The plane enthusiasts thread

[figbat]

“Well you’d better get back in it”.

 

[gbb]

Yep, Old Sarum.

I never knew where it was but always remember my dad saying it was his most favourite places he had been ( I assume in the RAF)

 

[DaveReading]

Rotten borough, though ...

 

[gbb]

What the heck has politics got to do with it Dave ...c'mon

 

[Profpointy]

What the heck has politics got to do with it Dave ...c'mon

All these liberals with their 1832 reform act ...

 

[gbb]

Told this one before I think but dad was on base one night and a Victor was due in for a quick turn round. They got word it was inbound and sent out one of the relative newbies to martial it in. Too long passed and they got up to see what the delay was....to find the young fella curled up on the tarmac in front of this menacing looking behemoth, lights glaring, pilot screaming with apoplectic rage at the poor sod. Dad said, it really was a menacing looking sight when you stood in front of one in the dark, it completely freaked the poor sod.

Funny how things come round. Despite remembering the above story, i never knew where this actually happened, i thought dad worked almost exclusively on Vulcans and the ill fated Valiants.
Contacted out of the blue by a stranger to return a painting dad gave his dad some 60 years ago while they both served at RAF Wyton, he related how his dad regaled the Vicors. That'll be it then, thats almost certainly where it happened.

 

[classic33]

Inbound over Manchester

 

[DaveReading]

Inbound over Manchester
View attachment 614589

Now that's what I call low flying ...

 

[MichaelW2]

The "horrendous crash rate" was a bit of an urban myth - Starfighters crashed in about the same proportion as other contemporary fighters.

The main problem was that some nations (mis)used the aircraft in the low-level strike role (for which it was never designed). That meant that the survival rate for ejecting pilots was disappointingly low.

Starfighters eject the pilot down through the floor not up through the canopy.

 

[MichaelW2]

US private VIP flight of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aborted takeoff and crashed after skidding 300m through a field. All 21 passengers got out and the jet burned up. That is what I like to call a successful landing.

 

[DaveReading]

US private VIP flight of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aborted takeoff and crashed after skidding 300m through a field. All 21 passengers got out and the jet burned up. That is what I like to call a successful landing.

It actually overran by quite a bit more than that - the aircraft crossed the runway end safety area, went through the airport boundary fence, then another fence, crossed a public road (happily unoccupied at the time), bringing down power lines that ran along the road, then hit a tree rupturing one wing and its fuel tank (hence the fire) before it finally came to rest.

Total distance covered beyond the runway end was about 600 m - hence speculation that at least one of the engines was producing thrust throughout the overrun. 18 passengers on board plus 3 crew.

 

[Drago]

Starfighters eject the pilot down through the floor not up through the canopy.

Later marks were modified for more conventional ejection set upsthat fired upwards. The Stanley V, C, C1, C2, and latterly the Martin Baker Mk Q7a, were all used.

 

[Cycleops]

Don’t know if many of you are aware of the Kermit Weeks or his channel on YouTube but hes currently restoring Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun at his Fantasy of Flight facility in the US. I believe Kermit was left a fortune by his father who made his money in the oil business and he decided to put the money into buying historic planes. Here his chief restorer Paul Stecewycz goes through the process of restoring this 70+ years old aeroplane and covers everything from re skinning the wings and fuselage to the cockpit upholstery. Fascinating stuff.

View: https://youtu.be/nYwoBGIMukA

 

[Svendo]

Later marks were modified for more conventional ejection set upsthat fired upwards. The Stanley V, C, C1, C2, and latterly the Martin Baker Mk Q7a, were all used.

Unable to let this discussion go by without adding this cultural tangent:

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6BQ2VEzhU

Part of a concept album based on the Starfighters reputation.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Wednesday 3rd

(ex) RAF Acaster Malbis
Acaster Selby

A nice restoration!! (1)

More reminders, on the approach to it

http://www.airfields-in-yorkshire.co.uk/acaster/
Curiously, there's no picture of the Control Tower; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/738595

1. Scroll to the bottom to see the previous condition; http://atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/ey_acaster_malbis.php


https://her.york.gov.uk/Monument/MYO3548
https://www.forgottenairfields.com/airfield-acaster-malbis-981.html

And, it seems, home to; https://frytec.co.uk/