I'll start this thread with some pictures from the NASP airshow last weekend.



one of the Red Baron Stearmans. they were giving out free rides the day before the show, but i didn't hear about it in time.



Shockwave jet truck. not an airplane, but it's cool.





F-22 Raptors





F/A-18G Super Hornet ("Super Bug") and F4U Corsair flying form



Fat Albert. saw them do both day and night JATO takeoffs.





Blue Angels. I watch these guys fly a couple of days per week in my backyard or when I'm on base.



T-2 Buckeye



T-39 Sabreliner



T-6 Texan II



Panavia Tornado (pretty sure this is an IDS model, because I think most of the ADVs are being replaced by the Eurofighter. I know they are in Italy)



F/A-18D. this is what i ultimately want to be in.



T-45 Goshawk



T-34 Turbo Mentor

11/19/2005 11:17:07 PM

Quote :

""

looks like a giant condom heh



I like F-16's the best, F-18's 2nd. It'd be nice to see these planes made into real life:





[Edited on November 19, 2005 at 11:26 PM. Reason : ]

11/19/2005 11:25:48 PM

anime=/planes

[Edited on November 20, 2005 at 12:46 AM. Reason : where was this airshow?]

11/20/2005 12:46:13 AM

The NAS Oceana airshow this year in virginia beach was pretty good. On Saturday night they were doing full burner flybys in front of the beach. I love the sound of an F/A-18.

That aggressor 18 is pretty hot too.

11/20/2005 1:44:10 AM

theduke:
You realize that if you're in the marines and want to fly the hornet, you're gonna have to finish top of your class in flight school right?

My uncle finished like one nut hair away from first from a guy tha transferred into his class with a buttload of points and ended up having to fly harriers, aka "the microwave". He actually had a choice as to what he wanted to fly.

Oh and tell Mullet that he's still my bitch.


[Edited on November 20, 2005 at 9:38 AM. Reason : .]

11/20/2005 9:37:37 AM

ol' Mullen just moved to Corpus Christi.

but remember, I'm a backseater. The only two things I can fly in are the Hornet and the Prowler, and about half of us go to each (so if you REQUEST one, you actually have something greater than 50% odds of getting it).

but even as a pilot, it's not hard to get Hornets if you get selected for jets. Ending up in jets instead of helos is the hard part if you want to be a Hornet driver.

my plan is to apply for reassignment to pilot training once I get in the fleet as a WSO. As a private pilot and a Hornet WSO (or Prowler ECMO if things fall that way), I should CRUSH flight school if I get to come back as a pilot, and hopefully get whatever plane I want (probably the F-35 JSF).


if i was a pilot, though, i think i'd prob WANT to fly the Harrier (aka Devil's Golfcart, or Carolina Lawn Dart). it's really light and powerful, it can hover, and it has a kickass mission. plus, those guys will prob be the first to transition to the F-35.

[Edited on November 20, 2005 at 1:29 PM. Reason : asdfasdf]

11/20/2005 1:25:05 PM

the commandant's son died in a Harrier.

those things are squirrely as hell apparently.

11/20/2005 3:53:30 PM

yeah, from what i hear, you actually have to have really good scores to get the Harrier, b/c it can be a handful. Duff Man is a Harrier pilot.

I know another guy in the Marines who's father died in a Harrier. Haven't heard from him in a while, but last time I heard, he was in flight school...wanting to fly Harriers.

11/20/2005 4:11:01 PM

holy shit. i had no idea that the f-22s were already out at airshows. this was open to the public? man damn, i would have made the drive to see that!

11/20/2005 7:55:13 PM

well, they didn't park them and let people come up and look at them or anything, but they made a few passes, then pulled up and went vertical out of sight.

11/20/2005 10:11:20 PM

did 12 TO/LDGs today in 1.7 hours in the mighty C-152

11/20/2005 11:48:21 PM

^i wish i was.

11/21/2005 4:58:57 PM

This is an SNJ that was converted to a T-6 (actually AT-6). It's parked right beside the flight school bird at the airport I take lessons at (Ferguson Airport; K82J).

Amazingly enough, another airport just a few miles away (Foley, AL; i believe it's K5R4) has another T-6 on the ramp, along with an Ercoupe. I flew there today for my solo.

