From the ever-excellent acig
As Lika said –
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/printer_278.shtml
Very detailed – gives good background as well
Sad sad news
I remember the thread about the Rapide and his son…
If no-one objects have posted a poem that a mate sent to me on the passing of my wife…. don’t know who wrote it or otherwise I would credit them…
Death is nothing at all
Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped away
into the next room.
I am I,
and you are you;
whatever we were to each other,
that, we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name,
speak to me in the easy way
which you always used,
put no difference in your tone,
wear no forced air
of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we shared together.
Let my name ever be
the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all
that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
Being pedantic about rockets
But did the F4F-3/4 ever carry rockets?
If they didn’t, then the footage mentioned in the original post was probably from later in the war?
Q: At what point in the war did the USN/USMC start using rockets? Anybody know?
Hellcats at Guadalcanal?
The USMC used Wildcats (F4F-3, F4F-4 if memory serves) at Guadalcanal. I am not sure if they ever carried rockets.
Did the USMC ever fly the Hellcat in combat? I seem to have the impression that they went from Wildcats straight to the Corsair (at the time the Corsair had not been cleared for carrier ops by the USN).
Rory
One of the L-29s – they belong to a private aerobatic team sponsored by a south african petrochem (logo on nose). The team are called the Tigers (yes, I know, how to state the obvious) and do quite a nice show.
Also below, some more pelican 22 pics and one of a Yak-18 T sponsored by a local medical aid company. The Yak-18 also did some skywriting on the day.
The first Shackleton pic in this group is of engine start – about two minutes later I was forced to move because of prop wash 🙂
Wow, I had never noticed how much longer the fuselages of those turbo Daks are (it looks like the front end has been stretched), as well as the nacelles. I think they look pretty good, but I imagine many people would disagree! -Any way ‘vive la difference’, good to see them still hard at work!
I think the turbo dak is about a metre longer than the original.
Break the pelican trend with some Daks
A few pics of the two C-47s present – the brown/olive drab camo’d one is operated by the SAAF museum (I think on Friday it was flown by Col N.Thomas, CO of SAAF museum) and the C-47 TP is operational. The SAAF no longer has any operational C-47s with piston engines.
Now I have to get back to work…
Ok, as long as nobody tells my boss – a couple more of Pelican 22 and some of Yak 52s belonging to an aerobatic team called..wait for it..Yak Attack.
Will post some more later – does a C-130 classify as historical I wonder? It’s definitely old enough…
Pelican, Thunder City and the weather
Ta for the nice words – will post some more as the day progresses
Thunder City – we had the Bucc, as well as the Lightning – unfortunately cos my camera has virtually no zoom, no pics worth posting. The Thunder City jets always operate out of CT International and never land at Ysterplaat during a show – so I couldn’t get any ground pics.
Pelican 22 did two displays on Friday – aaah, nothing like the sound of Griffons – except for Merlins of course.
Weather – 30 + degrees (Celsius) and not a cloud in the sky, with a little bit of a breeze – definitely perfect weather
Amazing – anyone care to post a potted history of SA Shackletons for the ignorant – there seem to be, or have been, plenty of them?
Try here for a start – http://www.shackletonproject.co.za
Yesssss….
Kodak,
Would you prefer to see pictures of it painted gloss black, flying over Cape Town, or have the chance to see it in the flesh at UK airshows, painted in the rather striking Red Bull scheme?
Bring it to Cape Town…. I know I wouldn’t complain 😀 …. now there’s a formation flight worth seeing…Bucc, Hunter, Lightning & Sea Vixen
What about Pattle?
Although some of the documentation for his kills was lost- isn’t he considered to be amongst the top of the RAF aces? Although his career was a lot shorter than those of Malan or Johnson, from the little that I have read about him, he seems to have done a bit more than his share – before dying in what was supposedly an epic battle over Athens (altho I have had difficulty finding corroborating evidence).
Could tie in a bit with Roald Dahl, who was serving in the same squadron at the time of Pattle’s demise…
Sorry Kukri, it worked fine on my system. Then again, I am running 32 bit colour and a very high end graphic card. Another option is to resample with Paint Shop Pro.
—
Allan
No worries Alan, wasn’t directed at you (although Mr Gates, if you are reading this, please feel free to take umbrage)…..it was just me being greedy and wanting that stunning pic in 1024 x 768.
I eventually relented and went with Von Perthes’ suggestion – I kept it as 600 x 800 and stuck it in the centre.
It really is a beautiful pic tho – likely to stay on my desktop for a long time.
Ta Allan
I assume you mean just setting the pic to wallpaper and letting my firendly neighbourhood XP take care of the rest? Cos that’s what I did and the image quality suffered a bit – especially round the edges of the spit –
Or could it be that I am being unusually dense…hmm, well it is Monday….
having my cake..and eating it too
Wow- cool pics – comliments to the photographer. Is there any way to get a 1024×768 version of the first pic for my wallpaper? I tried converting from the 800 x 600 pic but XP made a dog’s breakfast of it….surprise, surprise.