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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2017 20:00:48 GMT -7
The first time I took my wife up was in a Cessna 172, and the passenger door lock was not working right. The door stayed about 1/2 open the whole flight and swung open when I turned onto the taxiway. She about freaked!
Cessna's a nice, but once I flew the AA-1A, I was hooked! Snappy little plane, so much fun to fly. A pain to land, but fun to fly.
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 21, 2017 21:00:05 GMT -7
Hell, my PA-27 floats right down onto the runway...I can't think of one bad quality to that bird..
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 21, 2017 21:07:40 GMT -7
I think the best two seater i have had the opportunity to fly was an old Beach T-34 owned by a friend of mine. that old thing can really yank and bank...I see why Beach used the Bonanza as the starting point for the T-34, they made a good plane in that one...My friend also has an old Beach Staggerwing, but he won't let anyone else fly that old lady!
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 21, 2017 23:09:28 GMT -7
The other torpedo bomber the USN had at the Battle of Midway were eight Grumman TBF-1 Avenger type flown by Torpedo 8 (VT-8). It should be noted here that these planes did not fair any better then the TBD-1 Devastator bombers flown by Torpedo 8 from the USS Hornet. Again their attack failed for the same reason. NO coordination and fighter protection. These Avenger bombers were just as easy targets as a Devastator.
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Post by starcruiser on Jul 22, 2017 8:14:01 GMT -7
I suspect the entire Battle of Midway was basically one long "brown pants" engagement!
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 22, 2017 10:07:45 GMT -7
I suspect the entire Battle of Midway was basically one long "brown pants" engagement! Bad luck abounded for both sides on that day...The Japanese had pure signals, arrogant planing, bad intelligence on US intentions, and way to much confidence. They outnumbered the Americans Over on the American side...they had good intelligence, a good battle plan, they were out numbered in every catagory, and they had the wrong commanders for the operation. Jack Fletcher was on his way out of the war zone, he was being made head of the Borough of Personal i believe and Ray Spruance had no real command experience with carriers. The battle plan was designed for a commander like Bill Halsey The American got lucky first by discovering part of the Japanese Fleet (Japanese bad luck 1) and they sent their planes to head in that direction. They got early warning by a flash broadcast from one of the PBY recon birds sending "many planes heading Midway" (Japanese Bad luck 2) The Japanese weren't expecting the island to put up such a fight. The official credited score for VMF-221 defending Midway was 39, but unofficially the score was thought to be higher closer to 50 Japanese planes downed for the loss of 17 of 221's planes. The Island's AA batteries did a good job defending the field. The attack failed to knock Midway out and it was Fletcher's fourth carrier you might say. (Japanese bad luck 3) The Japanese made a bad assumption that no American carriers were in the fight. (bad luck 4 and arrogant to boot) This allowed Yorktown to get a strike out against the Japanese (Hornet and Enterprise would launch 30 minutes later), but Yorktown's planes went in the wrong direction due to a bad report on the position on the enemy fleet. These factors lead to the US having poor coordination in the attack. The only plans that actually hit the target on time from the Yorktown strike was Torpedo 5 and they were slaughtered...their commander guessed the directions were wrong and used what he thought and found them. This attack made the Japanese think again...and they put up their own scouts that would eventually find Yorktown and this would bring Japan her bad luck that killed her fleet. During the preparation for the strike on Yorktown the Japanese had to rearm for it all this was happening while the next torpedo raids from the other carriers were hitting without fighter protection. those planes were easy targets for Japanese fighters and as the bombers turned away the Zero fighters started to chase and this opened the door for the unescorted dive bombers to do their morning work that left three carriers a fire..Kaga, Akagi and Siryu were left blazing. But while this was happening Yorktown was found and bombed...nearly put out of action, but she was brought back to steam and so on. Her fires were put out. Hiryu which was left alone was able to get a small strike off.. her planes followed the Yorktown survivors back to Yorktown, that was by this time already back in action ready to receive her birds...and as she finished landing ops she was hit a second time this time the damage was more severe, but amazingly they kept her in service long enough to send her planes off to Enterprise and Hornet. Yorktown was placed under toe and was on her way back to Pearl Harbor when she was hit by a Japanese sub the next day and then her destroyers finished her off because she was thought hopeless This second attack on Yorktown made the Japanese think she was a different carrier and well they thought it was one on one now, but that said the Americans already had another strike in the air and it found Hiryu and finished her off.... I was luck that won the battle and it was mostly American that day
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Post by Gorn on Jul 22, 2017 11:32:45 GMT -7
The Japanese probably trusted too much in "Kamikaze' the divine spirit wind that sunk the invading Mongol fleet in 1281. They were done for if not for that freak happening. Unfortunately, it gave them the idea that their "Land of the gods" was unassailable and undefeatable. They carried that idea all the way up to Commodore Perry in 1852, when he forced his way into Okinawa as a prelude to forcing his way into Edo in 1854.
