smallbrother
Elder Statesman
Errors aplenty, progress slow, but progress nonetheless!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by smallbrother on Jul 6, 2018 8:48:48 GMT
As it is the Centenary of the RAF this year I thought I would change my Avatar to my favorite aeroplane. John. As a fresh graduate in 1977 I had the great honour of being assigned for training in the NCB to an ex-mosquito navigator, WW2 variety. I can't pick a favourite between these, Lancasters and Spitfires, but he was a massive fan of the Mosquito, perhaps not surprisingly. He was also a very fine old-school engineer of the highest standards and integrity, but he had a bit of a temper and boxed in the RAF to get rid of his anger. One of the best bits of advice he gave me was never to kick a bloke when he is down. He then went on to tell me of a time he got into a fight with a Yank (over a girl of course) and punched him to the floor. He added a boot to make sure he stayed there! His only regret was they stopped the war before his squadron became operational. He really was a bit annoyed about that. He was then posted to Germany and saw what we had done to the place and how destitute the people were. Swathes of towns without a brick standing on a brick, and women willing to sell themselves for next to nothing. What an easy life we have in comparison. I have no idea how we manage to manufacture so many difficulties for ourselves these days. Sorry to ramble on. Pete.
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Post by steamer5 on Jul 6, 2018 8:55:04 GMT
Down this end of the globe on TV tonight...Gaining Altitude: The Mosquito, Follow the 5 year restoration of the worlds only original Mosquito.......got to be mandatory viewing!!
Cheers Kerrin
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Post by doubletop on Jul 6, 2018 9:22:43 GMT
Down this end of the globe on TV tonight...Gaining Altitude: The Mosquito, Follow the 5 year restoration of the worlds only original Mosquito.......got to be mandatory viewing!! Cheers Kerrin Not Freeview or did I miss it? Pete
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Post by steamer5 on Jul 6, 2018 10:09:38 GMT
Hi Pete, watching NOW on Sky History, based on Canadian aircraft, really quite good article
Cheers Kerrin
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peteh
Statesman
Still making mistakes!
Posts: 760
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Post by peteh on Jul 6, 2018 13:52:14 GMT
I watched it on Fox tonight as well. While the Mozzie is well up the list my favourite aircraft has to be the Lancaster - 4 Merlins flying in formation Used to belong to the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association (LLA) before I emigrated to Australia (and for quite a few years after, which helped raise funds for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF). Used to come over to the UK every 3-4 years and try to time it for the LLA's private airshow at the BBMF. Being held on DoD ground and a private airshow the RAF could overfly the crowd - Lancaster, 3 Spitfires and two Hurricanes at around 100 feet was awesome in sight and sound. However the LLA's event was becoming too popular and to control numbers places were done by lottery. No special allowance for overseas members meant it was too much in the hands of the gods as to wether I could attend so gave it away in the end.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2018 14:27:47 GMT
I probably mentioned before my love of some of the aircraft mentioned here...the Mossie is a superb aircraft, I've seen one put through it's paces at airshows here in the UK before it's untimely and very sad end. I was introduced to the class as a young child by my grandfather (he who introduced me to trains,LNER and of course 4472) who was ground crew servicing this great aircraft, I built him a model of the type he worked on which was the reccon model. For Lancasters there's my other grandfather who served throughout the entire war in bomber command finishing in Lancs, he was trained and flew as a mid and tail gunner completing more than 3 tours. He remained in the reserve after the war as flying officer, he was an old man for aircrew being born in 1905. As for the 'Spit', well that's my all time fav aircraft, interestingly Gresley as CE for LNER was involved in raising funds that paid for two Spitfires for the RAF, one of which was named 'Flying Scotsman', I believe it survived the war..
Pete
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2018 15:17:44 GMT
Speaking of 'spitfires' I did a little search for the one named FS, as it happens there were two with this name, I haven't searched deeper to find out why but can assume that the first was lost. Here's a couple of nice colour pictures of the second aircraft from 1942.. Great images which are pretty clear... Regards Pete
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Post by Oily Rag on Jul 13, 2018 21:18:06 GMT
I probably mentioned before my love of some of the aircraft mentioned here...the Mossie is a superb aircraft, I've seen one put through it's paces at airshows here in the UK before it's untimely and very sad end. I was introduced to the class as a young child by my grandfather (he who introduced me to trains,LNER and of course 4472) who was ground crew servicing this great aircraft, I built him a model of the type he worked on which was the reccon model. For Lancasters there's my other grandfather who served throughout the entire war in bomber command finishing in Lancs, he was trained and flew as a mid and tail gunner completing more than 3 tours. He remained in the reserve after the war as flying officer, he was an old man for aircrew being born in 1905. As for the 'Spit', well that's my all time fav aircraft, interestingly Gresley as CE for LNER was involved in raising funds that paid for two Spitfires for the RAF, one of which was named 'Flying Scotsman', I believe it survived the war.. Pete 3 Tours Crikey. One of the very few. I am also a admirer of the Lancaster, recently saw again G for George in Canberra. Clive Gensling married my dads sister and he flew in Lancs as wireless operator, was on opps in late 44 and early 45. He is still with us and went back to the UK for the new BC memorial unveiling. They have a Mk2 Spit and a 109 in Canberaa with original paint. Also a Mossie but one cannot look at the Mossie and the Spit at a nice angle. I have many books on the Spit by Alfred Price. Reginald Mitchells (later Joe Smith) master piece is a beautiful aircraft with the legend story behind it. (Along with the Hurri) However they are weapons of war and it is a shame that such weapons cannot be confined to history forever.
