Flight, to those who do it every day and bear the responsibility of carrying large numbers of passengers or cargo around the world, can, I suppose, becomes tedious just like any other job. To those who fly for fun or who travel as passengers the magic of flight is always exhilarating. But there are also those who have a more sinister reason to fly and they are the military fliers whose raison d'etre is to kill and inflict damage to their 'enemies'. Having said that and not forgetting the evil of war those who take part in these aerial battles take on a 'respect' that other sections of the armed forces don't seem to. An interesting website, and one that I would recommend you to visit, is that of the Warplane Research Group of Ireland. There are others with similar tales to tell and I will link to them as I come across them.
"Concorde"
These are two photos of the Concorde aircraft. As far as I know about fourteen of these were built. Probably three were used for proving and experimental flying, expanding the envelope I think they call it in the trade. Air France and British Airways were the only two airlines to purchase these craft and sadly the only one to suffer failure in the air and to crash was in the livery of Air France. All on board were killed. Further and accurate information is available if you follow this link, just click on Concorde and you will be taken there. Following that incident British Airways carried out a lot of modifications such as lining the fuel tanks with a specially developed rubber type sheeting to prevent fuel leaking if they were ruptured. Despite all of this Air France, who did not modify their fleet, have ceased to fly and British Airways will be taking their fleet out of service on the 28th of October, 2003. It will be a long time before we will see such a graceful aircraft I am afraid.
On a recent visit to Dorking Philip took me to a Museum on the grounds of the old Brooklands banked race track. This was an amazing place. As with most museums one never has the time to see everything and that visit was no exception. We were quite disrespectful of the old cars and motor bikes and I didn't even walk on the old banked track even though it was something that I had read about as a child and it filled me with the thrill of those races in cars that I thought were state of the art and that are now specimens in a museum. The part of the display that we spent all our time in was devoted to aircraft. I was in the cockpit of a Harrier Jump Jet and had all the controls explained to me by a most interesting elderly flyer. He had flown C47s in Egypt during the Second World War and he enjoyed every minute of it. Just imagine taking off in the morning with a plane full of supplies and flying along the Nile to find the spot where you were to land to unload and than flying back to base for more! Another very interesting aircraft, well part thereof, that I saw was of the ill fated SR2N. This was a 'before its time' jet fighter that was developed in Britain but never got into service as a 'political' deal was done with the U.S. to use their fighters. Such was the determination of those who made this 'political' decision that they instructed that all parts of the aircraft that were manufactured should be destroyed beyond further use and that the jigs in which they were made should be destroyed. Fortunately a piece of the cockpit was saved and it is on display in Brooklands. Read The Honourable Tony Ben's MP diaries for more information on this. We also saw a Lancaster Bomber with the gear used for dropping the 'bouncing bombs' on the dams in Germany. Time ran out on us and we finished our visit that day with a visit to a complete but retired Vickers Viscount. There we met a very interesting person. He gave us a full history of the actual aircraft that we were in and showed us photos of it while it was still in service. On questioning him about his experiences as a pilot he told us that he had flown for a few years on Concorde. In fact he was the Flight Engineer on Concorde. By coincidence I was watching a programme on television the other day about Concorde and it being retired and there was an interview with the man we met in Brooklands. His name is Ian Kirby, a very interesting person.
The day has come and gone. Concorde no longer flies as a commercial passenger carrying aircraft. Today, the 24th of October, 2003, will be remembered as the end of an era. Never before has an aircraft gone out of service that has not been replaced by a bigger and better model - until now. I have seen Concorde in the skies many times. Years ago I was staying in Stockwell, South London, and each evening at about 6.00 PM local time, the graceful Concorde would make its approach to Heathrow just a few miles to the west. More recently while staying in Dorking, Surrey, I often saw Concorde circling. I don't think that it ever landed in Gatwick which was rather near; I presume that it was holding over Epsom Downs that is quite near Dorking.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Concorde has been part of our daily life here near the south coast of Ireland. The flight path that it takes to and from the Atlantic is just some miles off the coast and the 'double bang' of the sonic boom can quite easily be heard. Now, my Concorde Flight Engineer acquaintance told me that I was hearing a 'secondary' sonic boom. Perhaps I was - whatever that was. Most evenings, at about the time that I am writing this, I could hear that distinctive double boom as Concorde passed by. Listening to the aero frequencies is one of my hobbies or pastimes and I have frequently heard Concorde calling Air Traffic Control. Up to recently they used the identification callsign of Concorde followed by a number but more recently, and I don't know why, they have been using the BA prefix .
