willedoo
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Posts posted by willedoo
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Only just came across this link, thanks, it's a great story well worth reading. It would be nice to be able to travel the world and see some of the remaining historic aircraft still working. I think South America has it's share, and have seen videos of DC3's and C119 Boxcars still doing freight work in either Canada or Alaska. Found this link to the American Museum of Aviation, listing surviving propliners: http://www.prop-liners.com/survivors.htmIf you're impressed by this shot (I was!), then you may well be interested in the rest of the story here...http://www.conniesurvivors.com/1-christler_flying_service.htmWhat surprised me was that they quote 400+ DC3's still flying. That figure would have to suggest a lot of them still being used commercially, I guess.
Cheers, Willedoo.
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Beech Baron at Courchevel:
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Sounds like a bit of a language barrier here:
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Thanks for another great report, looking forward to hearing about the next flight.
Cheers, Willedoo.
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I think they're fairly rare over here in Brisbane, there was one here early last year but I don't know about any since then. It would be great to get the opportunity to see one close up. Would be interesting to know what they bring in or out of Perth & whether they do much carrying for the Navy. I often wonder where the two Libyan Air Cargo 124's are amongst all the trouble over there at present.they come into perth here pretty regular.Cheers, Willie.
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That would certainly be worth watching. There's a lot of footage around of St. Maartens landings, some only a few feet above the fence, quite a mecca for plane spotters. A lot of tourists line up along the fence & try to hold on while they cop the jet blast on take-offs as well. One photo that does the rounds shows a bloke on a motorbike ducking his head as a plane goes over him at St. Barths on the southern approach. Have never been able to figure out if it's a fake or a genuine photo.
Cheers, Willie.
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Scott, that would be one of Volga-Dnepr's fleet. I wonder how often they visit Perth.arrived sunday 4th september Antonov 124 RA-82047 as VDA1646 .Antonov 124 departed late 4 September direct to Honolulu, then tuesday 6th onward to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.Cheers, Willie.
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Thanks for a great report & post. Read it word for word, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Aerodynamics is a fascinating subject; it's good to hear someone talk about it with the enthusiasm it deserves.
Cheers, Willie.
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It looks like one of the trickier ones for aircraft of that size. Have seen a few clips of Lukla Airport in Nepal, which is pretty bad, but it's only a Twin Otter capable strip. I'd imagine Papua New Guinea would have more than their share of no go around strips to rival ones like Lukla.
Cheers, Willie.
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Airbus A320 landing in Paro, Bhutan:
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I suppose it explains why this Spitfire in a post of Scott's a while back has a 12 million pricetag:
http://theaussieaviator.net/showthread.php?t=48420&highlight=spitfire
There must not be too many warbirds of any type in the world still original, by the sound of it. It's good to see a true Australian built warbird like the Boomerang surviving, & great to see someone like Lynette donate their's to the Army Aviation Museum for the public to enjoy. Does anyone know of any others on static display apart from the incomplete one at the War Memorial.
Cheers, Willie.
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Here's a link to a photo of the one in the Oakey Aviation Museum:
http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_90220
Seems like it was made up of bits & pieces of various aircraft. Don't know how accurate the Wikipedia entry is, states 3 airworthy in Australia, the one at Oakey, the one Glenn mentioned at Temora & the Parafield Boomerang Geoff mentioned. Also mentions a full scale airworthy replica in the States incorporating some original parts & several others under restoration here in Australia. Saw on one site an article dated 1967, mentioning one sole survivor, ID# A46-30. So whether or not this was the last intact one, I don't know. It seems to be long gone.
Cheers, Willedoo.
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Thanks Geoff, Will try to chase up those issues. I imagine a lot of old warbirds are made up of bits of different aircraft & sometimes markings don't reflect the true origin. Fom what I can find out, LB was 84 Squadron which flew them for about 6 months or so. I should try to find out whether he was posted to different squadrons or just the one. Thanks again for your help.The CA-12 Parafield Boomerang is flown by Jim Whalley - its squadron markings shown as LB-L, ID'd as A46-63, serial # given as 886. How much of this can be taken as "gospel" I can't verify - when it comes to an airworthy example I feel that a lot of repro items must perforce be incorporated into aircraft of this age. Doesn't worry me too much as I'd rather see them flying rather than static only.If you can chase up the following "Classic Wings" issues you'll find much more material dealing with Boomerangs which might help your "old chap" in his seeking out survivors.Vol 10 #4 '03 Issue 42
Vol 16 #3 '09 Issue 71
Vol 17 #2 '10 Issue 75
Cheers, Geoff.
