Author Topic: Anything Aviation  (Read 24646 times)

Offline goodfellow

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #30 on: May 27, 2020, 07:16:53 AM »
Always amazes me what performance those British engineers were able to get out of that RR Merlin engine. That piston engine was the core of the UK Air Force -- an amazing feat.

Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #31 on: June 04, 2020, 03:00:16 AM »
Always amazes me what performance those British engineers were able to get out of that RR Merlin engine. That piston engine was the core of the UK Air Force -- an amazing feat.

Yeap, even turned the mediocre P51 Mustang into the superb fighter it became.

Having heard that Mosquito fly in person, it is interesting how different two Merlins in a twin sound to individual Merlins sound in two Spitfires.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2020, 03:25:15 AM by Rural53 »

Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #32 on: June 06, 2020, 03:10:34 AM »

Offline pep

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #33 on: June 06, 2020, 07:21:03 AM »
PBY incoming .........heads up... not a good commercial for Johnson OBMs  :lol_hitting:
« Last Edit: June 06, 2020, 07:24:45 AM by pep »
1776 ................... what happened!

Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #34 on: July 14, 2020, 02:00:49 AM »
« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 02:02:59 AM by Rural53 »

Offline goodfellow

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #35 on: July 14, 2020, 07:29:52 AM »
Absolutely fantastic -- what a great find. Thanks for the link Rural.

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #36 on: July 14, 2020, 11:27:35 AM »
Glad to see those aircraft and parts finally seeing the light of day. People have been trying to buy those for years but were turned down. Thanks for posting that Rural53.

Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #37 on: July 16, 2020, 05:34:01 AM »
Having been on the periphery of the warbird scene for a number of years in the 90's and 00's, I had heard rumors about this collection.

Left field story...

A few years ago I was at my auntie's wake. She had been the club captain of the local aero club when my uncle met her thirty years ago. I ended up sitting at a table with the pilots in the room, mixture of private, top dressing, instructors, airline and warbird pilots. The conversation ended up, after a lot of beers and several side tracks, with one of the top dressing pilots making an off the cuff comment about getting in trouble for not wearing his parachute when flying a Bronco spraying. So I'm sort of "Back the bus up, are you talking about an OV10, where did you spray with one of those?" He went on to tell us about spraying coca in Columbia as a contract pilot for the US war on drug protected by helicopter gunships and being shot at by FARC rebels and drug traffickers. When I got home I googled and found some interesting info and YouTube videos. This video turned up on my FB feed this week so I thought it would interest you guys.


Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #38 on: July 16, 2020, 06:11:16 AM »
A bit more info on the operations in Columbia.


Offline coolmercury

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #39 on: July 16, 2020, 10:06:49 AM »
I spent a lot of time in Columbia as an agricultural consultant in the late 70's.  It was already bad then and I was only able to move around with local farmers who were making pay-offs.  Some of the farms were near cocoa fields and one morning a couple of guys stepped out of the bushes with uzi machine guns and wanted to take me hostage. The farmers with me explained that I was only there to look at their melon fields and showed them some paperwork that satisfied them.  Shortly after that I quit going to Columbia.

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #40 on: July 16, 2020, 10:58:01 AM »
The State Dept. has the only OV-10's left in service with the US and those were the ones used as sprayers. The Navy borrowed a couple several years ago and upgraded the electronics and other systems. The Bronco owned by the Cactus AF in Carson City was used to conduct flight training for the Navy pilots. The 2 aircraft and pilots then went to Syria to support the SEALS and other special forces. They operated off dirt strips close to the lines and with their long loiter time did a great job of close air support and survived the missions and the Navy was very happy. They had to give the planes back to the State Dept. but wish they still had them in inventory.

One of our EAA chapter members was the Cactus chief pilot for quite a while and he loved flying the Bronco. One day last year I took an aspiring A&P mechanic over to their hangar and we watched the crew installing the wing on their 2nd Bronco.

http://www.cactusairforce.com/

The website is not very up to date but it is a great collection of aircraft and armor. I drool every single time I see the WWII Halftrack running around the airport.

Coolmercury, I was offered a job doing primary flight training if I could learn some Arabic. The only problem was the next door neighbors might not be happy with the arrangement. Oy Vey!! :a102:

Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #41 on: August 18, 2020, 07:30:06 PM »
The famous/infamous pink Cresco.

08-600 PAC Cresco built on 2002 for Mile High, a skydive company in Australia. It came out of the factory on Hamilton, NZ pink. The -600 indicates it has the 600hp PT-6 turbine in it. The later Crescos had the 750hp PT-6. It came back to NZ in 2006 to Skydive Taupo, used until 2010 when they aquired a PAC 750XL. It then had the parachute door removed and a fertiliser hopper installed and has been aerial topdressing ever since. As you can see from some of the photos, she is due for a repaint.


At Skydive Taupo, note the large parachute door













« Last Edit: August 18, 2020, 07:43:46 PM by Rural53 »

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #42 on: August 18, 2020, 08:01:42 PM »
Thanks for posting that Rural as I had never seen that plane. Looks like quite the workhorse and is earning it's keep.

Offline Rural53

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #43 on: August 19, 2020, 02:18:14 AM »
Thanks for posting that Rural as I had never seen that plane. Looks like quite the workhorse and is earning it's keep.

This is a development of the FU-24 "Fletcher" topdressing plane. But let's start at the beginning....

John Thorp was born in 1912 in California, educated at the Boeing School of Aeronautics and subsequently worked for Boeing. As well as working for Boeing he also designed planes for himself (most notably, the home built t-18) and others. One of these was the FU-25 for the Fletcher Aviation Corporation in Pasadena, a prototype ground attack aircraft that the military didn't buy.

At the time New Zealand top dressing operators were in the U.S. seeking a replacement for war surplus De Havilland Tiger Moths which formed the backbone of the industry. Thorp and Wendell Fletcher incorporated many elements of the Defender into a new design, the FU-24. A group of New Zealand top dressing operators gathered a hundred options for the design off the drawing board, and founded a company, Air Parts, to assemble the type in New Zealand, while a New Zealand farming company, Cable Price Corporation, funded the construction of two prototypes in the US.

The first prototype FU-24 flew in June 1954 in the US, then was disassembled for shipment to New Zealand, together with the (unflown) second prototype. The original prototype had a 225 hp engine and open cockpit. Prior to production commencing, this design was altered to add an enclosed cockpit and more powerful 260 to 310 hp Continental engines.

Original open cockpit FU-24


The next 70 aircraft were delivered to NZ in kit form and assembled at Hamilton airport. From 1961 full production was undertaken locally, by Air Parts. After the 257th aircraft the engine was changed to a 400 hp Lycoming IO-720 horizontally-opposed eight-cylinder engine and over a hundred earlier aircraft were re-built and re-engined by the factory.

400hp FU-24



By the late 1960's operators were experimenting with fitting turbine engines to some Fletchers, with P&W PT6, Garrett and Walter turbines being popular.

Walter turbine Fletcher, note twin main wheels


In the mid 1970's Air Parts had gone through several incarnations and was now Pacific Aerospace Corporation (PAC). They decided that the 400hp Fletcher had reached the limits of redevelopment and introduced the larger and stronger PAC Cresco. Although they look similar they share very few components.



The first ten Cresco were powered by a 600hp Lycoming LTP 101 turbine, then until 1992, a 600hp  Pratt and Whitney PT-6. From 1992 the more powerful 750hp PT-6 was fitted. Initially built as topdressing aircraft they soon found favour with skydiving companies being able to carry nine skydives with a fast rate of climb, around 1,500 ft/min.

In 2001 PAC launched the PAC P-750 XSTOL (initially called the PAC 750XL) that combined the engine and wings of the PAC Cresco with a new large fuselage and modified tail. This was aimed directly at the skydiving market with the larger fuselage able to carry 17 skydivers. With the Cresco high lift wings and plenty of power it can take a load of parachutists to 12,000 feet (3,700 m) and return to land in 10 minutes. A wider market was subsequently sought, and examples have been sold for use in utility roles, including freight, agricultural applications, passenger operations, aerial photography and surveying. Twelve aircraft have now been extensively modified for geo-survey work, being fitted with a magnetic anomaly detector sting tail.



There are currently 23 750XLs registered in the US (no Fletcher's or Crescos).


MAD equiped 750XL
« Last Edit: August 19, 2020, 02:40:55 AM by Rural53 »

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: Anything Aviation
« Reply #44 on: August 19, 2020, 10:06:22 AM »
Thanks for the info and pics Rural. You answered what I had stuck in my mind and now I know it is those aircraft just scream John Thorp.