Rain Forest #65

Both, but we'd probably say frost or hoarfrost. What a lovely word- what a lovely sight.

aktbird57 - You and your 284 friends have supported 2,128,980.3 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 85,121.7 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 284 friends have supported: (85,121.7)

American Prairie habitat supported: 43,889.6 square feet.
You have supported: (11,002.6)
Your 284 friends have supported: (32,887.0)

Rainforest habitat supported: 1,999,969.0 square feet.
You have supported: (166,927.8)
Your 284 friends have supported: (1,833,041.2)

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1 Aktbird57 .. 1300 48.875 acres


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pwayfarer - my current avatar is/are(?) my father (hamburger) and me at Christmas nearly 50 years ago

Hi all,

clicked

As an old retired aviator, we fly boys (er, people) usually call it rime ice. It's the "good" ice when your are in an airplane.
Once I was flying from Fairbanks, Alaska to Anchorage during the winter. Of course, I checked weather conditions prior to take-off. About half way I began to get "clear" ice - the "bad" kind. I called the air traffic controller and reported it and also asked for the different altitude. It was granted but didn't help. The ice was building up fast. I waited until a good coating was on the leading edges and activated the anti-icing boots. At first that worked but as the ice kept forming quickly it eventually did nothing to remove the ice.. I began at this point to descend for my approach into the anchorage area - the military field. I had noticed the plane was rather "sluggish" while flying but as I slowed closer to the ground the plane seemed really "heavy" and wanted to roll from side to side. As I aligned with the landing strip I kept the plane at a much higher than normal speed to maintain control. Finally, over the threshold at about 15 feet above the runway the plane stopped flying - period. It crumpted onto the pavement and came to a stop. I later measured the ice on the wings - it was almost 4 inches thick. The plane was completely ok - the plane had been designed to land on aircraft carriers and had really tough landing gear.
Anyway, it was an exciting day of flying.

At our current rate of clicking we will reach FIFTY acres either the evening of 6 Jan 06 - or, the morning of 7 Jan 06.

Way to Click AKTeam.................

Here, you can see the airplane I was flying in the above story.
http://www.warbirdalley.com/ov1.htm

It's really a good bird to fly but it sure is ugly.

exciting?



Good tale-telling, danon.

Damn fine story, Dannon. Now, the writeup on your link indicates the OV-1 was strictly an Army project. I might be getting senile -- wouldn't surprise me a bit -- but I could swear I saw one with USN markings on it at an airfield in Western Massachusetts some time in the 1960s.

You are very observant MA. The airplane was first visualized as a Navy airplane - to be flown from aircraft carriers. Then the USMC opted for it - declined, and the US Army got it. It was the first airplane the US Army got that had turboprops and flew faster than an average grunt could walk. grin
When first introduced into the Army inventory the OV-1 was named the "Widow Maker" because the pilots who tried to fly it were not accustomed to the power of the engines. At full power, the plane could not be controlled by the pilot. It would roll over due to the torque forces of the engines. I actually tested this effect while in RVN - one day after completing my mission I - at altitude and after telling my mission operator what I was going to do - stopped one engine and feathered the prop. Then I slowly advanced the power lever on the other engine and as the plane began to roll I moved the aileron to keep the plane level. As I advanced the power lever, I ran out of aileron control and the plane turned over and descended. That is what happened to the pilots that bit the dust and precipatated the term "widow maker".

After a day doing stuff - in RVN, on the way back to home I encountered some weather, the Asian Monsoon. It had been a tuff day and I decided to "go over the weather" to get back to base. I started a climb in the OV-1. I climbed, and I climbed, and I climbed............. At 43 thousand feet indicated altitude the d--n clouds were still above me and the d--n plane would not go up another inch. The air was so thin the darn thing felt like mush just hanging on two ten foot diameter propellers pushed by 3000 horse power. I looked up at the clouds and said "s--t" - then I pulled back the power levers - turned the plane over in a reverse split S and popped my "speed boards" as I pointed the nose of the plane straight for the South China Sea. It had taken a long time to get to 43 thousand feet above the sea - but, it only took about 15 minutes to get about 10 to 15 feet above the huge waves with white caps of the South China Sea. I pointed my plane in the direction of my base and dodged waves all the way in.
All the above is indicative of the insanity of war.
Like the day I came back from an especially wearisome day - landed, debriefed, and then slothed into the Officer's Club for a relaxing drink. I - after entering the front door FULLY ARMED with a loaded weapon, passed FOUR officers standing on their heads (with legs against the wall) drinking FLAMING brandies upside down. I passed them, then two other officers on the floor playing "Indian Wrestling" by locking legs to see who could "throw" the other. I walked up to the bar - ordered a drink................ And I did not think anything was out of the ordinary. I later think that was the moment I was War Crazy.

A funny thing I recently heard on the History Channel. The North Vietnamese soldiers hated the jungle as much as we did. They were mostly a bunch of city guys drafted into the army and thrown into the jungle. In those days I thought they were all jungle experts who had grown up in that environment. Not so.

all clicked this Saturday....................

Great stories, Dannon. Keep 'em coming.

