willedoo

From a German advertisement, I guess:

 

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

There's been a bit of discussion in the past on forums like Airliners etc. Mostly centered around hydraulics & wind. Lack of hydraulic pressure combined with prevailing wind & other theories that the hydraulics are set up in a way that one side loses pressure & not the other. But they were all guesses, it would be good to hear from a technician or pilot who knows what the real reason is.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

This man takes his hobby seriously:

 

http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/retired-dentist-creates-functional-miniature-airplane-models.html?utm_source=scribol&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=scribol

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Here's a good way to dress up your old garage:

 

http://www.stormclimb.com/2011/06/09/trompe-loeil-puts-an-fa-18-hornet-in-your-garage/

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

'Treat the prop like it could be live'

Sounds a good rule to live by, a bit like treating every firearm as if it's loaded, it should be standard procedure.

 

 

Mad parachutist:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_hjrsr3pfU&feature=related

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Then there's this bloke vs A6 Intruder:

 

 

 

If it eventually happens, it will be a great tourist attraction. Alice is a fairly cheap destination to fly to, comparatively, & it has lots of other things to see & do there as well. The climate is good for a boneyard & the region is covered with a permanent carpet of buffel grass these days, so they don't get the dust storms like 20 or 30 years ago. I'm guessing it will be located at the Alice airport. The Transport Museum at Alice pulls in up to $15,000 per day in admission fees during the tourist season, so the boneyard would have to be a going concern if it was open to the public.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

There is a good chance the small head-on photo is the same aircraft as in your dad's photo. It looks like the engines have been removed in both photos.Cheers,

 

Peter.

Thanks, Peter, I noticed the lack of engines in the first photo, but didn't make the connection with the last photo. I think I'm wrong about it being an amphibian, as 42 Squadron were still mine laying a month prior to this. As far as I can find out, the Cats minelaying were converted to flying boats to save weight by removing the undercarriage. So that would rule out an attempted beach landing. Possibly it landed where it is on a higher tide & struck a sandbar, or was damaged in a landing in deeper water & towed inshore. The earlier maintainence photos that I saw somewhere might have showed it propped up rather than on wheels. Should have bookmarked them, can't find them again. The photo hasn't been published before, so if anyone wants to use it for any reason, feel free to do so.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Been scanning a few old photos my dad brought back from the war & found this one of a downed Catalina. He didn't have a camera, so I guess one of his mates took the photo. His memory is getting a bit shakey lately, so he can't shed any light on it. I've been looking online to try & piece the story of it together, but, as often is the case, it's not easy.

 

What I have found out is that the code letters RK are 42 Squadron. According to the ADF serials website, where it's listed under it's RAAF serial number A24-101

 

( http://www.adf-serials.com/ ), RK-G was recorded as being damaged on 3/7/45 & later in the year, salvaged & converted. I'm trying to track down some information as to location & cause of accident, etc. The ADF Serials site doesn't mention where it is, but I'm guessing Balikpapan for a few reasons. The photo was very small, hence the lack of image quality:

 

[ATTACH=full]897[/ATTACH]

 

Looks like another Catalina moored offshore, ahead & on the port side of RK-G. The landings at Balikpapan started on the 1/7/45, so the date coincides.

 

The above photo must have been taken some time after it crashed/ beached or whatever the cause was, as I found this next photo online, taken when the tail was still complete:

 

[ATTACH=full]898[/ATTACH]

 

To the rear, it looks like the starboard float torn off & lying in the water, so maybe it crash landed or was damaged in a soft landing. I'm not sure what model it is, but I found some earlier photos of it undergoing maintenance & it is an amphibian. This photo shows quite a bit of shipping in the background & the faint outline of a large bay, which re-enforces the idea of it being at Balikpapan. The first photo my father brought back with him shows some sort of writing or grafitti on the side & it looks like the horizontal stabilizer & rudder have been cut off for parts. He was at the initial landings & then in the bush for a couple of months, so his photo was possibly taken when they got back to Balikpapan.

