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tripsevens posted:Starcraftu. I'm sure the landing checklist includes an announcement to the passengers: "Ladies and gentlemen, we're in the pipe, five by five."
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Jul 14, 2010 07:05
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tripsevens posted:Starcraftu. Has it been upgraded with the Wave Motion Cannon?
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Jul 14, 2010 12:15
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Sterndotstern posted:I'm sure the landing checklist includes an announcement to the passengers:  Starcraft be damned, only space-apache pilots get to say that 
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Jul 14, 2010 13:05
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Parabellum posted:
Well, Aliens is weirdly one of the most influential movies in video game history... OK, a nerdpost: I've been building a model of a Mi-24, and I'm surprised how small the troop compartment is. Wikipedia says that it can carry up to 8 troops, but that must be using the same figuring method tent builders use for maxim occupancy, because the thing is apparently the size of a small shed, except with less headroom. e: pics  The pilot's head is hitting the ceiling with his helmet on. 
Nebakenezzer fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jul 14, 2010 |
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Jul 14, 2010 20:53
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Looks like your pilot is slightly oversized.
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Jul 14, 2010 21:37
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There's really nothing in that picture to give a sense of scale, though.
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Jul 14, 2010 22:40
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Wait until the sunovabitch finds out his hands are just painted onto his legs.
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Jul 14, 2010 23:14
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Nebakenezzer posted:I've been building a model of a Mi-24, and I'm surprised how small the troop compartment is. Wikipedia says that it can carry up to 8 troops, but that must be using the same figuring method tent builders use for maxim occupancy, because the thing is apparently the size of a small shed, except with less headroom. Length: 8 ft Width: 5 ft Height: 4 ft http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/mi-24-specs.htm http://www.army.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=6298 And I thought the Seahawk was a squeeze... (height: 4 1/2 feet)) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/55-450-2/Ch1.htm
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Jul 15, 2010 00:10
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ssh posted:Wait until the sunovabitch finds out his hands are just painted onto his legs. The gunner has worse problems, I accidentally sanded off his nose joat mon posted:Length: 8 ft Good lord. I could lie down on the deck with my head touching one door and my legs up to my knees would still be dangling out the other.
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Jul 15, 2010 02:13
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I got to ride along for a short hop in a WWII US Navy SNJ trainer on Sunday, as we headed from Saint Paul to Eden Prairie, MN for a small local airshow. I flew backseat in the lead plane and got to try my hand at air-to-air photography for the first time.
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Jul 20, 2010 06:21
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I've scanned the last few pages, hopefully this isn't a repost, if it is I apologize. I am compelled to write about the program I just saw on PBS about the Kee Bird, a B-29 bomber configured for reconnaissance near the north pole. On a routine mission the pilot became disoriented and drifted off course. Nearing empty, he lays it down on a small frozen lake. No injuries, no casualties, and minor damage to the aircraft. The crew is rescued after a short time, it's stripped of all non-flight essentials and classified information/equipment, and the bomber is left to sleep on permafrost near the north pole. In 1994-5 an aviation enthusiast by the name of Darryl Greenamyer decides do go up there, fix it, and fly it to Greenland for a proper overhaul. I got into the show deeply, and enjoyed every minute of it relishing the thought of seeing the old bird taking the sky back as her own. They worked intensely for months, one of the men until he collapsed and subsequently passed on two weeks later, soon winter took hold and stopped their work. Nine months later Darryl and a fresh crew go back out and warm her bones, tuning the motors 'til they sang in unison. They cut a path through the snow on the ice, a perfect rudimentary runway, taxi her out, and as she wallows across the ice as majestic as ever, an accessory generator falls off a shelf, spilling it's fuel and filling the cockpit with flame. All was lost. She went quickly. I nearly cried. I sit there for the rest of the show, my mouth agape, barely comprehending what is being said. Her first taxi towards freedom and she burns on the ice. I'm devastated. She sleeps once again in what seems always to be her final resting place.  Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird   More recent 
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Jul 21, 2010 03:39
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Goin to EAA with the old man up in Osh Kosh WI. Will return with pics.
