My Saturday

[bennylaird]

The kids all put in for a present for Dad, so I spent 30 mins of aerobatics over Bendigo in this.

As much fun as you can have with your pants on, would recommend it to anyone. Unless you get airsick lol.

[Greg Q]

Hey Benny!

Nice gift. I'll bet you had a blast. Years ago I had regular goes in a Pitts special. Every year the first flight was the same: I would lose a pair of Ray-Bans while chucking over the side.:o Plus, the airflow around the turtledeck was weird-you'd get stuff in your hair and the back of your neck.

Greg

(whose avatar is parked in Greenland)

[bennylaird]

Ahh a Pitts, that would be special. so far I've managed aeros in:

Blanik gliders
CT4, Platic Parrot
Macci. Fanta Can
Tger Moth
Nanchang CJ6

And spirited flying in:
Cessna 150, 172, 182.
Cherokee
Carribou
Hercules
HS748
Iroquois
Fokker F28, the Calibration aircraft for nav aids,
RAAF 707's

[Greg Q]

Hi Benny...

Pitts, C-150 Aerobat, chardonnay aeros in a special Beech Bonanza, and unintentionally in a DC-3 during stall training, and in the Convair (my avatar), again doing stall training, this time with an engine failing right as the recovery started, below Vmc. Yeeeeeee Haaaaaa!Scared the cr*p out of me:eek:

[bennylaird]

:D So did you get to clean out the mess?:D

I hope to start on my private license soon, just need the kids to move out and pay their own bills ;)

Here's the Tiger I went up on down at Torquay, no controls in the back seat though. As I live just 4km from Point Cook I'll have to go up in theirs, and maybe the Mustang........................

[Iain]

Best I ever managed was a quick trip to Mildura and back (non stop) in a Mirage, still remember the kick in the bum when the afterburners ignited, and they were slow by todays standards.
Apart from that the usual wing flapping Caribou and Hercy Birds.
Father used to have a Tiger Moth but never got a buzz out of it but been up in a few antiques like the Auster, Majester and one a bit bigger than the tiger moth, called an Arch Deacon or something like that.

[bennylaird]

Never got to the top of the list for a seat in a Mirage, would have loved it.

They used to hand out a Mach 1 certificate after your flight. Used to love watching them in Malaysia as our radar site was on the airfield.

[Iain]

That flight was very very very unofficial, like a lot of things we did:rolleyes:

[Greg Q]

I like jets. The only thing better is Merlin power. Or R-2800. I got shoehorned into the back of a P-51 at an airshow in Pennsylvania years ago-my neck is still sore.

Then again, as you can see judged against what I was flying, I am a big boy:

[bennylaird]

Four Merlins would be amazing, the Battle of Britain fight has a Lanc but how would you manage a trip in that?

Also the Connie that is getting around in Quaintarse colours, just watching the smoke as she runs up is fun. Might see if they want a passenger???

[Greg Q]

Same as all of these things: follow the money. I have to say that doing airshows in WWII aeroplanes is a lot of work, and a lot of fun. What gets really tiresome is dealing with the egos of the people who own/manage/empire build around these planes.

Being a demonstration pilot is a self-less proposition, too. Done to perfection, the pilot is invisible and the machine shown in its best light, and returned safely. Still, there are many days that when I wish I still had ten .50 cals;) :D :eek:

[bennylaird]

All I get to do these days is to make sure a Seasparrow has the best chance of bringing and aircraft down. As no aircraft would need to come within range I guess it just becomes an incoming missile to target?


Bye the way just how well does a Gooney recover from a stall???

[Greg Q]

Hi Benny...

The Douglass Racer is good in a stall...recovers well, and usually straight ahead. Where the problem lies is when an over-zealous know-nothing Department of Transport inspector decides to show you a REAL DC-3 stall!.