The guy who owns the T-6 in the picture is a retired Marine A-4 pilot. He gives tailwheel and aerobatics lessons in a Decathlon. I'm gonna take some lessons from him after I get my PPL, and try to talk him into giving me a hop in the T-6 sometime, maybe when he's already going to be flying it somewhere locally.

11/26/2005 10:28:52 AM

duke, i'm sure you've probably seen this, but it was pretty cool to me since it was my first time, but when i was at the wilmington airshow there was a bi-plane that had a conversion done to it. it was prop driven but could do vertical climbs (like unreal vertical climbs) due to the jet engine that was bolted to the bottom of it. i thought it was absolutely amazing to watch this thing do stunts. hell of a conversion.

11/26/2005 10:54:53 AM

jet powered Waco? if so, that dude bought it recently. think it was a midair or something.

11/26/2005 10:56:00 AM

one of the air force pilots that i was talking with was telling me about the biplane and the conversion and he said its the same guy who owns and stunts the learjet as well.

11/26/2005 11:14:22 AM

i heard the Learjet guy bought it, too, but I didn't know it was the same guy.

11/26/2005 2:50:23 PM

just have to... here is my baby

1974 Piper Arrow 200

11/26/2005 2:55:55 PM

piper cub was the favorite thing ive been in
opening the door and hanging out the cabin is a blast

11/26/2005 3:11:30 PM

never been in a cub, but there are plenty at the field I once trained at. several in beautiful shape.

11/26/2005 3:54:41 PM

the one i went up in was gorgeous

11/26/2005 3:55:16 PM

^^^^do you own that bird yourself, or do you have a share? I want to get a plane in a couple of years when I get stationed somewhere I can stay for a while, but I don't know exactly how much it'll cost (in addition to the initial cost of buying the airplane). I'd definitely be doing shared ownership.

^^^yeah, Cubs are a blast. that was the first thing I ever flew. I actually flew another one several years later.








that's me soloing today in N6106Q, a C-152.

[Edited on November 26, 2005 at 4:18 PM. Reason : asfasd]

11/26/2005 4:11:28 PM

the front wheel on that should be in the back

11/26/2005 4:25:24 PM

yeah, I'm planning on getting my tailwheel endorsement after I get my PPL, and buying a taildragger when I get my own bird. I want to amass a lot of taildragger time and landings, so one of these days I can work as a warbird pilot (for airshows, demos, rides, whatever). Likely just do it on the side, but whatever.

11/26/2005 4:31:53 PM

1/4 share. Only 1 other in the partnership really fly it. I've been up about 60 hours in the past 4 months in it. Its the perfect arrangement to be honest.

11/26/2005 4:49:46 PM

yeah, i want to get a 1/3 or 1/4 share in something like a Rans S-10, RV-4, Mustang II, or Hiperbipe.

Basically I want at least 2 seats and enough storage space to go somewhere for a weekend, travelling light. I want decent-to-good XC speed, and some basic aerobatic capability, and conventional gear (like i said, wanna build those tailwheel hours).

11/26/2005 4:55:32 PM

My old roommate kills me...he's a USAF pilot (flies KC110's)...

I call him the other night, and he's got his former stepdad's Piper Super Cub 90 in Miss. He flies almost every weekend. Shithead.

11/26/2005 7:55:26 PM

I chose the Arrow because it had good useful load, good range, and good cruise. Never really had any desire for acrobatics...

11/26/2005 8:56:48 PM

Flyover at the Skins/Falcons preseason game last year. Pic is a tab big and I dont feel like resizing it.

11/26/2005 11:00:22 PM

^C-5 or C-17?

11/27/2005 1:02:00 AM

Quote :

"duke, i'm sure you've probably seen this, but it was pretty cool to me since it was my first time, but when i was at the wilmington airshow there was a bi-plane that had a conversion done to it. it was prop driven but could do vertical climbs (like unreal vertical climbs) due to the jet engine that was bolted to the bottom of it. i thought it was absolutely amazing to watch this thing do stunts. hell of a conversion."

we had to do performance calcs for a setup like this for our intro to aerovehicle performance class back sophomore year. that was a bitch of a project (the equations for jet and prop performance are pretty different) but i think we got it right after a lot of work. he had said the reasoning for assigning the project was that he had seen one at an airshow. crazy ol' dejarnette.

11/27/2005 4:08:05 AM

^^gotta be a C-17 or possibly a refurbed C-141 Starlifter, but definitely not a C-5. no where near big enough.

