RE: New Pic

Has anybody got up to date pics of Glacier Girl, the P-38 retrieved from Greenland a few years back?

If anybody has ever read the “Lost Squadron”, which told the story of the recovery of this aircraft, they would know that there were numerous other P-38’s at the same location. All you needed was bulk dollars and the equipment to dig through about 200 ft of ice to drag them out. Has anything ever been done to retrieve the other craft?

Wombat

RE: What’s your weather like right now?

Typical Aussie mid spring weather. Temps around 28-31 degrees, light breezes and lots of smoke from bushfires about 50km north of here.

You poms wouldn’t like to send some of that rain over, would you? We have had one of the driest years on record. Winter never really got cold and our hottest month, February, is still four months away. Our yards are dry and brown and the bush (local forests) are tinder dry, just waiting to explode in flames. It’s already happened around Sydney with houses lost over the past three weeks.

This is going to be a long, hot and fiery summer. I’d send a a pic, but you wouldn’t see anything for the smoke.

Wombat

RE: PLEASE STOP THE MARQUEE TAG!!!

Hmmm, I suppose as phounder of the “Old Pharts”, I should put in me two bob’s worth.

I admit that my messages are plain and boring in their presentation. I prefer to rely on their content to draw the reader and promote response. I might decorate my messages subtly when I learn how to, but us Old Pharts find it difficult to readily adjust to hi-tech stuff.

I don’t have a problem with the manner of presentation of the messages from guys like Saab, A330etc, T5 et al. It does add colour to the forum and is a bit different from pages of endless text. I just think it has to be balanced with content. Don’t try to dazzle the rest of us by outdoing each other in your quests to have the biggest and the best – some of us are too old to be impressed by that stuff. Present your messages in whatever form you wish, but remember that, for a message to be effective, it has to be read.

If you deter your viewers before they even read a word, your message isn’t worth a bumper.

Regards

Wombat

Now, where did I put me teeph???

RE: GARUDA OFFERS FLIGHTS TO BALI

Monster

What on earth is an Aussie doing promoting Emirates?

Wombat

RE: Just looking back over the past posts….

Andrew

Yes thanks, I’d love it. Any chance of both of them approaching from opposite directions and then one flying over the other???

Regards

Wombat

RE: Another sad, sad day

I have a number of concerns following this attack.

The first is that we westerners will never understand what makes the fundamentalist Muslim tick. I raised the question during a previous post about this issue. How can we understand a religion where zealots believe that their unbelievable (in western eyes) actions and sacrifice, ensures them eternal existence in paradise?

To me, the hatred and mistrust of Muslims which has existed since September 11, will only fester and blossom with this latest attack. It may be that this attack and Al Quaeda are totally unrelated, but it won’t help understanding, cooperation and trust to develop between Westerners and Muslims. I don’t know whose hatred is deepest, but I have to suspect the Muslims – after all, they are the ones who are carrying out these attacks. Many of us westerners dislike and distrust the Muslim extremists, but they absolutely loathe us. When did you last see a Western civilisation attack Muslim nations in like manner? If this upsets any Muslim members of the forum, I regret that fact, but, assuming that Muslim extremists are behind the Bali bombings, then they are taking a war to innocents, and the death lists are proof of their success.

The second issue is related. So far, there has been little “tit for tat” in Australia after September 11, but this could change. I don’t subscribe to the views in the media that this was an attack against Australia specifically, rather that it was designed to kill as many western tourists as possible. (One thing it certainly has killed is the tourist trade for Bali for years to come.) However, police forces in Australia have now been placed on alert on two fronts. The first is to protect critical or vulnerable sites and facilities across Australia.

The second is to guard and protect Muslim structures such as mosques and other gathering places against reprisals. If it is proven though, that Muslim extremists were responsible for the bombings, I am sure the current level of mistrust in this country will remain high for a long time to come. Other local, unrelated events over recent months in Sydney have already inflamed racial mistrust towards the Muslim community, much of it unfairly.

World peace seems as remote and unlikely now as it ever has since the end of World War 2. The growth in extremist religious groups, the increased affluence of certain nations and their ability and willingness to engage in military actions, the ability of religious zealots and extremists to organise and fund complex military operations far more readily than at any previous time, and the targetting of the United States as a convenient focus for deep-set hatred, ensures that we will be living in uncertain times for some considerable period to come. I’m personally thankful that I live in this country. Not because I think I am safe from attack, but that I am probably safer from attack than many other places on earth right now. And yes, I realise that Bali is a lot closer to home than New York.

Regards

Wombat

RE: Just looking back over the past posts….

Andrew

Gees, that a toughy…

It wouldn’t be a civilian aircraft as my interest is in military craft, particularly world war 2.

I have always been fascinated by early German jets and the Me 262 was the best, plus it was a mean looking thing. The Arado 234 was also a purposeful looking aircraft, but the 262 probably is the pick.

Otherwise, it would be the still-born Commonwealth CA-15. As an Aussie, it really p…es me off that we had the opportunity to do something for ourselves and develop our own aircraft industry, then let it slip by.

Having said all that, either the 262 or CA-15.

Took me long enough to get to that simple point, didn’t it?

Regards

Wombat

RE: What the heck, here’s some info about me…

Andrew

I understand the point you made, and I suppose you would need stepped up security in N.I.

It’s just that I have worked as an employee of a Police Service (though not as a police officer) in Australia for over 32 years and I know that crank calls don’t get overwhelming attention all the time.

As I said, if I rang you and called you a bonehead, or something much worse, from the opposite side of the world, and the call was traced, I doubt that much would be done about it by your local police or Interpol – they have enough on their plates already with real policing issues.

Anyway, we should get this post back on track – as some others know, it’s an annoyance to me when threads digress.

Regards

Wombat