NPR

The sun god wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:35 pm

Yeeb wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:41 pm Fudge sake - I’m not naturally a jealous person, but I’m green with envy at someone being taught to fly by their dad.

It was just in a little Cessna 172 borrowed from a pilot mate of his in the Iona flying club at the back of Dublin airport.... it was all very tame at the time.

My old man would more than likely have known your dad's mate.
He used to own a Jodel and kept it out in Iona back in the late 70s and early 80s before he sold it and then bought a Robin with three other friends.
They moved it out to Weston later in the 80s because Dublin Airport was getting too busy then and less fun.
Funny, if you Google the reg of the Robin there's quite a few pictures of it online, some with my dad at the controls

Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:53 am BTW, sad to report this is all over


Bruntingthorpe has leased the field out and served notice on all aircraft. TBAG have found a home at Cotswolds/Kemble but looks like the death knell for the larger stuff (VC-10s, Victor etc).

Negs on LPG not looking promising.

Went to Eden project in Cornwall today - saw a garage with a Lightning as a gate guardian , oddly enough.

mat the expat wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 12:54 am

Yeeb wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 4:50 pm Todays random Q:

Answer is in the link but try to get it without cheating.

The one where they had to hope the propellers blew off before jumping from the wing pods!

37mm Cannon in each pod but too slow to catch the bombers

Yup
You know the name ?

Even worse was the appalling flight characteristics and the fact the pods filled up with smoke when the cannons fired ! Just utterly shit really

Nols wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 1:37 pm Was walking along cliffs on the south coast yesterday when this looped around directly above us.
Perfectly positioned so that it looked like it was turning to start a ground strafing run on us. Very cool.

Snapped with my phone.

Can’t see shit Nols

Weird. Showing on mine. Probably have it cached. I'll try repost tomorrow.
Spitfire flew overhead, randomly. Was near the Seven Sisters, east of Brighton.

Nols wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:52 pm Weird. Showing on mine. Probably have it cached. I'll try repost tomorrow.
Spitfire flew overhead, randomly. Was near the Seven Sisters, east of Brighton.

Np

Have seen a spit in the air, from the ground and air and in formation briefly when I was in a chipmunk in the cadets - they are way cool.

My pal got bought a present for his 40th, a 45 min spin in a spitfire, that flew
Between Brighton and Dover so May be a similar flight. I’m very jealous of him, but not the £2k cost that his wife had to fork out for it.

Yeeb wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:59 pm

Nols wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:52 pm Weird. Showing on mine. Probably have it cached. I'll try repost tomorrow.
Spitfire flew overhead, randomly. Was near the Seven Sisters, east of Brighton.

Np

Have seen a spit in the air, from the ground and air and in formation briefly when I was in a chipmunk in the cadets - they are way cool.

My pal got bought a present for his 40th, a 45 min spin in a spitfire, that flew
Between Brighton and Dover so May be a similar flight. I’m very jealous of him, but not the £2k cost that his wife had to fork out for it.

I can't quite decide if that's ridiculously cheap or ridiculously expensive

Saint wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 10:30 pm

Yeeb wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:59 pm

Nols wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:52 pm Weird. Showing on mine. Probably have it cached. I'll try repost tomorrow.
Spitfire flew overhead, randomly. Was near the Seven Sisters, east of Brighton.

Np

Have seen a spit in the air, from the ground and air and in formation briefly when I was in a chipmunk in the cadets - they are way cool.

My pal got bought a present for his 40th, a 45 min spin in a spitfire, that flew
Between Brighton and Dover so May be a similar flight. I’m very jealous of him, but not the £2k cost that his wife had to fork out for it.

I can't quite decide if that's ridiculously cheap or ridiculously expensive

Considering the number of them still in flight condition, & we probably both remember the days when it cost North of 300GBP to fly from Dublin to London; I'm going to say it was a bargain !

Yeeb wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 8:57 pm

mat the expat wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 12:54 am

Yeeb wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 4:50 pm Todays random Q:

Answer is in the link but try to get it without cheating.

The one where they had to hope the propellers blew off before jumping from the wing pods!

37mm Cannon in each pod but too slow to catch the bombers

Yup
You know the name ?

