Picture of the day

Dark Alley Dan said:
Gotta think bringing home a plane with "banana blades" on the prop means all sorts of hostile conversations with the boss...

Like having branches stuck in the tailwheel. "Just how low were you, Lieutenant?"

Most of you will have seen this, but it's a classic and bears rebroadcast:

[youtube]4iOoiEbtf2w[/youtube]

And what was it with single-engined Lanc low flybys?

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Was this part of a demonstration flight or something?
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Yes. Another picture of the same pass. This is what I found as a photo caption:

Thought two feathered engines on the same side was impressive for low level flight? How about three feathered and 20 feet below? This Avro Lancaster appears to be post war with the nose turret de-actvated and a dome in the dorsal position. This is a very foolish maneouvre.The aircraft can't be flown on a single engine. It's done by a dive, a high speed pass and a zoom climb at the far end of the runway with a mad scramble to unfeather. The situation gets serious if the first unfeathering knocks the generator on the good engine off line, leaving only battery power
 
Ganderite said:
Yes. Another picture of the same pass. This is what I found as a photo caption:

Thought two feathered engines on the same side was impressive for low level flight? How about three feathered and 20 feet below? This Avro Lancaster appears to be post war with the nose turret de-actvated and a dome in the dorsal position. This is a very foolish maneouvre.The aircraft can't be flown on a single engine. It's done by a dive, a high speed pass and a zoom climb at the far end of the runway with a mad scramble to unfeather. The situation gets serious if the first unfeathering knocks the generator on the good engine off line, leaving only battery power
Click to expand...

At least someone lived to tell how to do it, unlike that hotshot B-52 pilot down at Fairchild AFB in 1994 who tried to show that a B-52 was really a P-51 Mustang.
 
Ganderite said:
Yes. Another picture of the same pass. This is what I found as a photo caption:

Thought two feathered engines on the same side was impressive for low level flight? How about three feathered and 20 feet below? This Avro Lancaster appears to be post war with the nose turret de-actvated and a dome in the dorsal position. This is a very foolish maneouvre.The aircraft can't be flown on a single engine. It's done by a dive, a high speed pass and a zoom climb at the far end of the runway with a mad scramble to unfeather. The situation gets serious if the first unfeathering knocks the generator on the good engine off line, leaving only battery power
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I dunno if that's the same plane, Ganderite. I think they're different marks. Yours has three bladed props.

Looks like two pilots thought pretty highly of their skills. Feckin' kids, doing goofy dangerous crap. One is reminded of "F for Freddie" and a bad day in Calgary.

p_freddie4.jpg


Brought home for a war bond tour after 213 missions, flown by F/Lt. J. Maurice W. Briggs, DFM, DFC, and DSO. Navigator was F/O John C. Baker, DFC and Bar. F for Freddie had flown more missions than any other allied bomber. Truly a unique airplane.

Briggs flew it through downtown Calgary, below the rooves of the Palliser Hotel and the Hudson's Bay building. He "beat up" the Calgary airport.

p_freddie2.jpg


This was the day after VE Day and the day before the crash. Here's Briggs missing the poles on top of the tower:

p_freddie7.jpg


The next day, he'd come in incrementally lower and clip those same poles with the port wing. The wing and horizontal stabilizer sheared off. F for Freddie hit the ground at a shallow angle a half mile away and burned.

p_freddie10.jpg


Briggs and Baker were both killed, and are buried in Burnsland Cemetary. Their flight engineer, Edward Jack, who'd been told by Briggs to "sit this one out", couldn't bring himself to visit the graves until 1973.

p_freddie11.jpg


Take a group of kids in their late teens/early twenties. Select ones that are, by nature, a little aggressive. Train them to operate enormously powerful machines. One shouldn't be surprised when they do stuff that more rational, responsible people would think insanely dangerous.

p_freddie3.jpg


Rest in peace, Briggs and Baker.
 
Ganderite said:
Buzz jobs are terrible. Great fun, but the practice regularly get guys killed.

I have done it a few times. When I did it my fear was an unseen power line that can be invisible at some angles. For this reason, when I did it, it was usually along a beach. I recall one buzzing a beach so low that I had to pull up to clear a windsurfer.

Buzzing is actually easier at high speed, because the controls are solid and responsive.