 

The only other Catalina incidents I can find in connection with the Balikpapan area are 2 sinkings, neither of them from 42 Squadron, and one other photo of an un-identified Catalina with the title ' A Catalina lost at Balikpapan while bringing in blood plasma'. There's a good possibility it might be the same one, here's a photo of it:

 

[ATTACH=full]899[/ATTACH]

 

It's been interesting digging around for information on it, especially when I'm not too familiar with Catalinas. Seems like the RAAF had some different models, some of them flying boats, some amphibians, also some amphibians later converted to flying boats. I couldn't figure out why all the ealier RAAF Catalina acquisitions were delivered to them from Qantas. It turns out that they acted as a middle man because the US was still neutral at that stage & wouldn't supply direct to the RAAF. Some of them were sold back to Qantas after the war. I'll keep digging around & hope to find out some more about this one. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

[ATTACH]18062[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

OK Daz ta. Done a little research a'la Google. Seems this ride takes place on Dec 21 each year & is called The Longest Day Ride with the objective of getting to Cameron's Corner or further. Apparently a recreational AC made the trip last year to coincide & the Hosts of the Corner Store were interested in seeing if there was more interest in AC doing it in future or something along those lines. Maybe I'll ring the store & have a chat. Would be great to do. On a bike would be a blast as well. Any interest from TAA members?

If you could do it, Dexter, it would be a lot of fun, it's a nice little watering hole. Being in late December, it must be for masochists only to do a bike run, though. Cameron's Corner is in a good position to do a round trip, flying Cameron's Corner/ Innamincka / Noccundra. If you can hack the heat & flies at that time of year, it's nice & quiet with very few tourists. Some years you can be lucky & strike nice weather in December, but January is usually always the worst.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Here's another one for you Willie. Do you know what this is?

Hadn't seen it before, Peter, but I found a description with no photo of a Messerschmitt Bf 109Z & it sounds a lot like it. Reminds me of the P82 Twin Mustang, except this one has only one cockpit.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

I think you're right with the Short Admiralty 184. Here are another photo and illustration. I think the rear gunner cliches it.

Thanks, Peter. It's not easy to find information or good photos on them. I was tending to think it looked more like the 184 rather than the 860. The thing that makes me think it's a Short is the vertical stabilizer and that structure up front, looks like a radiator & exhaust or something.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

While scanning some old family photos, I came across this World War One British floatplane. The photo was taken by my great-uncle who served in the Light Horse in the Middle-East from 1916 - 1919. I was hoping someone with a keen eye might be able to help identify it. Have looked at photos on-line & I'm fairly convinced it's a Short, but what model, I'm not sure. It's a very small photo but the wings look equal length which might make it a Short Admiralty 184 or an Admiralty 860. These are the only Short models I can find so far that have equal length wings, the others all seem to have a shorter length bottom wing. Maybe it's not a Short at all. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

Original size photo:

 

[ATTACH=full]884[/ATTACH]

 

Closer view:

 

[ATTACH=full]885[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]18055[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

Interesting watching 60 minutes last night about drilling and mining in Siberia.They have more oil that Saudi Arabia.There is still plenty of oil left around the world.

They say Russia has the largest known oil & gas reserves in the world, but I'm not sure if that includes all of the off shore territory that they claim ownership of in the arctic circle. They're getting pretty excited about the ice shelf shrinking & the future exploration opportunities there that didn't exist before. It's had it impact on aviation as well, being the main reason the Tu-95 & Tu-160 strategic bombers have been brought out of mothballs this year. Their biggest danger is that their present economy is not so diversified, and is highly dependant by oil & gas revenues. This drives all their military & domestic modernization policies, so if the price of oil drops significantly, Russia's stuffed. But I think high prices might be here for a while.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

I'd seen the Herc landing footage before, but not the launch. Here's a link to a short clip that shows both:

 

 

Another link with some info, has photos showing the offset centreline painted on deck. Good effort considering the cat & trap wasn't used, unassisted t/o & landing, only the usual jet assist. I think the only mods were an anti skid braking system fitted.

 

http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Drilling an 8" hole in the ground would always have to be cheaper than dedicating vast areas of productive farmland to growing ethanol crops....i'm confused....what way are u coming at this...?

Sorry to confuse, what I meant was that in the long run it has to be more cost effective to drill for oil rather than set up ethanol plants and the associated land use to grow the crops. Ethanol has probably been an interesting experiment, but to increase the useage of it worldwide means the productive land has to be found somewhere or existing food producing land turned over to producing crops for ethanol. Oil always will have critics, but an oil well doesn't need thousands, or 100's of thousands of acres of land to produce the equivalent energy. It's only my opinion, but ethanol is limited in volume of production & useage because of the way it's produced & will probably always be a token thing. You have to grow ethanol, whereas all the oil was formed millions of years ago & all we have to do is get it out & refine it . That's basically what I was getting at.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

HI Willee, The F111 had a bit of Beryllium in it which is Toxic as well. ( My Compo was due to working in fuel tanks.)

