Having no end of laptop trouble today, gremlin having a field day, but: "if you don't at first succeed, try, try again !"
What a drove of hares we've set running today ! First:
Let me thank all those who have put forward suggestions and explanations for the odd "step" in the Tempest leading edge. Seems it's not an aerodynamic feature at all, but rather a case of Making a Virtue out of Necessity, in that when you've got to find space for a coolant radiator, an intercooler, an air intake and an oil cooler, something's got to go up on the roofrack (in this case the leading edge wing roots).
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FED (#10812),
..."belly landing a Tempest with a bearded radiator is described pretty graphically, so it must have been an experience to remember"...
Read a story once about an original Typhoon in Malta. Chap had to belly-land it, they were doing fine until the Sabre broke out. Then it went bounding along beside him like a playful ton-weight dog. Looked like joining him in the cockpit, but fortunately bounced off into the middle distance. As you say, experiences to remember !
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Fantome (#10813),
...So tell yourself exactly what you will do if left with no power or in the case of a twin, down to one. The more you have rehearsed your actions beforehand, the better will be the outcome...
I told much the same to the new young Controllers who came to us at Leeming from Shawbury from the late '60s onwards:
"When it's quiet, focus on some item of your equipment, and work out your fall-back position if it suddenly fails. Example:
A careless bogtrotter puts his pick through a cable. Your mains radio goes out. All right, go over to the standbys. The batteries are flat, what now ?
(a) if you have one of the old "truck" GCAs on the field, it'll be self- powered and has a radio set in it. Talkdown is always Approach qualified; tell your local traffic to look after itself (Dad and Grandad managed it with far busier circuits than yours, if they could do it, so can you).
(b) No truck radar ?; outside on the Flight Line you've a row of radios looking like JPs, your Duty Instructor in the room with you will roust out the QFIs and stoods from their crewroom; you've got a loud hailer, go out on the balcony and use it. One QFI in nearest JP in cockpit, a stod on the near wing to shout back at you (a VV on the line was "Cannanore Tower" for me).
There's always a way ! (but it helps to have thought about it first).
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FED (#10814) and DHfan (#10815),
Nice pic of a wonderful engine (but would've made my head hurt, too !)
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kookabat/Adam (#10816),
..
."I'll make sure to ask if he's online"... If he isn't, give him some dual on your laptop. When he sees what he's missing, he'll be down at the IT shop like a Great Hairy Dog. Tell him to get a touchscreen laptop, it's worth the extra money and saves a lot of time. Warn his daughter to expect a lot of profanity that she's never heard before !
..."you don't get to do every day!" .... No, you don't dine with a cookie" (hope it's a dummy) behind you, and the great corvine bulk of the Luckiest Lanc of All looming over you. Did they take it off 'ops' as there was no more room to paint any more "bomblets ?"
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megan (#10818),
..
."Some light reading"... (made my head hurt even more !)
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Fantome (#10819),
..."the Brits helping secure an end to their years of occupation"...
One of the most moving newsreel clips after "VE Day", was that of Winston and Le Grand Charles walking together, unaccompanied, down the Champs Élysées in the spring sunshine (even though an exasperated Churchill, on one occasion in WWII, remarked that "the greatest cross he had to bear was the Cross of Lorraine !")
Danny.