SPIT%20UNDER%20BRIDGE.png


Note the three engines are feathered. Also note that a Lanc won't maintain altitude on one engine.
LANC%20FEATHERED.png


I used to crew in a Neptune bomber. Our attack altitude was 18" feet. My position was in the glass nose. You know you are low when:

Altitude is limited by prop clearance'
Plane leaves a rooster tail on the water
You have to pull up a bit to turn without hitting a wing tip.
B17%20FIELD.png


Prop is just clear of the deck.
P47%20BUZZ.png


If the prop hits, this is what the pilot and ground crew sees after shutdown.
p47%20prop%20strike.png
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Top photo is from the series "A Piece of Cake". If you get a chance watch it. Here some info on the series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piece_of_Cake_(TV_series)
 
purple said:
At least someone lived to tell how to do it, unlike that hotshot B-52 pilot down at Fairchild AFB in 1994 who tried to show that a B-52 was really a P-51 Mustang.
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I guess history has a habit of repeating itself. I was transferred to a Herc Squadron in 80 as a FE and was then one of the youngest guys on the squadron. The pilots were all older guys and flew the aircraft like a transport aircraft should be flown. Well, it didn't take long to see a drastic change as a NDHQ decision was made to put younger jet jock types on the Herc and the accident and fatality rate went from zero to ridiculous.

Totally preventable pilot error fatal Herc accidents at an almost regular basis culminating in an impromptu air show accident on the base at Edmonton that cost the lives of all the crew from 2 of the 3 aircraft in the formation. A maneuver normally done by fighters and never done by transport type aircraft set the stage for a needless loss of life.

The old saying, There are old pilots and bold pilots but no Old Bold pilots, deserves to be repeated.
 
I just gotta say that this is a great thread & I look forward to the pics & information given. I like war history. I remember going through the old sheds at grampa's place looking & trying on the old ww2 uniforms & coats. I found them very itchy but fun to run around in. He also had an old ambulance truck that me & my brother played in for hours.
Thanks again guys, great job keeping this current & alive.!!!
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
I dunno if that's the same plane, Ganderite. I think they're different marks. Yours has three bladed props.

Looks like two pilots thought pretty highly of their skills.
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DAD , you're correct - it's a Lincoln. The framed B/A window gives it away and the larger radiator intakes and 4 bladers are obvious. This sort of thing reminded me of the account I recall of a Walrus being looped around some high tension wires.
 
diopter said:
At a family Christmas get together near T.O. with in-laws, we found out a nephew of brother-in-law's father(very English) just retired out of this Nimrod's crew less than a year before this happened.
That nephew was at the get together.

Accident report:
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19950902-0
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On a somber note the pictures are from this very aircraft just prior to the accident and after. I had attended this CNE show and had witnessed 7 men die before my eyes.

What struck me was that as the plane lumbered so slowly over our heads it shot off two flares into the air as the plane struggle to maintain altitude during a bank. I heard the engines go up to full throttle as he tried to save it as the left wing dipped. In the video you can observe the black smoke from the engines working hard.

He stalled the plane and hit the water, that is when everybody looked at each other and asked "what the hell just happened "? It had vanished without a sign except for the two flares that continued to float down to the water. No plane, just flares that these pilots previously shot out..........man it hit home.

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I have a number of other pictures from that day.

I have attended this air show for years and this was the 3rd fatal accident I have witnessed.
 
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Ganderite said:
Yes. Another picture of the same pass. This is what I found as a photo caption:

Thought two feathered engines on the same side was impressive for low level flight? How about three feathered and 20 feet below? This Avro Lancaster appears to be post war with the nose turret de-actvated and a dome in the dorsal position. This is a very foolish maneouvre.The aircraft can't be flown on a single engine. It's done by a dive, a high speed pass and a zoom climb at the far end of the runway with a mad scramble to unfeather. The situation gets serious if the first unfeathering knocks the generator on the good engine off line, leaving only battery power
Click to expand...

Certainly dont know much about aircraft ... but I thought aircraft piston engines used magnetos that were completely independent of the other electrics and had multiple (two) magnetos for redundancy.. with each piston being served by both magnetos...??
 
shredder said:
^^^ Somebody was inspired by the Panzerkampwagen I......;)
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Another solution to the old airborne/airmobile dilemma of getting in fast, but going in light on anti-armor, mobility and direct fire support capabilities. The US tried to solve this problem with the aluminum alloy Sheridan tank which had the Shillegh ATGM/155mm low velocity gun combination. The missile was never that successful and the tank bucked like a mule when you fired the 155mm gun.

Nowadays people look to organic attack helicopters and close air support to compensate for these shortcomings, but their availability can't always be counted on. A bitter lesson of the airborne side of Market-Garden at Arnhem when people jumped into an armored enemy, along with using DZs too far from the objective and having your troops trickle in over a period of several days. Poor intelligence, hasty planning and spending too much time on the air plan, instead of the ground game, was bad too.
 
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