Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Pics to Ponder


Pictures.  I like to look at 'em, collect a lot of 'em, try and take some of my own.  But with no real skill or equipment other than my cell phone, others photos are far better than mine.  So you get some of the ones I've collected.  Pinterest is my friend as usual so it's not like I'm some brilliant curator or something, just trying to help out around here while the boss is out of the office.

I snagged that opening shot since it's a Navy CH-46 Sea Knight, aka the Phrog.  I have several friends that flew that bird, both in the Navy and the Marine Corps.  Most of my friends in the Navy were S-3B Viking guys and gals of course, but due to my final tour being in the TACRON community, which tends to be the elephant graveyard of Naval Aviators, there were a ton of Phrog Flyers there with me.  That community was drawing to a close a few years after mine did so plenty of Phrog bubbas were looking for work before retirement and the TACRONs weren't bad duty.  Sure, we had to work with Marines, but they're not so bad, just a little extra gung-ho at times.  That, and they use up all the hot water after their 3rd or 4th workout of the day. 


Weather effects make for interesting shots, and challenging landings.  I wonder if military aviators are overall better suited for flying in bad weather.  We're trained from day 1 on flying with instruments and less looking outside.  Even the NFOs, at least in my aircraft, had to have an instrument rating.  Whereas in civil aviation, it's mostly VFR.  Then again, that could be because in a Cessna 172, they don't have the same or as precise of instrumentation.


Ice is weather too I guess.  Nice picture, but I'm not sure of the utility of landing there. 


Speaking of weather.  Unfortunately a young boy in one of the cars on the street was killed when this Southwest jet overran the runway.  It was Southwest's first fatality.


Phrogs and Chinooks got mean flying and landing skills.


See what I mean?  My wife's uncle, who retired from the same squadron (VS-21) that I first flew with in the fleet, albeit 8 years later, got a job with that squadron pictured above.  That's Columbia Helicopters, where he was essentially their Maintenance Master Chief, the same job he had before he retired.


As I said, Chinooks can do some pretty amazing stuff too.

Salmon and Frogs
Here's one lifting some phrogs frogmen.  


I think I've already used that photo a few years back, so I added another from a different angle below.


Not sure if that nose cone is standard or the curator decided to paint it more bird-like.  Either way, an interesting picture.


I think this is a repeat as well, but it's still a cool picture.  However, I have no idea if it's real or not.  My guess is no.  Photoshopped probably.


Speaking of photoshop, here's one I've seen before, and below we have it's photoshopped brother.


Same hangar, same guy on the deck, but a much bigger jet added. Kind of like those bogus, but fun pics of a B-52 or some other bird in the groove or landing on a carrier.


That's a heck of a commute for that B-17.  No idea where or when that was taken, but I'm thinking it was in England due to that car in the background which appears to be driving on the left side of the road.

Airliners dot net


Flying Tigers indeed.


Finally, remember that first Phrog photo I used?  The one with the diver jumping from the flaming helo?  Turns out that one is photoshopped as well.  Sorry to fool you.  I was fooled as well.


I guess it's true what Abraham Lincoln said- you can't believe everything you read on the internet.*

That's about all I can give you all today.  Hopefully Sarge is on the mend and he'll be back to posts with far more creativity and value than mine.

*Unless it comes from Sarge or Juvat of course.  Beans too probably, but his security clearance hasn't come back yet so we can't be sure.  Getting bashed with broadswords for fun makes him half crazy anyway, but insane doesn't make him less trustworthy.

29 comments:

  1. Lots of groovy photos, Tuna! I thought Flying Tigers was no more? Either merged, or went the way of all flesh? Of course, I have no idea when the photo was taken. I have to approve of a company that will go to that much trouble, that had to be an expensive tiger's nose!

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    1. No clue if that's really a Flying Tiger or just some 747 painted nicely. If you want actual research behind a post, you'll have to wait for Sarge to come back!

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  2. That RCAF Labrador, do you think they gloated, in their Boeing Helo, over landing on Bell island?

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  3. That Flying Tiger shot.... quite the paint job there. Those Phrog and Chinook pilots certainly clank when they walk.......of all the places to put down...geeez. Good posting Tuna, the variety of aerial shots was a nice changeup.

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  4. Great shots Tuna. Now I'm off to the Doc. Time to get lased (I think).

