The Aviators Thread

JimInOz

Wow, that bought back memories. I was a young Naval Aircraft Mechanic when Australia received our first Trackers (S2E models).

A PR photo given to us on squadron formation, it's a "paper" photo in my old aircraft album 😁.

I was then assigned to aircraft No 851 as the equivalent of a USN "plane captain".
This is 851 touching down on HMAS Melbourne some time in the late 1960s early 1970s.

Last known location of 851 was in an aircraft museum, not sure which one, but one day I'll have to track her down again.

64Wing

64Wing

It's a 421B. Location is a secret 😉

MRC

IF the camera or phone is set to Zulu (UTC/GMT) time, which I and a couple of friends do, then the timestamp would be about right for sunset in Alaska.

Pvt-Public

But it could be sunrise somewhere else 😗 just saying.

C Comtrader12

Great Read.

MRC

If you have time on your hands and would like to read about how to work your way up in aviation can I suggest http://airplanepilot.blogspot.com/2005/01/what-is-this-blog-about.html and work your way towards today. The writer "Aviatrix" (no other identification that I know of) worked her way up from knocking on doors and, well, grovelling at low level, to now where I think she is Chief Pilot for whatever operation she is with. Name of outfit not given. That's a great read.

Jones in LA

Gassing up the little bird before this week's flight lesson.

This was instructional flight No.10 for me. Progress has been slow and steady, I seem to be about where most students training in an R22 would be at this point. I can hover reasonably well, even in moderately gusty winds, and am now working on taxiing and turns down at the tarmac level. I've also flown a couple of airport approaches down to about 50ft off the runway, and am a lot better at holding a steady altitude in level flight. It's been kind of surreal taking off and landing out of/into KBUR, which has been my preferred airport for commercial air travel since I moved to L.A. 23 years ago. It was quite a sight to see three airliners down below on the taxiway, waiting for ME in a tiny helicopter to complete my final approach and landing.


Adding some watch-related content here, I think I've settled on a preferred flight watch. It will probably be my most ding- and scratch-resistant watch for reaching deep into the engine compartment during pre-flight inspections, and I can use the chronograph to time a couple of the shutdown procedures.

Mad Dog

“Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven!” [coffee]…