Aircraft General Discussion

Ian;

Thanks for the A4 pic.

When living in Lower Hutt in 1990/1991, I had the opportunity to fly to Hamilton for the day. After my work was done, a colleague and I went to the airport, had a tea and a biscuit on the outdoor patio (knee high white picket fence between us and the apron) where we were able to watch the flew-in-for-the-day NZAF repair crew figuring out why an A4 was blowing smoke rings whilst flying the day before (and made an emergency landing at Hamilton).

The ground crew had plans on the apron, held down by weights on each corner, and were scratching their heads while an A4 sat close by, running, with pilot aboard. Engine would be throttled up, back down again, and more head scratching.

Eventually one of the ground crew gave the pilot a wave to go and fly, which the pilot did. After the second wave.

He went to the end of the runway, way down behind trees. After what seemed like 5 minutes of full throttle (obviously brakes on), the little A4 rocketed down the runway, became airborne and flew off to the right and behind the terminal. Ground crew just stood on the apron. After a minute or two the little A4 flew over the terminal building at a very low/fast altitude; no smoke rings evident, so the ground crew removed the plans from the apron, hopped into their aircraft and flew off to places unknown.

What a nice way to spend an hour on a beautiful sunny day!

Good grief, it never occurred to me that some-one else on the forum would have flown the same Tiger. You've got way more hours on a Tiger than me. Must have been a very small airline; personal service in fact! I understand that Bill Ison was a founder member of the Cambridge Flying Group, and was CFI when I flew there in 1985/86. I did my GFT with Bill, and got a b0ll0cking before we'd even taken off. Doesn't put you in the best frame of mind for the test proper. At least I was taught to actually fly, rather than just be propelled through the course by an instructor building hours towards a commercial licence. Which is why I went to the Group in the first place, rather than the more conventional flying club. I think it took me 5 or 6 hours to go solo.

Martin: Digging around on the Cambridge Flying Group website I found that G-AOEI has been there since 1958, so comfortably over 50 years.

Andrew

I think the NZ tigers still use the speaking tube, don't know about the ones on your side of the planet. They do carry radio gear these days, and GPS, although a good many pilots still use the roads and railway to navigate.

Ian S C

There is an expanded interim report on the "Wings Over New Zealand" site, not sure how I can transfer it here, but the aircraft is at Farnbough being inspected by the AAIB engineers

Yes, it had a 'proper' radio and intercom system running from a 12V battery in the luggage compartment. Even back in my days Cambridge frowned upon non-radio aircraft. That made Bill Ison cross - he reckoned that in the war (when he trained) there were 30 aircraft going round all non-radio and no-one had a problem. To be honest the comms weren't that effective. Even with a leather helmet there was still quite a lot of wind noise. More than once I had to tell the instructor to wait until we were on the ground before dishing out a b0ll0cking, as I couldn't hear him properly.

I think it has a transponder now as well as a rather neat radio installation. People seem to wear crash helmets now rather than the old leather helmets. I assume there must be some sort of generator (wind powered?) as I don't think a battery will run a transponder for very long.

I even remembered to use the transponder in the tug yesterday when aerotowing. Although we're quite a few miles from Cambridge the airport has been pressing us to squawk 7000 (generic VFR code) when towing.

Andrew

A lot of the Warbird pilots wear a hard helmet that resembles a leather one here in NZ, others just use the normal Gentex, don't know what the jet pilots use(Strike Master/Hunter/ Vampire Venom plus three or four more types), a number of the pilots have a good number of hours aerial topdressing/spraying, so a "bone dome" is second nature, all a leather helmet does is keeps your ears from freezing off, and something to hold the ear pieces for the speaking tube, and along with the Irvine Jacket, the look.

Ian S C

Ooops. Luckily it didn't catch fire.

Hmmm, that's a kick where it hurts - in the wallet.

Presumably an engine problem or failure? If so then the "boy dun good". I suspect that the glide angle isn't too bad, but with a large prop stopped, and presumably no feathering, it will act as a darn good airbrake. Combined with a high wing loading I hate to think what the descent rate would be.

Being daft I've turned the engine off * in various light aeroplanes and then landed them to see what it was like. If I recall correctly the Super Cub glide quite well at about 65mph, but the descent rate was over 600fpm.

Andrew

* Off means off, ie, throttle closed, fuel off and switches off, and then ease back on the stick to stop the prop windmilling.

That Spitfire reminds me of Tim Wallace's crash at Wanaka, he' been flying a Merlin engine Spitfire in the morning, and then went on to fly the Gryphon powered on, the prop rotates in the opposite direction, requiring opposite rudder for take off, oh dear, wrong rudder.

Ian S C

They have started training, and licencing drone pilots here in NZ, the first licence went to Yamaha Motors Ltd for an unmanned crop spraying helicopter, there's going to be quite a few of those in NZ.

Glide ratio for a J-3 Cub  10:1, a PA-18 would be worse. Modified J-3s were used in the USA for training glider pilots during WW2, the engine was removed, and the cockpit  extended forward in the new nose section.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 16/09/2015 12:22:40

Just watched a couple of Mustangs doing formation aerobatics over the bungalow - superb, and a very characteristic sound. And quite rare, generally we see a lot more Spitfires than Mustangs.

Andrew

During the war, here we go- I was about 7 and on my way back to school after dinner and as I turned the corner I heard a Doodle Bug and could not see it and suddenly it came over the house behind me at about 150 ft and right on it's tail a Mustang firing it's guns at it, my first thought was if it goes bang i am dead so i flipped over a garden wall and crouched down. 20mm shell cases rained down and as the 2 planes receded I jumped up and collected some shells and they were still hot ! That was my first sight of a Mustang. We spent so much time in the shelters at school during those day that we learnt very little. A few days later I saw another flying up the river Medway and as I was higher up I could follow its path until it disappeared. Later 2 engined jet planes appeared Gloster Meteors that could fly faster than the Doodle Bugs.

My father was on 40mm Bofors near Dover and they had first crack at them. Late at night was not very nice as you could see the flame of the motor. We did get bombed but only an incendiery down the chimney. The incendiery bombs would stick up in the soft earth on the fields and not go off.

Clive

toot toot can be heard most days from house c/o Isle of Wight steam railway (Wootton Station)

Bob

Yep, that would be it! Just seen it mentioned on the preview for Look East.

Andrew

My Dad was boy of similar age on my great-grandfather's farm near Bicester during the war. One day he was out when a Lancaster went over very low, streaming smoke. It crashed nearby and that experience had quite an impact on him. His dad was teaching radio operation and radar at Cranwell when my uncle was born during the war, and he cadged a lift to the local aerodrome on a lancaster being flown back from repair by a polish fighter pilot.

My mum was bit younger, and was at home in Barry when the house two doors away was bombed flat, when they tested the civil defence sirens during the 70s and 80s the sound still upset her. I remember I was listening to Black Sabbath once, and she couldn't bear the sirens at the beginning of War Pigs. Her dad was in the far-East, he died when I was a boy, and there weren't many stories, although pre-war he had a good time as a coppersmith (and rugby player) in the RAF in places like Egypt.

Neil

Edited By martin perman on 18/09/2015 19:24:59

They know your address Andrew. Probably showing off for your benefit?