That's good - Looking forward to this tomorrow. Geminids asteroidal meteor shower expected to peak on Sunday night - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Will be having a BBQ but hope I can remember to look up at right time!
Gemini didn't get above the horizon and into a viewable position in Brisbane till about 10.45pm - nothing flash, shooting stars.. John
...they decided to have a tug-o-war? For some reason that reminded me of this pic of a Friendship landing at Parafield back when it was the main airport at Adelaide. Boy has this area changed now! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Back to the 1934 KLM Albury landing there was no airport there and they landed on the horse racing course - it was very wet and they got bogged and had to be towed out. After the T.O.W. they flew on to Melbourne and finished second behind the Scott & Campbell-Black DH88 Comet.
This is as posted by pigboat on jet blast. The skis and their plumbing weighed 1100 lbs. When retracted they fit up under the nacelle with the front of the ski a couple of inches aft of the forward edge of the nose cowling. With the ski down, that airfoil at the rear - called a sail - allowed the ski to fly. The sail could be adjusted so the ski assumed the proper attitude. Gear selection went thusly: For landing on skis, Gear down, ski down, then after takeoff it was Gear up ski up. On wheels it was Gear down, ski up. The ski selector was located on the cockpit floor below the throttle quadrant. I have a pic somewhere with a guy doing a touch and go on one ski, the left gear was hung up when a ski check cable hooked on a protrusion in the wheel well. He did a touch and go and bounced the airplane a couple of times and the cable dropped off the bolt head that had been snagging it. I'll see if I can find it and post it here. Vmc on the 3 was somewhere around 80 kts as I recall - 83kt? - but the airplane would fly no problem at 65 kt. In rough ski conditions the procedure was to accelerate to 60 kt with the tail low, then add 1/4 flap and wrestle the airplane into the air. You then sat there in ground effect and waited till the speed built to Vmc. Below Vmc if an engine developed indigestion you chopped them both and went straight ahead. In sticky snow conditions you could need great gobs of power just to taxi, so a close watch on head temps was a must. Image Unavailable, Please Login
That pic makes me wonder what was the first aircraft to have swept leading edges? Happy to be corrected but I think the ME262 had the first real swept wings.
I did not know so relied on Wikipedia to read what they have written about the subject. Swept wing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I didn't even know we used C421s. That one's not from my section (Central), but even so... We were getting rid of the last of the Chieftains and King Airs when I joined up. Frankly, I'm buggered if I know how you'd get a patient on a stretcher in the small door of a C421?! Great machine, but surely hopeless for aeromedical.
We were doing a transfer with this aircraft at Tekapo and while we were preparing the px were let out, got in and sat down, came out the door of the ops. room and the tail was on the ground.
Lol! Typical Cessna. You know when you've put enough in a C210 when the tail lowers to the ground. Remove one thing, tail comes back up, go flying... I guess they weren't using the C421 for stretcher patients.
All sit ups with no tubes etc. The PX just loved the flight and most [not all ] just were happy to get back to some normality.
Fair enough. C421 is great aircraft. I've got a reasonable amount of time in a lovely C414A. As close as you can get to a turbine without the bills, IMO. Sadly, their time has passed.
Yep, maybe the odd collector will keep one or two flying - they do make a good sound when flying overhead especially when getting into the wind.
