If given the chance..

[clicker]

If you were given the chance what aircraft would you like to fly and did you ever get to fly it/them.

Myself never got the chance to fly at all but would list three types.

For world travel etc it would be the Lockheed Constellation, I prefer the longer versions but fell in love with the preserved MAC L-749 that visited the UK a few years ago. I love large piston aircraft having been lucky enough to see them flying in real life. Only "moving" Connie I saw was in San Juan back in the 80's. Grumbling, smoking engines, squeaking brakes...Lovely. Did see a few Connies in the UK but not flying :{ Later that trip visited what was known as corrosion corner at Miami that was full of piston aircraft, great!

For sheer power and pure grunt then give me a Phantom please. I was very lucky lad on the 15 Sept 1990 when myself and a friend visited Wattisham to see the Tombs for the 50th BoB anniversary flypast. Still have a copy of the op order that enterprising folks at Honington were selling when we went to see the Tonkas


For lovely lines and delightful handling a Spitfire V or IX, oh boy would loved to have flown one. Even tried to get a flight in one of the 2 seaters but never got there as the only one that could be used was in the states as the CAA rules about hire and reward meant no joy for the ones here.

[Herod]

The Gnat, because it would have meant going onto jets post-JP. Wasn't up to it, so was sent to choppers instead. Having said that, and having flown my fair selection of military and civil hardware, both fixed- and rotary-, I'm not complaining.

[Ken Scott]

Clicker,

If your pockets are deep enough then you can fly a Spitfire in the UK:

LEARN TO FLY A SPITFIRE (http://www.goodwood.co.uk/experiences/experiences/learn-to-fly-a-spitfire.aspx)

Can't help with the Connie or the Phantom - although I remember seeing an F4 at Dulles circa 20 years ago which was supposed to be someone's private jet.

[barnstormer1968]

I would love to get flights in:
Later mark Spitfire
SR71
And
Super jolly or sea stallion

(As a passenger or course in them all)

[NutLoose]

Yup and regs about Spits are being looked at with a view to allowing fare paying trips..


As for the Connie....

Well BA park up their old fleet at Cosford the scrap them en masse claiming to expensive to look after..
Lufthansa buy three old Connies sitting in the desert, build a $3,000,000 hangar and go about rebuilding one completely to fly as a historic aircraft to join the JU 52 fleet they operate ( and you can fly in )

SO.... Your chances have just improved on that score :ok:

See

Stages on the road to restoration | Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung (http://www.dlbs.de/en/Projects/Lockheed-Superstar/News.php)

Rare plane to fly again with help from Bangor company ? Bangor Daily News ? BDN Maine (http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/26/the-weekly/rare-plane-to-fly-again-with-help-from-bangor-company/)

Makes you wonder how Lufty can do stuff like this when BA couldn't even look after what was their heritage collection..

As for the F4... Well you can always go fly the sim...See

Commercial & Military Flight Simulators (http://www.realsimulation.co.uk/f4-flight-simulator-experience.php)

Or if you have $12.5 k lying about the real thing, see

McDonnell F-4D Phantom II - The Collings Foundation (http://www.collingsfoundation.org/tx_f-4dphantom_training.htm)


..


..

[CoffmanStarter]

Clicker you want to fly in the F4(D) ? Got $12,500 (£8K) then it's all yours :eek:

Collings Foundation USA (http://www.collingsfoundation.org/tx_f-4dphantom_training.htm)

http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/F4rnd-01.jpg

Bring back some pics ...

Coff.

[NutLoose]

Nine minutes too slow :p

[gayford]

As a very young ATCO at Eastern Radar in 1968, regularly manning Console 4A (Wattisham Centralised Approach Control), I was given the opportunity to appreciate the Lightning pilot's workload with a familiarisation flight. All these years later I am still gobsmacked by the way the "ace fighter pilot" managed to fly the aircraft, operate the very basic radar and constantly watch the fuel contents. In my limited experience, those were the some of the best times for aviation in the Royal Air Force.