Regards, Willie.
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Thanks for that, I think the old chap I spoke to was keen to see if any of his old Boomerangs are still around. He was asking about the one on display at Oakey, but it has 83 Sqdn code letters MH; in his conversation, he mentioned serving at Bougainville alongside NZ Corsairs, so that would be 5 squadron, BF markings. I wonder if anyone knows if any of them have survived.Very much non flying and very very home made. Having said that, it's not a bad effort - just that the closer one approaches it, the more it becomes clear that it is in no way the real deal. No idea where it is now, but might make a couple of enquiries to see if I can find out.We have a Boomerang at Parafield,'though a month or so ago when we visited the Classic Jet Fighter museum it had the engine out for repair$$$$$.Cheers, Willie.
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Thanks Geoff, thought it might have been somewhere north of Adelaide by the building & country. Just wondering, by 'home made' do you mean a non-flying mock up. Shame the photo wasn't a better resolution. Just as a side note, I had the rare privilege today to talk to a WW2 Boomerang pilot, quite a fascinating old gentleman & very good for his age. He was still flying privately until only a few short years ago & still has his log books & aircraft numbers from his time in Boomerangs & Wirraways up in the islands. Said he flew around 30 different Boomerangs in his time, I'd say he'd have a story or two.That photograph was taken at Burra, north of Adelaide (look it up...).While it might look like the real thing from a distance, it was very much a "home made" thing fabricated from all sorts of el cheapo stuff. Someone had a lot of spare time on their hands, as well as a great deal of enthusiasm.Cheers, Willie.
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It looks like the word from the engine's manufacturer, Saturn, is that the engine is ok & didn't malfunction. Supposedly, the flame out was caused by a faulty sensor, part of the digital engine control system, feeding incorrect data to the flight control system.
Seems an age old problem where initial good design & engineering of prototypes is constrained for a certain length of time due to component failures. It will be interesting in the future to find out the cause of the sensor malfunction; with so few prototypes built, it's possibly not related to contractor supplying.
Looking at a photo of the drag chute deployment, it seems to pop up out of the top of the rear radome. As far I know, the original Su27 Flankers got rid of the parachute pod to incorporate the rear facing radar between the two engines. I'd imagine the T50 prototype would have chutes as a precaution & would not be used in production models.
This aeroplane, along with the F35 & to a lessor degree, the F22, will be the main front line air superiority/ strike aircraft for the next thirty years or so; it should be an interesting story unfolding for those who follow military aviation development. Just hope I live long enough to see if plasma stealth comes to anything, & if so, if it can be retro-fitted to existing aircraft. Always did think it would be a waste of some of mankind's greatest aviation design achievements, in the Su Flankers & the F15 Eagle, just because of their radar detectability.
Cheers, Willedoo.
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Link to a news item about the plans for a commercial space station to launch in five years time:
http://rt.com/news/space-hotel-million-orbital-329/
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Watched this on live streaming last night & apparently it was an aborted take-off after all. There was quite a big flash out the engine exhaust, followed by a smaller one, so it's possibly blown the starboard engine by the look of it. It taxied back ok after deploying the chutes.
Interesting last night to watch it taxi past the Su35 & Su34 & see the size difference between them; even though the T50 is still a large plane, it's overshadowed in size by the other two.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110821/166002069.html
This video takes a few seconds to load:
http://en.rian.ru/video/20110821/166006652.html
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Maks 2011 Airshow finished with a great programme on the last day.
Overcast conditions and rain at times reduced visibility, so the aerobatic displays were a bit more conservative than on the better days, but still excellent given the conditions. Quite a good line up with the Yak 52 team aerobatics, the Sukhoi Su34 fighter bomber, the A380 Airbus, the Emergency Services Amphibian Beriev Be-200, dropping twelve tons of coloured water, and the Sukhoi SU35 doing solo aerobatics, albeit a bit subdued due to the weather. No flat spins this time.
Next up was the new Sukhoi Pak Fa T50 Stealth Fighter prototype. It did a good aerobatic flight early in the week, but this time it lined up for take-off, checked flight controls, rolled down the runway, a couple of flames shot out of the engines and then the chutes were deployed and it taxied off. Not sure if it was part of the act or if there was some problem. Sergey Bogdan, Russia's version of Chuck Yeager was at the wheel.