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Jul 21, 2010 03:50
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Went jumping today, saw something normally not seen, a Sherpa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_C-23_Sherpa This DZ does have a Skyvan though...  Moving on, Pacific Aerospace 750 XSTOL take me away (to altitude): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAC_750XL   
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Jul 21, 2010 03:54
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Konigwheels posted:
I feel for that restoration team, but the wiki makes an interesting point: "The whole affair was sharply criticized by many in the warbird community as being ill conceived and risky. The argument being that the cost of restoring the B-29 to be flown off the lake could have been better spent simply disassembling the aircraft and airlifting sections of it back to Thule Air Base, where eventual return to flying status could have been carried out in much safer conditions."
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Jul 21, 2010 05:06
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The Kee-Bird was a gently caress up of mammoth proportions on the part of the salvage guys. I read a book that had quite a bit on it a while back, and they tried to turn it into a publicity stunt instead of focusing on getting the bird out. The team leader had latched onto the idea of flying the thing out even though it was completely unfeasible. I don't know about you, but I would think twice about taking an aircraft up that had been sitting exposed to the elements for decades.
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Jul 21, 2010 06:16
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On the other hand, how often do you get to (attempt to) live out your Flight Of The Phoenix fantasies?
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Jul 21, 2010 21:53
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InitialDave posted:On the other hand, how often do you get to (attempt to) live out your Flight Of The Phoenix fantasies? Bingo. See also, Trailer Queens vs. "It's a car, drive it." (even if it's 1 of 21 and is worth about $8 million)
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Jul 21, 2010 23:51
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joat mon posted:Bingo. See also, Trailer Queens vs. "It's a car, drive it." (even if it's 1 of 21 and is worth about $8 million) In the attempt to create a good story and get some publicity, a priceless piece of aviation history was destroyed. There is only one airworthy B-29 today; had Daryl Greenamyer and his team been a bit more cautious, this aircraft likely would have been the second. I think it should also be said that an airworthy vintage aircraft of any type represents a gigantic investment of time and money - much more than any car, no matter how rare or significant it may be. And for an aircraft as large and complicated as a B-29, the outlay of dollars and man-hours to keep one airworthy is so great that you essentially need to start with an aircraft that requires only minor work to get airworthy, as the Commemorative Air Force did with their flying B-29. Sure, there are a number of B-29s in museums, but restoring any one of them to flying status would take a dozen or more years and cost well into the tens of millions of dollars if restoration is even possible - there are hundreds of flight-critical parts on a B-29 that there are simply not available today. Making matters worse is that few, if any, production and engineering drawings exist for the aircraft, which makes fabricating replacement parts even more difficult. MrChips fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jul 22, 2010 |
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Jul 22, 2010 00:31
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MrChips posted:And for an aircraft as large and complicated as a B-29, the outlay of dollars and man-hours to keep one airworthy is so great that you essentially need to start with an aircraft that requires only minor work to get airworthy, as the Commemorative Air Force did with their flying B-29. Fifi had actually been used as gunnery target that sat in the California desert for 17 years (along with several other B-29's) before the CAF came along. When the CAF finally got permission to take the aircraft, it took a team of volunteers 9 weeks of almost nonstop work to install new parts (many from the other B-29's at the range) to get the aircraft airworthy and flown to Texas, where another 3 years of restoration were still required. As for Kee Bird, Greenamyer was an idiot. There was no reason to fly the aircraft off the ice, and the recent restoration of Glacier Girl (a P-38 buried in a glacier for 50 years) to flight status showed exactly the right way to go about getting a priceless aircraft recovered, restored, and flying, all without setting it on fire.
