The Aviation Enthusiasts Thread!

[KillerNeuron]

There seems to be a ton of aviation interest here, so I thought this would be a great place to share stories and whatnot.

I used to work on AH-64D's... the armament, avionics, and electrical side of the house. I loved it, but I really wanted to fly em. Unfortunately I got injured while putting my packet together and wouldn't have been able to pass the flight physical. Great aircraft although it has many design flaws and is a pain in the ass to troubleshoot sometimes. There is just way too much technology on the damn things! I have plenty of stories, but most would probably only interest fellow maintainers

My favorite fighter is the F-16. Incredible bird. Would like to see some Viper guys chime in!



Oh yeah, and the F-22's are flying again. Sa-weet.

Here are some photos of mine:

My Tigershark bass:

Your's truly, doing the thing in Iraq:

And a couple of my favorite photos I have taken. I am also an aviation photography enthusiast:

 

[Relic]

Wait!!! You're a girl??? I always thought you were a guy!!

Not really an aviator here, just an enthusiast. I was all set to join the military years ago but when they told me that my eyesight would keep me from flying that pretty much poo-pooed that deal...

I love F-16's as well, not my fav but they're definitely cool. I still have friends in Poland and they were telling me about how big a deal it was for them when they got their F-16's and put their Mig-21's out to pasture.. it was like the old Soviet/Warsaw Pact days were finally laid to rest.

As far as my fav goes, while I love the F-22 and the modern stuff, I still have an addiction to anything dealing with the F-104. I don't know why, but I just find it sexy:

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[KillerNeuron]

Wait!!! You're a girl??? I always thought you were a guy!!

I am, in fact, type XX.

The Starfighter is a CLASSIC! Pretty much anything that is a product of Skunk Works is a serious interest of mine. There is a really fantastic book called "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed" that has some pretty amazing stories from inside the alien world of Lockheed's super secret facilities, although its best accounts are of SR-71 and the U-2 program.

 

[Relic]

Now you're talking!
Anything dealing with the Skunkworks/Lockheed is really neat, even going all the way back to the P-38, they were innovative as hell. I'll have to check out that book!

Speaking of super secret stuff, another really cool thing is anything dealing with the "X-planes". From the old days of the X-15's and such right on up to the unmanned stuff they're playing with today. Tinfoil hat time.... I still honestly think that "Aurora" does exist and it's an unmanned hypersonic spy plane. There's just no no no no no way in my mind that we'd just retire the SR-71 with no replacement except for satellites..

 

[KillerNeuron]

Yep, I totally agree. We most certainly would not retire SR-71 without replacement.

I used to always screw with our Lockheed reps and try to get them to "tell me all their secrets." Truth is, they wouldn't have a clue, but everyone enjoys the sheer mystery and excitement that exists in trying to figure out what the hell the secret squirrels are up to behind closed doors! It would blow any of our minds, to be sure.

 

[Relic]

I have an acquaintance that works at Lockheed here doing things with satellites and whatnot. Actually he's snuck my son into their facility a few times to watch televised or streamed rocket launches when their products are being deployed. (My son and his son are best friends)
They tend to use a lot of French and Russian (!!) rockets to launch their commercial satellites these days incidentally.

But a few times I've asked him what else they do that I'm not supposed to know about... he just smiled and told me that they have a few "neat tricks up their sleeve". Aaargh!! That stuff kills me to not know!

 

[Webtroll]

does Wonder Woman really have an invisible jet?

 

[Michael Jewels]

Wait!!! You're a girl??? I always thought you were a guy!!

Oh, Relic, that has got to be the best photo I've seen of an F-104 yet!

Nice thread, KillerNeuron; I love discussing airplanes.

I'll try to keep my posts to the low hundreds.

Mike

 

[Relic]

LOL I was wondering when you were going to show up!

I love NASA stuff - they were using F-104's and even some surplus SR-71's for a while

 

[stratovani]

I'm a classic fighter plane fan myself. My favs are the P-51 Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire, P-38 Lightning, and, going further back, the Fokker Triplane of Red Baron fame, and the Sopwith Camel of Snoopy fame! The Focke-Wolf FW-190, with its BMW radial engine, was a helluva fighter in its own right!

 

[Relic]

I'm a classic fighter plane fan myself. My favs are the P-51 Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire, P-38 Lightning, and, going further back, the Fokker Triplane of Red Baron fame, and the Sopwith Camel of Snoopy fame! The Focke-Wolf FW-190, with its BMW radial engine, was a helluva fighter in its own right!

Have you ever heard a F4u Corsair or P-47 at full throttle? A P-51's/Spit's Merlin sounds like music, but that big-assed ol' radial? Oh man, THAT'S just pure raw power.

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[KillerNeuron]

Speaking of the P-51...

we have all heard about the Reno tragedy. It interests me that they did so many modifications to a vintage airframe that honestly probably shouldn't still be racing. Any thoughts?

For good measure, here is a shot I took of Galveston Gal earlier this year. (With one of my other favorites, the A-10! AWESOME PLANE! It's GAU-8/A Avenger makes the Apache's M230 look like childsplay!)

 

[Tituscrow]

If you ever come to England, the Museum of Science and Industry has a wonderful exhibition.

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[Michael Jewels]

Speaking of the P-51...

we have all heard about the Reno tragedy. It interests me that they did so many modifications to a vintage airframe that honestly probably shouldn't still be racing. Any thoughts?

I wouldn't worry as much about the airframe, as the pilot.

The pilot that crashed was 74 years old.

As of now, we don't know what the cause(s) were of this crash, but I remember reading an article a few years back which suggested that pilots over a certain age, no matter how healthy they are, be banned from stunt/air racing, because of the stress this type of flying puts on any one's body.

