pbfoot
1st Lieutenant
The next time I'm at the hanger I'll measure the difference of the track of the Spit and 109 to me it looks about the same
Most Pilot friendly fighter?
- Thread starter Hermie
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Soundbreaker Welch?
Tech Sergeant
Ok here is the footage that was used in "Midway."
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_eDC8R4H9c
On watching it again I realize that there are no Wildcats crashing on deck, only Hellcats. Another mistake "Midway" made. I didn't realize when I watched it that there were no SBD's used. That's really too bad since you say they were models anyway.
I noticed there were no Fairy Firefly's and no Brewster Buffalo's and that F4U Corsairs made some cameo appearances. The Hellcats at least from a distance can fool one into thinking they are wildcats.
Well, a lot of older films do that. You can't get all the original wardbirds you need or modern replicas, and WWII footage can't provide all the shots a movie needs. Nowdays with computers it's easier to make accurate planes but it's still expensive.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_eDC8R4H9c
On watching it again I realize that there are no Wildcats crashing on deck, only Hellcats. Another mistake "Midway" made. I didn't realize when I watched it that there were no SBD's used. That's really too bad since you say they were models anyway.
I noticed there were no Fairy Firefly's and no Brewster Buffalo's and that F4U Corsairs made some cameo appearances. The Hellcats at least from a distance can fool one into thinking they are wildcats.
Well, a lot of older films do that. You can't get all the original wardbirds you need or modern replicas, and WWII footage can't provide all the shots a movie needs. Nowdays with computers it's easier to make accurate planes but it's still expensive.
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
In Willi Reschkes book, page 153, he talks about the conversion to the 190 from the 109...
"Conversion to the 190 in fact proceeded quickly... The aircraft did not have the 190's tendency to swing on take off and landing..."
"Conversion to the 190 in fact proceeded quickly... The aircraft did not have the 190's tendency to swing on take off and landing..."
Get it right the first time!
Yeah, save gas on go rounds!
I always wondered about landings in gliders. How do they set it up so they have such a wide landing evelope and missed approaches become less of a factor? Do the spoilers help that much?
A little off topic so I'll get back to the fighter that was most difficult to fly for newbies. Different war and not an American aircraft but the Sopwith Camel had a reputation for killing almost as many pilots on it's own side as the other. All the weight was in the first 7 or so feet of the plane (engine, machine guns, pilot fuel), coupled with a 130hp turning radial, it was murder on a new pilot.
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
I've got about 12 hours in gliders and I'm sure Glider could speak to this better than I, but there is no missed approach - when you're committed to land, you land. If you fly the pattern by determined numbers (Airspeed at a certain altitude, at a certain point in the pattern) you shouldn't have any problems. The speed brakes really bring the aircraft down rapidly so you factor in the best time to use them, again based on altitude, airspeed and the size of the pattern when landing.
Not only newbies but some top aces were killed stall/ spinning the Camel - not an easy aircraft to fly.
Have you tried to land a Bf-109? Neither have I but I can tell you that a tail dragger with a main landing gear of a narrow track like that of the Bf-109 would make any aircraft difficult to land and take off.
Good info there, thanks I was not really aware of that. I know that a narrow track is not the greatest to have but that certainly would cause problems. I have heard of instances of Bf 109s doing what you described but never thought of the wheels as a problem.
pbfoot
1st Lieutenant
I'll measure the distance between the wheels of the 109/spit this week and also ask the pilots as the birds are getting their CofA's this next couple of weeks so I'll have good info to impart. But as I looked at them yesterday they seem pretty close to being the same distance apart .
renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
My gripe about that stupid "Midway" movie is compounded by the fact that they showed, I think, Charlton Heston getting out of an SBD one time in the movie and as I said before the dive bombers during the attack in the film were models so if they going to build models why not build the correct one. Obviously there are no Vindicators left anywhere around.
Glider
Captain
It gets interesting if you have a number of gliders in a thermal called a stack and then the lift goes. Then its quite possible and not unusual to have a number of gliders comming in to land at the same time.