11/27/2005 7:17:16 PM

It's a C-17 then. Not a 141--the fuselage is too wide and not long enough, wings don't appear to have the characteristic 141 droop, tail is too big.

[Edited on November 27, 2005 at 8:22 PM. Reason : d]

11/27/2005 8:21:55 PM

What kind of plane is this?

11/28/2005 12:18:14 AM

Vari-EZ

or a Long-EZ or some other variation

11/28/2005 12:47:30 AM

Does anyone know of a place where I can ride along in a aerobatic flight? I've been meaning to call the place on I-85 near Oxford and see what their Stearman flight is like. I don't expect it to be free.

11/28/2005 9:48:01 AM

I resized the image above. If the mods want to replace it here is the link for the resize. I was unable to edit my original post.


http://www.70chip.us/pics/misc/DSCF1380.JPG

11/28/2005 10:02:42 AM

[/gratuitous self promotion]

12/4/2005 10:21:05 PM

^ Badass dude. If you fly a Super Hornet, can I get a ride?

12/4/2005 10:39:38 PM

no superbugs for the poor ass USMC...just the regular F-18Ds

and I'll just be riding bitch, playing with the weapons and keeping us from getting lost or running out of gas

although i'm gonna put in for a switch to pilot as soon as i'm eligible

[Edited on December 4, 2005 at 10:41 PM. Reason : asdfasdf]

12/4/2005 10:41:14 PM

I'd rather be a passenger in this one than a pilot in most others...

12/4/2005 11:16:54 PM

^^

My cousin is the right hand man, or one of the two back seaters in this bad boy.

12/4/2005 11:24:08 PM

yeah, i plan on putting in for Hornet WSO, but there's a 50/50 chance of getting that or Prowler ECMO

12/4/2005 11:26:23 PM

Hey Skack, are you talking about Carolina Barnstormers?

12/5/2005 1:12:32 AM

http://www.wimp.com/crosswinds/

12/5/2005 2:26:12 PM

^^ Yep...That's the place. I passed by it almost every friday this past summer, but my cellphone doesn't work at that spot and I never thought about calling any other time. Do you know them?

[Edited on December 5, 2005 at 3:48 PM. Reason : s]

12/5/2005 3:48:44 PM

Yeah, check out http://www.carolinabarnstormers.com/ for pricing and stuff. I used to fly out at Lakeridge a lot, and I've flown his Waco before. In fact, I was there when they took some of the pictures for the website.

[Edited on December 5, 2005 at 7:10 PM. Reason : ]

12/5/2005 7:05:38 PM

Quote :

"Shockwave jet truck. not an airplane, but it's cool."

There was a special on discovery or travel last night. Top 10 "monster trucks". They said it was 3 jet turbines with 36k HP or something to that effect.

ok found link:
http://www.shockwavejets.com/shockwave.cfm

Quote :

" Performance you ask? The ShockWave Jet Truck runs over 300 mph racing airplanes at airshows; holds the world record in a quarter mile for trucks at 256 mph in just 6.36 seconds; and holds the world record for full size trucks at 376 mph as recorded by Guinness Book of World Records. At 36,000 horsepower, the ShockWave has enough power to accelerate at 3 Gs vertical, which is as much as the Space Shuttle!"

12/5/2005 11:25:51 PM

been flying the T-6 (Texan II, not the old skool one) every work day since last friday (and did a night flight in a 172 on sunday).

That T-6 has some POWER (1100 hp, ~3500 lbs static thrust, ~5000 lb empty weight). You rotate at 85 kias, and by the time I get the gear and flaps up I'm usually at 130 or so. I'm probably level at 10,000' within about 3 minutes from starting the takeoff roll. It takes a pretty significant kick of right rudder anytime the engine spools up.

So far I've pulled about 4g (when pulling out from a spin recovery, and then several times with the instructors flying the break, doing loops, etc).

I've made probably a half dozen landings (all unassisted except one, where the instructor kept me from flaring too much too early. we would've been ok, but his help smoothed out the touchdown). Airspeed on short final is about 105 kias. I've been flying the Navy style pattern, which is a little weird at first, but I haven't flown the break yet because all of my landings have been at a civilian field (Mobile Downtown). Maybe tomorrow I'll get to land back at base and fly the break.

I hurled twice on each of the first 3 flights...haha

12/22/2005 1:11:10 AM

Eat my shit, you bastard.

When you gonna be back in town?

12/22/2005 10:44:49 AM