Well, maybe the Mohawk is kinda ugly, but in my books, anything small that flies is beautiful. I was a Civil Air Patrol cadet from age 13 to 16 and crazy about planes and flying. I remember the first time I heard a P-80 fly overhead; I was in 9th grade homeroom when it went over and my scream of delight got everybody to their feet wondering what had happened. I just love your stories,Danon.

Ebeth - I love the photo of Papa and little ebeth.

Here is info on the F-80 ( I thought is was P-80)

http://www.strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/fighter/f80_shooting_star.htm

And my other favorite was the YP-40 Kittyhawk. I always thought of it as the "Flying Tiger".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P40_KittyHawk

There was a poem that started:
"Army dubbed me YP-40,
Kittyhawk and Warhawk,too.
........."
Wish I could remember it.

Last one. The navy F4U Corsair. Oh, those beautiful gull wings.
http://www.warbirdalley.com/f4u.htm

There's more..........

The OV-1 is rather unattractive but is fully aerobatic and built so tuff by Grumman that they are really hard to break. I've flown it full speed - close to 400mph - so low to the ground that I had to pull back the stick to go over fences and trees. And, it will do an aileron roll in less than 3 secs... that's good and fast. Notice in the photo the three vertical stabilizers on the empennage - tail section - most planes only have one sticking up back there. This feature gave Mohawk pilots the great opportunity to tell the ladies, "Why, yes. I can handle three pieces of tail at once." Sure got some funny looks - and a few interested looks - from the ladies. GRIN !!!

The F-80 reminded me of the T-33 - which is an F80 with two seats. I flew the T-33 while stationed in Alaska. It was a neat bird.

Here's more info on the T-33
http://www.warbirdalley.com/tbird.htm

Thanks wayfarer-

Danon,
sitting here and listening. Next chapter, please.

That OV-1 would have had a lot more maneuverability (and would never have gotten the nickname of "widowmaker") if, back in those dear halcyon days, there had been such a concept as fly-by-wire, where a computer reacts 100 times faster than any human pilot is capeable of doing. But back then the notion of having a computer on-board to help you fly was a sci-fi notion. The problem with flying a bird with that kind of power and that kind of speed is that no human being has been born who can physically react swiftly enough in certain emergency situations.

Yep, MA..... Reminds me of a song - "Anticipation"

That is the secret behind flying jets and turboprops vs piston engined airplanes... It's the lag time. IE., in the T-33 jet plane that I flew - on low approaches to the landing field - we sometimes would not land but "go around" by giving the airplane power. The jet engine would gain rpm instantly when the power lever was advanced - BUT, nothing happened to the plane!!! It took about 5 to 10 seconds for the extra power to affect the planes flying. Those few seconds are what the pilot must anticipate when flying jets.
Turboprops have the same problem but not as noticeable as in the pure jet.
A reciprocating engine in an airplane will give the pilot almost instant results.

"fly by wire" reminded me of the time I was returning to base with a .30 caliber hydraulic leak - ie., no hydraulics at all, and the OV-1 is ALL hydraulically operated!! Well, the procedure was to go land at the neighboring US Air Force base because they had all the emergency crash equipment and a much larger, longer and better runway to land on. We only had the steel matting type stuff that continually blew out tires upon landing. After making all necessary calls to let everyone know what I was doing I headed for the AF base. I came in from the S China Sea and aligned the plane with the runway - I had been cleared for a "precautionary landing" because I didn't want to have to fill out all those papers by asking for an "emergency landing" Chortle....... As the plane got close enough that I thought the landing gear could be lowered - I pulled the emergency landing gear blow down handle - it's a special high pressure system in the plane to force the gear down if the hydraulic system fails - which it did. Some VC had killed it...... Chortle...... The handle had been pulled - nothing happened...... I pulled the handle out more - nothing happened....... I pulled the handle out of it's track and it dangled off to the side - nothing happened!!! I grabbed the exposed cable and started pulling that - BANG!!! The gear shot down!!! All was good. Except for one tiny little detail - the nose gear did not indicate down and locked on the instrument panel wheel gauge. Uh Oh,,,,, By this time I was low and slow over the threshold and thought - what the hay. So I alighted on the two mains and held the nose up as long as I could. It finally came down and actually held. I let the plane coast to a slower speed because I had no brakes - hydraulics. As it slowed more and I approached a taxiway I used the differential power of the props to exit the main runway and came to a stop on the taxiway. Shut everything down and got out of the plane. By that time there were quite a few vehicles and people around - I told them to stay away from the plane because of the classified equipment that was on board. My guys arrived a little later and I went to my company area. The maintenance officer took charge of the plane.

You guys asked for this....... grin

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Here's a little misconception you see in the movies - when the hero's plane runs out of gas - it starts coughing and sputtering....... In the real world there is a sudden onset of silence. Then comes the panicking and screaming................. The last is a joke. grin I always start looking for a nice soft place to land. nuther grin..... Actually I never ran out of gas - however, one day while flying a Cessna Centurian 210 for a photogrammetric mapping company in Seattle I had forgotten to switch the fuel tank lever and experienced that sudden sound of silence. A quick flip of the lever and the bird burst back into flight. Blush.

:wink:

Dannon, you should write a book. You're great story-teller! I was on the edge of my seat, reading that last one.

Everyone has a complete story to tell - MA............

Some have more words..............

And, some have more tears............

The rest are rained out..................

And, the remaining ones are fiction..............

What are you going to buy?