Aircraft General Discussion

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 08/08/2019 06:48:28:

In today's News feed : **LINK**

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/russia-unveils-enormous-hunter-drone-in-powerful-display-of-countrys-military-capabilities-a4208176.html

MichaelG.

Convergent evolution with the F117 'wobblin goblin'. The stealth won't work too well until they have the confidence to stow the undercarriage

It will be a favourite with plastic modellers, I bet.

Neil

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

Walking through the farms south of Bedford, this afternoon, we watched a glider pass overhead. Quite low, it circled a bit as if trying to catch a thermal. It then headed for the old RAF Cardington & descended to land. But, as it disappeared behind the trees, a motor popped out, started & they regained height.

I assume that was a bit of pilot training. They gained high quickly, going round in tight circles, and the wind carried them off towards Great Gransden. But now, MrsDave wants to try glider flying again: it must be well over 10 years since she last had a go.

[Anonymous]

Posted by DrDave on 18/08/2019 22:20:22:

I assume that was a bit of pilot training.

Interesting, but probably not. Today was the last day of the Cloud Rally at Gransden Lodge; an informal non-rated competition primarily for club members. I'm not sure what the task was, but when I looked online this afternoon there were a lot of Gransden gliders out west around the Bedford area. So it was almost certainly a **** it moment, start the engine or land in a field. Of course once the engine is started your flight is over as far as the competition is concerned. But at least you get back in time to drink beer in the clubhouse rather than sit in a field and wait for the retrieve.

I flew the number one tug at Gransden yesterday, another very windy competition day. Quite a tiring day, eleven tows one after the other for a total of two hours flying. The weather ranged from good lift wherever you went to where the hell am I going to tow to? Upwind of course; it's embarrassing if the glider lands out direct off tow.

DrDave: You are of course welcome at any time at Gransden Lodge to fly.

Andrew

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 19/08/2019 00:18:40:

DrDave: You are of course welcome at any time at Gransden Lodge to fly.

Andrew

A very generous offer and an interesting view into the world of gliding, thank you. I did most of my flying training (not to PPL, I didn’t progress beyond solo cross country) out of Little Gransden, but I have not been to Gransden Lodge. I will have to rectify this!

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 19/08/2019 00:18:40:

Posted by DrDave on 18/08/2019 22:20:22:

I assume that was a bit of pilot training.

Interesting, but probably not. Today was the last day of the Cloud Rally at Gransden Lodge; an informal non-rated competition primarily for club members. I'm not sure what the task was, but when I looked online this afternoon there were a lot of Gransden gliders out west around the Bedford area. So it was almost certainly a **** it moment, start the engine or land in a field. Of course once the engine is started your flight is over as far as the competition is concerned. But at least you get back in time to drink beer in the clubhouse rather than sit in a field and wait for the retrieve.

I flew the number one tug at Gransden yesterday, another very windy competition day. Quite a tiring day, eleven tows one after the other for a total of two hours flying. The weather ranged from good lift wherever you went to where the hell am I going to tow to? Upwind of course; it's embarrassing if the glider lands out direct off tow.

DrDave: You are of course welcome at any time at Gransden Lodge to fly.

Andrew

I must have spent my day outside with my eyes shut, I'm east of Cardington hangers and didnt see a thing, did have a polished aluminium Dakota heading Duxford way on Saturday.

Martin P

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Posted by martin perman on 19/08/2019 09:49:50:

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 19/08/2019 00:18:40:

Posted by DrDave on 18/08/2019 22:20:22:

I assume that was a bit of pilot training.

Interesting, but probably not. Today was the last day of the Cloud Rally at Gransden Lodge; an informal non-rated competition primarily for club members. I'm not sure what the task was, but when I looked online this afternoon there were a lot of Gransden gliders out west around the Bedford area. So it was almost certainly a **** it moment, start the engine or land in a field. Of course once the engine is started your flight is over as far as the competition is concerned. But at least you get back in time to drink beer in the clubhouse rather than sit in a field and wait for the retrieve.

I flew the number one tug at Gransden yesterday, another very windy competition day. Quite a tiring day, eleven tows one after the other for a total of two hours flying. The weather ranged from good lift wherever you went to where the hell am I going to tow to? Upwind of course; it's embarrassing if the glider lands out direct off tow.

DrDave: You are of course welcome at any time at Gransden Lodge to fly.

Andrew

I must have spent my day outside with my eyes shut, I'm east of Cardington hangers and didnt see a thing, did have a polished aluminium Dakota heading Duxford way on Saturday.

Martin P

I was at Duxford a week ago and the polished Dakota was parked up, its a Norwegian aircraft and very nice too.

Edited By Ron Laden on 19/08/2019 10:16:10

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I was painting the wall next to our stairs yesterday when a cattle egret flew over. Does that count???

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

After Andrew’s comment about watching Gransden’s gliders online, I had a look at their website & found the relevant page. Watching this morning’s activity, I saw one glider had flown westwards and was circling between Cople & Great Barford: we should be able to see that from the conservatory. Staring out in that direction, lo & behold, a glider!

Don’t you just love it when all this technology just works? Well, it tickled me.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by DrDave on 19/08/2019 11:07:43:

After Andrew’s comment about watching Gransden’s gliders online, I had a look at their website & found the relevant page. Watching this morning’s activity, I saw one glider had flown westwards and was circling between Cople & Great Barford: we should be able to see that from the conservatory. Staring out in that direction, lo & behold, a glider!

Don’t you just love it when all this technology just works? Well, it tickled me.

Dr Dave, upset me even more, I live in Cople and didnt see a thing my eyes are always scanning the skies, a trip to the opticians me thinks.