Most people have the most money they ever have at retirement.

Let's say a 65 year old has a more than comfortable nest egg, and has enough money to buy a high performance plane.

He buys the plane, but still has a 65 year old body.

He or she may be healthy for their age, but they're still 65 years old.

Think about it: who is more likely to die running a marathon; a 25 year old or a 65 year old?

I believe mandatory retirement for airline pilots is 60, and the airliners they fly do not do stunts, and they do have a co-pilot in case something happens to them in flight.

I'm not a doctor, nor do I have any medical training, but to me this is just common sense.

I'm sorry, I don't have the article I read a few years ago at hand to post right now, but I'll look for it.

Some people say that 60 is the new 40; 70 is the new 50, but I say we all get weaker physically as we age, and to try to deny this is folly.

Mike

 

[Relic]

I heard that a good possibility was that one of the trim tabs was lost and it forced the P-51 out of control at a high speed. Then there are a series of pics circulating that show the plane coming down and you cannot see the pilots head in the canopy which would (possibly) indicate that he's blacked out... dunno how true or not true that is though.

At any rate, with a lot of those old birds, part of the restoration process is actually replacing or strengthening internal stress points. In regards to the Galloping Ghost, (I don't know that they did not did not do this) but I would assume that they would have? Who knows... I know that one mod on that plane was that they clipped the wing ends about 3' or something like that...

 

[KillerNeuron]

I totally agree with age being a massive limitation. My truest passion is aerospace medicine and will be my career track now as I go back to school. Everything you said is, to my understanding, totally correct. Jan Collmer is 77 (I think?), and although he flies his Extra beautifully, it always makes me nervous when I see him flying! There is a reason that the AF, Army, etc etc have age limitations for pilots entering flight school. It would probably be a good idea to establish age restrictions in stunt flying and racing as well.

 

[KillerNeuron]

I heard that a good possibility was that one of the trim tabs was lost and it forced the P-51 out of control at a high speed. Then there are a series of pics circulating that show the plane coming down and you cannot see the pilots head in the canopy which would (possibly) indicate that he's blacked out... dunno how true or not true that is though.

At any rate, with a lot of those old birds, part of the restoration process is actually replacing or strengthening internal stress points. In regards to the Galloping Ghost, (I don't know that they did not did not do this) but I would assume that they would have? Who knows... I know that one mod on that plane was that they clipped the wing ends about 3' or something like that...

All in all, I believe 10' were hacked off the wings between the pilot and previous owner. The ailerons also nearly lost half of their surface area.

After watching the video, I was discussing it with a friend of mine who is a military pilot, and we both came to the conclusion that he blacked out from the high G's sustained from the sudden upward flight path that the aircraft took just prior to coming straight down into the crowd. I know the news said it appeared that he tried to avoid the stands, but there is really no indication of him putting any control input into the aircraft before crashing... or atleast if he did the controls didn't actually respond.

 

[Michael Jewels]

I heard that a good possibility was that one of the trim tabs was lost and it forced the P-51 out of control at a high speed. Then there are a series of pics circulating that show the plane coming down and you cannot see the pilots head in the canopy which would (possibly) indicate that he's blacked out... dunno how true or not true that is though.

At any rate, with a lot of those old birds, part of the restoration process is actually replacing or strengthening internal stress points. In regards to the Galloping Ghost, (I don't know that they did not did not do this) but I would assume that they would have? Who knows... I know that one mod on that plane was that they clipped the wing ends about 3' or something like that...

Regarding the clipped wings: Yes, Relic, I noticed that in pictures, but haven't read that much about the Reno crash.

The image that came to mind when I saw the clipped wings of the P-51 was the Spitfire LF MK.IXe
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Image Detail for - http://www.hannants.co.uk/images/full/X32025.jpg

Clipping the wings gave it a better roll rate especially at low altitudes.

Mike

 

[Gaius46]

Wait!!! You're a girl??? I always thought you were a guy!!

Not really an aviator here, just an enthusiast. I was all set to join the military years ago but when they told me that my eyesight would keep me from flying that pretty much poo-pooed that deal...

I love F-16's as well, not my fav but they're definitely cool. I still have friends in Poland and they were telling me about how big a deal it was for them when they got their F-16's and put their Mig-21's out to pasture.. it was like the old Soviet/Warsaw Pact days were finally laid to rest.

As far as my fav goes, while I love the F-22 and the modern stuff, I still have an addiction to anything dealing with the F-104. I don't know why, but I just find it sexy:

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I have a friend who drove Starfighters for the RCAF back in the 80s. He has some stories to tell about that bird. Had a mural of one painted on the wall - the entire wall - in his living room.

And my dad worked on carrier based F9s back in the 50s.

While I'm a civilian pilot - I'm a flight instructor - I too was kept out of military flying because of poor eyesight. I did have the good fortune to spend a month's worth of weekends learning to fly aerobatics in a Mudry CAP-10. That's a piston French AF trainer. What a sweet ride

 

[Relic]

I have a friend who drove Starfighters for the RCAF back in the 80s. He has some stories to tell about that bird. Had a mural of one painted on the wall - the entire wall - in his living room.

And my dad worked on carrier based F9s back in the 50s.

While I'm a civilian pilot - I'm a flight instructor - I too was kept out of military flying because of poor eyesight. I did have the good fortune to spend a month's worth of weekends learning to fly aerobatics in a Mudry CAP-10. That's a piston French AF trainer. What a sweet ride

I would seriously love to hear some of those stories!
I've heard it said that they were notoriously hard to fly, with take-offs and landings being especially tricky.

I've thought many times about trying to get a pilot's license. It would be like a dream come true but alas I don't think I'll ever have enough $ to actually own a plane.. not to mention invest the time into learning how to fly..