New measures to combat the speeding driver

[bennylaird]

It's just getting harder to speed these days, might have to slow down?

[Auld Bassoon]

No worries mate,

You and your quad turbocharged, 16 cylinder, 8 litre, SuziFukmasawakihon will leave'em for dead...:D

[bsrlee]

Makes me think of a mate's story, from back when 'radar detectors' were legal.

He was booting along at a very respectable speed on a Loooong straight bit of highway when his 'detector' started going bananas. He quickle started looking around, not another car in sight, not even a decent sized shrub to hide behind, nada. Next thing he knows, an F-111 shoots past at about telephone pole height, just about sucks him up off the road, and continues down the road following every bump & dip.

He claims he didn 't soil himself because everything was trying to climb back inside. But he was a bit late for his next appointment.:eek:

[bennylaird]

Heard a story about 2 Pommy Wallopers using a RADAR gun on the east coast. It kept playing up so they eventually switched off but in the meantime and RAF aircraft had mistaken it for a fire control radar lock on and had only just managed to override an automatic launch of a RADAR seeking missile.

Sounds a bit of a long story to me though.

[Greg Q]

...And this is where I relate the story of someone flying a Citation jet down a Georgia back road at thirty or so feet through a Sate police radar trap. 1978. Intentionally, of course. And yes, it was fun.

[bennylaird]

So he didn't give you a Citation as you already had one?

My best low level run was in the DOA F28 between the hills on a wingtip up near Omeo. We had spotted smoke so went down for a look. Should have seen the face on the bushwalker, who was boiling a billy, as we went overhead at about 200ft.

[Iain]

In the early days of radar my brother got nabbed for in excess of 200mph on his Vespa, the police conceded the unit may have been faulty........and gave him a warning:D :D :D

[bennylaird]

He must have had his head down on the Vespa but how did he manage to get the Kwacka Z1 motor to fit?

[Greg Q]

So he didn't give you a Citation as you already had one?

.

Oh, he did. Earlier, in the Hertz Oldsmobuick on the way to the airport. I think I blew his mirrored Ray-Bans off. Just wish I had had something with 50 more decibels:eek: :eek:

**For those who are not familiar, a Citation is a small utility plane, about the slowest jet in the skies-certified for birdstrikes from the rear. Quiet, though.

[bennylaird]

I remember the first time I was buzzed by a low level F18. Saw the shadow but didn't react in time to brace. Must have jumped 10 feet and then couldn't hear for ages.

[Greg Q]

LOL. Yeah, it hurts, don't it? Mine was an F-4 in the weeds at the speed of heat, scared me witless. That noise gets right down into your soul.

[bennylaird]

Can't even wash the Reg Grundies out, too deep a stain!

[Greg Q]

Given how often it happens, there must be no sweeter sight to a fighter pilot than the back of some poor clown's head when he's aimed at him going Mach .999.

The first hint you have of imminent death is the sound of the air molecules panicking and trying to get out of the way, then you get compressed, then your brain runs out of your nose, and your pants get that....that...well, you know. Then you shake your trembling fist at him, and he's already two miles and ten thousand feet away, grinning. Assholes.

[bennylaird]

Not sure how much truth is in the story but heard that Geoff Trappet buzzed the Latrobe Valley field but passed over a chook farm in the process killing most of the hens?

[Greg Q]

We used to get blamed for every farming catastrophe in my home county-hens, minks, geese. I still maintain that they were spontaneous mass-suicide events. Kinda like lemmings, only without that long treck to the sea. Who wants to go to the sea when there's an airshow on?:eek:

[bennylaird]

We sorta figured when the hens saw the F18 they thought it was a new rooster and died of fright?????

[Greg Q]

:D :D :D :D :D Foghorn Leghorn this, baby!

[bennylaird]

Check this out, an oldie but great.

Go to http://rcelectricflight.com/newgreenairframeset.htm

select: videos

scroll down to:

Check this Video out, that we got from a friend in the USA..You want a wake up call! How low can you go?? (make sure you have it full screen and sound up!!!)

[Greg Q]

Hmmmm. Can't get it to load completely. The site, I mean.

[bennylaird]

Hmm I'll see if I can email the video to you then.

[bennylaird]

try this link:

http://www.bofunk.com/video/818/low_flying_plane.html

[Iain]

Worked for me, a little surprised wasn't he:D :D :D
Spends years refining his vocabulary skills and this is the best he can manage:D

[Greg Q]

Yeah, he captured the reaction perfectly. Good actor.:eek: :D

[bennylaird]

Just trying to work out if it was a 3 or 4 blade prop from the parts in his hair?

[Greg Q]

Years ago I used to work in the Rockies in Canada, for a mob that did mostly freight work. On Friday mornings aeroplanes would return home from a week away for engineering attention, arriving around 0650. Ocassionaly we'd be a little low over Okanagan Lake, feeling our oats.

Years later I was listening to someone relate this fantastic story of witnessing a 727 rip down the lake just after dawn, so low that it was making a roostertail.:eek:

I am glad sometimes to be (mostly) too old for such hijinks now.

[Greg Q]

Benny, since the first post in this thread I've been asking around about building an aeroplane. My wife said "absolutely no way, no how", so there's hope there-now I have to do the maths, and find a good low-time Merlin.

[bennylaird]

The Mirage pilots were called Knuck's, short for Knuckleheads, but the Kiwi's and the RAN had their fair share too.

I remember jumping from the bed in Butterworth after having a Kiw Skyhawk pass over the house at almost 0 ft. Then the Malaysian Ack Ack would open up firing blanks in the paddock beside us.

Also have pics taken of the tops of the wings of Trackers from the top of the Air Traffic Control Tower. So low at max power that the props nearly dug up the taxiway. The guy in the slasher actually jumped out of the tractor when he saw them coming. And then the Sikorskt chopper doing doughnuts around the tower. And a Herc on wingtips between the hangers.........Memories

[bennylaird]

Kiwi pilots would check out the clearance between supersructures on the Anzacs to see if they could fly between them. Luckily the HF arrays stopped them.

[Greg Q]

There is just something soooo cool about being young and smart, yet stupid. It's funny how close we'd come to being Darwin Award winners, only to grow old, shaking our palsied fists at these young hooligans in their fast cars!

I won't tell it here, but the stupidest thing* I ever did involved a Tracker, a police car (again) and a load of retardant.

*not really, but certainly in my Dumbass Top Ten.

[Greg Q]

which reminds me: the one thing that you should never say is "watch this", and the one thing you should never hear on the frequency is "I dare you":eek: :D

[bennylaird]

I dare you, to go to this site.....

http://www.supermarineaircraft.com/

[Greg Q]

Thank you very much. No, really. I mean it. Thanks a lot. Too bad that:

a:) I am a giant who barely fits in a full sized Spitfire, as evidenced in this 1979 photo. (I never flew it-this was just in our hangar)

b:) I left that lazy 150K in my other pants. (I was sure that I was wearing pants when I went out last night):eek:


I have a mate at work who bought an allison 12 cyl and prop for 45K us, reckons he'll (we'll) take another 50K to build a full sized Spit. Dreams are wonderful, aren't they?

I am going to look into this link that you sent. I feel another mid-life crisis coming on...How many times can I use that old "But honey, I don't have a ski boat, or Porsche, or nothin'. I never get to have any fun" ?

[bennylaird]

Don't look here either? :) :) :)
http://www.spitfirespares.com/SpitfireSpares.com/Pages/airframe.html