[CoffmanStarter]

My WiFi went down ... Bu99er :uhoh:

Never mind Nutty ... great minds and all that ... plus Clicker is a regular CapComper :ok:

[500N]

Would like to go in:-

Spitfire
Mosquito
Lancaster

Low level in a Tornado
F15 or F18 from a carrier
SR71
U2

[Courtney Mil]

SR71
Concorde
Catalina

[Roland Pulfrew]

F15 or F16 from a carrier

Would have to have one hell of a long flight deck!!

For me:

Sunderland
Beaufighter
TSR2

And no, sadly I haven't!

[advocatusDIABOLI]

550N,

F16 from a Carrier...... WOW that would be a Trip! :eek:

Courtney Mil, if memory serves, you once tried SR71 Parameters in one of her Majesties Finest..... or was it the other bloke? (Cummon!!, we all did... a bit....)

Advo

[AR1]

Harrier. From a hide.

[RetiredF4]

Flew the phantom for years and could sea the world get round at FL550, but unfortunately never got higher.

My dream therefore would be some spacecraft, anything that brings me into orbit and back would do.
franzl

[Courtney Mil]

Yeah, especially the "bring me back" bit. :ok:

[advocatusDIABOLI]

For The Record My Choices:

F86 Sabre (Since my Late Dad flew them)
P51
SU27
Wright Flier ( Just How Scary would that be? :})

Advo

[Gemini Twin]

Strega or Rare Bear, the ultimate in piston powered aircraft!:ok:

[advocatusDIABOLI]

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but how high, how fast?...... Obviously not aimed at getting serving folks in Whinny The Pooh.....

Me - M2.1 58K F3 (Tonka, Non Bombing Version)

Advo

[NutLoose]

Quote:
F15 or F16 from a carrier
Would have to have one hell of a long flight deck!!

For me:

Sunderland
Beaufighter
TSR2

And no, sadly I haven't!

Sunderland would be nice, used to watch the last flyer droning over St Athans whilst on my Mechs course and saw it many a time at displays, I suppose one is lucky as today's generations haven't seen anything like it, probably why the Vulcan was such a hit, because today's audience have never seen or heard anything like it and its size belies its manoeuvrability, something you wouldn't realise without seeing it fly.

TSR2 is another I would have loved to have seen fly.

[BEagle]

SR71
NF-104
TSR2


.

[hunterboy]

Vulcan low level, Mig 25, X-15, U-2 at the edge of space...

[Courtney Mil]

Courtney Mil, if memory serves, you once tried SR71 Parameters in one of her Majesties Finest..... or was it the other bloke? (Cummon!!, we all did... a bit....)

Ah, yes. Fair cop. But it wasn't a ride I'd recommend to anyone.

[Fg Off Bloggs]

Was selected Nav at OASC which Scotched any chance of getting on board a Lightning. However, when my own jet was grounded for 6 months, Gp came up with a detachment plan that would keep us all flying during the grounding. So, having been asked where I would like to fly, I opted for Binbrook to fly in the Lightning and was sent a detachment notice confirming it.

Unfortunately or fortunately, on the Friday before my move to Lincs, a rather pompous Lightning sqn ldr rang me to ask what time I planned to be there on Monday. I told him and let drop that I was really looking forward to flying in the Lightning!

'No bl**dy way, mate, you're coming here to do all the SLJs we have piled up, we need an extra pair of hands! You will not fly whilst at Binbrook!'

I went straight to my Boss who cancelled my detachment immediately - so the pompous ass had to do his own SLJs and my boyhood dream remained unfulfilled!

So LIGHTNING!

Made up for it though as a locum member of the AAFCE TACEVAL Team in the 80s getting to fly in: USAF F4; RDAF Starfighter; GAF Alphajet; Belgian Mirage; Italian Tornado GR1 and Dutch F-16 (which was pretty good at a vertical climb off the runway too)!!!