He reefed that thing so nose high it was unbelievable-accelerated stall all the way, while pulling 2- 2.5 G's. A wing dropped, and he let it wind up into a spin. Problem was he and I together took a long time to get the rudder straight because of that huge balance horn-it was aerodynamically locked. As I recall we recovered at 700 ft, and it took proctologist and a winch to get the seat cushion out of my butt.:eek:

Greg

[Termite]

For a brown pants ride try Artilery spotting in a Bell, the ones with a clear cab all round you, including underneath. http://www.ubeaut.biz/scared2.gif

[bennylaird]

LOL so what goes through your mind as the altimeter winds down? lol.

Remember the 707 at East Sale? Also an over zealous attempt to put the aircraft in danger, but they will never do it again.

[bennylaird]

For a brown pants ride try Artilery spotting in a Bell, the ones with a clear cab all round you, including underneath. http://www.ubeaut.biz/scared2.gif

Sounds like fun, I managed to change seats in the Iroquois after a blat with the 50 cal. Had to get out of the seat and move into the main cockpit as she did a fully banked turn. Still have my finger prints buried in the framework.

We had run out of normal ammo so it was all tracer, made a great show.

[Greg Q]

LOL so what goes through your mind as the altimeter winds down? lol.

Remember the 707 at East Sale? Also an over zealous attempt to put the aircraft in danger, but they will never do it again.


Yeah, I remember that. Dumb assed reason to get killed.

This is going to sound heroic, but its not: As the altimeter was winding down I remember being dismayed because it took so long to climb up there in the first place! As it got real low it became more serious, and I got really off. That inspector very nearly got stuffed out the cockpit window as we were returning to base.

[Greg Q]

For a brown pants ride try Artilery spotting in a Bell, the ones with a clear cab all round you, including underneath. http://www.ubeaut.biz/scared2.gif

Oh no no no. No thank you. I like helicopters, and I imagine artillery might be a blast, but not together. My dad went from Lancasters to arty spotting in an Auster (via burst ear drums=grounded.:( reinstated via uncle in PM's office:) assigned to army, and spotting duties:eek: :eek: )

He said they removed the governor from the engine and made a seat frame out of Bren carrier armor. With dad in it the story was that it would barely fly. Be careful what you wish for.

Greg

[bennylaird]

Did you get a sample of the colour of his face? I'm after a nice pure white for the ceiling? LOL

[CanFly]

If you have'nt flown a Turner T-40A, have you really flown?

Ray

[Greg Q]

You know, while we are on memory lane, I just remembered that he got snuffed in a wing-less Queen Air a couple of years later (1977 or so, and boy am I getting old).

It was never conclusively proved how the Queen Air came to be without its wings, but gravity never sleeps.

Greg

[Greg Q]

If you have'nt flown a Turner T-40A, have you really flown?

Ray

Ray...I saw the earlier thread with your plane. What a nice thing that is!

I'd give anything to be able to fly as much as I like. A nice Waco upf-7, and a bottomless fuel credit card. Oh, and a star to guide me;)

[Groggy]

Sounds like fun, I managed to change seats in the Iroquois after a blat with the 50 cal.

We had run out of normal ammo so it was all tracer, made a great show.Benny, that would be a 7.62mm GPMG M60. A 550rpm gen purpose machine gun, singley fitted to each quarter compartment on a slick, or twin mounts with 14 rockets and 6000rpm 7.62 miniguns on a gunship.

As for the tracer, yes it looks good (especially during night fires) but it ruins accuracy due to the paint on the round pulling it off target.

[Greg Q]

It's tough to go past Mr. Spooky for pyrotechnics though, aint it?

[Groggy]

It's tough to go past Mr. Spooky for pyrotechnics though, aint it?The AC-130 Spectre (left pic only) was scary to all around her but especially those under her. There are some other pics around of a "wineglass" created by tracers on time exposure - very scary. The second pic is a C130E or probably a H model firing the self protection stores during testing for missile defence. The location of the long range tanks give away the fact it is not an "A" model, which had them on the wing outboard of the engines and, as far as I know, only the "A" models were developed into Spectre Gunships.

Out of interest, did you know there were Harley Davidson parts on the C130's? The grips on the ramp release locks were handlebar grips off the hogs.

