Fantome (your #7069),
There was a wicked political parody of that many years ago:
"You'll wonder where the George Brown went
- When Harold forms his Government"....D.
Geriaviator,
Although you'd armed yourself with all the mod coms, I still prefer to have the brown stuff on the map under me rather than the blue !
We were told that our Mk.I Spits (Merlin II), if you pulled them back to 1700rpm and -2lb boost (26in Hg to you youngsters), and leaned them out a bit, would keep you up @ 16gph (ie 5 hours endurance). (Never tried it, don't know if it's true). Full bore (3000 and +6½lb) would go through your 85 gallons in an hour. But that was plated on the panel: "Take off, or 5 mins combat only".
There was a (Fairy?) story going the rounds (to inspire confidence in the Merlin):
Seems the Rolls-Royce engineers decided to see how long one would run on full boost before something happened. They coupled it to a dynamometer, opened up and waited. At the end of a week it was roaring away happily and still giving rated power. Finally they overrode the ABC ("pressing THE Tit"), giving +9lb (say 48in) - IIRC - and sat back. It ran for 72 hours more before it blew up. Or so the story went.
Wonderful, nostalgic picture of the Geriaviator siblings! (seems your little sister had to rely only on her crowning glory, while you sheltered under a BB bigger than your head). Curious to see the palm leaf/bamboo "basha" walls of the Geriaviator MQ (just the same as ours in the jungle). Would have thought that in posh places like Poona (sorry, "Pune"), they would go in for something more substantial - after all they had a brick boundary wall, and had a pitched (corrugated iron ?) roof ....D.
Picture rather large, Geri, can you do the necessary?
Cheers both, Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 22nd May 2015 at 20:49.
Reason: Spacing.