Bloggs:\

[advocatusDIABOLI]

Courtney Mil,

OK, Nice one, well stated. Yes it was 'Out There', but as you might recall, at the time the Bomber Interceptor had such a bad reputation, and it had to be repudiated.

Some, sadly fell foul of what might be (at the time) reasonable.

Shame really, because she was ok, so long as she was 'cooking'.

You and I both know the true F3 height holder..... and their achievement is quite astonishing !! :D (If not a bit rule break-y- ish)

Advo

[clicker]

Alas the pockets are somewhat shallow so the best would be FSX.

If only for that Goodwood course might be able to afford an hour or so on the Chippie. Noticed that the lot with the Havard at Shoreham want 400 squid for 30 mins. The Chippie at Shoreham is less than half of that.

[clicker]

I was going to ask BEagle why the NF-104, then I googled it. :cool:

[N.HEALD]

Dream list would be:-

1. Hawker Tempest II
2. Lockheed SR71
3. BAC Lightning

[Wholigan]

For me ..................

Spitfire
Mosquito
Dakota

[Tourist]

Stupid question fom me....

Why is the rocket on the NF-104 angled upwards?

[Lonewolf_50]

Hmmm ... only in my dreams ...

Sopwith Camel

P-51 Mustang

F-4U Corsair

Phantom

F-15

RAH-66 Comanche

[barnstormer1968]

Courtney Mil
I did fly the Concorde sim at Filton. It was a fantastic experience, even if it was not the real thing.

[Plastic Bonsai]

Buccaneer, Mosquito and Hawker Fury for the honour.

[NutLoose]

ISS
Saturn V
Lunar Lander

And there are a few folks I would like to see flying on the Voyager 6 as it's not coming back anytime soon ;)

[matkat]

In no particular order.
Buccaneer, low level over the Nellis range and yes have saw the film whilst I was there.
Phantom, from Leuchars of course:ok:
And the U2.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Wish-list Ticks to get

Mossie (on the deck over occupied Europe, so that ain't gonna happen)
X-15
Spitfire


Ticks (tho' not as elegant or as long a tick as many here)
F3 supersonic over some boat driver's foredeck ("he asked! honest!")
backwards in a Harrier
Tiger Moth (with a leather helmet & no radio over rural England -could have been 1935)

Stick time
Lightning (10minutes pole time, on attachment 1 week after solo in the Bulldog - mindbending!)
F-15
E-3A (oh boy it's big, like flying a whale)

Realistically
I want to fly some plane, probably a Beaver, into the middle of nowhere on wheels, skis and floats - I'm working on it!

[clicker]

Tourist,

I can only take a guess here as my only aviation "real life" was in airline ops.

Looking at the google page it says

"The NF-104A was able to reach great altitudes through a combination of zoom climbing (trading speed for altitude) and use of the rocket engine. A typical mission involved a level acceleration at 35,000 ft (11,000 m) to Mach 1.9 where the rocket engine would be ignited, and on reaching Mach 2.1 the aircraft would be pitched up to a climb angle of 50-70° by carefully applying a load equal to 3.5 g."

So could that installation angle help to gain the AoA required for the zoom climb and speed, rather like a rocker elevator?

[sisemen]

Vulcan ✔ x 6
Victor ✔ x 1
Lancaster ✔ x 1

Very big cheesy grin :}

[54Phan]

.,Well, I will limit it to three; Phantom intercepting the comrades, Mosquito at low level shutting down both Luftwaffe flying training and trains and finally the prototype Hurricane changing the face of RAF fighter tactics forever.

[AGS Man]

Concorde... Achieved (Passenger)
Phantom... Achieved (Passenger)
Space Shuttle... no chance

[AR1]

I googled NF104 too. - Slight thread variance, but I loved this quote that came up.
To err is human, to forgive is divine; neither of which is Air Force policy. -Unknown

[ian16th]

Clicker,

I love large piston aircraft having been lucky enough to see them flying in real life.

