Picture of the day

bearhunter said:
Went to pick up a load of gravel today and out in the yard at one of the trash metal collectors is a Chieftan Main Battle Tank in desert tan colors and what appears to be UK markings. Turns out that the fellow just picked it up a few years ago and it's just now going to look at an overhaul.

https://youtu.be/-80omuLLASg

The fellow has at least a half dozen other ex British armored vehicles. He runs a couple of them in our annual civic parade and has them as an attraction at his popular wedding resort. His name is Al Hale.
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Tell him I can get a deal on a British Forces heavy diesel in a crate... never been run. Don't know what the power plant is for... but it's pretty big...
 
sail32 said:
A good book on is helicopter flying is,

Gunship Ace, The Wars of Neall Ellis, Helicopter Pilot and Mercenary by Venter, Al J. Casemate Publishing

" Neall Ellis is the best-known mercenary combat aviator alive. This book describes the full career of this storied aerial warrior. Along the way the reader encounters a multiethnic array of enemies ranging from ideological to cold-blooded to pure evil, as well as well as examples of incredible heroism for hire. A former South African Air Force pilot who saw action throughout the region from the 1970s on,

Neall Ellis is the best-known mercenary combat aviator alive. Apart from flying Alouette helicopter gunships in Angola, he has fought in the Balkan War (for Islamic forces), tried to resuscitate Mobutu’s ailing air force during his final days ruling the Congo, flew Mi-8s for Executive Outcomes, and thereafter an Mi-8 fondly dubbed 'Bokkie' for Colonel Tim Spicer in Sierra Leone. Finally, with a pair of aging Mi-24 Hinds, Ellis ran the Air Wing out of Aberdeen Barracks in the war against Sankoh's vicious RUF rebels. For the past two years, as a “civilian contractor,” Ellis has been flying helicopter support missions in Afghanistan, where, he reckons, he has had more close shaves than in his entire previous four-decades put together.Twice, single-handedly (and without a copilot), he turned the enemy back from the gates of Freetown, effectively preventing the rebels from overrunning Sierra Leone’s capital—once in the middle of the night without the benefit of night vision goggles. Nellis (as his friends call him) was also the first mercenary to work hand-in-glove with British ground and air assets in a modern guerrilla war. In Sierra Leone, Ellis's Mi-24 (“it leaked when it rained”) played a seminal role in rescuing the 11 British soldiers who had been taken hostage by the so-called West Side Boys. He also used his helicopter numerous times to fly SAS personnel on low-level reconnaissance missions into the interior of the diamond-rich country, for the simple reason that no other pilot knew the country—and the enemy—better than he did.Al Venter, the author of War Dog and other acclaimed titles, accompanied Nellis on some of these missions. “Occasionally we returned to base with holes in our fuselage,” Venter recounts, “though once it was self-inflicted: in his enthusiasm during an attack on one of the towns in the interior, a side-gunner onboard swung his heavy machine-gun a bit too wide and hit one of our drop tanks. Had it been full at the time, things might have been different.” The upshot was that over the course of a year of military operations, the two former Soviet helicopters operated for the Sierra Leone Air Wing by Nellis and his boys were patched more often than any other comparable pair of gun ships in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Nellis himself earned a price on his head: some reports spoke of a $1 million reward dead or alive while others doubled it.This book describes the full career of this storied aerial warrior, from the bush and jungles of Africa to the forests of the Balkans and the merciless mountains of today’s Afghanistan. Along the way the reader encounters a multiethnic array of enemies ranging from ideological to cold-blooded to pure evil, as well as well as examples of incredible heroism for hire.
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A fellow I knew well survived 3 helicopter crash's after the Viet Nam war ended and a lot of ex-Nam heli pilots found their way to the AB. oilfields for work (he was a sysmic exploration crew chief). He absolutely refused to let anymore Nam pilots fly his crews anywhere...in his words... "every damn one of them flew those things into the pads like they were still flying into a jungle LZ with someone shooting at them".
 
sail32 said:
In Australia, years ago, I walked by a scrap yard and it had Fairey Firefly, with it's wings folded.

It looked like all you had to do was unfold the and taxi on to the road and take off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Firefly
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Here, after the war, they had a bunch of Ansons they sold as surplus. Farmers would just saw the wings of and tow them home for the hydraulics and other useful bits.

Grizz
 
People do strange things with surplus aeroplanes....

hCJm2gn.jpg


39kx6qz.jpg

different plane
 
I barely remember this Connie when it was parked by Derry Rd. next to Pearson Airport.I'm not sure it was still open then,I never went inside.

Esso station + Timmy is there now.

20151112-regal-constellation.jpg
 
Living in Welland as kids, every time we would drive to Toronto, I would ask Dad if we could please (please x 1000 till he said yes) stop at Coronation Park.

So I could see the Lanc.

0REhP6q.jpg


We stopped there lots....
 
HuskyDude said:
Living in Welland as kids, every time we would drive to Toronto, I would ask Dad if we could please (please x 1000 till he said yes) stop at Coronation Park.

So I could see the Lanc.

0REhP6q.jpg


We stopped there lots....
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I was the same way..

Watch this but crank the sound...

 
Or the Packard Merlin in the P- 51 Mustang; Merlin with an American accent. The Centurion tank was powered by a Merlin derivative. I still get goosebumps from hearing those bu99ers howling in the dark. You never knew exactly where they were. Scary when you were on foot in the middle of them; you couldn't see them and they couldn't see you.
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Here, after the war, they had a bunch of Ansons they sold as surplus. Farmers would just saw the wings of and tow them home for the hydraulics and other useful bits.

Grizz
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My father bought an airspeed oxford after the war. We played in it for years as it deteriorated. Finally ended up in a coulee till someone salvaged useful metal parts for a display rebuild in Moose Jaw. A neighbour bought a surplus plane and flew it. No licence or training. Those were the days-- who knew they would be valuable some day!
 
fingers284 said:
A fellow I knew well survived 3 helicopter crash's after the Viet Nam war ended and a lot of ex-Nam heli pilots found their way to the AB. oilfields for work (he was a sysmic exploration crew chief). He absolutely refused to let anymore Nam pilots fly his crews anywhere...in his words... "every damn one of them flew those things into the pads like they were still flying into a jungle LZ with someone shooting at them".
Click to expand...

I worked in the high arctic on seismic crews for years. One of our pilots was Vietnamese . He had flown his chopper to a ship with his family , landed on the deck and pushed it overboard , just like the films show. What a life. From 100 above to minus 40 flying the same type huey .
 
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