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    1. Eye know you'll see your way through it!

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    2. I am really curious how the surgeon will be holding the shark still during the procedure?

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  5. The Harrier is a very eye-catching picture. For some strange reason, that's my favorite of the batch.

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  6. It’s apparently a DB-17P, and that’s Ohio:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/2nhnbl/b17_towed_across_a_narrow_bridge_1957/


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    1. OK, that site is a severe time sink. (Got any more like it?)

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  7. Re the Harrier: It was deliberately painted bird-like, it was accompanied by an upside-down mirror-polished Sepecat Jaguar, and together they met a rather ignominious end:

    http://www.stormclimb.com/2011/06/07/harrier-and-jaguar-fine-art-to-the-scrap-heap/

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    1. Oh, that truly is sad. Dangit. That's just really sad. Poke-me-in-the-eye-with-a-laser-beam sad. :(

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    2. I saw that same Jaguar pic, but upside down it wasn't as striking a the Harrier. Thanks for the update on it.

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  8. Ha. Fooled you. I was insane before being hit in the head.

    And, yes, I had a 'higher' security clearance at the local PD than the bubbas-with-guns. Staff Asses had to be cleared all the way to childhood, while mere cops only had to pass a minimal background check. Which makes no sense, but it is what it is. Never got an actual Fed Security Clearance, but I coulda if I hadta… wait, yes, I got reinvestigated and cleared so I could enter stuff into a DEA database, which the mere cops I worked with couldn't, so I guess I had the weird 2nd cousin type of clearance.

    That first photo, I am glad that was photoshopped. That type of fire in a helo is pretty much a non-survivable event.

    As to those helo-pilots, a crazier bunch of flyers as ever been seen. Some of the things they do in mountain infil/exfil are just wrong, like seemingly violating the laws of physics wrong.

    As to the two hanger shots, those days are no more in our overly bureaucratic armed forces. Heck, even a civil aviation dude would have the FAA so far up his keister they'd be seeing out of his nostrils. The days of yore are just that, in the past. On the other hand, we're not racking up the aviation deaths like we used to in days of yore either, so there's that to consider. But still, you know there's at least 1 A-10 pilot who musta done something like this.


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    1. Allegedly the photo of the Canberra is the original version, circa 1955, and every other version is a hoax of a hoax. (Gosh, I hope they opened the doors at the OTHER end of the hangar)

      https://hoaxeye.com/2017/09/07/low-flying/

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    2. Although this looks kind of fun:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCFWKBoV7E

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    3. Beans, I knew you were crazy just because you're hanging around with all us Chanters. As for those bureaucratic armed forces, they won't even let a guy buzz a tower or draw a penis in the sky these days! I didn't realize it, but the smoke coming off that 46 wouldn't be billowing straight up anyway- the rotors would be pushing it all over.

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    4. a bear- Those Red Bull guys, not just pilots, any of them- with bikes, with parachutes, etc., all crazy-ass daredevils. I wouldn't want to pay their life insurance premiums, but they are definitely entertaining.

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  9. Photo number four happened at Chicago's Midway airfield. I was living there at the time and remember it well. Midway is a postage stamp field and it is amazing that such things have not happened more often.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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    1. I wasn’t living there and I remember it. IIRC there was a lot of ice.

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    2. I think that my wife and I drove by while the aircraft was still in the street. Yes, there was a lot of ice.

      Paul

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  10. My last 7 years were in the TACRON world, The "Foreign Legion of Naval Aviation". VTC-12 followed by TACGRU-1 with CTF-376 in between. What a hodgepodge of aviators. Navy, Marine, Army and Air Force all in the same command/community.

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    1. VTC-11 then retired out of the Group. No boys in blue when I was there (or girls). Easy duty- Eat, sleep, workout, and stand a little watch, which was watch a bunch of Marine helos not take off on time, if at all.

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  11. Even if some of them are photoshopped, they are still pretty and very cool pictures.
    Thank you for hunting them all down.

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  12. Has anyone heard how Chris' procedure went?

    PLQ

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  13. It didn't fool me, because I saw the legs of the on-board crew standing, not leaving, the Helo. The jumper, with fins in hand, speak to a planned insertion. Many photoshopped images do pass my sniff test, but not this one.

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