Martin P

[Anonymous]

Posted by DrDave on 19/08/2019 11:07:43:

After Andrew’s comment about watching Gransden’s gliders online, I had a look at their website & found the relevant page.

Known as 'maggot' racing. It keeps the crews amused during competitions, and allows them to snigger at the other crew if a rival is seen to be scrabbling in the weeds.

The official name of the system is Flarm and is an anti-collision system. Each glider has a unit which takes GPS data and communicates with a ground station. I'm not sure where the computations take place but the unit in the glider has a clock face. If there's another equipped aircraft close by you get a green LED around the clock face and one for above or below. If the LEDs go red then that means a potential collision if you don't do something. One problem is that the circle provides information on track, so the glider isn't necessarily where the LED indicates. That can result in a lot of head swivelling, and it's not unusual to never see the other glider. If the LEDs are red then I can safely say that causes a LOT of frantic head swivelling!

I wouldn't be surprised if Flarm became mandatory in the UK. It's already mandatory in the Alps.

Andrew

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Model Engineering content. The Duxford comment above kindled this thought.

Stearman Biplane at Duxford. Was owned by one George Lovett last of Lyn, Ontario, Canada. He was in the RAF, flew spitfires at the end of the war, then lots of jets, including 11 atlantic crossing deliveries of the Sabre?? back when. Left mid-50s, to Canada, where he crop-dusted.

And, was a good model engineer; traveling to lots of shows in the north east of North America.

The story from George about the Stearman at Duxford – they were playing cards one rainy morning down east in Canada when some royal navy person came in, and asked "are those your aircraft?" George said "yeah, Want to buy one?" And, they did. Helicoptered it over to a Royal Navy ship, and the rest is history. He still had a couple more in rural hangers, so loosing one for $$ was likely not an issue.

My first thought was "yeah, right". The Duxford one says on its web page "Evergreen Aviation Services" then one day I found his business address in the Canadian Government directory, which matched his home address. Here's one page describing spraying in New Brunswick:

New Brunswick Spraying Companies

I really liked George. Quiet man, had to listen carefully. Crashed 3 aircraft, lived to tell the tale. He used to drive his camper van around to meets; one meet I left a book in his camper on "Canada's WWII War Ace", with a note saying that I thought he'd enjoy the read. Got a note back (still have it) giving his thoughts as a contemporary, not having been beside the war ace, but in proximity. Did not know at the time George had been assigned to the Med flying spitfires, probably would not have known if I had not dropped off the book.

George lived to a ripe old age.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Holy cow! These passes are getting lower and lower. This is the third time a pair of Typhoons have gone directly overhead. Missed the first one, the second was certainly no higher than 100 feet. I've never seen a jet fly that low before except once or twice in Snowdonia.

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Neil, they are keeping an eye on you, a fairly brief one at that. It's rare to see military aircraft around here, last one was a P-3 Orion a couple of years ago at least, atv about 10,000ft.

Ian S C

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Neil Get on the higher parts of the M62 motorway and military aircraft will be in the valley below you

Can be frightening

Roy

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'm clearly on a major route, there used to be cooling towers half a mile away on the other side of the Trent. Basically I think they were used as a landmark and the route is still used, partly as it means planes pass a smidgin south of Burton on Trent.

I've had Chinooks and Hercules (among others) come over at altitudes where you feel you could reach up and touch them. Lots of private planes and even micro-lites come across, mostly at about 80-degrees to the military route, as the navigate by following the A38. I've even had a spitfire (and the vulcan close by).

No chance of a collision – the military ones would just fly under the microlights and gypsy moths…

Neil

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

It must be hard to dismiss it as just paranoia when they are sending fast jets out to get you …………. 😀

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

Over here We used to have a tall building that had an outside elevator 40 stories tall. An elevator ride was free so I could afford to take a ride ( ). One time the Wifey was with Me as We approached the top. I pointed that We were above a Police Helicopter by a good bit and She just about squeezed the hand rail in half. News stated the electric cost for one ride was 1/2 $USD.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I found Symonds Yat was a good place to watch aircraft, its 120 metres above the river Wye, I came close to strangling a mate because he had my binoculars around his neck wheh a Jaguar flew about 60 metres below us travelling down the valley.

Martin P

[Anonymous]

Nice day here, blue sky and some high level cloud. Should be good for my biannual flight with an instructor later this afternoon. Just heard something interesting, rushed outside to see the B17 flying over at about a thousand feet,heading NW.

Andrew

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

This evening my wife and I were sat at Everton Rail Crossing watching the trains on the East Coast line and I happened to have the car roof open fully when I heard the distinct sound of a Harvards propeller blades when directly over us at about 500 ft a yellow Harvard in very close formation with Shuttleworths Lysander passed over us and circled around and moved away,

Martin P

[Anonymous]

During my cycle ride this afternoon a couple of piston engine (radial) fighters flew over in close formation. The wings were clipped and had a distinctive curve on the trailing edge. Both aircraft also had invasion stripes. Not sure what they were; Sea Furies or Thunderbolts?

Andrew

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

You don’t see many of them nowadays. A Jet Provost has just flown over Bedford. First time that I have seen one other than at an air show.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I missed that one, I've been outside most of the day repairing a fence and trying to refelt my shed roof, what direction was it heading.

Martin P

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

Posted by martin perman on 27/10/2019 13:21:20:

I missed that one, I've been outside most of the day repairing a fence and trying to refelt my shed roof, what direction was it heading.

Martin P

Roughly south to north, up the eastern edge of Bedford. It was at only 1,00 feet or so; you should have seen it from Cople. I only noticed it because it was noisy and I thought that it was just a jet out of Luton that was still quite low, otherwise I would have missed it too.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I had to come in doors to repair a door lock so it must have been then, bugger

Martin P

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