Coop

I'm trying to do too much at the moment Sixties, and reading your fascinating stuff is keeping me up late!! The Navigator and I have over-nighted at Luskintyre in that magnificent establishment when gallivanting around the countryside in our Auster. Like you, I could have stayed much, much longer, but at that time holidays were limited in length. Had a tour of the HARS Cat a few years back before they had done much work on it. I was struck by its size- much bigger than it looks in pictures. The flight at Wanaka was magnificent and is highly recommended- it also included a touch-and-go on the lake, and we were able to move around the aircraft investigating the view from all of the different angles during the flight. If I get time I'll drag up a few images of the Wanaka flight and put them here. Sort of a very late Trip Report.... An hour per minute of finished movie is pretty damn good, actually. They talk in ratios of 100's to one in the big movie studios. Better go to bed now or I'll be more useless than usual in the morning... Coop

Sixties, I've seen the remains of what I believe to be the DF station at Forrest, on the S side of the rail line. It's a concrete blockhouse with wire mesh attached to the ground over a large area around the outside (?ground plane?) and what appear to be a ring of posts at the extremities of the mesh. I have seen one picture showing this ring of posts. Was this a HF DF station using large aerial loops to give a stronger signal? Or just an earlier more primitive system? Still following the story. Reckon they're dead.... Coop

You were right to be skeptical.... Fixed-wing aircraft accounted for 90.2 per cent of private operations flying hours, but only 87.0 per cent of private accidents. Rotary-wing aircraft, on the other hand, accounted for 9.8 per cent of private operations flying hours, but 13.0 per cent of accidents. Hence, rotary-wing aircraft were involved in proportionally more accidents than fixed-wing aircraft. ATSB report 2007. Note this was considering private operations only. Then there's this: Comparing rotarywing and fixed-wing aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft in air transport have an accident rate that is about two times that of fixed wing. Comparing rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft in general aviation, rotary-wing aircraft have an accident rate and fatality rate per million hours that is about 1.4 times higher than fixed wing aircraft. In terms of fatal accidents per million hours flown, rotary-wing air transport has a fatality rate that is about five times higher than fixed-wing air transport aircraft. ATSB report, 2010. See the whole report here: http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/1525905/ar2009016%283%29.pdf I think that clinches it. BUt you have to take into account that rotary winged aircraft operate in more dangerous environments than fixed wing machines and often do tasks that fixed wing machines can't do.

There are fixed wings, swing wings and FLINGWINGS... I prefer the former. Coop

Hmmmm. I'll never consider myself "hard up" again... Great Read Sixties- I've been following it for about the last week, and also haven't peeked yet. Glad you enjoyed that read, Siz. Obviously the fighter pilots had no survival training before being thrown into action!! Regards Coop

For a while there, I was wondering if someone was handing them stuff from the other side of the aircraft!! Coop

No, been slid back so I could keep a close eye on Foxy who was hanging out of the window of his C140 with a bloody big camera. However a good mate in a Terrier lost one of his rear perspexes on a trip up north. On the run across from Cadney Park to William Creek, we all went up to about 6,000' to catch a tail wind. Flew alongside the Terrier and it appeared to be piloted by a giant green caterpillar. Moved in a bit closer to see both pilot and passenger wrapped up in their sleeping bags!! The Navigator was instructed to keep her eye on the cliff face. The wide angle makes it look like its miles away, but the cliff was quite a bit closer and since we were weaving back and forth... Dragged mine out of the hangar today after an enforced lay-off due lack of medical and some personal fabric repairs (I didn't think much of his stitching). Started her up and was engulfed in clouds of blue-white smoke from No. 4 stack- her way of paying me back for leaving her alone for all that time. Still without medical, so a few runs up and down the runway to heat the oil up was all the legal exercise I could give her. There must be a really smooth patch on that runway because the vibrations from the wheels ceased for a while on every run.... Coop

We can all do better with hindsight.... Coop

I think various people have tried to make various options work using simulators and with few exceptions all failed. The successful ones came after several attempts and were very marginal. I think they definitely made the right decision... Coop

You get extra points if you fly a taildragger..... Nice photo Siz, I wonder who that is? Coop

Wow! They must have parked it where the graffiti artists could get at it.... Coop

Don't get too complacent. Derek Piggott lost a sliding canopy from a 2-seat glider. It took half his tailplane off and both had to bail. Coop

