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Tizer
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Posted -
21/12/2007
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11:56
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I have uploaded my first picture to the Barlick site I hope to be able to add it in this thread if/when it gets approval from Doc. It is a postcard from the 1940s entitled Winged Heroes and showing Hawker Hurricanes. (The picture is in the next post if you are on page 1 of the thread; if you are on another page you need to go back tp page 1 to see it.)
Please feel free to add your own stories, pictures or comments regarding everything to do with aeroplanes and their pilots, both past and present.
Edited by - Tizer on 11/11/2010 15:11:42
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Tizer
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Posted - 20/11/2010 : 16:25
Anyone with an interest in aircraft and flying (or photography) will enjoy this Air Show forum. Wonderful photographs!
http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=7
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thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 20/11/2010 : 17:44
10 out 10 for that Tizer, what terrific pictures, this will keep me occupied for quite some time, many thanks.
thomo |
Tizer
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Posted - 21/11/2010 : 10:20
Me too Thomo, it's just right for being stuck indoors in this cold wet weather. There are some aerial pics of airports on there that you'll enjoy as well as the aircraft. Some of the people posting have obviously been aircrew. Go to the `Golden Oldies Photography' subforum and put "view from the cockpit" into their forum search box (with the quotes to make sure it selects only the full phrase). You'll get a list of results that will have among them about 5 or 6 threads called "The View from the Cockpit" Part 1, Part 2 etc. They have photos posted by an RAF navigator.
There are historic photos on the link below of the Vampire and two Meteors that were in displays but then crashed. Make sure you look all the way down the page - the last photo shows the trio, a rare shot.
http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=189
Edited by - Tizer on 21/11/2010 10:42:38
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Tizer
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Posted - 21/11/2010 : 11:45
Having just commented on another thread how the blades on a large wind turbine move at over 100mph and could cause great damage if they hit something, I was prompted to relate this story.
In the book `Fly Navy: The View from the Cockpit 1945 to 2000' (a compilation of flyers' stories) Lieutenant Brian Davies tells how he taxied out in a Fairey Gannet at Boscome Down in 1962. The Gannet had no nosewheel steering and the pilot had to brake one of the main wheels to get direction. Davies started up between two hangars and the contra-rotating propellers spun. Emerging from between the hangars he had to use a lot of left brake in a hard left turn towards the V-bomber dispersal apron with a line of transport aircraft and V-bombers ahead of him. The he needed a left turn to get onto the taxiway and eased his foot down on the left brake actuator but nothing happened. He was heading for a line of V-bombers under the idle thrust of the Gannet's two engines. He pulled up the manual override brake handle, the right wheel locked, the Gannet slewed to towards a Vulcan and he realsied he might be squashed under the bomber's nose. Fortunately Gannet stopped before that happened but the prop blades hacked into the Vulcan and, as he put it, "bits of Vulcan flew everywhere. The Vulcan had just completed a 6-month modification programme to test the Blue Steel stand-off bomb and he had just destroyed all its new instrumentation. He was told it would set back the programme by 6 to 9 months and cost about £4 million to modify another Vulcan!
A new type of brake unit had been fitted to the Gannet since its last flight. The engineer had either misread the manual or the manual had not been updated and he `backed off' an adjustor nut two whole turns from fully tight instead of two flats.
The book is a great read and is published on behalf of the Fleet Air Arm Officers' Association by Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley (2000).
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 22/11/2010 : 05:57
Embarrassing!
I have a mate who was a Lt Commander in the Wavy Navy (Gentlemen trying to be officers) and they were given a minesweeper to play with. He was senior officer and they put the rudder hard over as they manouevred slowly into the harbour. Unknown to them, during maintenance the stop had been left off the end of the steering quadrant gear and they were stuck with the rudder hard over. In order to maintain some sort of control they circled dead slow until they could get it fixed and he told me that all the regular crews were out on deck deriding them and they had many 'helpful' messages from other boats. I don't think he ever lived it down.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 16/12/2010 : 09:37
Some links to photos of the last flights of the Harriers...
Air Show forum
Photo forum
The Sun - Forces page
Harriers at Cottesmore
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 17/12/2010 : 05:22
I'm no expert on military aircraft but scrapping the Harrier, or its concept, seems all wrong to me. I'll lay a small bet that eventually all aircraft will be VTOL.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 17/12/2010 : 09:42
Yes, I and would be a lot happier if they stuck them in a hangar and kept them maintained. There is a new generation of STOL aircraft coming along where the vertical lift is part of the engine as opposed to the vectored thrust concept of the Harrier. A lot of this has been developed by RR but once the harriers are safely out of the way it is possible that the Yanks may go for their own option and the extra jobs at RR may vanish. Time will tell.
thomo |
Tizer
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Posted - 18/12/2010 : 11:36
It looks mad to me too. The Harrier seems to be just the sort of aircraft that we need, very flexible, we know it well, it does the job, and the aircrew seem to love it. We're not in a competition for who has the prettiest or fasted plane.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 07/01/2011 : 05:29
Tony Iveson, oldest surviving Lancaster bomber pilot is on Desert Island Discs this morning. Repeated on Sunday or catch it on BBC Iplayer.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 07/01/2011 : 10:47
The Iveson one and others are all available as podcasts (about 35MB) for download here on this BBC page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/did
and there are many more BBC radio podcasts here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts
You can play them on your computer or on an mp3 player or a digital radio with mp3 playback (and probably a TV although I haven't tried it).
Edited by - Tizer on 07/01/2011 10:49:10
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Tizer
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Posted - 05/03/2011 : 16:49
While searching for images on the Web I found this full copy of Aeroplane magazine for March 2006 which any aviation enthusiast should enjoy! I assume it's a one-off, just that one issue.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26093984/Aeroplane-magazine-march
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 06/03/2011 : 07:09
Did you see the interview at Southampton on the anniversay Spitfire Flight? Too much of the lady and not enough of the Spitfire!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 06/03/2011 : 12:19
Roger that Stanley, I saw her do the classic line,"you don't fly a Spitfire, you put it on and it does the rest". A few days ago I watched an hour and a half of unused film footage from the making of the film "Battle of Britain" this included interviews with several ex BB pilots, the originator of that phrase was one of them. There are two of those two seater Spitfires in UK, £700 will get one a ride, but not a very long one.
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panbiker
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Posted - 06/03/2011 : 12:49
One of those will be the "Grace Spitfire" no doubt. Owned and flown by Carolyn Grace and her son Richard. Missed the interview was it with Carolyn by any chance?
Did anyone see the recent documentary on the women pilots who flew with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during the war and ferried the planes from factory to airfield. These young women flew everything from aged bi-plane trainers to four engined bombers. Always unarmed and often on point to point, line of sight and map and compass navigation. Many left the service with thousands of hours of flight and like many women after the war never used the skills they developed again. It was a red letter day for all the women when they were upgraded and allowed to fly the Spitfire. Lots of male pilot officers were gobsmacked when their replacement bombers were flown in by young women who under normal circumstances in the RAF would be restricted to desk, telephone or plotting table.
Winged Heroines all.
Edited by - panbiker on 06/03/2011 19:42:12
Ian |