Aviation MegaThread!!!!

Okay, I've been looking for an hour, what is that song from?

The Magnificent Seven

Thanks! It's hard to search for a song based on Bump, da da da da!

Which was itself based on a Japanese Samurai movie...

(not to hijack but you need Soundhound - google it)

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ms84WfJwalI?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Great video. Thanks

My cousin flew those. He retired from Pan Am at seniority number 1 off the 747. He's 95 and still driving, although he stopped flying and sold his humble Cessna 150 a few years ago. He's quite the character and has more than few interesting stories.

Interestingly, Navigation instrumentation crossing the S. Atlantic in 1942 was the same as when I took my Nav check ride from Santiago Chile to Easter Island in 1968 in a C-130. No piece of cake. But we did have HF radio communication (not that it was any aid in navigation).

PS: I passed my check ride.

Why did the Dutch have a shoot to kill order on the Clipper?

I doubt they did. The R-1830 engines weren't top secret, either.

Probably had shoot to kill orders on any aircraft. The fact that this was unmarked didn't make it possible for them to ID.


That video was neat. I have seen it before somewhere in a museum probably. It left me with a few questions though. How did they pay for gas? Did the crew carry large amounts of cash? Maybe the picked it up in New Zealand while they waited. Also the engine that blew up in India, did they fix it, or just fly all the way home on 3?

I've also come across a much more detailed recount of the adventure. It addressed some of the mech and financial issues and the creativity the crew used to overcome both. Being a premier craft in the best airline in the biz (at that time) certainly helped, too.

Not that it didn't happen but I've read most of not all the Pan Am histories and haven't heard about this event.
As for other points: I know that many charter companies (even at least one regular scheduled airlines) going to out of the way places with shaky social infrastructure had (or have) a safe box on the plane with considerable cash on-board - usually good old USD greenbacks. Other points: while some 4 engine aircraft have taken off on three engines (essentially empty-ferry flights) I doubt that plane could take off on 3 engines with enough fuel for an ocean crossing, and I don't believe those engines were "top secret" either. It does make the story a little richer though.

Any of you guys fly sailplanes?

A long time ago I took a few lessons and got soloed in an old Schweizer. Never finished the rating though.

20 years and 12,000 (powered) hours later, I'm thinking about getting back into gliders and finishing my rating. I haven't flown any kind of light aircraft since about 1995, so it could be interesting :eek1.

No soaring around here, unfortunately. I went up a bunch when I was at the USAF Academy as a controller in the early 80's. They had 2-33's and some high(er) performance stuff too. Flew in the towplanes quite often too. Perfect soaring there with mountain and ridge waves, plus good and easy to find thermals over some of the larger developed areas at the academy on calmer days. I can't imagine soaring in some areas where it's pretty much a trip around the pattern and that's it.

Yeah I don't think Ohio is exactly a soaring "mecca" either. But I'm sure you can catch a thermal here and there during the summer. I might get into the towplanes too. I've really missed flying light planes, this might be a good way to get back into it.

I took a few sailplane flights at a small glider port north of Cincy. I googled the area and Caesar Creek Soaring Club popped up. They had a pretty nice group of people.

Me too. I've keep telling myself that I should get into soaring for a long time - and I live close enough to a premier area, the Sierra's. My imagination was that it is an idyllic sort of flying, smooth and silent. But no, I imagine low wing loading and the Sierra's thermals make it quite the opposite. But probably you're so interested in staying aloft and getting lift that you'll take the pounding. After large airplanes if you haven't flown a light plane for a long time it is indeed pretty fun, after the initial over rotation....I've found there's more "fun" and aesthetics in light planes, but less safety/redundancy and more getting beaten up.

http://www.aviationbanter.com/showthread.php?t=36823

Very good read with more details on the clipper.

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