Yep, an inspiring story and an audacious escape plan. I still find it hard to believe that they walled off a section of the loft overnight and the Germans simply didn't notice!! Apparently the hardest part was getting a substance to shrink the fabric covering- I forget what they came up with, but it worked, and that was only one of the pieces of ingenuity that they employed when solving a multitude of problems. Must have been a real morale booster. I bet there was a twinge of disappointment when they were liberated before they could try it... Coop

What happens if the canopy pops open? The pilot sh*ts himself!! That's what happens!! How do I know?..... hmmm.... Coop

Mat, if you are having fun messing about at the slow end of the spectrum, then you have probably discovered "lateral damping" (or the lack of it). At normal speeds when a wing is deflected down it experiences a temporary increase in AoA and increased lift while the other wing experiences a temporary decrease in AoA and decreased lift. This asymmetric lift resists the movement of the wing, and "damps" the rolling (it's a component of the "lateral stability"). But as you approach the stall, a deflection can take the downgoing wing temporarily beyond the stall angle, and you get a loss of lift, not an increase. So the aircraft begins to feel like it is balanced on a knife edge, with any wing drop tending to result in that wing going down more unless an opposite rudder input pushes the wing forward and momentarily reduces the angle to just below the stall angle, restoring lift. Of course, this also retards the other wing and may take it beyond its stall angle, and so it tries to go down.... and so it goes on with you pedalling the rudders to prevent either wing from dropping until you either reduce the angle overall, or you momentarily increase the overall AoA and the wing stalls completely. Cheers, Coop

Great read, Sixties, and great photos too. You are right about the hang gliders. I tried that while at Uni in the early 70's. Best effort was 4 minutes of soaring along Maslins Beach. But like you, I was concerned at the ease with which you could break a leg or arm even if flying with due caution and care. I gave it away after a mate of mine was upended (fortunately into a forgiving bush with no injuries) by a nasty gust. He complained bitterly that they (meaning the met office) ought to forecast such things. I'd not gone flying that day because I'd heard the forecast, so I said to him: "Jerome, just what do you think ISOLATED THUNDERSQUALLS means?". Seriously, I don't know if he is still alive... Cheers, Coop

For normal spins, I was always taught(1) centre controls, (2)full opposite rudder (step on the ground behind the nose if that helps you remember) and then (3)bring the stick forward UNTIL THE ROTATION STOPS. Then (4) recover from the dive. I was taught that step (3) is the most important- people have killed themselves trying to recover from the dive before the spin had ceased because they didn't wait for the rotation to stop, and brought the stick back holding the machine in the spin. Most aircraft I have flown and spun break out of the spin easily and only require an easing of the back pressure (step 3) to effect full recovery, but if allowed to spin for more than two or three revolutions, some have required a positive forward movement on the stick. A Chipmunk that I spun (from 7,000') needed step (3) with a firm push to bring it out. As for inverted spins- you can have them to yourselves- most uncomfortable gyration my instructor ever inflicted on me... Coop

Looks like he helped with the fruit picking.... ;-) Coop

It may never happen to you, but in 40 years of flying for fun I've had two occasions where I've had to fly without an ASI. The first was in a glider where the plastic tube connecting the pitot to the ASI came adrift (got hard in the sun and then someone reached in to adjust something else and partially dislodged it without realising it). At normal cruise (45-55 knots) it was reading 25-30knots. Didn't notice it until I came off tow- your eyes are glued to the tug when on tow and he sets the speed anyway. There was no major drama flying without it- just opened the clear vision port during final and made sure we had plenty of wind noise on the approach which was deliberately a little on the fast side. The second was in the Auster- we had one of those little flaps that are supposed to seal the pitot and lift up when the airflow increases on takeoff. Somehow a bloody wasp got around this and built its nest at the bottom of the pitot tube where it joins the rubber pipe. Noticed zero airspeed on take-off but wasn't sure if we had enough room to stop (the Auster's brakes are known as "influencers") so we kept going. As soon as we came off the ground the ASI began pretending it was an altimeter (which, I guess, it was, with a blocked pitot) so I ignored it. At circuit height we leveled and set cruise power and on approach just set the power to where it normally sits and we landed without flaps as the Auster has a fairly low flap extension speed. Again, it wasn't difficult to do. After landing we removed the pitot tube and disconnected the rubber tube and there was the mud plug containing a caterpillar doing an "Alien" impersonation. We now use a proper pitot cover with "REMOVE BEFORE FRIGHT" embroidered on it. ;-) I suspect it gets more difficult the heavier and slicker the machine. But then, as the chap in the article cited above says, those machines often have multiple sources of speed/attitude information, most of which are a sufficiently accurate approximation to airspeed to ensure safe flying. Coop

Maybe the pilot likes flying in the shade?

