IIRC my mate who runs the ebay shop JetArtDesigns had an ex-luftwaffe T33 bang seat in…not sure if it’s sold or will just be relisted. Or was it F84? Hmm…as I’m writing this I’m not sure anymore! If someone’s interested, you can just email him.

Hi Tache

I’m certainly no expert, still on a learning curve myself but I’d say you have more chance with the first pic. It seems to me that in Auto mode on pic 2 the camera has boosted ISO because it recognized much of the scene was fairly dark. However, this has slightly overexposed (I think) the top of the wing, and ‘blown’ the sky. It’s a lot easier to recover details from an underexposed area than overexposed.
Pic 2 seems to have the better white balance but you can change the temperature in shot one, especially if it was shot in RAW.
If you have CS2 or above you can also play around with Adjusting Shadows/Highlights. Create a new layer, make a rough selection that includes everything but the sky and paste it into the new layer.That way any attempts to recover detail from the slightly dark areas won’t cause the sky to overexpose.
Finally, some very delicate sharpening would help bring the picture alive. The way I sharpen in Photoshop (always leave this until last) is to create a duplicate background layer, change the layer style to Overlay then go filter > other > high pass. When you change the sharpening level using the slider you should see a preview – I usually only apply enough so that in the preview pane you can barely make out an outline of the subject. You can then play around with the opacity of this ‘sharpening layer’ to reduce its effect on the background layer underneath it. If you need more sharpening you can simply duplicate the ‘sharpening’ layer.

Hope this helps

Bob

Hi John

I’m just going by what Canon told me. I rang their UK support line, spoke to one of their operatives and asked what would happen if I bought an imported (in this instance one that originated from America) 100 – 400mm L series lense and it developed a fault. His reply was that I’d need to send it to Canon US to be fixed. Sounds a bit crazy, I must admit, but perhaps it’s just another element of rip-off Britain, lol. Mind you, English wasn’t his first language and he did sound like he was trying to find an answer using a pre-defined ‘script’.
I really want this lense but it’s a big investment and just don’t want to get my fingers burnt. Do we know if this chap off Ebay sells imported stuff? His prices seem very good!

Thanks

Bob

That 1st Jag pic is awesome!

Last time I saw a Vulcan was at one of XH558’s last appearances at the sorely missed Church Fenton airshow. I stumbled upon a recent YouTube clip of someone’s ground-running Vulcan (might have been at Southend?), cranked up the volume and watched it about 20 times! Oh my God the sound!!!! I’m inspired to go see a Vulcan fast taxi run asap, and also even more excited about seeing XH558 next year. Keep up the good work.

In Second World War as well as Winter War, Red Army soldiers used to be given 100 g of vodka daily.

How did it affect their reaction and judgment?

In the Winter War, it was mentioned that land soldiers got 100 g of vodka, but aviators got 100 g of brandy instead. The supply department reported afterwards that in two and half years, they had spent 10 millions of litres of vodka (sic!) and 88 000 litres of brandy.

This means about 100 millions of portions of vodka and 880 000 portions of brandy (here omitting to account for density) or, in other words, during about 75 days, 1,3 million portions of vodka daily, and 12 000 portions of brandy…

So, is it easy to fly well and fight well with 100 g of brandy?

Meanwhile, the German pilots invented amphetamines… how do those affect fighting?

I’ve just finished reading Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey (again) and he mentions the suspicion that Luftwaffe pilots were on amphetamines, he also muses over this being the reason the German pilots seemed more reckless but had slower reaction than RAF pilots. Is it accepted fact that Luftwaffe pilots took ‘phet?