Most everybody knows about them using that battlecall as they crashed their planes into US ships in WW2.
Boss move: MacArthur had brought and displayed Perry's flag for Japan's surrender signing as a reminder that it was the SECOND time the USA had to sort Japan out, and won.
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 22, 2017 12:02:21 GMT -7
The Kamikaze pilots didn't come into real effect until the Philippines were invaded by the US, in 1944
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 22, 2017 16:51:15 GMT -7
The United States Navy designated it the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, but the pilots called it the "Ensign Eliminator", "The Beast", "Simply built 2 crash", "Son-a-Bitch Second Class" well i think you get the picture...When the Curtiss Helldiver entered service it was a lot of plane to handle, but it would eventually earn a good reputation for being hard hitting and it was eventually liked by its crews... This is a cannon armed SB2C-1C
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Post by starcruiser on Jul 22, 2017 17:16:09 GMT -7
The Japanese probably trusted too much in "Kamikaze' the divine spirit wind that sunk the invading Mongol fleet in 1281. They were done for if not for that freak happening. Unfortunately, it gave them the idea that their "Land of the gods" was unassailable and undefeatable. They carried that idea all the way up to Commodore Perry in 1852, when he forced his way into Okinawa as a prelude to forcing his way into Edo in 1854. Most everybody knows about them using that battlecall as they crashed their planes into US ships in WW2. Boss move: MacArthur had brought and displayed Perry's flag for Japan's surrender signing as a reminder that it was the SECOND time the USA had to sort Japan out, and won. The "Kamikaze" phase came after after everything went "tits-up" for Japan. Once they were heavily on the defensive and had little capacity to replace losses (inadequate training infrastructure, lack of resources for new ships etc...) the only thing they could think of was leaning on suicide tactics. Their whole system was heavily influenced by Shinto religious concepts and the twisted version of the code of Bushido that Tojo and company cooked up... and on and on. Yamamoto had said that could only guarantee 6 months of success after Pearl Harbor, he was dead right...
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 22, 2017 17:28:22 GMT -7
After Pearl Harbor, he stated..."I believe all we have done is awaken a sleeping Giant and filled him with a terrible resolve!"
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Post by rabid on Jul 22, 2017 20:16:03 GMT -7
After Pearl Harbor, he stated..."I believe all we have done is awaken a sleeping Giant and filled him with a terrible resolve!" 'twere better to have called on God zillacowboy40 which was your favorite plane that got off the factory floor "too Late", i.e the F7F Tiger cat?
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 23, 2017 0:33:59 GMT -7
My favorite is a toss up between the F7F and the AD Skyraider....Midway was carrying Skyradiers when the surrender was signed...they were scheduled to take action in the invasion of Japan
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Post by rabid on Jul 23, 2017 3:39:15 GMT -7
That's cool, I didn't know sky raiders were already on the bus when the war ended. My uncle flew them over Korea so it's always been a favorite.
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 23, 2017 6:40:11 GMT -7
1946 would have been an interesting year for naval aviation if the war had continued. The Skyraider, the AM Mauler, The F7F Tigercat, The F8F Bearcat (also General Motors was gearing up to produce the F3M Bearcat), the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair.....and the McDonnell FH-1 Phantom would have probably appeared over Japan. There would have been also the Ryan FR-1 Fireball
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Post by rabid on Jul 23, 2017 13:08:04 GMT -7
Not familiar with the fireball! Of course that's probably because I only know them from video games. Boom'n'zoom in a late model BF109? Awesome.
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Post by Gorn on Jul 23, 2017 17:22:57 GMT -7
The Japanese did call on their gods. That's what "Kamikaze" means. Divine Wind. They even follow shinto gods now at the same time as being Christians.
When Showa decided attacking the US was a nifty idea, he could not have been disobeyed. The Japanese had put the Emperors back in power, and Shogun or Emperor, you did what they decide, pointe finale. Having lived there 3.5 years, I wonder if "this is a bad idea" even crosses the minds of subordinates today, let alone WW2. I said it there and I say it here, the US *needed* to nuke them. It was a good decision to modify their imperial identity. Don't think for one instant it can never come back.
