Old planes are bad ass -- the Gee Bee R1 -- BangShift style!

[Beagle]

A little out of our normal wheelhouse but I think you'll dig the story!

http://bangshift.com/blog/the-gee-be...-tamed-it.html

I think we've had locomotive stories, a story about cranes, can't remember any boat stories - wait, Finnegan dropped one in there... rocket go-karts, turbine cars... Not sure what you are saying here Bruab, it fits right in!

[Loren]

Anybody who as never flown anything that says he/she can fly is.....well ya kbow, family site...insert your description here..

Yep. Laugh.

I can say I once handled canyon runs in automobiles pretty well...when I used to do it all the time...but...

I am the crappiest flyer in the world. I guess the whole up-down thing just confounds me.

Having started my flying career with a Cox .049-powered plastic P-51 Mustang which was held together with rubber bands so it could it could crash without any actual destruction, and then destroying it...I was placed into the front seat of a very-nice Mooney (this was '70 and I was ten) over the Malibu coast, and pushed the steering wheel 'way in while I was just trying to turn it. Oh, yeah, also forgot about the seat-belt thing, and since stunt-flying in rented Mooneys by ten-year-olds who are only being held in because there is a roof is a bad idea, it wasn't 'til I was nineteen that anyone handed me the controls of an actual-size aircraft again. You know, in Cessna 150s you can't even tell if you're moving or not, just hanging there in the air...you have to, like, bump the controls and see how much the airplane jumps in order to know how fast you're going, and other people in the aircraft hate that. Yeah, I know, there's the guages and all, but I don't pay any attention to those things. Why I was then handed the wheel of a 172 over the leeward side of the California Sierras (huge wind turbulence off the mountains, where Steve Fosset died) I don't know, the pilot (my brother) had something else he needed to do for a minute but still...crap, we got hit with a gust and I had the wheel as far to the right as I dared so that we wouldn't flip over, then the next moment it was over to the other way, and I was pretty sure we would all be spiralling to our deaths with every breath. We landed at Bishop and I took my chances hitchhiking home from there rather than get back in that plane again. Even the last time I flew a couple years ago, I still didn't have my up-and-down right. A long slow turn coming in to the airport...you know, if you're just cruising along and then you bank too hard, suddenly you can see the ground right-thru the windshield instead of out the side like you're supposed to.

I don't know, maybe I should take some kind of class, first.

Anyhow, in the meantime I have just gotten in line for the airplane rides at airshows and such, or just happened into opportunities at the airport and lived my terror there (DC-3, Stearmans and a particular H-21 helicoper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_H-21 a couple of times). Biplanes are capable of doing some crazy things, and lifting straight off the ground sitting across from a big open door in a rattling shaking twin-rotor old helicoper is a strange thrill. We plan to go soaring, one day, on one of those glider-rides but jumping out of anything with a parachute is something I would never do.

We had a V-22 Osprey fly over the house the other day, low and fast with rotors forward and wheels up. Going to buzz the local airport I guess...man, what a weird noise those make coming at you. Wouldn't that be a fun ride?

[DanStokes]

I have a soft spot for planes as long as I'm on the ground. For sure fun to look at and this one is a monster engine with wings - how can you top that? I'll fly commercial but not my favorite thing to do - just necessary sometimes (like to get to Bonneville).

Dan

[pdub]

I have a soft spot for planes as long as I'm on the ground. For sure fun to look at and this one is a monster engine with wings - how can you top that? I'll fly commercial but not my favorite thing to do - just necessary sometimes (like to get to Bonneville).

Dan

I had to fly commercial a few hundred legs-worth some years ago before I landed a job at just one place. I actually sorta got used to it, particularly flying between Charlotte and Birmingham twice a week for 8 months. I knew the route and the direction and the timing of it.

One morning we left out of Charlotte from runway 18 (due south) and never turned right to go to Birmingham. We flew and flew and flew south. This is just wrong. We've been hijacked or something, we going to Cuba or somewhere. Everybody else in the cabin was oblivious, tapping on laptops or reading the newspaper. I'm looking out the window expecting to see ocean at any time and THEN we make a radical right turn. Now we're going north-northwest. Still not aimed at Birmingham...what thu?