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Post by ettingtonliam on Jul 14, 2018 3:28:22 GMT
While we are on the subject of aircraft, can anyone identify the plane which was flying fairly low over central Warwickshire today (Friday). It was large bodied with a very high tailplane and had 4 turbo? prop engines. Colour grey all over with absolutely no visible markings. Due to the cloud at the time I couldn't tell if it was circling round, or there were 2 of the pesky things.
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rrmrd66
Part of the e-furniture
Posts: 339
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Post by rrmrd66 on Jul 14, 2018 7:17:25 GMT
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davidk
Active Member
Posts: 32
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Post by davidk on Jul 14, 2018 8:26:36 GMT
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Post by ettingtonliam on Jul 14, 2018 8:31:47 GMT
I think we can rule out the Boeing because what I saw had propellers. Could well have been the Airbus.
Thanks for the information chaps.
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johnthepump
Part of the e-furniture
Building 7 1/4"G Edward Thomas
Posts: 494
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Post by johnthepump on Jul 14, 2018 8:43:19 GMT
Well Chaps, this one has been flying above my desk for over thirty years now and been in the family for seventy. There is another print of it in the Pumphouse. 14.07.2018 by John The Pump, on Flickr
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Post by GWR 101 on Jul 14, 2018 8:53:27 GMT
Hi John, I have a set of 1/8th scale plans for a Brian Taylor Mosquito which were given to me about 15 years back. When the heat dies down I need to get into the loft because if I remember correctly there maybe a pre cut kit in there. It would make a good winter project, when the workshop is a bit chilly, assuming the other half would allow me the use of the kitchen table. Regards Paul
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rrmrd66
Part of the e-furniture
Posts: 339
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Post by rrmrd66 on Jul 14, 2018 9:10:54 GMT
I think we can rule out the Boeing because what I saw had propellers. Could well have been the Airbus. Thanks for the information chaps. Your right with "Airbus'
I think it was:
Fits your description
Cheers
Malcolm
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2018 9:37:50 GMT
I would bet it was RAF who do have Atlas's, IIRC one took part in the 100th celebration flypast over London.. On another aircraft note, I've had Trump's little airforce buzzing the house over the last few days. On the first day about an hour before Trump landed at Stanstead, we had an outgoing from RAF Northolt of the two Hawks one of which is marine 1, followed closely by 3 US Marine Osprey's and what looked like either a MET police or RAF training helicopter bringing up the rear. I say they were on the Northolt flightpath but in fact, they were traveling along the flight corridor in the opposite direction and very low, perhaps 500' or a little more. Later that day one Osprey literally buzzed my house, I'm surprised it didn't take the roof off it was so low. You could more or less time when to expect them by watching Trumps movements on TV, on the last occasion when Trump would have been on board, again very low, well below the official flight corridor. On this occasion, at night, when heading for Stanstead we had the two Hawks in the lead (one of which would have Trump on board) followed by a single Osprey with the US Marines on board and again what may have been a MET unit behind. A lead Osprey did fly over on the same flight path a few minutes prior to Trump, presumably securing the way.BTW the 3 Osprey's have been at Northolt for a short while. It's nice and quiet again now... Pete
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Post by ilvaporista on Jul 15, 2018 5:33:35 GMT
If you have not seen it flightradar24.com lets you keep track of what is going on in the sky above your house. Not everything appears on it for security reasons.
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johnthepump
Part of the e-furniture
Building 7 1/4"G Edward Thomas
Posts: 494
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Post by johnthepump on Jul 15, 2018 9:24:36 GMT
As it is the Pumphouse it only seems right that there is a pump now and then. An old friend found this in a skip the other evening on his way home from where else. He brought it to me to mend as he didn't understand the clutch thing ( aluminium cooling fan), the only thing was if he pushed up against the coupling the pump sort of worked. I had already realised that the fan retaining screws that joined to the coupling had sheared. with the pump removed from its base plate it became obvious that the lack of drive was due to the grub screw in the coupling had come undone sufficiently to allow it to spin on the shaft. The sheared screw were removed and replaced and the pump refitted and all worked well. although I didn't strip the pump down, it was it was obviously a vane type as the noise they make when running is very distinctive. I looked the makers plate up on Google and found that the firm were supplier to the photographic and print trades. This makes sense as the skip was outside a house where the old gentleman had lived and he was into photography. JtP 13.07.2018 by John The Pump, on Flickr
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johnthepump
Part of the e-furniture
Building 7 1/4"G Edward Thomas
Posts: 494
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Post by johnthepump on Aug 5, 2018 9:49:34 GMT
The Cylinders for Edward Thomas have now been bored, Once again Wilf did most of the machining while I was cleaning up the motion bracket castings that had arrived in the post from Reeves they looked to be of good quality and arrived well within the time I was told. The cylinders were mounted on an aluminium packing plate that we had machined to the correct thickness to be on the centre line when mounted on the cross slide and up against an angle plate clocked true with the bed. Using a wobbler the face of the angle was set to the centre line of the lathe, then adjusted for the centre of the cylinder and the cross slide locked up. 20.07.2018 by John The Pump, on Flickr There are other jobs going on in the Pumphouse and I will post them up when I have some photos of metal being cut. John.
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uuu
Elder Statesman
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Posts: 2,816
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Post by uuu on Aug 5, 2018 21:47:38 GMT
This setup worked so well, that after doing the second cylinder, and finding they differed by a gnat's, we were able to remount the first and take a final pass with the cutter a the same setting.
Wilf
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