You would have loved the Beverley then. :eek:

[CoffmanStarter]

X-15
P-51
Vulcan B2

If only :(

[Trim Stab]

If you were given the chance what aircraft would you like to fly

Absolutely anything I haven't flown...

[Party Animal]

Trim Stab - you are so right :ok:

In my case, this includes:

Hot Air Baloon (tried a couple of times but weather was OOL).

Glider.

Any super carrier fixed wing with a cat launch and trap.

[Ralis]

Mossie
B29
Mig 29

[FoxtrotAlpha18]

YF-23
Mustang or Spit
Catalina
:ok:

My best = ~44K, M1.83 (down hill with a tailwind!)

[Steve the Pirate]

Lightning
F16
Thunderbird 1

STP

[clicker]

I'm old enough to have seen a Beverley fly but if you don't mind I'll stick to the slimmer girls who can curl their legs up. ;)

[clicker]

Quite a few interesting aircraft mentioned, nice to see the merlin engines are doing well.

Also high or fast flying seems to be popular as well. Highest I've seen was only FL370 on an almost empty DC-8 across the pacific, crew kept asking for FL410 but we were blocked by other traffic. Fastest was across the atlantic with a good tail wind with an average speed 560kts for the whole flight (DC-10-30)

[Pontius Navigator]

Yes, Sunderland, Lightning, F4, Vulcan, Lancaster - 4 out of 5 :)

[fantom]

Did Gnat; Hunter and Phantom but, getting old, also A330.

Military mates flying that will now be grinning ear to ear. Phabulous.

[Courtney Mil]

Why is the rocket on the NF-104 angled upwards?

Here's my guess. The rocket motor is mounted significantly above the longitudinal fuselage datum, in other words the thrust acts above the aircraft's CofG. If mounted parallel to LFD it would cause quite a big derotational moment (a pitch down force). At very high alitude with little or no aerodynamic control it would mean applying a continuous nose up moment using the RCS. THe pitch down effect of the rocket may have exceded the control authority of the RCS. By pointing the thrust line of the rocket through, or closer to the CofG, the problem goes away. Look where the line of thrust is acting here - looks like through the centre of the ac.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/NF-104.jpg/450px-NF-104.jpg

If you want to mount a rocket pack below the CofG, you'd need to angle it downwards. In NF-104 I would think that mounting it low would just have been yet another big drag penalty.


Just an idea. I'm surprised one of the QFIs or TPs around here didn't come up with that. Unless, of course, I'm completely wrong. :ouch:

[Rosevidney1]

Tourist,
The flight manual for the NF-104 states 'The rocket engine nacelle is located at the base of the vertical stabilizer. The rocket engine mounting is canted so that the thrustline will pass through the airplane center of gravity at rocket burn out thus minimising pitching moments due to pitch change'. :8

[Courtney Mil]

Ah. Smug mode! :cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMa0CxgCqiM

This is the firt time a Baldrick's ever come up with a cunning plan that didn't turn out to be utter pig swill.

[NutLoose]

I would put you all in the mighty Jaguar and give you all a good laugh...


:O

[fantom]

the mighty Jaguar

Is this the dictionary definition of an oxymoron?

[dead_pan]

Some Russian kit would be fun: Mig-25, Su-37, Hind, Blackjack, or, if I was feeling particularly brave, one of those Caspian sea monsters.:uhoh:

[Mach Two]

Mosquito because she's beautiful.

SR-71 because she's a thinderingly powerful beast.

Sunderland Flying Boat because it's such a mad mixture of ship and aircraft.

[Justin Cyder-Belvoir]

F-14
Apache

For civil hardware the VC-10.

[Eclectic]

de Havilland Hornet
Aurora
Wright Flyer

[alisoncc]

A bit iffy about what I would like to fly, but do know for a fact what I never ever want to fly again. BN2A Islander in the tropical sun, with a full load of smelly locals whose bodies have never experienced the application of soap and water. Mind you, I suspect the Islander was one of the few aircraft where it was SOP to hose out the cabin after a longish flight.