[Greg Q]

Back when we'd get together in the bar after an airshow, the AC-130 guys used to leave a little card (with the spooky doing its thing) beside their beers when going to the head. The caption read "touch this beer and I'll destroy your hometown". I was always a little disturbed by that, and got me to wondering what the B-52 guys had on their cards.:eek:

You are right about the #2 pic-this is what happens when you Google images in a hurry to make a point.;)

Greg

[AlexS]

A late colleague of mine flew bombers during WW2, aerial photography in PNG afterwards, and never had a landing he couldn't walk away from. But he became the first glider pilot in Australia to use hi parachute when the wings fell off at Waikerie. On the way down, he was trying to remember all the things they'd taught him back in the early '40s.

Very fortunate, the only reason he was wearing a 'chute was that it was the world championships and it was compulsory.

[Daddles]

You can have your flamin' choppers - never flew in one where I enjoyed the ride (and yes, they were courtesy of the Army and the Airforce).

On a related but seperate note, I was at an airshow a few years ago where me mate commented, upon watching an aeroplane doing something interesting, "I wrote the software for that". He did too ... and you'll notice that I'm not saying what or what in :rolleyes:

Richard

[Iain]

Very fortunate, the only reason he was wearing a 'chute was that it was the world championships and it was compulsory.
I've been in some gliders where you have to wear a parachute due to the seat design, you simply could not sit that far back without one.
Out of interest did you know that Reginald Dagnell initially made his money manufacturing gliders before starting the famous RFD pfd company.
And even they were initially designed to save the aircraft not the personell.

[Termite]

Interesting point about Harley Davidson, one of their major manufacturing jobs is bomb casings. :eek:

[bennylaird]

Benny, that would be a 7.62mm GPMG M60. A 550rpm gen purpose machine gun, singley fitted to each quarter compartment on a slick, or twin mounts with 14 rockets and 6000rpm 7.62 miniguns on a gunship.

As for the tracer, yes it looks good (especially during night fires) but it ruins accuracy due to the paint on the round pulling it off target.


Lol I knew that but after working on ANZAC frigates I had them mixed up.

There is a lot of speculation about the tracer/normal mix. From what I've heard pilots had their own preferences. Aiming by tracer alone caused a lot of inaccuracy due to the different trajectory of the round?

I was a Radtechg so not up on armament. The gunnies gave great instruction on the ejector seats though. & pins needed. If the pilot calls Eject Eject Eject and you here the last eject, your flying it. My old boss down here managed an ejection from a Skyhawk as a crew cheif, was up checking out a turbine when it stopped turbining.

[bennylaird]

Here's what packs a punch in the Scepre.

[Iain]

And the fire extinguisher is there in case it goes off accidentally???:D

[Groggy]

http://www.danzfamily.com/pictures/pictures01/coneoffire.jpg

[bennylaird]

Have a good video of the big gun taking out buildings, vehicles and people in Afganistan. Too big to post.

[Auld Bassoon]

Best I ever managed was a quick trip to Mildura and back (non stop) in a Mirage.

Many moons ago (I was around nineteen, I think, an old school pal had joied the RAF and somehow wangled me a joy-jump (as they were known) in an English Electric Lightening.

It was barely a ten minute flight: off the deck, at about 350ft, and 400Kts, the pilot sat the bird on it's tail and lit off the rearheat. Bugger me gently:eek: , this thing goes >Mach1 in a vertical climb:eek: , and we peaked at around 60,000 ft doing God only knows what, because my eyes were so unfocused by now I couldn't read the instruments:confused: . Then the descent was almost as rapid, and, in the words of the pilot "hang on, this thing doesn't land, it crashes in a semi-controlled sort of way" Gulp.

Great stuff, great bird - but no legs - up, launch (AAMs in a combat situation), and down.

Was giddy about it for a week; couldn't resist telling any- and every-one all about it. No doubt in excruciating detail...

Cheers!

[Termite]

Here's what packs a punch in the Scepre.
105mm AP Sabot.