Life Through Your Camera

[madpilot44]

Long time no posting, so here's an update of what I've been busy with.

Took a trip to the Bahamas, dang if it ain't a pretty place...

Did some reading

Looked at some fish

Even managed to put on a wetsuit (I swear I wasn't flying this one!)


After that, I worked on optimizing some special type of winglet for the KC-135 called a rakelet, which makes the plane more effective than a normal winglet

A close-up (normal KC-135 wingtip, winglet, raked wingtip, and rakelet)


And then, I managed to go to the Air Force museum in Ohio





Sorry for the big pics, I don't know how to size them down

[Rooster Cruiser]

Madpilot:  Dude!  Those pics are awesome!!!   

RC

[Frank N. O.]

Cool pictures indeed! Is that the Predator (or whatever it's called) above the F-22 (or is that YF-22?)?

And I learned a new word, one that barely gives 3 results on google: Rakelet

Frank

[Frank N. O.]

Whoops, wrong name (thanks for the PM Oddy!), the other plane I was asking for is what you can see a wing-tip of in the top right of the frame, and after a quick search I can see I was thinking about the "Bird of Prey".
http://www.nextcraft.com/media/aviation_technology/military_nasa/boeing_bop_00.jpg

Frank

[madpilot44]

Yep, that's the Boeing Bird of Prey. The Predator (actually the Reaper) was on the other side, next to the Global Hawk. Huge planes.


And I'm surprised you found anything about the rakelet. We couldn't. Apparently, no one had experimented on it yet. We called it Rakelet because it's short for Raked Winglet.

[chuckar101]

A couple pics my buddy took when I landed and took off from Jackson Hole, Wy. 

[Oddball]

Heres a few photos from the Heart of Scotland airshow at Perth Airport (EGPT) I went to yesterday:
A DH Dragon Rapide that was giving pleasure flights

A Short Bros. Tucano Mk1.

Auster

A S.A 80 Twisty (based on the Spitfire, really looks like a Mk9)

Avro Anson (it was based at Perth for a while)

DHc Chipmunk of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (think this one was used as a spy plane in Berlin)

Supermarine Spitfire Mk26 (80% scale version just for our Ozzie friends)

THEY ARE BREEDING!!! here's another in Desert Air Force colours

[Oddball]

Here's a few for our rotary wing members:
A Veitnam veteran Bell UH-1


A Hughes 500E

A Eurofighter Typhoon

[Oddball]

And to finish off photos of some planes I have never seen before 

[Frank N. O.]

Great pictures Chuckar and Oddball, really wish I could be there in real life 

Chuckar: Is that airport next to a cliff and with the world's most weird traffic-pattern (altitude under the airport height) or was the third picture taken at a different location

Oddball: Ah, Dragon Rapide, the replacement for the KZ IV for Falck-Zonen here in DK before the helicopters arrived to help islanders. I think there is one at the Helsingør Technical Museum, next to where the Catalina used to be (it was moved to Stauning this winter).
What's a Twisty and how is it based on a Spitfire? I think there was an american GA plane based on a Mustang as well but not sure if it's in the same way.

Btw, semi on-topic: how many aircraft from WWII and older are still in flying condition today?

Frank

[chuckar101]

Chuckar: Is that airport next to a cliff and with the world's most weird traffic-pattern (altitude under the airport height) or was the third picture taken at a different location

Hey Frank, those pics were taken in jackson hole, wy.  The airport is in the valley by grand teton national park.  Pretty mountainous terrain.  The first two my buddy was on the ground.  Third one was him in his plane about 500 ft above and to the right of me.  So no cliffs just lots of terrain and some formation flying.

[Oddball]

Frank if you look up S.A 80 Twisty it has the same wing and tail as a Spitfire Mk 9.  The makers based the design around it and it is fully aerobatic on a 80 HP engine.

[Frank N. O.]

Chuckar: Hehe, I kind-of figured that, I just had to take the chance to make a funny comment. Still, the plane and scenery look great

Oddball:  Ah I see. I guess there are still aircraft out there I haven't seen yet

Frank

[Frank N. O.]

Oh man, I could just cry. I just had the wildest photo-op in years served up right in front of my window and I didn't have free memory on my camera!! It was a sister of Jane flying at low altitude almost right over this house carrying a giant inflatable hectagonal ring with a mesh on it! I've never seen a heli-lift in real life before and I missed it 

Edit: I cleaned out my mobilephone memory and hoped it would return and guess what, it must've been a certain pilot we all know that was flying it because it returned, and then turned again as I took a snapshot (Mike, having you been letting Chuck give you navigation-advice? ).
Ok seriously, after looking again and seeing/hearing it fly back and fourth in strange patterns then it's clear it must be some kind of sensor-equipment, possibly magnetic? Btw, at a time where I couldn't hear the rotorblades cut into the air then I did hear a medium-pitch whine, could that be the exhaust-sound from the turbine-engine that could be heard thrue the trees while the rotorblade chop was muffled? It's not a good picture but it's the best my Nokia 6131 can do (the picture is cropped a bit).

Frank

[G-man]

Frank...

Seriously, you are risking your life taking these pics....Listen to me...You NEED to RUN and HIDE or ONLY come out if you are protected: