Official Aviation Thread...

[BlackbirdM3]

Excellent! Are those recent? I last flew one of those beasts in 2006 and we were phasing those "night attack" birds out then. Yuma guys loved them but as an east coast Marine I was partial to the radar bird. Such an ugly yet fantastic airplane.

I shot those at the Reno Air Races last month. On one of the days the pilot did the whole routine with the nose gear hanging out. (I have pics of that as well) There were 3 AV8s at Reno this year. Far more entertaining to see than an F35 or something like that.

Will

[av8drvr]

Yes I did and yes you did. I moved to Ohio in 2014 for work and have been shivering ever since. Still driving the 318iS on good weekends summer commutes, though I am in the middle of a timing re-build right now on the M42. My old house survived Harvey but we have a lot of old friends who lost everything, quite tragic. I hope you all did well, i was tracking those I knew in the area via this site. Are you still in Humble/Atascocita?

[flyboyx]

Your photos are amazing. If you have any Harrier pictures I would love to see them posted.

did you live in kingwood? seems like my son and i bought a set of wheels from you a couple years ago?

[av8drvr]

Excellent! Are those recent? I last flew one of those beasts in 2006 and we were phasing those "night attack" birds out then. Yuma guys loved them but as an east coast Marine I was partial to the radar bird. Such an ugly yet fantastic airplane.

[BlackbirdM3]

Ask and you shall receive. I only got a couple done last night.





Will

[av8drvr]

I just noticed your screen name, I have some stuff I think you will like. Let me get them processed. Harriers are badass.

Will

Your photos are amazing. If you have any Harrier pictures I would love to see them posted.

[george graves]

They have very similar landing characteristics and speeds.

Why is that? Small wing, so high stall speeds?

Totaly side note - I've been watching this guy build his own plane. He comes from the RC model world, and applying lot of the skills and techniques from that to build a bi-plane. Including electric motors and battery packs. Yikes. I give him a 50/50 chance the motors will have enough thrust. TLDR - it's a bi-plane made with home depot foam, 3mm plywood, and coating of glass matt and epoxy.

Part 6 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6sy5bt4D-Y

[BlackbirdM3]

That is a T-45 Goshawk, replaced the TA-4 Skyhawks around 1996, that particular airplane is from NAS Kingsville is S. Texas. Great little airplane.

I just noticed your screen name, I have some stuff I think you will like. Let me get them processed. Harriers are badass.

Will

[av8drvr]

That is a T-45 Goshawk, replaced the TA-4 Skyhawks around 1996, that particular airplane is from NAS Kingsville is S. Texas. Great little airplane.

[BlackbirdM3]

I think it was a T45 Goshawk. I too like T38s, there were a couple of them there on display. Great plane. Still in use with the U2 pilots at Beale. (They are black, look for the BB designation on the tail. BB= Beale Bandits.) I thought the Thunderbirds were the best when they flew the T38s. I was bummed when the moved on to the F16s. The T38 was also the jet of choice for the SR-71 program pilots when they weren't flying SR-71s. They have very similar landing characteristics and speeds.

Will

[george graves]

I gather that it s t-4? Was that a predecessor to the t38? Always had a boner for ther t38 since I saw them flying next to the Space Shuttle, and the pilot calling in the height above the runway in real time for them to land.

[BlackbirdM3]

New mustang pilot.


Will

[BlackbirdM3]

That's all I have for tonight.

Will

[M-technik-3]

Oh look an L100 funny we were talking about them not to long ago.

[FLYNAVY]

Awesome pics as usual. I used to work as an FBO lineman at KCVO in college, where the HTSI Skycranes are home fielded at (at least they were back then). I remember at the end of the fire season one year, it was a nice rainy low overcast PNW afternoon, when all of a sudden, it sounded like the world was ending. Turned out to be all 6 or 8 of them on ILS final, and the thunder of those rotors was nearly indescribable. Don't think they had the CH-53's flying yet at that point, were just in the hanger getting retrofitted, but man, it was an impressive sight, as one by one, their taxi lights popped out of the low overcast and they came in to land. Real cool birds, got a few chances to crawl all over them as an interested bystander/airport employee.