Scottish Elises

Did anyone else see the eclipse of the moon last night

It was real cool the moon went a lovely reddish colour before slowly being eclipsed.

Yeah I saw it too. It was a really good sight because it was such a clear night,we got a good show out of it. We had my parents over and my dad and I spent most of the night freezing our b******s off standing out on the drive to watch it. Worth it though.

I remember watching it now... was outside at West Linton, during the 'smokers' night....extremely fragile today.



Whisky, cider and lager do not mix, no matter how hard you try.

missed it, but there's photos here!
http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... c&start=15

We were lying in bed watching it, around 2300 in the SE, almost full red with a sliver of silver.

I have a pair of highish power binos, and through those it looked incredible, a perfect sphere hanging in the sky, surface detail standing out, and there were two bright stars either side of it.

Always wanted to be an Astronaut after I started flying and got to Test Pilots School, but I was waiting for Japanese technology, so missed out.

On the other hand I am still alive.

tut

tut wrote:
Always wanted to be an Astronaut after I started flying and got to Test Pilots School, but I was waiting for Japanese technology, so missed out.

tut

Tut you are just amazing. I think that loads of us wanted to be astronauts but not many will have been to the test pilots school. I was in NASA in Houston in December and watched a space walk live on the International Space Centre which was a near as I will get.

Was at NASA Houston about 3 years ago - got to sit in the Mission Controller's seat in the museum part when Apollo 13 was in space

Cool it is a great day out there

rossybee wrote:Was at NASA Houston about 3 years ago - got to sit in the Mission Controller's seat in the doughnut shop when Apollo 13 was in space

thinfourth wrote:

rossybee wrote:Was at NASA Houston about 3 years ago - got to sit in the Fat Controller's seat in the doughnut shop when Apollo 13 was in space

How many times have I watched Apollo 13?

I was in Singapore in '69 with 40 Commando RM when Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, airborne in a Bell 47G and listening to it on LW radio.

However I can not remember where I was when Kennedy was shot.

tut

Tut I took my Dad up in a Bell 47 for his birthday and it was a great experience. What were they like to fly? Cool photo by the way, cheers, Ken.

tut wrote: However I can not remember where I was when Kennedy was shot.

tut

Grassy Knoll in a deckchair wasn't it?

tut wrote:However I can not remember where I was when Kennedy was shot.

tut

Is that the official response

Great mysteries of our time solved

Ken

The Bell 47G, also known as the Sioux, was the first real Military helicopter, just a two seater with a T/C piston engine. If you could fly that you could fly anything, as like the Elise, it was just bare essentials.

No computerised controls, not even hydraulics, so apart from the usual antics of a cyclic column, collective lever, and tail rotor pedals, you had a manual twist grip throttle, and the rpm had to stay almost constant. So every time that you raised the collective lever with the left hand, you had to control height and speed with the cyclic stick with the right hand, directional control with left or right feet on the pedals, and also rpm with the left hand. They would have probably found a use for your cock as well given more time.

Net result was that during training you needed a football field to try and hover in.

Once operational, and in a War situation, you could be flying flat out at 10', trying to navigate or map read, using three different radios at the same time, UHF, VHF, HF, to the Artillery, FGA's, and ground troops, whilst crapping yourself when some slant eyed git tried to spoil your day with an AK47 or SAM 7.

Of course, now I am not considered capable of using a mobile phone when I am driving.

We flew without doors on in the Far East, had this big plastic bubble, so it was as close to real flying as you could get. No probs at speed, but trying to get out of a jungle clearing in Borneo vertically after picking up a CASEVAC, 40 deg temp, and 100ft trees, was a laugh a minute. Really could have done with a S/C Honda engine conversion then.

That together with flying its later big brother, the Bell 205(Huey) in the Oman war for seven years was as good as it gets. Got to fly many more types at ETPS (Empire Test Pilots School), and then in civilian flying, but it never matched those times.

Just found this on Google. He may have gone to the moon, but he was not so hot in a 47G.................

tut

NASA had a number of Bell 47s during the Apollo programme, used by astronauts as a trainer for the Lunar Lander. Eugene Cernan had a near disastrous accident shortly before his flight to the moon on Apollo 17 by crashing one into the Indian River.