Wednesday, February 4, 2015

What's That About Beer and Skittles?

Pilatus PC-6 by JDrewes (see www.jandrewes.de), slight edit by Alvesgaspar - Own work. CC
So Monday evening I looked in the cupboards and in all the closets here at the Chant du Départ and I didn't see a post by Tuna, waiting on the launch pad, as it were.

Now he's been doing a trivia post on Tuesdays for the last few weeks, but he did caution me that it wasn't going to be an every week kind of thing. That would take a lot of time to put together I would think.

What I failed to take into consideration was that while it might be 2200 (10 PM for you civilians - an alert reader noticed that I had this as 9 PM, fixed it*) in Little Rhody, it's only 1900 (7 PM FYC) in Sandy Eggo. Which gives Tuna ample time to put up a post for Tuesday even though it may be long after the Sarge's bedtime.

So for a brief time (about an hour) there were two posts up here at the Chant du Départ, one by Tuna, one by me. Rather than confuse the casual visitor I took my post (the one you're reading now) down and rescheduled it for Wednesday.

Like I told Tuna, "Oh me of little faith."

I have a somewhat "personal" post banging around inside my head, though I'm not sure if that will see the light of day. But it kept me rather preoccupied all of a Monday night. (A Monday upon which, I might add, Little Rhody got more snow. And rain. Then more snow. But on the upside, the local sports franchise won the "big game". I am still rather euphoric about that. And I'll bet you thought the Sarge was above all that, didn't ya? Non, mes amis, j'apprécie des sports, je n'est pas obsédée sur eux!)

But with all that pondering about what to write, if to write and how to write it, I wandered off into watching aircraft videos. As is my wont. That being said, I found the following video, which features that lovely bird in the opening photo. I've always thought the Pilatus was the "cat's meow" as far as looks and capabilities go. YMMV.

Now I'll warn you, this video is kind of long, like 47 minutes long. But the video quality is excellent and the flying is, let's say, "exciting."



FWIW, I know an old Knighthawk ("Kila") who flies commercially out there in Indonesia. He has some stories to tell. Pretty country. At least from the air. I'm guessing it's "hot and icky" down on the ground, as an old girlfriend of mine might put it.

Enjoy.






* Remember, I was in the Air Force. A service loosely affiliated with the US military. Before you make fun of the Air Force, remember this - Chuck Norris. That is all...

Update: Sigh...
To please the purists out there (you know who you are) I "corrected" the title of this post to the more standard usage. See here. Mea culpa... I know it's hard to believe, but I am "only" human.

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes. Fixed it. (Dang it!)

      Beer and skittles, franks and beans, I say tomato, you say tom-ah-to. Say, we've had this conversation before, haven't we?

      Delete
  2. Back in the 1980s, the Berlin Command replaced the two venerable U-6 Beavers they'd been flying with two of these Pilatus aircraft. I once had a conversation with one of the ferry pilots who'd flown them from Switzerland and he loved the plane. He positively gushed(!) when he described flying above the "ALPS!" I always marvelled at the planes ability to get airborne in not much more than it's own length.

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    Replies
    1. It's a very useful aircraft in the back country. They also look cool. To me anyway.

      Delete
  3. Great video! I would love to ride in a Porter, they have such excellent flight characteristics. When I was at Udorn, the CIA (Air America) had a couple of PC-6's in addition to all the T-28's, C-123's and H-34 helicopters that they flew in and out of Laos. I was always amazed how the Porters could land and take off with so little runway. If they had even a little headwind, they could touch down at the beginning of the runway and turn in immediately at the alert pad. Impressive and quiet.

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    1. There are more of those "Worst Place to be a Pilot" videos (it was a series in the UK I believe) but none of the ones I've seen so far are as good quality as this one.

      I seldom will post a long video, but if I think it's really good I will. Glad you liked it Russ.

      (Yes, Air America did spring to mind when I watched this the first time!)

      Delete
    2. If you like STOL aircraft videos, go to the tube of you and search for the Valdez STOL fly in.

      I grew up in Valdez...

      Delete
    3. I shall do that Freddy! Thanks.

      Delete
  4. Thanks Sarge! That's one super procrastination tool. As I watched that I kept thinking about the young UK pilots flying the same area in Beaufighters, Blenheims and Bostons 70+ years ago. Here's a good long one...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psUvAUw37D8

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    Replies
    1. Ouch! Nearly an hour and a half of the Beaufighter. I had a model of one of those as a kid. Love that aircraft!

      Need to block out some time this week. Thanks Shaun!

      Delete

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Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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