We Can Fly

[Shiloh 12]

I found these 3/4 to full-scale kits that can be had, built and flown for pretty reasonable prices. A man can dream can't he?

 

http://www.airdromea....com/index.html

[almccoyjr 7]

We Can Fly.......FOR REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

plug_nickel

[Flyby PC 23]

I'd love to fly.

 

First choice would be an open cockpit, (in a warmer climate perhaps), but it always struck me that bomb aimer or turret gunner in the front of an aircraft like a He111, B17 or a Lanc etc, but have been an amazing place to sit. Not so clever once the shooting starts perhaps, but an awesome front row seat all the same.

 

 

 

Anybody watch scrapheap challenge? A few years ago, they had an international show with teams from th US, UK and France, and they all had to build an aircraft from scrap. From memory, I think the US tried to build the Wright Bros flyer, and the French tried to copy Bleriots cross channel aircraft, but the Brits just said we're not copying anything, and just building an aeroplane that flies. The US and French aircraft did fly, but the maiden flights were very cautious, and little more than a quick hop off the deck. The UK pilot was either a complete nutter, or had uncommon faith in his scrapheap built aircraft but took off and soared to a height of several hundred feet and did several circuits of the airstrip. I don't mean it in a Nationalistic way, but it was a very uplifting thing to watch, They were 'kind of' given their propellers, or at least 3 were hidden in the scrapyard, but everything else allegedly came from the scrapyard. I'm always suspicious about such a TV program, and how 'real' and naturally occurring the scrap actually is, but all the same, the aircraft did fly and it did look a fun project to be involved with. I look around my yard, but there's not much chance getting my 4.5ton forklift to fly...

[foreigndevil 0]

Must be a terrific feeling! A wonderful achievement!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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It is fantastic. My first flight was as a child, and in an open cockpit aeroplane. As an adult I have flown open cockpit, parasol wing ultralights. Nothing like it in the world.

 

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[Shiloh 12]

I've never flown in an open cockpit before - must be awesome! I think I'd give this Dr.1 3/4 scale a go if I had to choose. Did you ever finish that kit you were building Lou?

 

Edited March 22, 2012 by Shiloh

[foreigndevil 0]

We Can Fly.......FOR REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

plug_nickel

 

This "Flying Dutchman" was on Dutch TV yesterday to confess it was all just an animation project. A hoax, nothing more!

[Flyby PC 23]

Yes hoax, but... With something live hydraulic movie animatronics emphasising the movements of your arms, perhaps one day it will be possible to fly with bird wings.

 

Have to say too, it is a hoax, but it looks a very good one.

[foreigndevil 0]

Yes hoax, but... With something live hydraulic movie animatronics emphasising the movements of your arms, perhaps one day it will be possible to fly with bird wings.

 

Have to say too, it is a hoax, but it looks a very good one.

 

It took him months to prepare; he made elaborate drawings of the equipment he would need, etc. Very well done. Now where did I put my bird wings?

[almccoyjr 7]

RATS....Can't put nothing over on you fabric and wire guys.

 

plug_nickel

[Flyby PC 23]

Sad thing is some day, somebody is going to do that for real, and everybody is going to go "Yeah, yeah, yeah, who did your CGI for you?"

 

"But no, I did it. I mean really did it! I flew like a bird!"

 

"Sure you did, and here's the video to prove it. Yes, yes, yes, be sure to stick that on YouTube now,... Next!"

 

[von Baur 54]

I'm about 99% decided that, once I retire (less than a decade, at this point) I'm getting an ultralight. Been fake-flying one in MS FSX and it looks like exactly the kind of aviation I'd like.

[Flyby PC 23]

Know what's really nuts? I have a fantasy about building an aircraft and flying it. It sounds mad, but I mean like the early days, no training, no safety etc. The Wright brothers weren't trained pilots, and all these early fliers took their life in their hands with untested and unproven technology every time they took to the air. And for what? Simply to fly.

 

Given the vast increase in knowledge, experience, and common sense, in theory, you should still be able to build your own aircraft and fly it, and while not safe or particularly wise, you'd be a lot safer than those early pioneers were, and it didn't stop them.