.

[clicker]

Alisonncc, that could be the start of another thread, aircraft I flew but wished I didn't.

[ACW599]

>that could be the start of another thread, aircraft I flew but wished I didn't.<

Tiger Moth. A horrible thing in my opinion.

[ImageGear]

In order:

1. Brit (but not 404), and without the whole cockpit being an overflowing ashtray. Loved every minute

2. Belfast, because it always went low and slow, and the views were superb.


3. C5A just because it's big.

Imagegear

[Basil]

Hunter, but didn't make FJ.
JP and Bücker Jungmann were fun.

[Courtney Mil]

Tiger Moth. A horrible thing in my opinion.

Damn you! Now I want to fly it to find out why. :{

[CoffmanStarter]

ACW599 ...

Tiger Moth. A horrible thing in my opinion.

I had the great pleasure of flying G-ACDC out of Headcorn Kent on my 40th Birthday in 1997 ... including aerobatics ... the Tiger is a wonderful aeroplane in my opinion. But you have to "fly" it ... it's not easy in a cross wind and unless you have some previous tail wheel experience it can be a bit of a handful to start with ... it's not a benign aeroplane like most modern high wing/nose wheel civil light aircraft.

Sorry ACW599 I have to disagree with you ... but it's down to personal preference I guess :ok:

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/uploaded-images/2008-12/23/32057.jpg

Courtney ... Price gone up a tad ... But still worth it :ok:

The Tiger Club Headcorn (http://www.tigerclub.co.uk/)

Coff.

[Rosevidney1]

I would have loved to have flown the Scottish Aviation Pioneer. It looked like an aeronautical joke but I wouldn't be surprised to find it did the job! ;)

[India Four Two]

My "Stick Time" Bucket List

Chipmunk ✔
Tiger Moth ✔
Beaver ✔
Twin Otter ✔
Yak 52 ✔
Bell 47G ✔
Stearman ✔
Harvard✔
Spitfire ✔
Vampire ✔
Strikemaster/JP
A-37
Macchi MB-326
Hunter
F-4
Mustang
DC-3
Catalina
Skywarrior
Dragon Rapide
Jet Ranger
Huey

Aircraft I NEVER want to fly:

BD-5 - too big now anyway!
ASW-12 - 1960s Open Class glider - a large proportion of the fleet was crashed on landing by new owners on their first flights!

[ACW599]

>Sorry ACW599 I have to disagree with you ... but it's down to personal preference I guess<

Well, it's a free country. But I'm surprised a Chipmunk man has anything remotely nice to say about the Tiger Moth!

I did a few trips in one many moons ago and thought the overall handling rather peculiar with essentially non-existent control harmony. Ground handling was a pain too. Compared with a Chipmunk (on which I was current at the time) it was dreadful. But maybe the one I flew was past its best.

[Steve the Pirate]

ACW you hated it and Coff loved it. Notice however that Coff flew ACDC, so it could have gone either way. :E

STP

[CoffmanStarter]

Now now Steve ! I'm definitely a Direct Current kind of guy ... :E

[Tourist]

Thanks CM, that makes sense, should have thought of that myself!

[ACW599]

>ACW you hated it and Coff loved it. Notice however that Coff flew ACDC, so it could have gone either way.<

And I'm strictly butter-side up :)

[Madbob]

Types I would have liked to have flown would be;

1. Short Stirling - just because my dad did and to share in a little way his own experience.

2. DHC Beaver - because I like the appeal of a radial-engine tail dragger, especially if being used in its AAC role exploiting its STOL capabilities.

3. Canberra B(I)8 - only as a pilot mind as the poor nav had no bang seat.:eek: As a low level interdictor with a massive gun pack and an internal bomb bay doing LABS it must have been fun. Not so sure about doing all this stuff at night, but must have been fun. It also had the legs to go to interesting places.......

The worst type I had the misfortune to fly was the Jetstream so I am with Beagle on that!

MB