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Jul 22, 2010 03:15
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I worked at the New England Air Museum for 5 years on the volunteer restoration crew when I was in middle/high school. Towards the end of my time there I got to work on Jacks Hack, another B29 that was saved from the desert. It never saw action and was used as a weather recon platform after the war. I'm a C130 mechanic now and I am still in awe of how awesome and complex the older WW2 recip aircraft are compared to planes that were designed less than a decade later. Coincidentally the propellers on C130's are almost a direct descendant of the original Hamilton Hydromatic propellers, some of the small parts are so similar that they are still being produced today. Here's some cool pics of their guts. http://vectaris.net/imagelib/sitebu...&target=tlx_new http://vectaris.net/imagelib/sitebu...&target=tlx_new We are tearing a prop down at work tomorrow, I will try to get some pics of it for  awesomeness for you guys.
N183CS fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Jul 22, 2010 |
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Jul 22, 2010 06:33
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N183CS posted:We are tearing a prop down at work tomorrow, I will try to get some pics of it for Awesome! I've always wondered about the details of aircraft props, now I can finally find out! Content:  Goddamn the C5 was a huuuuge bitch.
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Jul 22, 2010 07:27
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Sterndotstern posted:Awesome! I've always wondered about the details of aircraft props, now I can finally find out! If anyone's interested, the USAF animation of that accident is on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI5xTmmPbsY The accident aircraft had just departed Dover AFB when the crew got an indication that the number 2 thrust reverser had unlocked, which required them to shut down the engine and turn back to Dover for landing. As the aircraft approached Dover, the pilot accidentally swapped the throttles, and began manipulating the #2 throttle as though it had power, while leaving the #3 engine (which was still running) at flight idle. Although the C-5 was capable of flying on 2 engines, the crew then used a flap setting that produced more drag than the engines could overcome, which resulted in the aircraft crashing into utility poles short of the runway. All 17 people on the aircraft survived, but the airframe was scrapped, with the cockpit slated to be used as an avionics test bed for future C-5 upgrades.
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Jul 22, 2010 07:43
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Is it even possible to be busted so far down in rank as to never have enlisted? That's insane.
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Jul 22, 2010 09:18
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Revolvyerom posted:Is it even possible to be busted so far down in rank as to never have enlisted? That's insane. In his defense, the pilot was severely dyslexic.
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Jul 22, 2010 10:44
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There's some good stories here and here about recovering the B-29 It's Hawg Wild from China lake and then flying it to Duxford museum in England. 
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Jul 22, 2010 11:09
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Manny posted:There's some good stories here and here about recovering the B-29 It's Hawg Wild from China lake and then flying it to Duxford museum in England. Voted 5.
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Jul 22, 2010 13:04
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I just read the whole story. If the story weren't so awesome then the music in that documentary would have probably made me kill myself. When I worked at the museum we had an old plane rotting in the back, but it was really rare. Some guy bought it and got it running, and somehow flew it out of there and across the country after it had been sitting in the new england weather for 20 years. Here's the B29 I worked on. http://www.neam.org/58th/hack.asp
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Jul 23, 2010 03:59
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As promised here are some pics of naked C130 propellers I took today at work.  This is the control assembly that pumps hydraulic fluid and controls pitch changes.  The next one in line to be overhauled, the white teflon rings on the blades were damaged causing leaks. 
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Jul 23, 2010 04:22
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How is the hydraulic fluid coupled into the spinning propshaft?
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Jul 23, 2010 14:21
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Behind the red phenolic round thingy on the pump you'll see a metal band, that normally rides on the propeller and it sits inside a seal, there is one on either side of the pump. It is basically the same as a transmission or axle output seal on a car, but a lot bigger. Inside the pump is a rotating collar with grooves cut in it that correspond to the holes in the prop shaft, fluid is ported through the spinning grooves into the holes in the prop shaft and up to the dome where the piston moves up and down, which rotates the cam that turns the blades. The collar also has gears on the outside that drive the pumps and also the fly weight governor in the valve housing on top. Looking at this thing will make you go  The tiny gear on the back of the prop hub in the last pic is a feedback gear that runs to a differential gear so it can spin but also tell the valves how to port fluid. It is geared to the #1 blade so the valves know hydraulically where the blades are pitch-wise. The valve housing is under the black cover on top of the pump and really is a work of art, it is a giant mechanical brain. It uses a series of gears, sliding multi port valves, cams, bellcranks, springs and solenoids, as well as a tiny gear box with a small electrically controlled clutch. They say the guy who designed it went crazy afterwards. Here is a pic of one I found online. 