Even worse was the appalling flight characteristics and the fact the pods filled up with smoke when the cannons fired ! Just utterly shit really

Yep - the Airacuda.

It probably made sense at the time but was terrible in execution.

Interesting this plane was less than 10 years later - it looks like it could have been from the 1980s if you delete the props





Best looking plane of WWII IMHO

That’s the Bat US prototype interceptor - utter shite and looks more freaky that pretty.
Best looking airplane from the era was either a Merlin spitfire or the Italian c205

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:42 am That’s the Bat US prototype interceptor - utter shite and looks more freaky that pretty.
Best looking airplane from the era was either a Merlin spitfire or the Italian c205

Any fule nose it's the Hawker Sea Fury

mat the expat wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:58 am

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:42 am That’s the Bat US prototype interceptor - utter shite and looks more freaky that pretty.
Best looking airplane from the era was either a Merlin spitfire or the Italian c205

Any fule nose it's the Hawker Sea Fury

Pfft that’s like comparing Barbara Windsor to Sophia Loren

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:04 am

mat the expat wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:58 am

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:42 am That’s the Bat US prototype interceptor - utter shite and looks more freaky that pretty.
Best looking airplane from the era was either a Merlin spitfire or the Italian c205

Any fule nose it's the Hawker Sea Fury

Pfft that’s like comparing Barbara Windsor to Sophia Loren

I'd enjoy that.....

Also teh sexeh

Nah, radial engines just are not pretty, plus the 190 has a few bumps and bulges - more steffi Graf than maria sharapova

For heavy bombers, easy win for b17 I think

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:55 am Nah, radial engines just are not pretty, plus the 190 has a few bumps and bulges - more steffi Graf than maria sharapova

For heavy bombers, easy win for b17 I think

And all your protestations of loving curves!

mat the expat wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:15 am

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:55 am Nah, radial engines just are not pretty, plus the 190 has a few bumps and bulges - more steffi Graf than maria sharapova

For heavy bombers, easy win for b17 I think

And all your protestations of loving curves!

Curves yes - weird bulges for machine guns , no.
Brewster buffalo equates to NZAF

I'd take a Liberator over a B-17

I've always liked the Lancaster, as that was the first Airfix kit I built "with" my dad as a kid (he did all of it).
Saw a B17 at an airshow in Dublin a number of years ago, which was very cool, though. Have pics on a HD somewhere at home. That show also had a civilian C130, A380, Air Corps planes, and a couple of small Vietnam era fighters. Was incredibly windy so a few smaller craft couldn't fly, but it meant that the ones that did were able to fly with a reasonably slow groundspeed.

There's an airshow each year in Bray, seafront town near Dublin with a big promenade. My folks live a bit inland from there up the hills. One year we sat on the roof and watched the Red Arrows from a distance. While they were a few km away, it was interesting seeing the formations side on, rather than looking up at them.



Spitfire pic from Sunday.



Fullsize.

I spent a memorable afternoon at RAF Coningsby lying in the grass at the end of the Runway (ATC camp - waiting my turn to shoot at the range) watching a Hurricane, Spitfire and a recently renovated ME 109 practising their display Dogfighting.

Has a tour of the BBMF the next day as well

Spitfire looks great, but it sound glorious!! Should have filmed it, Nols.

It approached from behind, so we only noticed it when it drew level with us. Then it did a loop above/in front and flew off the way it came. Over very quickly, barely had a chance to get the phone out and snap pics.
Don't think we could even hear much, wind at the top of the cliffs was absolutey nuts. Couldn't have a conversation during the strongest gusts.


Click the pic for an album with a few other ropey pics that I managed.

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:42 am That’s the Bat US prototype interceptor - utter shite and looks more freaky that pretty.
Best looking airplane from the era was either a Merlin spitfire or the Italian c205

If we're talking twin-engine, my votes goes to this lovely:



And apropos of the GBP2K and the Mrs mentioned earlier in the thread: 2K well spent and proof that lucky bugger married well.

Yep, that whirlwind looks awesome - never knew why they didn’t bung some merlins on there instead of those troublesome peregrines. Was in front line service relatively unmodenised for two years .

Yeah my pal married well, she has a lovely personality ..

