Aviation MegaThread!!!!

I dont know if it counts, but I just watched the international space station do a flyover! Very cool!

How about a grossly in-proportionate 3D printed glider?



Having fun with my new toy. Not the glider.

The point was that there's less downtime. The overhaul shop takes over and the aircraft's operational while the engine is being serviced.

3D printer or dremel?

how does it fly?

I recall reading that one of the advantages of the BF109 was it's QEC design: the engine, guns, and prop were designed to be exchanged as a unit. Allegedly a pilot could return form a sortie and while taking a pee and eating a sandwich his ground crew could set him up with a fresh powerplant and armament. A good crew was supposedly able to do the entire swap and have the craft airworthy in something like 15 minutes.

Damaged or tired airframes were sent back to the factory for refurbishment, and many were pieced together from multiple ships. Because of this there is evidently no clear record of just how many were made, and how many were remade.

With the Imperial War Museum in London being refurbished exhibits based there have been moved to Duxford temporarily, thought it was worth a visit;

View directly in flickr's light-room here;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N04/8519324722/in/photostream/lightbox/

use the older tab to work back

1

Zero by BMrider2012, on Flickr

2

Ole Bill by BMrider2012, on Flickr

3

Mr Hess's aeroplane by BMrider2012, on Flickr

4

jet age by BMrider2012, on Flickr

5

J52 by BMrider2012, on Flickr

6

Fire and Ambulance brigade by BMrider2012, on Flickr

7

25 years apart by BMrider2012, on Flickr

8

3 spits by BMrider2012, on Flickr

9

Fairey Firefly by BMrider2012, on Flickr

10

Spitfire by BMrider2012, on Flickr

11

British Antarctic Survey Twin Otter at Duxford by BMrider2012, on Flickr

12

BAC Strikemaster by BMrider2012, on Flickr

13

Lightning XM135 by BMrider2012, on Flickr

14

Tornado GR1 ZA465 by BMrider2012, on Flickr

15

De Havilland Chipmunk WB-726 by BMrider2012, on Flickr

16

GX-JCB by BMrider2012, on Flickr

17

Avro Shackleton by BMrider2012, on Flickr

18

Apache2 by BMrider2012, on Flickr

19

Apache4 by BMrider2012, on Flickr

Thanks for looking :)

3d printer... And it doesnt. . Still experimenting with the printer setup, but I think I can get a flying glider pretty easily.

I have worked on that one a few times...by that one I mean that exact one.

BAS operates 4 DCH-6 and one Dash 7, all of which I have been up to my armpits in.

Says British Antarctic Survey on the fuselage, but the reg begins with VP? Is that Chile? Is that common? Contacted out?

Or is that Boark Air flying under a separate reg?

VP-F = Falkland Islands

VP- for UK off shore and the -F for the Falkland Islands

Hay Ewe

Shot from my back yard this afternoon!


IMG_1355 by Renaissance Redneck Media, on Flickr


IMG_1345 by Renaissance Redneck Media, on Flickr


IMG_1258 by Renaissance Redneck Media, on Flickr

Saw one of these on final into Toronto this afternoon.

Man, they take up a lot of sky. :huh

One took off ahead of me (passenger in a little ole 737) a few weeks ago. It lumbered off in front of us, didn't look that big as it flew away from us but then it turned and looked simply massive (by this time it was a fair way out and we were still taxing...

At about 3:50


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P7DygPsJ_sA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That was close...

At 3:30, the oncoming aircraft is just visible, but covered by the datum line of the heads up display.

At 4:01, the airliner passes just in front; at 4:02 the evasive manouver begins.

Earlier, the controller asked the fighter pilot to check Mode C, wonder if his transponder had problems.

What was said between the pilots and the controller after the near miss...

NFE

I saw a 747-400 parked along side an A380 at SIN a few months ago - that really showed how big it is.
But its ugly, very blunt nose and short and dumpy. 747 has much better lines

Hay Ewe

Fly-In at KDRT.


That would be "DRT" as in a dirt airstrip out by the Hassayampa and Flat Iron Mountain, north of I-10.





I rode out to see some buddies (Anyone remember JimJib?), who were on an off-road riding weekend. This was their stop for the night. The dude with the plane is an old riding buddy of Jim's. Since he didn't have a bike ready to ride, he decided to take the plane.





S.C.

The airliner contrail is visible for a good 7-8 seconds prior to point of closest approach. This illustrates a real known problem with Head Up Displays (HUD's), basically you have a natural tendency to gaze at the display, not ahead and beyond. Airliners, the (few) ones with HUD's, do not use them in cruise flight, only for low visibility approaches. Military aircraft (as this one is, I suspect a low performance fighter trainer) use a HUD for low vis approaches but principally for target selection/aiming, and back up primary flight information when in tactical modes. This isn't to say the pilot was asleep at the stick, and it also makes one wonder why the passing airliner TCAS did not give a RA (resolution advisory) to turn well before this encounter. There seems to be some confusion about the aircrafts transponder altitude reporting too, and other issues with ATC. I.E. They seemed to know where he was, before and after the sector handoff. They supposedly should have known about the airliner, too. (Before the handoff the controller asked him to expedite to FL360, which is always a clue to be aware for traffic). The military plane was cleared to FL360, but later, with the second controller, he was told to immediately descend to FL320, after the encounter. Not knowing Italian I can't tell if he reported this near collision. Perhaps the previous controller did not forward the cleared to FL360 to the next controller and the second controller thought he was at FL320, even though he reported in at FL360. That, coupled with the apparent altitude reporting problems may have coupled to make a high threat environment it came to be.

End of novel.

If the fighter was really hauling, the closure could have been too fast for TCAS to resolve a solution.

Or, perhaps the fighter's transponder was not sending or accurately reporting Mode C (pressure altitude).