 

 

I'm not serious about doing it of course. But its remarkable how different a world we live in these days. It's a better world in many respects, but if you could somehow reinvigorate the sense of adventure and enterprise which existed back then, I think the world would be so much more inspiring. We were getting there with the space race, but the only things which broaden your minds these days are computer games.

 

 

There was a post a while ago commenting on the bravery and ultimate sacrifice of Kamikaze pilots in WW2, but I think it takes a special kind of courage to climb on board and aircraft which you don't know can actually fly, fly it when nobody has actually flown it before, and somehow get it back to ground in one piece without killing anybody, yourself included. I don't know what you'd call that, pioneering spirit perhaps, but a safe world can seem very dull at times.

 

 

 

My advice Von Baur? Go for it, and enjoy every minute of it. It's a fine and noble ambition to fulfill.

Edited March 24, 2012 by Flyby PC

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Not nuts at all Flyby, I've had the same fantasy. I even went so far as to design my own UL and began building it some time ago. However, to that point, (and to answer Shiloh's question earlier in this thread), I have scrapped the project. Not because I still don't want to build my own plane and fly it, but because a number of folks with far more expertise than I on the subject were concerned that the design I'd settled upon could get me killed. Due to the fact that I'd chosen to build a "low and slow" parasol with a small Zenoah engine, and because of the rather large tail feathers on the kite, it was pointed out that if I weren't EXTREMELY cautious on the controls I might very well end up in a tail-first stall at low altitude that would almost certainly be an 'ender'. So, I disassembled the entire affair and sold off the bits and pieces and have put the money into my '64 MGB restoration. That all being said, at some point in the future, (good Lord willing and the creek don't rise), I intend to purchase a properly engineered kit and build my WWI mount.

 

I do have to add though that I'm not just too keen at the moment to go flying at all as we've had two small plane crashes here recently that killed everyone onboard ... very sad. When I was younger and such tragedies occurred I would simply say, "That won't happen to me." But now, at 57, my reaction is starting to change, and I find myself thinking, "Damn, that could have been me!"

 

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[von Baur 54]

It isn't so much a lack of the spirit of adventure or experimentation, Flyby, it's the fact that the rules that must be followed these days make the undertaking either too cumbersome or illegal. Filling out tons of paperwork, waiting months (maybe years) for some government agency to approve what you're doing, submitting to periodic inspections along the way (on their schedule, not yours) can erode anyone's passion. And if you don't comply with all that and are caught taking to the skies you could end up in jail or fined or both and your machine will likely be confiscated. I'm not surprised at all. Saddened, but not surprised.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Von Baur, you could both build and fly a UL if you wished to, and you wouldn't need to contend with any of the red tape associated with experimental aircraft. If you purchase one of the many UL kits now available you need only assemble it and find a field to fly it from. UL flying, IMHO, is as close as a person can get to what the early days of aviation must have been like. I cannot recommend it too highly.

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

That depends on where you are living, Lou. Here you need to have a license also for ultralight aircraft, so there's definitely red tape involved. It's much easier to get than a private pilot licence, but still.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Quite right Hasse Wind, my bad Sir. I should have specified that here in the US there is no red tape surrounding a FAR 103 compliant ultralight.

 

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[carrick58 23]

Here in California ( Home to Holly- weird ) I had to get a Temp FAA license to Para Sail ( Gliding with a para chute) so didnt even ask about Ultra Lites.

[Flyby PC 23]

So don't you need a pilot's licence for a microlight?

[von Baur 54]

I realize there's little to no regulation on ultralights here in the States, Lou. And I know you can buy kits for them, as you can for many experimental aircraft, which you can build yourself and then legally fly. But I don't think that popping together a Revell-on-steroids is what Flyby was talking about. He referenced the early days of flight, which to me means prior to government regulations, when anyone could say to himself, "I've seen one of those airplane things before. Hell, I've even got a picture or two of them somewhere around here. How hard can it be?" go to his barn and come out a week later zooming around to the amazement of his neighbors. The closest analogy would be the fellow who supplied the Italian count with all those comical creations (though some were based on actual designs, successful and not) in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (I can't even type it without the music starting up in my head...surprised it can make its way through all the voices). That's the kind of thing that would be impossible these days.

 

 

**editted after seeing carrick's comments**

Wow, carrick. I didn't realize that about California. It would seem the window is closing for flights of freedom.

Edited March 24, 2012 by von Baur