15 'New' Hinds!! (2008 Zombie thread)

Well gents I stand corrected, thank you, if he is going off with post number 10,000 all is not lost as he’s got 3 more to go.

Hmmm … is there another dispute in which honour may only be served by a duel. If so then I hope the duelists follow the Code Duello and Woodcock their pistols when instructed 😀

Someone’s been doing a little editing. What is now Mark12’s 9997th post was his 10000th when he made it.

It was his 10,000th, he has either deleted some, or had some removed…..

Mark hasn’t posted since his 10.000th, Was that really a goodbye?:confused:
Cees

I think we’re OK his last post was only number 99997, according to the tally on his above post:)

Mark hasn’t posted since his 10.000th, Was that really a goodbye?:confused:
Cees

Indeed the easiest answer is to put the information in the public domain in the place where it really matters .

Who cares ! This forum functions much better with aeroplanes as the matter in question.

Many of us do. Well, at least some of us do. Sadly, the Forum all too often drifts off aeroplanes and “talks” about things other. And when it does, the Forum is all too often the source of innuendo, rumours, unsubstantiated “facts”, etc., (“I was in the hangar the other day and heard…”) unless someone asks the questions and challenges the them they become “facts”. Too often people opine on things they know nothing about. Make rash statements as if they were there or know the more than they do, when they know nothing of the facts. How many times has the Forum been the source of misinformation?

The Forum is a fantastic place. So much great exchange of knowledge and ideas. It is when it is the “forum” drifts and becomes a platform for the poorly informed and willing to pontificate that it does itself an injustice. Unless someone is willing to challenge the incorrect, misinformation, etc., …

But I guess that is the cost of free speech.

Dear Moderator: So, if not by Key Publishing, then by whom?

Who cares ! This forum functions much better with aeroplanes as the matter in question.

As you probably know, both participants in this little dispute have been asked to remove it from the public arena and settle it between themselves. (Not by Key Publishing)

Thankfully one of them is complying.

Dear Moderator: So, if not by Key Publishing, then by whom?

What is the current state of play with the recovered Afghani Hinds ?

If I recall correctly, due to the overall good condition of the airframe, non of the main structure was replaced, only things like bolts and nuts etc.

Bob T.

That would explan it, Thank you!

Pat Chriswick, would you explain something which is very, very simple?

As you probably know, both participants in this little dispute have been asked to remove it from the public arena and settle it between themselves. (Not by Key Publishing)

Thankfully one of them is complying.

Moggy
Moderator

Always wondered how the Shuttleworth Hind was restored without the tube squaring machine available these days

If I recall correctly, due to the overall good condition of the airframe, non of the main structure was replaced, only things like bolts and nuts etc.

Bob T.

Always wondered how the Shuttleworth Hind was restored without the tube squaring machine available these days

Then Shuttleworth Afghan Hind, with remnant Farsi script on the camera exposure counter mount :

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243816[/ATTACH]

Errata : A Dari speaker has reminded me it is Dari script saying, effectively “Camera, small electric device”.

From out of a box also comes a Ref 14A/540 Camera Wedge Plate from the Houghton-Butcher MFG CO LTD London, which is the wedge plate I believe, to hold the F8 camera drive motor.

My Dari man also explains that Dari and Urdu script are similar but Pashto is ‘Chinese’.
So Urdu is the main language of Pakistan and a common language on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and at least readable by a Pakistani.

So if you were Afghanistan looking for trained pilots from 1946 -8 you might interview a few wandering Poles and lost Italians released from Indian prison camps and gun running English adventurers, but probably be more comfortable with fellow believers from the west of India, the future Pakistan. If you were contemplating setting up Pakistan and securing your rear, you might be inclined to send your wartime Hart biplane Indian Air Force trained pilots into a neighboring country to set up an air force. I await the definitive history of the RAfghanAF to confirm this, standing patiently by my letterbox…. It would be interesting to see what box brownies sit on the shelf of a few aged Pakistani Air Force Wing Commanders.

Where sales of Hawker spares to the Kingdom of Afghanistan a backdoor for the Pakistanis to keep their fledgling Air Force of Hawker Tempests going in 1946?

The controversy between Pat Chriswick and Mark12 over the Afghanistan Hinds stands unclarified, in part.

Pat Chriswick, would you explain something which is very, very simple?

Who provided Aeroplane magazine with the Afghanistan Hinds summary info printed in the magazine’s April 2008 issue, including the photo?

The fact that this monthly issue was delivered to mail subscribers and recipients of complimentary copies during the last week of February 2008 means that the info was given to the magazine editor even earlier.

To bring this thread to a more scholarly tone I submit a cockpit photo of OEM Afghan Hind cockpit :

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243815[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243828[/ATTACH]

Then Shuttleworth Afghan Hind, with remnant Farsi script on the camera exposure counter mount :

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243816[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243817[/ATTACH]

Very little seems to be known about RAAF Hinds in service, that is Royal Afghanistan Air Force Hinds. Recent politics have pushed many Afghan Hazaras out into the world, and the stories of historical persecution of this significant minority percolates out into wider appreciation. Much of the current topography of Afghani politics aligns along these historical rivers. I understand that much of the Sunni-Pashtun-Taliban-Pakistan thing is one bank of this river and the other is occupied by Shiite Hazara and Tajiks and odds and sods. I also understand that the Kingdom of Afghanistan and its military up to the late 70’s was a Pashtun construct and the Hazaras got the rough end of the stick during this time. So I wonder if the RAAF was a Pashtun construct and most of the work of the Afghan Hinds in the 50’s and 60’s was in strafing Hazaras and Tajiks. The good news for the Hazaras is that the Gilman bearings in the Rolls Royce Kestrel conrod big ends were unobtainable and so the bazaar smiths of Kabaul resorted to machining out the worn copper lead bearing lining and replacing it with white metal, giving 40 hours of engine life instead of the original 480 hours. So the RAAF Hinds, let alone the Hazaras, were probably preserved by unserviceability.

Another thought is on the fact that Hart biplanes never had dust filters on the intakes. You would think that dust and herdsmen riding horses and playing polo with goat carcasses around the aerodrome would result in all sorts of matter being sucked into the carburettors. Interestingly a 1942 report from the Australian RAAF on Hawker Australian Demons and other types subject to dust on rough and ready made airfields indicated that this was not a problem with RR Kestrels, more so with American radials and later engine types. It may have been a form of serendipity that airflow over the cowling of the Hart type biplanes pushed dust laden air aside or it may have simply been that partial supercharging and a cruder, lower compression engine made allowances for conditions that would disable higher performance aircraft.

Some evidence shows that Indian Hart biplanes were supplied to Afghanistan, and no doubt spares, while they lasted. I wonder if in this mix Indian trained ‘mercenary’ pilots were engaged to operate or train the Afghan RAAF?

Shame on you!! Hinds etc were covered in linen or possibly cotton

Hinds were covered in DOPE, to be FAIRING. You may not give a CONSTANTINESCU, Stan, but I keep disSCARFF RING posts more crook than a MESSAGE PICKUP HOOK (Audax and Australian Demon only..)

Yes, and their pilots were in their 20’s.