[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

Now for something different: The Lippisch P-Planes.

A coal-powered airplane?!?!?!?!?

[Llarry]

If it's Thursday, we gotta have a Tomcat!

Here's the squadron commander's aircraft from VF-84 painted up in classic Jolly Rogers livery.

[Lady Jane]

[Llarry]

I don't intend to post an F-4 Phantom photo every Phriday, but this one is too good to pass up. An F-4J of VF-161 "Chargers" based on USS Midway in 1980 and homeported in Japan.

The Midway and sister carrier Coral Sea were considered too small to have F-14 Tomcats, so kept F-4s longer than the larger ships. In the 1980s, their F-4s were finally retired and they got F-18s for a few years until their retirement.

Great paint job on this one! The good old days.

[AmuroRay]

P51 Mustang

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by Llarry

I don't intend to post an F-4 Phantom photo every Phriday, but this one is too good to pass up. An F-4J of VF-161 "Chargers" based on USS Midway in 1980 and homeported in Japan.

The Midway and sister carrier Coral Sea were considered too small to have F-14 Tomcats, so kept F-4s longer than the larger ships. In the 1980s, their F-4s were finally retired and they got F-18s for a few years until their retirement.

Great paint job on this one! The good old days.

I spent a little over a week TDYed on the Midway back in '79. I had to run some intercepts to keep my AIC qual up, so I was sent there.

[V1_ROT8]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

P51 Mustang

There was a P51 based at the airport I did most of my flight training and instructed at. Such a beautiful airplane. And that Merlin V-12 made an awesome sound!

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by V1_ROT8

There was a P51 based at the airport I did most of my flight training and instructed at. Such a beautiful airplane. And that Merlin V-12 made an awesome sound!

Told the story a while ago somewhere here about a Mustang that did a low approach at SLC when I was working the tower. I thought my career was over, though it was quite impressive!

[Lady Jane]

The best synopsis to date. Hoover worked for a major airline and flew F-15 Stike Eagles for 20 years.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

Told the story a while ago somewhere here about a Mustang that did a low approach at SLC when I was working the tower. I thought my career was over, though it was quite impressive!

A good friend of my dad’s owned a P-51D back in the 70’s. Dad was one the
fortunate few that got to go for a ride in the cramped little seat behind the
pilot. The canopy was stock, so the headroom back there was tight. But who
cared.

Dad and the former owner passed away decades ago, but that P-51 soldiers
on as “Merlin’s Magic,” an occasional pylon racer.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

Dad and the former owner passed away decades ago, but that P-51 soldiers
on as “Merlin’s Magic,” an occasional pylon racer.

You might be interested in this:

https://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-5...6/merlinsmagic

[flybigjet]

I passed my Qual Check today.

Yaaay!

The training to date has been...... Honestly? Pretty rough. EXCELLENT instructors, but it's obvious that the Company is giving the minimum training footprint (because of cost cutting) that they can get away with for those coming back to work from an extended absence. And, putting two captains together instead of a captain and a first officer has done neither myself or my sim partner any favors. It's been..... one of the hardest training footprints I've ever done-- the only reason I'm succeeding is a) I'm experienced with a lot of muscle memory (read: old) and b) the instructors have been bending over backwards to help us get the training we really need.

Going from 19 months off without even looking at a jet to fully spun-up with minimal notification, minimum time to study (I had 13 days to compete ~70 hours of computer based training including Christmas Eve and Christmas in addition to relearning about 4300 pages of "important" stuff), a minimal training footprint (they've recently cut two out two sims) and half of the left seat time I would have gotten if I was paired with a first officer. It's been.... unfun.

Example: Literally ONE warm-up full-flight sim before my Maneuvers Validation (and my first landing in 19 months was high-crosswind and the second was engine-out), and ONE left-seat "how to be a captain again" sim and then my Qual Check.

Ugh.

On the plus side, an Oceanic Procedures sim tomorrow, a day of "Drinking the Kool-Aid" training the day after, and then it'll be back to the jet for a few days of flight training.

And, another checkride. And then I'll be fully qualified back to the left seat.

It's.... been one helluva hill to climb.

And, I have another big hill to climb to get requalified as a Check Pilot at the end of the month.

R.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

P51 Mustang

A beautiful bird. Here it is in motion!

[Lady Jane]

Duct Tape Airline. Would you...?

[AmuroRay]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

Duct Tape Airline. Would you...?

Attachment 3637902

Excuses me Ma'am it's "Speed tape" and duct tape...err Speed tape can fix anything.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

Excuses me Ma'am it's "Speed tape" and duct tape...err Speed tape can fix anything.

I stand corrected...

[AmuroRay]

I've never really read through this thread, but a few notes -

I've always loved the idea of being a pilot. My parents used to bring us to the airshows and we would watch the "Blue Angels" fly - I had a few posters, in my room at the time (do kids still do posters?)

Liked the F15 because at the time (Or is it still) it was one of the fastest jets in the world. But a friend would always talk about the P51 being one of the best looking planes ever, and I have to agree.

I think about 6 months ago, a thread here (I don't remember which - and who was in it, maybe Flybigjet?) mentioned something about the government making it harder for people to fly - it's becoming MORE expensive and more unobtainable for most people, which is unfortunate. I did some reading that night and saw a webpage dedicated to a -contractor? vendor? Fabricator? Who wanted to swap GM LSx small blocks to Cesna bodies instead of using the Lacombe engines from the 1950. In every step of the way, they were thwarted by the FAA to the point where they wouldn't even respond or review their request.

It was eye opening and actually frightening, and leads me to believe that the reduction popularity in flying and the cost cuts are purposely engineered. It's too bad - but let's enjoy it while we can

[AmuroRay]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

I stand corrected...

I was teasing - but they do actually call it speedtape.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

I was teasing - but they do actually call it speedtape.

Speed tape (aka 350 mph tape) is AWESOME.

I've used it to cover a hole in a cowling from the Middle East back to the US.

320 knots, .77M and it didn't even *begin* to start to peel off.

That stuff is AMAZING.

R.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

I did some reading that night and saw a webpage dedicated to a -contractor? vendor? Fabricator? Who wanted to swap GM LSx small blocks to Cesna bodies instead of using the Lacombe engines from the 1950. In every step of the way, they were thwarted by the FAA to the point where they wouldn't even respond or review their request.

It was eye opening and actually frightening, and leads me to believe that the reduction popularity in flying and the cost cuts are purposely engineered.

Type certification for aviation stuff is rigid, and requires redundancies right down to needing two spark plugs and separate ignition systems on a piston-driven gasoline airplane engine. Those air-cooled Continental and Lycoming engines in most GA aircraft are far from obsolete, and are among the lightest and most reliable power plants available.

I can't find the Diamond aircraft video that I saw about their Mercedes-sourced diesel engine and its redundant systems, but here is one from Continental showing how much they had to do to the Mercedes OM642 automotive diesel to turn it into an airplane engine that runs on jet fuel:

The thing even has two redundant engine ECU's!

Aircraft mechanics also need to be certified for A&P, safety wire every fastener, and make entries into the plane's log book for every single thing they do. Unlike cars, airplanes fall out of the sky when something breaks...and you don't want to know how much a required annual overhaul costs for even a basic Cessna.

It is still possible to build an *experimental* airplane kit in your garage and fly it, such as the Rotax snowmobile engine-powered Kitfox or that canard airplane that killed John Denver.

Regarding the tape, I was told by Vietnam Huey pilots that it was 100 MPH tape when used to patch up a dinged rotor long enough to fly it back to base for replacement.....