397395 posts as of 10:44pm 5-1-03

[Motormouse]

Originally posted by demuire
Oh, like bits of 60-70 chicken aren't any worse... :p

But what about the engineers nice, white coats? It'd look like an Ozzie Ozbourne concert!

[Nucci]

Meh reading all this stuff makes me wish I pursued the whole flying thing more. After completing my BAK and GFPT theory and studying for my PPL, I was whisked away into the land of beer and the sweet siren song of alcohol tainted bliss took precedence over my flying dreams. I never wanted to be a pilot as a career move (I realise how long you have to work at it before you get to Bill's level) but it would be nice to get back into it on the recreational side of things. Plus I actually enjoy doing loading charts Would love to see the gtech results of the 747 run too Bill!

[Tex]

It's never too late, Nucci!

I miss it heaps too... I saved 1.5 hours of my flight time for a rainy day, might be time to go use them I think, a sort of last hurrah before I next resume my training (presumably not for a while)...

Tex

[Billzilla]

It took me 15 years to get an airline job, and even then it's only as a contractor and not 'really' with an airline. I think the aviation scene is not going to be good for at least another five years or so, maybe longer.


As for the chook thing, here's something from my Humour Page -
"Scientists at NASA have developed a gun for the purpose of launching dead chickens. It is used to shoot a dead chicken at the windshield of airline jet, military jet, or the space shuttle, at that vehicle's maximum travelling velocity. The idea being, that it would simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne chook, and therefore determine if the windshields are strong enough to endure high-speed bird strikes. British engineers, upon hearing of the gun, were eager to test the gun out on the windshield of their new high-speed trains. However, upon the firing of the gun, the engineers watched in shock as the chicken shattered the windshield, smashed through the control console, snapped the engineer's backrest in two, and embedded itself into the back wall of the cabin. Horrified, the engineers sent NASA the results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and asked the NASA scientists for any suggestions. The NASA scientists sent back a one sentence response: "Thaw the chicken."
One person who used to work for British Aerospace tells a similar story (which he swears is true), that these machines are actually used to fire chickens into jet engines to simulate birdstrikes on the compressor blades. To thaw the chicken, someone left it in the gun overnight and performed the test in the morning. The results were somewhat different from the expected, and close examination of the high speed video footage showed a very startled-looking stray cat clinging to a half-eaten chicken as it exited the gun at Mach 0.7."

I don't know if that's true or not, but it sounds good.

[Billzilla]

Just checked, and as of 11:53pm 8-1-2003 we have 401734 posts, so the magic 400,000 post was done earlier today.
I blame Tex myself .... :D

[mazdamad]

Tex: (in reference to the video) all i can say is "that guys a TOOL"

[BALISTC]

Bill: 400000 posts eh?? So this thread has achieved its purpose? :D

[mad]

Did anyone read the story in the Australian about the Helicopter simulator and the kangaroos. A development classic....

[Tex]

Originally posted by mazdamad
Tex: (in reference to the video) all i can say is "that guys a TOOL"

Yes, indeed he is... It's very hard to explain to someone who's never tried it how difficult it is to fly a helicopter, even if you know exactly what all the controls do. It really is quite crazy.

Bill, would you say it's fair to surmise that with the imminent retirement of the Vietnam-era pilots, slots will be vacated further up the food chain in the industry? Apparently the Vietnam-era guys are all due for retirement in the next 5 years or so...

Mad, I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to fill us in?

Tex

[Astina SP]

Dredging up some of the earlier stuff in the thread...

Going back to the 1/4 mile time for a 747 I recall reading years back in Wheels or similar that they timed a run on a Qantas 747 down at Avalon and it was around 19 seconds. Don't know what engines it had, I'm assuming it was a 747-200 or 747 SP due to how long ago I read it.

At Amberley a few years ago now we had Dick Johnson come out with his EB V8 Supercar and drag an F-111, the car got the F-111 off the line but after a short while the F-111 blew by it and took off (rotate speed for the F-111 is around 280km/h). I've heard that the same thing was done with Wayne Gardner and either an A-4 or F/A-18 (can't remember which).

[Southo]

Tex - I was told this by a fixed wing pilot....
is it true that helicopters don't actually fly - they are so ugly that the earth repells them - LOL

as for the video - OHG - "Uh huh, I read the book, but it was missing a few pages..."

[Caffeine]

Originally posted by Tex
Mad, I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to fill us in?

Tex

Try looking at http://www.trashcity.org/WEIRD/ODD032.HTM... as well as a bunch of other sites on the net...

It has a bunch of funny stuff, including the following:

Virtual kangaroos' missile attack stuns army
Reuse of some object-oriented code has caused tactical headaches for Australia's armed forces. As virtual reality simulators assume a larger role in helicopter combat training, programmers have gone to great lengths to increase the realism of their scenarios, including detailed landscapes and - in the case of the Northern Territory's Operation Phoenix - herds of kangaroos (since disturbed animals might well give away a helicopter's position). The head of the Defence Science & Technology Organization's Land Operations/Simulation division reportedly instructed developers to model the local marsupials' movements and reactions to helicopters. Being efficient programmers, they just reappropriated some code originally used to model infantry detachment reactions under the same stimuli, changed the mapped icon from a soldier to a kangaroo, and increased the figures' speed of movement. Eager to show off their flying skills for some visiting American pilots, the hotshot Aussies "buzzed" the virtual kangaroos in low flight during a simulation. The kangaroos scattered, as predicted, and the visiting Americans nodded appreciatively then did a double take as the kangaroos reappeared from behind a hill and launched a barrage of Stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter. Apparently the programmers had forgotten to remove that part of the infantry coding.

[Tex]

Bahahahah, that's classic. :D

Tex

[rowdytoot]

hehe... one of my ex- mates works for DSTO Land Ops in Adelaide... guess what his job is? Programming infantry etc in the sim's...

From what I gather when he first started there back in 2000 or so, dodginess like this was extremely common place :D

Rowds

[danielpenna]

Hmmm..

I might have known that specific american pilot, actually he might be the current American test pilot we have. We get an exchange one every 3 years, great guys and damn they have some good stories. Our last CW4 ( their rank ) had been in almost ever modern theatre of war. ( No, he wasnt in BH down ).

Ill ask to see if that story is true, seeing that the only Army simulator is the Blackhawk one at Oakey Dokey, that should narrow it down.