Yeeb wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 1:29 pm Yep, that whirlwind looks awesome - never knew why they didn’t bung some merlins on there instead of those troublesome peregrines. Was in front line service relatively unmodenised for two years .

It was deemed unneccesary at that point and would have detracted from the war effort.

Shame as it would have been epically powered by them - UK version of the Lightning

Saint wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 12:43 pm

Auckman wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 9:00 am

The sun god wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 12:01 pm

Pre photoshopping, green screen special effects etc....there is a similar line-up in the movie 'A bridge too far' as the Dakota's line up to start 'market-garden'......

Any idea what these are? Can't be P-8s.

They look like E-8Cs

thanks

So it looks like Boeing is running into a new set of failed quality control issues, this related to it's 787 Dreamliners. Problems might affect almost 900 aircraft globally.

I am starting to wonder if any newish boeing aircraft is risky to fly in. Lucky for them most aircraft are still grounded because of Covid. Starting to think about avoiding any Boeing flights wherever possible once international flights return.
I guess they are focusing to much on their military contracts these days and do not pay much attention to their civil aviation business, the way things are going. Happy days for Airbus.

I am starting to wonder if any newish boeing aircraft is risky to fly in.

If it's Boeing, I'm NOT going

The conclusions were drawn by the majority staff under committee Chairman Peter DeFazio. The report cites five main reasons for the crashes:

Pressures to update the 737’s design swiftly and inexpensively
Faulty assumptions about the design and performance of pilots
What the report called a “culture of concealment” by Boeing
Inherent conflicts of interest in the system that deputizes Boeing employees to act on behalf of the government
The company’s sway over top FAA managers

Trump to tweet that "Boeing did nothing wrong, except create jobs for Americans and it's all a hatchet-job by the Democrats" in 5....4......3......

French Navy do some of the best Videos on the tube.

Plus the Rafale is just sexy

tabascoboy wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:35 am

The conclusions were drawn by the majority staff under committee Chairman Peter DeFazio. The report cites five main reasons for the crashes:

Pressures to update the 737’s design swiftly and inexpensively
Faulty assumptions about the design and performance of pilots
What the report called a “culture of concealment” by Boeing
Inherent conflicts of interest in the system that deputizes Boeing employees to act on behalf of the government
The company’s sway over top FAA managers

It's interesting to compare two articles, from the BBC, & CNN; to see what the two narratives we can expect are:

The Beeb focuses on:

"[The crashes] were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing's engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing's management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA."

While CNN reflect more on the balance of where the flawed decisions were made, & where the pressure came from, i.e. Management, & the Board.

It's a depressing, but familiar narrative; when the company gets record profits; it's because of the outstanding leadership, & direction from the Board; when anything goes wrong; it's down to some prole in sector 7G

Not always. Dieselgate saw the VW board members go down, not the engineers who delivered the cheat.

French Navy with BIG BOOM

Nah, those are additional fuel tanks.

boere wors wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 4:29 pm Nah, those are additional fuel tanks.

Talking about the middle BOOM stick

In 1986 I was ground running an F4 Phantom at RAF Leuchars and didn't realise the brakes hadn't been applied fully. As I pushed it to 80% the plane jumped the chocks and took off across the pan. I went about 200 yards before I managed to cut the engines and apply the brakes. I did actually shit myself.

Blackmac wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:02 pm In 1986 I was ground running an F4 Phantom at RAF Leuchars and didn't realise the brakes hadn't been applied fully. As I pushed it to 80% the plane jumped the chocks and took off across the pan. I went about 200 yards before I managed to cut the engines and apply the brakes. I did actually shit myself.

Blackmac wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:02 pm In 1986 I was ground running an F4 Phantom at RAF Leuchars and didn't realise the brakes hadn't been applied fully. As I pushed it to 80% the plane jumped the chocks and took off across the pan. I went about 200 yards before I managed to cut the engines and apply the brakes. I did actually shit myself.

And was called Brownmac for the rest of his air force career

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:24 am Not always. Dieselgate saw the VW board members go down, not the engineers who delivered the cheat.

I don't think that's exactly accurate; the engineers were in Bosch, & they got it in the neck before anyone in VW saw consequences.

It's all too easy for big companies to pressure contractors to take the blame for shit that they made happen; but the contractor is too scared to kick up about.