After that, two Mig 29's, one of them with four wing tanks fitted, doing a simulated air to air re-fueling, with another Mig 29 doing a solo aerobatic display at the same time. Following up, the Russ Albatros L39 aerobatic team & another demo of the Sukhoi Superjet airliner, a high speed demonstration by the Eurofighter Typhoon & then the Latvian Baltic Bees in their L39's.
Next, the United States F15, and if there was a man of the match award, I'd give it to them, hands down. The Flankers are a hard act act to follow when it comes to aerobatic displays of fighter aircraft, but the two man F15 team wrung every possible maneuver out of that aeroplane and showed it to it's best potential. Every performance they did at Maks was a real credit to them.
The last performance before the broadcast died was a solo aerobatic demonstration by a Mig 29 OVT, the 3D thrust vectored variant of the Mig 29. Quite a few heavy aircraft were parked on the other side of the strip as static displays, but the camera focus didn't show them up so well. Quite a few Ilyushin IL-78 tankers and what looked like a Myasishchev 3m bomber.
Seemed to be some technical problems, as the broadcast went blank before the end of the show and no coverage of the Russian Knights and Russian Swifts aerobatic teams, with their Su27's and Mig 29's respectively. Bit of a shame, as it's both team's last performance before being disbanded due to Air Force budget cuts. They most likely would have been the closing act, but unfortunately, for some reason, the broadcast ended early, but still a good show.
Cheers, Willedoo.
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Yes Dave,Thanks for posting the link Willedoo .. Just spent a good few minutes watching the A380 put through its paces , followed by a UK based F15C of the USAF putting on a great display . Who would have thought just a few short years ago that we would be witnessing such displays of Western aircraft in the Soviet Union like we do today . A great link , and once again many thanks ..Dave CIts quite impressive to see the A380 doing things we don't normally get to see. The F15 certainly did America proud, a top display & easy to see why it will be around for a long time yet. Things sure have changed, particularly for those of us who grew up during the Cold War, with the Russian Federation operating Boeings & Airbuses and the US buying Russian Mil helicopters to use in Afganistan. This is the 10th Maks & there looks like being more Western involvement every time. I was going this year, but unforseen circumstances ended that plan, so it was good to hear that RT decided to run a live broadcast this time around. The SU35 is on now, must go.
Cheers, Willie.
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Forgot to add, for anyone interested in watching the airshow broadcast, their time is six hours behind eastern standard time, so the hours would probably be around 6pm to midnight EST. Logging on at any other time just shows news & current events as it's a 24 hour video channel. Last two days of the Maks 2011 Airshow are Saturday 20th. August & Sunday 21st.
Cheers, willedoo.
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Have just watched about 3 hours of the show, if you have plenty of time & bandwidth to spare, it's good viewing. Sunday the 21st. is the final day of the airshow.
Started off with the Russian Swifts with their 6 Mig 29's doing close formation flying, next was the A380 Airbus doing a few tight maneuvers, followed by the new Sukhoi Superjet doing the same.
Next was the United States F15 doing aerobatics & that pilot really worked hard, impressive to watch. After that, another Russian airliner, not sure what, it looked like one of the Tupolevs, followed by a really nice looking enclosed cab micro-light.
After this, a couple of Mig 29's did an aerobatic display, followed up by a Sukhoi SU35 showing what 3D thrust vectoring is all about. The Swifts went up again, followed by the new Latvian aerobatic team, the Baltic Bees, with their L39c Albatross. Finally a team of four Yak 52's did aerobatics & the broadcast finished, so I suppose with the time difference, that was it for the day.
Apparently on the last day, Sunday, 21st., the Russian Knights & Russian Swifts will do their joint 'Diamond' formation flying, usually five of the Knights SU 27's combined with four of the Swifts Mig 29's. It will be their last demonstration, as due to budget restraints, the Air Force is disbanding both teams after the show, a great loss to aviation.
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Tracked down a link to the Maks airshow live broadcast:
http://rt.com/on-air/maks-2011-air-show/
Also a link to video of the T50 making it's first public demonstration flight at Maks a couple of days ago:
http://rt.com/news/maks-2011-t-50/
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Video taken inside an Antonov AN124-100, mainly the upper deck crew accommodation & cockpit. It has sound so it might pay to turn the volume down a bit. Going by the uniforms, it looks like the one operated by Maximus Air Cargo, United Arab Emirates. A real home away from home, but they need a housekeeper.
Cheers, Willedoo.
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