Haven't heard of Beryllium, it doesn't sound very nice. I'm not sure of the number of F111's buried, but it would have to be a huge cost to de-tox them all, so I can see what you mean about the cost effectivness of digging a hole.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

E10 isn't really greener, just government policy to appease the global warming adherents.

I'd certainly have to agree there. It's always been pie in the sky stuff. Drilling an 8" hole in the ground would always have to be cheaper than dedicating vast areas of productive farmland to growing ethanol crops. I'd say at a guess the world production capacity of ethanol would have almost peaked as we need the land we've got for food production. As far as the green side goes, it's a bit like solar - it can't exist without oil production, bauxite mining, copper & iron ore mining, sand mining, lead mining, & the list goes on. Unless they figure out a way to make things out of air.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Saw it on the news earlier, quite amazing. He was roaring along beside those jets just like he was one of them.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

I have a mate who is still at Amberley, he now works for boeing.To cut a long story short.To cut them up was/is more expensive than burying them.They are toxic, I should know LOL.I got payed $10 K from Veteran Affairs for working on them for nearly 9 years.

They mentioned asbestos on one news brief, I guess it would be a lot more expensive to de-contaminate an F111 than to do a building.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Thanks, John. I always enjoy checking your thread. You always have some interesting traffic over there in the west.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Yeah Willie, for my money it is one of the better Vietnam aviation based, war books available. Cooper is perhaps understandably bitter about his treatment by authorities in Aus after the fact and has his say about it, but there is plenty of meat there too.Methinks we need to resurrect the good aviation book thread.......

 

Incidentally I think you're on the money re the source of the choppers and the thinking process involved. I'm not so sure though that anyone else actually paid for them, handouts to the South Vietnamese Govt. I suspect. Probably better they ended up on the seabed instead of in uncle Ho's grubby little mits.

Quite right there, Spin. At the end of the day, I suppose whether they were lend-lease or donated along with the draw down, the US taxpayer had paid for them in one form or another, but they wouldn't have been on the USN or USAF's books at that time. That would make them a lot easier to dump overboard, as the Captain wouldn't have as much explaining to do to his bosses. I've seen comments on a foreign aviation forum where the poster said the pilot must have been a VIP to warrant ditching all that gear. I don't really see it that way, I think he was just another Air Force Major. There was a lot of politics at play back then, & the policy was to get all Americans off safely first & then hopefully as many of their friends as they could. This caused a lot of guilt & sadness among some serving US people, knowing they had to leave a lot of people behind, so I'd guess this incident would have been a big morale booster to them at the time. That's only my opinion, there'd be lots of others.

 

Regarding the aviation book thread, there's a sticky in hobbies & collectables for book & dvd reviews, discussions etc. It might be good to include the book there.

 

http://theaussieaviator.net/threads/book-dvd-reviews.33596/

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

Not sure of the tail no. but I seem to recall that the one that the RAAF broke and then spent a few man years putting back together, was still on strength somewhere in the States, might be appropriate to hand that over seeing as we more or less built it anyway:)

Bit of a sad story there as well, Spin - they shot it in 2005. That was 6 Squadron's number 34 (69-7234). Almost 19,000 man hours went in to the rebuild to make it better than new. It went to the States, then to Ramstein in Germany & remained an F4E while it was there. After that, it went back to the States for F4G conversion like the others, then to Desert Storm (4 radar kills), then to the graveyard in 1991. It got it's red tail & QF conversion in 1999 & was destroyed as a target in July 2005. The final two ex RAAF QF conversions lasted until 2006. All up, 15 of ours were eventually converted from F-4G's to QF-4G's & destroyed as target drones. Not a good story, but I suppose some good came out of it.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

69-7234 in it's target drone colours:

 

 

 

Sad but true, unfortunately. Even if I can sort of follow the argument for not recycling them (hazard and economics), I was surprised to see that some of them still had their canopies and all were still on their undercarriage. When I see what Motoart can do with old bits of aeroplane, you'd have to think that some of these items could have been sold off to enthusiasts - I've got a bit of a thing for industrial chic (Memo to self, got to find an old airframe or two to plunder)

I have an idea it's something to do with the original deal with the US, the de-militarization & destruction of them. The engines that are not used as museum displays all have to be destroyed, from what I heard, as they're the same ones the Iranians have in their Tomcats. Snapped this one (A8-147) at Amberly a couple of weeks ago with the engines out, so I'd guess it got buried. Very sad to see.

Cheers, Willie.