Bet it’s not on page three!

At least they got the type of ‘plane right, and its location – what more do you expect – accuracy? 😮

Perhaps the “ghost” is responsible for the strange happenings around the engine nacelles on this particular 747 too 😀 😀 (see other threads) – are we sure it’s not the ghost of a long lost Boeing B52 taking (part) possession of it’s younger relative :diablo:

– Still, at least it’s not been found crashed on the moon, unlike the front page reports in that other “quality” paper a year or two back.

Paul F

Unfortunately I’ll be in Spain, looks like I picked the wrong week to take a holiday 😡

Lots of photos please chaps, will try and hook up while I’m away, but if not I’ll catch up when I’m back in a couple of weeks….

On Monday I’ll raise a San Miguel to the Cranberries and the many crews who’ve flown them over the years.

Paul F

Possibly caused by interruption of the file writing process as the image was being written to the media card?

I’ve lost whole images on my Fuji S5000 by switching between camera and review modes whilst it is still saving/writing a series of images taken moments before in “continuous shooting mode”. Obviously it takes it longer to save a series of shots than it does to save a single image, and in my wish to quickly review them to delete the worst ones I’ve been too quick off the mark to switch between modes and thus lost the lot 🙁 .

Or perhaps its a sign that the card had a few bad sectors – though usually software works around bad sectors rather than just writing data into them.

Paul F

Oh UK gets a lot out of the SR…

What does UK get from the Special relationship..?

Being held over a barrel and sh*ft*d at every opportunity??? :dev2:

i.e.:

The one-way option of having her residents extradited despite them having committed no offence on US territory, or against US entities – with no apparent way (or political will) of stopping the extradition.

The priviledge of being used as stop over for rendition flights.

The priviledge of being used as a stop over for flights full of ordinance thats on it’s way to Israel.

No access to the critical engineering know-how that may (or may not) be an integral part of the JSF (if it ever happens).

See, the list of goodies the relationship brings is endless……. :rolleyes:

Paul F

For the sheer pleasures of flying, “Airymouse” and “Cloud Cuckooland” by Harold Penrose. (They inspired me to buy the Luton Minor..and I’m not the only one!)

Yes, these are both very good, as his “main” autobiography which covers his life from childhood through being a test pilot at Westlands, including the ptailless Pterodactyls, the Lysander, the Whirlwind, the Welkin, and on through the Wyvern. Again, my memory fails me as to it’s exact title, but its another one worth seeking out.

All his works are full of a depth of detail and scenery that few writers fail to manage. While they lack much of the “gung ho” heroics as might be found in a fighter pilots biography, Penrose manages to capture the romance of flying, his love of flying, and his deep love of the West country and its landscape. I can fully understand why GAMSL was inspired to by the Luton Minor after reading them.

I’m off on holiday this w/e, and I think I now need an extra suitcase just to take the reading matter, given the obvious quality of so many of the titles recommended so far in this thread.

Paul F

oops Missed one!

“Airborne” Neil Williams – a series of reminiscinces/experiences the late Neil W had during his career, including his time int he RAF,a nd then afterwards as an aerobatic and freelance ferry-pilot. It includesn an account of the time he had to cope with a major structiural failure on his Zlin, which meant he had to fly it inverted to keep the weakening wing in place, and then work out how to resolve the situation. Includes chapters on the Spitfire, Sopwith Pup, Canberra, Hastings, Meteor, Pitts S2, Stampe, Cosmic Wind, 1912 Blackburn etc.

Paul F

Hi EN830/Daz,

Yes I’ve heard this somewhere too – the bags would be stout canvas, rather like a sleeping bag with a full face flap to pull over, and fitted with a loop over the cannon barrel fairing to hold them in the correct place on the wing. Presumably there was some sort of strap from the back end to the cannon loop too, to keep the bag in place under heavy braking?

The lucky occupant crawled into the bag on the top surface of the wing, the flap was closed, and presumably he (or she) laid there quietly until all the subsequent noise, gale force wind, and commotion, stopped, and they we let out at their destination.

A somewhat less than comfortable ride, noisy, cold, frightning, etc, but probably preferable to getting caught and turned into a POW.

Presumably the bags would be used in pairs, one per wing, and erks of similar shape and weight would have been paired so as to help keep the plane balanced…though I guess the western desert environment would have trimmed most chaps down to being lean and mean anyway.

I assume it was hoped that violent manoeuvers/combat could be avoided when en route….

Paul F

“Digitising” 35mm Transparencies

Hi Pete,

For what it’s worth, I’ve got a ca. 2001 vintage Canon Flatbed scanner which has a lid-mounted “backlight” and a film holder which will accept either unmounted 35mm strips, or mounted 35mm trannies. Scan resolution is up to 4800dpi (I think). Sorry can’t remember the model, and anyway, being 5 years old it’ll be long superseded.

It works well, and a couple of default buttons save time configuring the thing to recognise 35mm film/slide scans rather than usual flat bed scans etc.

I have been fairly pleased with results, but find the whole process painfully slow – maybe it’s my PC, maybe its the scanner, or maybe it’s the pair of them together, but each scan takes an age, and my grand plans to scan all my old 35mm images (slides and photos) died a death within a month or so – now I only scan them as and when i need digital copies of them. I know some of the recent Epson scanners now have holders which take four 35mm slides per scan, and presumably save data as four seperate files via clever software, which would save a lot of time.

So, main thrust of this post is :Be warned, scanning a large library of images may take many, many, hours if you use a typical flat-bed scanner with a slide mount – especially if you are going to tweak each image in photoshop post-scanning.

Use of one of the lens mounted slide holders on a digicam may offer a time saving? Or, acquisition of a semi-pro scanner may be worth considering.

Paul F