Photo thread for the heck of it

[planedriver]

I wonder how many landings they get before they have to repaint the keel.

They probably just get it sole'd and eel'd

 

 

[old man emu]

I suppose they only did that for the halibut.

 

 

[facthunter]

The only "mother" aircraft I recall was built in Holland. Nev

 

 

[willedoo]

A line of Tu-95's.

 

 

 

[red750]

Not exactly a photo, but how would you like to see inside a volcano? The story in this link includes an interactive view from Google Street View, the second image. Where next?

 

Google Street View takes you inside a volcano

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

A line of Tu-95's.[ATTACH=full]49416[/ATTACH]

That is either a great optical illushyn, or they have an incredibly short wingspan....

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

That is either a great optical illushyn, or they have an incredibly short wingspan....

In compliance with arms reduction agreements, both superpowers parked large numbers of nuclear bombers with wings removed, in clear view of passing spy satellites. Perhaps this is the explanation.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

NO Jerry. . THIS. . . has an incredibly short wingspan. . .( especially for carrying Fat barstards like me. . . . )

 

Not only that,. . .but you can't see where you're going very well either. . . ferrying this example from Blackpool to Otherton,. . .I kept craning my fat neck upwards, but when I did my regular 'Look Around' ( Visual TCAS ) the top of my headset pressed against the the low profile canopy, so that the headset ended up at 90 degrees to where it should be,. .. ie one cup over the back of my head, and the other one over my nose. . . NOT my fave 'Little' aeroplane of all time really. . . it has a midriff mounted wing, so that whe you're on any sort of climb, you are totally blind as to what's going on up front. . .and the wing leading edges are blocking 180 degrees of forrard view left and right. . . .It DOES have little glass panels BELOW the wings,. . .but only the Right hand one is of any use if you're sitting in the LH seat. . . No thank you,. . .I don't want one. . . .

 

Not only that,. . the thing was 'Wired' for GA headsets, but the bloody cabin noise was so high that it almost deffeated my David Clark H-10-60s,. .so that comms were very difficult. . .had a LOT of fun talking to 'Area 51.5' ( RAF/BAE Warton - whre they build the Eurofighter. . . [ Unhelpful Twats as they are - BUT that's another story in itself. . .Ho Ho. . .another time maybe. . .] - I claimed RX problems wioth their service and said Bye Bye as soon as possible. . .changing to Manchester,. . .they are much more 'Human' in their approach to Pilots generally. . . .

 

 

Not hard to control,. . central stick, flap lever was a bit odd, ie, it was on the floor between the two seats, but when you pulled some flap, . . the lever dropped back onto the floor, and there was no other indication of the flap setting, other than your memory. It has Flaperons,. . as you can see. I'd only ever flown one of these once before, around five weeks beofre this particular flight. . . .we were SUPPOSED to be going to buy an Auster 6,. . .which I am VERY familiar with, which is why my mate Paul asked me to fly it back, but when we got to Blackpool, he found that half of the logs on the Auster were missing, it was in a terrible conditon, how it had a 'Current' permit to fly was beyond my ken. . .obviously summat 'suss' with that deal, so we gave up on that.

 

The Rans S10 was mentioned whilst us two fat buggers were in the restaurant at the same airport,. . .it was on the local notice board, so Mate Pauly rang the owner of the advert, and he was there within a half hour. . . . The S10 ws in very good condx, with all the logs up to date, and a fresh Permit. . .he knocked the guy down a Grand ( ! ) that's what he does. . .( He is now the Executive Vice-President of Aveo Electronics, supplying LED lighting to Boeing, amongst others in the U.S and the Czech Republic ) and is a past master at 'Deals'. . .

 

I agreed to fly it back ( silly sod - 2 hours total time ) but to be fair, if you fly taildraggers, ( my most recent at that time being a Kitfox Mk 2, flying with 'Pauly' again,. . he HAD a full PPL ( Obtained in 4 weeks in Florida ) but was VERY unsure of himself. . .still is. .I flew with him in his Kitfox for 65 hours,. . until he felt safe with it ! - but then he flipped it over into a ploughed field trying to land in a ninety degree gusting crosswind - AS. . we hadn;t had a chance to practice those, as the weather had been too nice for the last 65 odd hours ! !)

 

It was quite a 'Simple' machine and easy to fly ( Apart from the lack of forward viz. . . ) Not only this, I had nearly 2 hours with my nose in the POH whilst he was collecting some 'Accessories' fro the seller's home. . .. What may look like a 'Smile' on my fat countenance actually Isn't. . .it's a bloody grimace. After landing ( grass greaser of course ! ) one of the tailwheel control springs departed company and I went around in circles for a while. .( .creating much mirth from other Pilot 'Friends' on site. . .) trying to taxi back to the parking area, until I figured what had happened. . .and got out and straightened the scott tailwheel handraulically.