Having said all of that we can continue to fly Concorde using Flight Simulation. Your choice of aircraft does not have to end there. I am currently flying a Lancaster Bomber, a Gloucester Meteor jet bomber, the first British jet bomber ever made. I also fly a Tupelov 154 as well as a Boeing 737-400 series and a Learjet. There are so many more available. You really have to see what can be done; there is a risk of becoming 'hooked'. I just wonder if I will ever be able to master the Bell JetRanger helicopter!
"Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus" I have been trying to get information on the visit of Sir Alan's Flying Circus to Lismore but so far I have no information worth writing about. The visit of a 'flying circus' to Lismore did take place in the early 1930s. I know this because my late Father took a flight around the town of Lismore in one of the planes. I remember him telling me briefly about it. It was an open cockpit, the pilot in front, I think, flying the plane and the 'passenger' in the rear seat. My Father didn't have the luxury of a leather flying 'helmet' nor was there a seat belt in the cockpit. He said that there seemed to be the 'remains' of a seat belt but it had long before been 'torn' out! He was hoping that the pilot would not do any serious aerobatics such as looping the loop as the passenger would most likely be deposited on the ground. My Mother would always add her piece of the story then as she had seen the plane fly over our garden and she would go on to say that it was weeks before my Father got the 'knots' out of his hair, such was the buffeting of the wind in the open cockpit. I would love to know the year, date, better still and it would be marvelous to find out the type of aircraft being flown at the time. My latest research suggests that Alan Cobham used a Blackburn Lincock as one of his aircraft. Much more research needed. Just recently I was looking through some books in my 'library' and found a book that I had forgotten about. It is called 'Great Aviation Stories' Vol. 1 and was written by Michael Barry. He shows, in the book, a photo of Sir Alan Cobham that was taken on his visit to Cork in 1933 with his Flying Circus. It is more than likely that it was in 1933 that Dad fley with Sir Alan in Lismore. The airfield used by the Circus was Howard's field on the Tallow Road just beyond the railway bridge. A fine field it is too. My parents married in 1933, before or after the flight I wonder! I didn't arrive on the scene until three years later. It is amazing what you find out by just talking and telling 'stories'. On a recent visit to Reigate I met Anthony G. Hopkins. We spoke about flying in the early days and I mentioned that my Father had taken a flight with Alan Cobham. Tony told me that he knew the family very well and went to school with Michael, a son of Alan. Sadly Michael died recently but it is great to have the memories. One such memory that Tony told me of was 'riding' on the running board of the Cobham's car, a 'prank' that would not be tolerated today for safety reasons and of course cars do not have running boards anymore. If you know what a running board is you are as old as I am!. Probably in the mid 1990s I was introduced to PC Flight Simulation by my computer mentor. I was smitten immediately. The program was Microsoft's Flight Simulator and as far as I can remember it was version 3x. This was in the days when most people had 'green' monitors using DOS applications. I thought that I was pushing the boundaries of computing to their limits, I had a 'black and white' screen and was the envy of many! As far as I remember the only aircraft available in that application were a Cessna and a Learjet. I mastered the Cessna rather quickly, just using the keyboard, and could easily fly circuits and land safely. The graphics were just awful; the planes were little better than 'matchstick men' types of things and the scenery was suggestive, the runway was well laid out and that was what was most needed. There was little point in looking for additional airports as any others available would not look too different from the default one which was Merrill C. Meigs field right on the lake shore of Chicago. When I had mastered the Cessna, flying upside down and doing other aerobatics I tried to fly the Learjet. This was a disaster. I felt that it was not possible to fly. I then got version 4.x and thought that all my Christmas' had come together. I was still using a monochrome screen and the matchstick planes were still there with 'notional' scenery. At this remove I just can't remember what the improvements were in this version over the previous one but it may have been that it was possible to customise an 'experimental' plane. I remember this well, putting a very powerful engine into a sleek airframe with stub wings and flying off like a rocket, great fun but impossible to land. Then I would attempt the opposite, large wings with winglets and small engine and struggle into the air at very slow speed, much easier to fly and land. When I got version 5.x I had a basic colour screen, probably the original, was it, four colours. This, I thought was the ultimate and then I got additional 'scenery' for Paris. I must have a very imaginative imagination