionaich

I thought someone could have fixed the flag at the front. Was worried for the bearer in the right with it practically blocking his view as we went up into the aircraft.

Do yout think they had to specially prepare the flight for Anne (and any other entourage? It would be strange for her if it was literally just her and a coffin in the body of the plane!.) presumably the pilots are in a separate cabin. Is she all alone in a cabin or passenger area by herself?

I wonder if there is some official protocol that says the coffin can never be left alone, historically in case of people switching bodies or claiming that the wrong king was or wasn't killed, etc. ,and they still have to kind of follow that now? Or whether it's just respectful to have someone with it all the time.

(Kind of like some official person had to attend the royal births to make sure no switching then - not sure if that is literally still the case, but they have to be quite nearby I think to 'certify' it)

Anne is with her husband Tim Laurence who seems to have been an absolute rock these last few days.

Oh I'm glad. Sitting alone in a plane must be weird. Or even weirder when it's just use and various crew, or drivers of the cars or something. Sitting in silence, or talking awkwardly, all making a hard situation even harder even though the eyre just little things.

I hope so, they were looking a bit faded.

I think you have a screen in the cars, like a taxi but possibly more so. My grandfather had an amazing black 30s limousine I made my first journey in (he was a chauffeur from before WW1 and could maintain it) and my Nan loved sitting in the back and using the "communication tube".

Until he shut it and her off. She would get her own back by closing the blinds.

That would help.

I felt sorry for Lady Louise, arriving at Balmoral the other night in a taxi, with two drivers/protection etc, and thinking she's have been driven for an hour or more from St A, having to make polite chit chat or talk about the Queen, or sit in silence. But I guess they're used to it, as she'll have had cars and drivers and stuff all along and it probably doesn't bother them the way even though mere thought of it bothers me!

So much precision and care from the pall bearers

Those Oak and Lead lined Caskets will be incredibly heavy.
The Last thing any Pallbearer wants to do, even in the most humble Service, is to drop the Casket.

It would be the stuff of nightmares to drop any casket.
Never mind the Queen’s while being beamed around the World in real time.

The men selected for the ceremony undoubtedly practiced beforehand.