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Jul 23, 2010 19:55
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Well poo poo. A CF18 just lawn darted while practicing for the airshow we're having this weekend. Reports are the pilot ejected OK but not a good way to kick it off. 
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Jul 23, 2010 20:36
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Shamlessly cross-posting Funkameleon's post from GiP: "Pilot Capt. Brian Bews ejects as his a CF-18 fighter jet plummets to the ground during a practice flight at the Lethbridge County Airport on Friday, July 23 for the weekend airshow in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The pilot was taken to Chinook Regional Hospital with undetermined injuries."     http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/23/4739027-pilot-ejects-an-instant-before-fighterjet-crashes Ironically, the music for his flyby pumped to the grandstands was Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive" The official cause of the crash: 1st Canadian Air Division posted:Unfortunately today, something happened. He was going through his practice sessions and something happened. He had to eject and the aircraft impacted the airfield.
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Jul 24, 2010 01:35
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If you watch the video, he was at low speed at a high pitch-up. Then you see the wing dip to the right, and he rolls right on in. Lucky he bailed out when he did.
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Jul 24, 2010 01:49
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MA-Horus posted:If you watch the video, he was at low speed at a high pitch-up. Then you see the wing dip to the right, and he rolls right on in. Lucky he bailed out when he did.
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Jul 24, 2010 02:15
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Well, we did just announce we were buying $9 billion worth of F-35s... gotta start clearing out the old inventory! (I'm goin' to hell)
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Jul 24, 2010 02:39
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Glad to hear the pilot survived. Also, I know it's been done to death in this thread, but that first shot really drives home just how drat big modern fighters are. The pilot is dwarfed by his machine, and the F-18 family isn't even all that huge.
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Jul 24, 2010 02:46
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What is the average military pilot worth? I figure from a basic training/skill standpoint there has to be some sort of value places on their lives. This also plays into the next question. What generally happens when a plane is crashed in the military. Is the entire playing field level... aka crashing an old prop cargo plane has the same disciplinary action as crashing say a brand new F22 or B2 bomber? Is anyone ever giving a pass for a stupid mistake or are you basically hosed no matter who you are when you down an aircraft?
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Jul 24, 2010 04:04
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dietcokefiend posted:What is the average military pilot worth? I figure from a basic training/skill standpoint there has to be some sort of value places on their lives. This also plays into the next question.? All the fighter pilot movies/discovery channel documentaries have always said the military spends ~2 million dollars before a pilot even gets in his final assigned plane. But I've been hearing that since the early 90's, so inflation has to have raised the bar there.
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Jul 24, 2010 04:41
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dietcokefiend posted:What is the average military pilot worth? I figure from a basic training/skill standpoint there has to be some sort of value places on their lives. This also plays into the next question. The current Army ROTC helicopter contract requires 8 years of service after finishing, so that should give you some idea of how expensive flight training is. That said, the Chinese students that train in the US have it far worse. Their training is paid for by an airline, but in return, the student essentially becomes an indentured servant for that company. When they sign the contract, those students are required to work for the airline for 20-30 years after finishing training (I've also heard of 99 year contracts as well), and they're automatically required to pay around $300,000 if they try and leave early. azflyboy fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Jul 24, 2010 |
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Jul 24, 2010 06:36
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Sorry for the cellphone pic, but it's all I had on me at LAX The first time I've seen one in person, and it is AWESOME. After a 737 landed and taxied to its gate, the pilot opened the cockpit door and proceeded to lean out and take some photos of the a380 on his digital camera. I thought that was great.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.
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Jul 24, 2010 17:28
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