as I could 'feel' myself flying around the Eiffel Tower. Flying the Learjet was still impossible from the keyboard. I had not figured out how to use the auto pilot or other nav. aids, such as they were. I think the experimental plane was not in that version. My appetite had been whetted by all that flying but when I got F-19 I just could not get over how sophisticated it was. With a lot of study of the manual and having bought a book explaining all the possibilities I soon mastered that and became addicted. I loved flying from Cyprus across the Mediterranean and in over Libya to shoot up some radar installations or oil wells, shooting down as many Flankers or other enemy planes in the process. The trick in all of this was stealth. If you flew at or below 200' asl and as slow as you dared you would be invisible to any enemy radar. Navigating back to base before your fuel ran out was always a challenge. A truly remarkable piece of software. I only wish it would run on todays PCs. If anyone knows of a Windows version of it I would be delighted to hear about it. The inevitable happened. Progress was unstoppable and new PCs came on the market and eventually we all were using Windows in one of its manifestations. This put a stop to most DOS games as they would usually run too fast, uncontrollably fast, for comfort and had to be put aside. Eventually I got FS 98 and have learnt a great deal about flying from that, such is the reality of it. I also now have a rather basic joystick and can easily fly the Learjet and other planes with it. Having said that I think that the type of flying I like best is navigating. It is great to look up all the nav aids along the planned route and then take off and fly from one point to another until eventually I am in range of my destination and I can lock on to the glide slope and make a CAT III landing!. I also have FS 2000 but unfortunately my PC is just not up to doing it justice. I can use it but the frame rates are not great and flying is not easy as everything is a bit 'sticky'. It is an amazing improvement on FS 98 but I would need an upgrade on my PC to do it justice and that will just have to wait for another day. What I wish to do with this page is to encourage those who read it and who are interested in flight simulation to contact me with a view to sharing experiences with FS 98. The basic program is fine but there is a lot of extra scenery and aircraft made by 'third parties' that is available as freeware and can greatly enhance FS 98 and increase your enjoyment of flying into more realistic airports in planes of different types and liveries. The first piece of third party scenery that I got and still enjoy is for Merrill C. Meigs field on Lake Michigan near Chicago. This is a small file and is just fantastic with moving aircraft in the air and on the ground. It has to be seen to be believed. It is freeware, I tried to contact the author to see if he had a later version of it or if he had any other scenery of similar quality but my email was returned as undeliverable and his website is not available. Quite a shame really as I would also like to thank him for the scenery and encourage him to do more. If you are interested I can email you the files and will give help in installing them, it is quite easy really. It uses a 'batch' file that you 'run' and the various additional files are put into the appropriate folders. If you ever want to remove this additional scenery there is another 'batch' file that you run and that reverses the procedure. Quite neat rally, just the way I would have done it myself, soma of the installations are tedious as you have to move files by dragging and dropping them. It can be a bit more complicated that that in some cases too. I also have a lot of other add-ons, extra aircraft, how about a Lancaster Bomber, or a Tupelov 154. There is Dublin airport, Cork airport, Shannon airport, an amazing Gatwick airport written by Barry Perfect. It goes on and on. I am not an expert at this but what I know I will share and hope to learn more. Fly in sometime. I haven't yet figured out how to make files available for download from this site, I may not have enough room on my site to 'store' them anyway. The best and easiest thing to do is to email me and I will tell you what I have and let you have what you require and maybe you will be able to help me and give me some files! One very good source of files is the SimViation website. Just click on the link. When I first loaded and used Flight Simulator 98 I was delighted with the detail and visuals generally. As I became more experienced with it I realised that there was a wealth of additional or 'third party' scenery available and my search began. The first piece of third party scenery that I got was for the Merrill C. Meigs Airfield and it is well worth having. This is the 'default' airfield when you load FS 98 and it is a very useful field to start to fly from. You have numerous airfields quite close by, O'Hare being the largest. I frequently fly from Meigs to O'Hare and back again and this piece of scenery has made those trips much more enjoyable. One feature that fascinates me about it is that it changes for each season. Green trees and grass in Summer, russet coloured trees in Autumn and