We flew directly over the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta, still at alititude and kept on going. Maybe we're going to Minneapolis. Before long we made a radical left turn and began descent and the pilot announced, "Okay folks, we've FINALLY been cleared to land in Birmingham, we'll be at the gate in 15 minutes."

And on that same flight I discovered what I really "like" about flying (NOT). I really "enjoy" a 25 MPH direct crosswind landing. Ed mentioned a slip. As a passenger you know you're in a slip condition when you're looking nearly straight out the passenger window and you can see the entire length of the runway just a second or two before the main gear touches down. Oh yeah, I "like" that. But I'll bet pilots really love it - it's their chance to "fly" the bus, eh Ed?

[Thumpin455]

I want to fly pretty damn bad, but what I want to do isnt just hopping around in an old Cessna or Piper, though a Cub would be tons of fun. There are specific planes I want to own and fly, but never will without a large lottery win. Until I have the opportunity to build something interesting, and interesting being a Pitts or something like it, I will stick to cars.

This is my idea of fun with planes. http://aircombat.com/

[oletrux4evr]

My goal PeeWee, is for the people in back to not be aware that I'm flying the machine......smooth is good......but in some cases, they have no doubt. Sometimes you have no choice but to play the cards you are dealt:

[pdub]

[QUOTE=oletrux4evr;707422]My goal PeeWee, is for the people in back to not be aware that I'm flying the machine......smooth is good......but in some cases, they have no doubt. Sometimes you have no choice but to play the cards you are dealt:

Those few go-arounds would be terrifying to a passenger.....missed that one, let's try again. Like we're going to try AGAIN!

I think the one at 1:19 probably represents what I'm talking about. A huge slip and a landing. We made it. Dang, what piloting skills.

[PatricksDad]

Nice vid, Ed. It's even more fun without the crosswind. When a goose met the windshield of a Cessna 310 I was sitting right seat in, at age 13, I watched a VERY good stick fly sideways and kiss it down right on the center line. Not sure if there was a bigger mess on the windshield or in my pants. 35 years later, and I STILL wish I had that kind of cool.

[oletrux4evr]

I'm happy for the good outcome, and that he had the skills to make that happen. You're right, it's alot more fun when things are nice and calm, for sure, for sure.

For you R/C guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SDbQ5xvsrIU

[KeithTurk]

Full on Disco Bitchen..... Damn sight better then Dapper which is a Long ass pull!

These guys took off for Tokyo 400 miles early because they'd been spotted by a Japanese fishing vessel. They took off into the Cold Wet morning with full knowledge that they would have to crash land due to fuel starvation short of their landing airfields. America needed them and needed the boost in Moral this raid brought. They did this to hit targets ALL over Japan.... to let all of Japan know they needed to worry because they woke a Giant.

Thanks for this Brian... Welcome to the world of my hero's

[KeithTurk]

I have to add this.... Most of you know I teach kids to fly for the Army... and Every single day I walk into the briefing room and see all these nervous, cock strong kids... guys and gals that know they are Next in this round of questioning .... ( a daily briefing is something to be feared like an IRS Audit )... These kids stand there everyday having put up with enormous crap to be there and they simply do the deed... they know the stuff... they put in the hours and have the answers... They give me hope that someday our nation can again be whole and we will someday recover from the morass that is now our government.

[PatricksDad]

I'm happy for the good outcome, and that he had the skills to make that happen. You're right, it's alot more fun when things are nice and calm, for sure, for sure.

For you R/C guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SDbQ5xvsrIU

Think about how disorienting that would be, just hanging out in your backyard, drinking a Pabst, when that thing flew over! "Get the dog, Martha, we're headed for the bunker!"

[70chevyC-10]

Thanks Ed - cool video. I wouldn't want to land that AA plane in the "parking lot" of a strip.