Thanks for the links. I've only ever seen the results before, not the actual process... That's one reason I don't like flying in helicopters. They have such imaginative ways of destroying themselves- too many in my opinion. Coop

Yes, Willie, it is great that he can still travel, he's a determined old bastard, I can tell you. My sister and I had our work cut out keeping him safe and secure, but it was worth it. Coop

Hi folks, Just returned from accompanying Dad (now aged 92) to the commemoration at Darwin. We went to Darwin last Wednesday and returned the following Tuesday. It was a great event that included a number of talks and exhibitions including the main event on Sunday 19th. We also examined the new Darwin Bombing Experience section at the Military Museum at East Point. This is a display not to be missed if you ever get up that way. It is an amalgamation of old photos with modern technology to create an experience resembling the events of the day. Just a slight taste of what it might have been like were you unlucky enough to have been there. My Dad arrived a couple days after the bombing after having his ship run aground (The Voyager) in East Timor and get blown to bits by Japanese bombers. Upon arriving at Darwin he described it as "Dead". He and the rest of the crew thought they would get sent south for survivor's leave, and most did, but about 30 of them (including Dad) were picked to stay on and assist with the operation of the Darwin boom defense- a large anti-submarine net strung across the harbour entrance. Dad said the tides were so strong that it never really functioned all that well and they were always heading out to sea to retrieve bits of it. He endured many of the follow-up attacks on Darwin, commenting that the Japs seemed to know that they attended church on Sundays and would bomb the place at about 11:00am. He was there for about 18 months before going south to do a gunnery course so he could throw some stuff back at them... Spoke to one chap (aged 88) who flew in B-24's out of airfields near Darwin in the last couple of years. He was a WAG (Wireless/Air Gunner). I asked him if it was cold operating his machine gun out of the big hole in the side of the bomber. Not at all, he said, this was the tropics, and they usually flew in their ordinary clothes at about 10,000 to 12,000'. He commented that most crews had some pretty wild rides in thunderstorms and considered the weather a more deadly enemy than the Japanese. Dad helped retrieve one Spitfire pilot who came down in the drink after engine failure. He cast off some of his gear after they pulled him out of the water, and someone kicked it over the side. Turned out it was a distress flare which promptly activated, revealing their location to any enemy ship or sub that might happen to be in the vicinity. The Captain ordered "All ahead full" and they steamed back to Darwin at top speed... I've picked up a book written by one of the Spitfire pilots who ditched out of Darwin and it seems that the glycol coolant was a source of much trouble early on because it would boil, attack the aluminium and create coolant leaks ultimately resulting in engine failure. Another problem was the oil in the propellor constant speed units which also apparently couldn't stand the heat of a prolonged full throttle climb, leading to propellor overspeed and a seized engine. They lost quite a few Spits to these difficulties until the systems were properly "tropicalised". They lost quite a few more to the difficulty of landing in crosswinds on narrow strips surrounded by scrub. No "all-over" strips up there, so they had to land in the direction of the strip, and the Spit's narrow undercart made this difficult, with little room for error. Three pilots with seized engines bravely tried to dead-stick their machines into these strips- only one got away with it. The MV Neptune should have been unloaded a couple days earlier, but apparently some union action slowed the process down with the result that it still contained a load of mines when the Japanese arrived. Sadly, this cost a number of lives that might otherwise have been spared. The knowledge that the Japanese might attack Darwin was well known, yet the lack of preparation was staggering. But no amount of preparation can save you if a bomb scores a direct hit on a bomb shelter- as happened at the Darwin post office, taking out an entire family and several other postal workers who had stayed on to maintain communications. Dad discovered pretty quickly that it didn't pay to be first to the slit trench- if the Japs didn't get you, then you'd get suffocated by all the other bodies that piled in on top of you... Both a fascinating and also sobering week. The Japanese supply lines were too stretched for them to contemplate an invasion of the Australian mainland, and that's about all that saved us until the Americans arrived in force. Cheers, Coop

I don't recognize the green one- unfortunately the photo doesn't show the call-sign. There was another one on the pilgrimage- owned by Niel and Debbie- you can see it as the 15th image in naemick's images (see his post). Regards Coop

He'd have done well as a controller in the Battle of Britain... Coop