bare trees and snow covered ground in Winter. On the right is a screen shot of a Boeing 757 cargo plane, in the livery of Icelandair Cargo, leaving Meigs. This is quite a feat to get such a large and heavy aircraft off the ground from a short runway. The 757 is a 'third party' aircraft and I downloaded this from the 'net. I was just thinking, the other day, about all the airports that I have flown to and also the aircraft that I have flown in. It is quite amazing now to think that some of these aircraft are considered to be vintage aircraft and some probably don't fly commercially anymore. My list of airports is as follows:- Cork, Shannon, Dublin, Birmingham, Luton, Stanstead, London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick, Jersey, Guernsey, Brusselles, Palma de Mallorca, Charles de Gaulle Paris, JFK New York, La Guardia New York, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco, Athens, Rome-Fumicino, Pisa, Malaga and Nice. My list of aircraft is as follows:- Vickers Viscount, Vickers Valiant, Super Constellation, Trilander, Boeing 707, Boeing 747-200, DC-10, Boeing 757, Boeing 767, RJ 100, ATR, Airbus 319, Airbus 321, Boeing 737-200, Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-400, Boeing 737-500, Boeing 737-800 and BAC 111. I couldn't resist adding a bit of colour to this part of the page. The photo, above, is of a Boeing 737-200 of Ryanair in the 'livery' of 'Kilkenny Beer', with its 'buckets' deployed, this is how the thrust of the jet engine, on this model, is reversed to aid braking on landing. Have you noticed how the RJ-100 does it? It is quite amazing. There are no 'buckets' on the four jet engines but there are two flaps that open outwards at the very back of the fuselage. I always wonder how effective they are! This is a photograph of a very exciting aircraft design. It is one of Burt Rutan's many innovations and I would just love to see one fly, land, take off and manoeuvre. I have read a lot about Burt Rutan and his imagination excites me. He seems to be totally unburdened by 'convention' and each design that he works on starts from a clean sheet with just the demands of the particular aircraft determining the design. The aircraft shown here is known as the 'VariEze' and I don't know if that means it is very easy to build or very easy to fly. It is intended for home building and I know someone who is in the process of building one. In fact on my last visit to Reigate I gave the builder a hand to turn the fuselage upside down to allow him to continue with work on the underside. Much help was at hand as a few neighbours were pressed into duty and eventually we got it inverted and secured back in his garage again. It took quite some pulling and hauling as the weight was probably close to two hundred kilograms. The total finished weight of the aircraft will be in excess of two hundred and fifty kilograms I think. I was surprised when I first saw this plane as it is a two seater, I thought it was so small to be only a single seater. The two occupants site one behind the other. It has a rear 'pusher' propeller and this allows a very smooth airflow over the body and lifting surfaces. However it does tend to give the noise from the propeller a strange gurgling almost, sound as when the prop is in the horizontal position it is partly 'blanked' by the fuselage. Another interesting feature is that the two landing wheels are permanently down and the struts supporting them act as springs and are also aerofoils. The front wheel retracts into the hull fully in flight but having parked on landing the front wheel is retracted partly to lower the nose and in this position it is easier for the pilot and passenger to get in or out. The centre of gravity is a bit to the back of the craft and if it was parked on its extended front wheel the front end could flip up in gusty wind conditions. The front 'wing' is called a canard and its design too is ingenious. If the angle of attack is too aggressive this canard stalls quickly and drops the nose long before the critical angle of attack of the main wing is reached making the plane virtually impossible to stall. The 'boots' on the two wheels are for streamlining and this can add a few miles per hour more to the speed and increase fuel efficiency. Patrick the builder told me that it has a maximum speed of about 200 mph but that the cruise speed would be about 150 mph. He has taken the larger engine option for better performance with a full load as he intends to 'holiday' in it and even 'weekend' in the South of France, flying out from the South of England. I don't know from what airfield he will fly, Redhill is the nearest but I think that is a grass strip and as far as I know it is recommended that the VariEze should use a metalled surface. I am looking forward very much to seeing it in the air. Good luck to Patrick and Linda in their venture and future travels. The latest news on this aircraft is that it has been taken to the paint shop and will look marvellous very shortly. After that it is fitting the avionics and lots of other bit and pieces to be added and then flight certification. After that - well anywhere that a full fuel tank will take it I suppose.
Merrill C. Meigs Airfield, Chicago
VariEze designed by Burt Rutan