 

This particular S10 was powered by a Rotax 532, now this is the 'Long Stroke' engine, similar to the 582, but with a slightly lower power output, it was SIngle carb, and Single ignition too, . . .and had a claw hammer in the cockpit side pocket, so that, if you missed the under panel clip when you pull started the engine and tried to relocate the handle into the clip and missed. . ., you could get hold of the pull handle again without having to get out and go in head first. . .. . ..

 

The only problem I had with the thing on departing was taxying out to the runway at Blackpool behind a PA 28, I found that the wheel brakes had faded away completely, but fortunately there was a very slight Uphill grade on that taxiway, and I didn't have to vacate hard on the the grass to preclude chewing the Warrior's tail off. . . . shortly thereafter; I learned about the involuntary 'Headset rotation' problem, trying to navigate in medium turbulence. . . .This aircrfat would not be viable without a very good GPS with full moving map function . . . .It's only saving grace ( ? ) is that it is stressed ( by the designer ) to +6 and -4 G . .so is good for limited aeros, BUT you can't do it legally on a UK permit to fly. . .( Well, you couldn't back then anyhow. . . ) but it was nice to know that you wouldn't break it easily in turbs. . .quite quick too,. . . 75 ( 'Ish' ) Kt cruise on a two stroke 2 UP isn't bad really. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I forgot to mention one salient pont about the above tale of a sale. . . when the owner of the Rans S10 turned up and started chatting with Mate Paul.. . .he ACTUALLY said ( and I inwardly Groaned to myself when he said this ) "Ive just GOT to sell this plane,. . .I'm in a messy divorce case and I desperately NEED the money. . ."

 

I could not believe that anyone could be so silly, and I felt quite sorry for the guy.

 

You DON'T say that to ANY potential buyer. . . ESPECIALLY to someone like AVEO Pauly. . . you don't have to be a poker player, but. . . keep your cards covered if you want a reasonable price for you trailer / boat / caravan / tractor. . . don't Blab that you're desperate. . .Jeeeze. . . that guy threw in a spare ENGINE ( FCS ) plus two Icom hand held radio units, 2 pairs of headsets, an Intercom system, a brand new carbon fibre prop which he'd never fitted. . . AND. . . the road trailer that he'd used to fetch it before he fell out with his Cheese and Kisses. . . .

 

Why don't I. . .get deals lke that ? ( Rhet ) I said to Paul,. . you'll kill yourself in this aeroplane mate. . .Trust me. . .it isn't for you. . .

 

He never flew it ( Phew !. ) and sold it ;ess than 3 months later for £2,500 more than he paid, to a commercial pilot based at Gloucs. Airport ( Staverton ) who was flown in, and he flew it out.. . .Paul KEPT the spare engine ( A 582 Rotax ) and the other stuff for sale later. on Ebay . . .he never even offered the buyer a bloody radio out of the 2 he had. . . .what a businessman. . .this must be why I'm poor. . . . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

 

This is my Mad mate Lee Merriman. . . . he emigrated with his lovely Lady and kids to Perth ( that's in Western Australia BTW ) around 6+ years back. . . for some reason the bugger has now moved to the Gold Coast, not sure where,. . .I'll have to check. . . . I think he MAY live not far away from my Other mate and Ex-work associate 'Marvin' . . who moved out to OZ a couple of years earlier, he had to get away, as I was such a crap boss. . . .I did this to myself,. . .telling him constantly what a great place OZ was to live and work. . .

 

Lee really enjoyed his flight in the X'Air I built with a small amount of help, but not that much ! and he said he would do his best to obtain a PPL when he got to OZ. . . obviously . . family and work has got in the way,. .. as it does,. . but if you see him hanging over an airfield fence looking longingly at your aircraft,. . .please take pity on him and tke him for a flight BUT CHECK THAT HE'S GOT SOME SODDING MONEY ON HIM FOR THE FUEL FIRST ! . . . .llolz.

 

Mate Marvin, is the only 'NATURAL' pilot I have ever taken up.. . .Before this, I would not have believed that this was possible. OK, let's say that he 'Absorbs' critical information, and his brain acts upon it, and remembers. . . the result being that hs Brain / Hand / Eye coordination works well in flying. Only ever showed him 2 landings in the above aircraft, and he proceeded to repeat the operation perfectly every time. . .He'd be a boon to some flying school advertising. . .be through the syllabus in a very short time I wager. . . .