Last time we had one strip and six gliders comming in to land in basically two sets of three. I was the meat in the sandwich in the second group and you have to keep a close eye on the others. Standard rule is the one on the bottom lands as short as they can, the one in the middle aims for the middle of the strip touching down about a third of the way down and the highest goes long.
The danger is that everyone may not have seen everyone else so your constantly lookiing up and down to ensure they are doing what they should. The problem I had, was that the meat in the first group had stopped in the middle of the strip not off to one side. All I could do was aim right at him, touched down about 20ft beyond him and turned off as soon as I could to avoid the high guy coming down on top of me.
The spoilers are vital to give you that level of control on where your landing.
renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
In this thread there was an earlier mention of the most pilot unfriendly fighter and I recall in a book about either Joe Foss or Marion Carl a Marine squadron was pulled back from Guadalcanal to Espiritu Santo to transition from Wildcats to Corsairs. Said it was like a rodeo where the pilots were supposed to be flying the planes but instead the planes were flying the pilots and there were numerous crashes and some fatalities. This was before the Corsairs were debounced, without the starboard wing spoiler and were the low canopy versions.
Sticking to prop birds. Always thought gliders were cool and fun but want the power to get out of there when the "knucklehead factor" kicks in (as you noted in your story). Plus, the go round gives me time to cool down instead of getting out of the bird and yelling at some 17 year old kid "What the ---- was that? Don't you know there are other birds out here!".
Glider
Captain
As FJ said, you learn fast in a glider, if it all goes belly up you just have to sort things out.
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
I always felt flying a glider made me a better pilot over all. About a week after my first glider solo I had an engine failure in a Cessna 150 - Although I was able to get the engine started and get back to the airport, I was confident enough to set up for a dead stick landing at a private strip which was in the same area.
Now that's luck. Kudos on your confidence, sure it helped. But to lose the engine and have a private field close enough to get to, man, that is some excellent luck.
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
I was lucky - I had a choice - this private strip or the freeway - Had I chosen the freeway I would of been on TV, something you want to avoid. I was setting up to go straight in as the propeller was starting to windmill down, then all of a sudden it came to life, running rough but making power and everything was in the green, so I pushed on another 5 miles and made it to Mojave airport. Every 2 or three minutes the engine would shudder then smooth out. I landed uneventfully. The owner of the aircraft and I pulled 2 jugs and one had fried valves, the other had broken piston rings. That O-200 made almost 3000 hours before it came apart. And the annual was due the following month!
Knock on wood, that's the worse mechanical failure I ever had, hope it stays that way!!
mkloby
Senior Master Sergeant
Joe,
Have you practiced much engine out? That encompasses a lot of our primary training in the single eng T-34.
Worst mechanical failure was an engine loss on a SE??? About the only thing worse than that is structural damage and falling out of the sky!
It must be hard to pick up an engine failure in a 150 because it's only a loss of about 2.5 horsepower
Have you practiced much engine out? That encompasses a lot of our primary training in the single eng T-34.
Worst mechanical failure was an engine loss on a SE??? About the only thing worse than that is structural damage and falling out of the sky!
It must be hard to pick up an engine failure in a 150 because it's only a loss of about 2.5 horsepower
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
Tons of it - especially when I was doing my Commercial rating. One commercial maneuver was the spiral - pull power about 3 or 4,000' AGL and do 3 complete 360s (turns at a point descending) at best glide and roll out 500' AGL as if you were going to land straight a head.
I also had the radio burn up on me on the same plane due to a voltage regulator malfunction - thank god I had a hand held.
, Hehehe - actually like half - the thing was running on 2 cylinders. When I departed the private strip I was only able to climb about 800' AGL and hold about 60 knots - Thank god I was close to my home airport.It must be hard to pick up an engine failure in a 150 because it's only a loss of about 2.5 horsepower
It must be hard to pick up an engine failure in a 150 because it's only a loss of about 2.5 horsepower
That'll teach you to feed the squirrell before you take off. Little fella was probably starving.
Had that happen to me a couple of times in the Yak. Just hung around the airport, making a nuisance of myself 'til everybody got on THEIR radios to talk about me and went in and landed. Not FAA standard procedure, but it worked.