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 23, 2017 22:10:44 GMT -7
During the attack on the airfield at Midway, it was VMF-221 that put up the defense of the Island in the air. VMF-221 put up 17 Buffalo and 7 Wildcats and attacked a far superiour force and fought one hell of a battle, but in the end they just couldn't overcome the numbers game, and they lost 13 of the Buffalo and 4 Wildcats, but if the scoring was correct they achieved a 2 or 3 to 1 kill ratio in the fight.... This is a Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo...
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Post by rabid on Jul 24, 2017 3:36:34 GMT -7
I mean they should have called on Godzilla.
Cowboy the F2a seems to the the originator of a lot of naval design choices, maybe like the p-40 Warhawk in the army air force. If I'm not mistaken didn't later variants of the F2a have a 20mm cannon?
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Post by Gorn on Jul 24, 2017 6:42:09 GMT -7
ha! Gojira only appeared after Japan got Nuked! Renting the original flick in Japan, I noticed how different it was from the US version. Seeing "Gojira's" nuke victims made me distinctly uncomfortable; I'm pretty sure some of those hospital scenes were from ~10 year old newsreels.
If any requests are being done, I'd like to see my dad's favorite, the Corsair...
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Post by rabid on Jul 24, 2017 6:53:58 GMT -7
Know all about it, next to dinosaurs Godzilla is one of my favorite things, especially the Showa Eiga Toho films. Totally OT but Dr Mafune and his oxygen destroyer are very canny commentaries on WMD's...the guy in the giant monster suit even adds to the allegory.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2017 7:22:07 GMT -7
OMG! I ♥ Godzilla!
(super OT though)
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 24, 2017 8:45:03 GMT -7
I mean they should have called on Godzilla. Cowboy the F2a seems to the the originator of a lot of naval design choices, maybe like the p-40 Warhawk in the army air force. If I'm not mistaken didn't later variants of the F2a have a 20mm cannon? No not a version with 20mm cannon, but yes it would set the pattern for USN fighters and it was the most advanced carrier plane in 1935 when it was designed and entered service in 1936. It was the first all metal monoplane fighter with retracting under gear to enter USN service. It entered service right after the Grumman F3F started to fly off the decks of the carriers. The Buffalo was selected over the then by plane XF4F biplane fighter...that forced Grumman to then redesign the F4F into the classic monoplane of WW2 fame. At the time of the introduction of the F2A, the Japanese were flying the A5M off their carriers and the FAA were flying Sea Gladiator fighters....The F2A was a world above both these machines, but by 1941, the plane was showing its problems, but in an experienced had the Buffalo could be fought...
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 24, 2017 9:11:55 GMT -7
The Buffalo got a bad reputation it really didn't deserve, this airplane was flown and fought in some very bad conditions and so on...
The RAF/RAAF Buffalo fighters were a mixed batch of equipment, some were Naval fighters passed by the USN (F2A-2's stripped of naval equipment) and planes originally ordered by France (which were modified from the USN standard with cheaper civilian specification engines and other equipment). these planes were thrown into the defense of Singapore and later Burma. These squadrons found themselves out numbered and they had no replacement pilots or spare planes coming, and they were operating from make shift fields and poor maintenance would steadily bring the numbers down do nothing. Naturally bad morale and the problems would be dumped on the design. With all that said several aces came out of those Buffalo squadrons. They achieved a 3:1 kill ratio over Japanese planes.
The Buffaloes flown by the Dutch East Indies Air Force in the defense over Java also put up a good fight. the Dutch achieved a 2:1 kill ratio over Japanese aircraft. Once the fight for Java was over, the few remaining Buffaloes were evacuated to Australia where they flew defense over Australia and New Zealand until replaced by more modern types.
It again should be pointed out that a large number of the planes lost at Singapore, Malaya, and Java were lost on the ground to enemy bombing raids.
We already know the story of the Buffalo in American hands.
The real success story of the Buffalo were in Finnish hands where the plane was built under license, and it proved that when spares and replacement parts were in hand, the plane proved a great success against both Russian and German types. i believe it is here that 20mm cannons were mounted in the wings for the Finnish...
The Brewster Buffalo was a good plane put into some very bad situations, but the design made a good show...it has been the victim of poorly informed historians and scornful pilots who faced some bad odds and became bitter because they didn't have the more modern types to fly...
Lt. Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, wrote about his pre-war service flying the F2A. He called it a good airplane, a little heavy on the stick, but it was agile....and he did criticize some of the after action reports by stating, "It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools"
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Post by cowboy40 on Jul 24, 2017 9:27:13 GMT -7
Another little known fact is that a FAA squadron (No. 805 NAS) defended the island of Crete flying Brewster Buffalo fighters against German Me109's and proved to be a good fighters against them...
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