Sucker for airplanes
May 9th, 2008 | Published in Home | 1 Comment
When I was a kid I was fascinated by aircraft of all types. I loved air shows and spent hours building scale plastic model airplanes that I would suspend with fishing line from my bedroom ceiling. I’m sure I lost more than a few brain cells from that noxious plastic model glue.
Thursday I relived a few of those memories while putting out this daily video about a traveling non-profit that lets ordinary citizens fly in WWII aircraft. Staff writer Josh Shaffer got to go on an aerobatic demonstration flight (lucky bastard).
The plane is equipped with three small cameras, one in the cockpit, one on the right wing and one on the tail that record to a deck mounted behind the pilot. The pilot can switch the cameras during flight from inside the 2-seat cockpit.
After the flight, pilot John Makinson handed over a VHS tape of the entire flight and radio communication. I didn’t even know they still made VHS tapes. Luckily there was an old VHS to mini DV dub deck collecting dust in our studio.
June 11th, 2008at 4:00 pm(#)
Got’a love it! Better than a video game. The propeller looked like it was turning very slow. Must have been a multiple of the frame rate + or - a little bit.
I miss flying. Of the general aviation aircraft, sail planes, powered ultralights, hang gliders and parachutes I’ve flown, I think I the powered ultralight was best … low and slow. Had a Chinook ultralight back in about ‘95. A pusher prop tail-dragger with full three axis controls. Loved to put it into a hard slip coming in for a landing on a short dirt strip. Never did get a pilot’s license, though.
Nice piece.