 

 

[red750]

I was with family friends at the Royal Children's Hospital Children's Playground in Melbourne when the Air Ambulance helicopter came in and landed on the rooftop heliport.

 

AW139 VH-YXJ

 

 

 

 

[Nico13]

[ATTACH=full]37412[/ATTACH] Reflections.

Now that brings back memories, I helped build quite a number of the fine old Nomads many years back.

[alf jessup]

Went for a fly in this bad boy today

 

A beautiful Bristell owned by a friend at Latrobe Valley

 

Nice aircraft a little different in flying characteristics than my Tecnam Sierra but a beautifully built aircraft

 

 

[waraton]

 

A wonderful rainy day in the Silvery City, good for a game of hangar handball. We've missed out on the rain so far this year so today was great to settle the dust.

 

 

[willedoo]

Sukhoi T-50's performing aerobatics at last weeks MAKS airshow.

 

 

 

[winsor68]

Inboard wing on my Ringmaster Control Line model coming together in preparation for the 7th Annual Worldwide Ringmaster Fly-a-thon.

 

 

 

[Marty_d]

Wow, in the days of drones and electric R/C with computer radio and automatic trim, there's still control line!

 

(Those ribs look like they're CNC'd though...)

 

 

[planedriver]

Geez! Windsor, You are reminding me of my younger days when I used to fly a George Aldridge designed "Peacemaker" in combat comps, and managed to win a few. Mine was powered by a worked Oliver Tiger diesel and went like the clappers, until it eventually buried itself in the ground when the up line separated from the handle.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Ah the good old days.

 

Still have a few engines, cox- slow and AMA - absolutely ballistic and the sound,.............

 

 

[planedriver]

Mate, you forget to mention the smell, and wiping oily hands on your pants in between flights.

 

The smell of that burnt caster-oil seemed to hang around like cigar smoke, for many days.

 

Ahh! Memories.

 

 

[winsor68]

Well you know what to do fellas. These things aren't expensive.

 

 

[old man emu]

Yeah, but ...

 

Local NIMBYs will be on the phone to police before you could get out to your control line handle.

 

Local Councils prohibit the flying of planes in their parks.

 

Try living on a main feeder road in a residential area. Holden utes and Subaru WRXs with non-standard exhaust systems screaming past at 100+ db. Harley-Davidsons blaring through straight-through pipes. Or worse, the Keith Moon wannabe battering away at his skins for hours on end.

 

What gets complained of? The occasional Piper or Cessna flying overhead at 1500 feet. It's ironic to note how many of these NIMBYs get to their annual holiday in Bali or Thailand by flying. They never seem to think of how the flight crew developed an interest in aviation.

 

OME

 

 

[facthunter]

A couple of inebriated fellows came over to myself and a mate who had been flying combat planes with streamer s with Fox 35s for an hour of so and the gave us about 5 quid to pay for the pleasure and service we provided. They had been laying bets on our activities and were very satisfied with our performance. (Lambton Park in Newcastle) People whinge about anything they don't have an interest in themselves. Plenty of Councils ban motorcross tracks where you wouldn't see antisocial activities in a month of Sundays. It's often a family activity but MOTORBIKES . Yikes... Bikey Gangs and Drugs.. All lumped in together. Go to a football game and get peed on and beer cans thrown. Visit friends in a posh suburb and get your car scratched with a coin and the aerial broken off. Travel in a train late at night and take your life in your hands. Nev

 

 

[old man emu]

There is a control-line flying site on Milperra Road, Milperra, about 200 metres east of Henry Lawson Drive on the opposite side of the road from the old Hawker de Haviland factory. I see old fellows flying there of a Sunday morning. They have two fenced-off rings with well maintained grass surfaces.

 

No noise complaints there!

 

 

[planedriver]

A couple of inebriated fellows came over to myself and a mate who had been flying combat planes with streamer s with Fox 35s for an hour of so and the gave us about 5 quid to pay for the pleasure and service we provided. They had been laying bets on our activities and were very satisfied with our performance. (Lambton Park in Newcastle) People whinge about anything they don't have an interest in themselves. Plenty of Councils ban motorcross tracks where you wouldn't see antisocial activities in a month of Sundays. It's often a family activity but MOTORBIKES . Yikes... Bikey Gangs and Drugs.. All lumped in together. Go to a football game and get peed on and beer cans thrown. Visit friends in a posh suburb and get your car scratched with a coin and the aerial broken off. Travel in a train late at night and take your life in your hands. Nev

The Fox 35 Rocket was a great motor for flying combat.