A Bleak and Lonely Post...

[Hauksbee]

Tail gunner on Dirigible...

 

Edited March 2, 2015 by Hauksbee

[Skyviper]

Bleak and Lonely yes ... but think about the view...

[Nightshade/PR]

Until a Fokker drops in behind you.........

[Skyviper]

Touché

[Hauksbee]

Actually, this is more like what I had in mind. The British chap is held aloft by helium, the German, on the other hand, is riding a couple'a thousand cubic feet of hydrogen.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Hauksbee

[Gatling20]

First you complain about the bleakness and cold, now you are complaining about the warmth of a couple of thousand cubic feet of hydrogen catching fire underneath you.

There is no pleasing some people :)

Edited November 25, 2014 by Gatling20

[Wayfarer]

I still can't work out how they passed him cups of tea.

[von Baur]

 

I still can't work out how they passed him cups of tea.

 

Pretty easy to figure out where he passed it onto, though.

 

"Take that, Fritz!!"

[Olham]

Great photo, Hauksbee!

[Hauksbee]

Great photo, Hauksbee!

This is the photo that originally gave me chills about being perched on top of a Zeppelin. It's by Alfred Steiglitz and it's about crew members doing repairs on the Graf Zeppelin in flight. For a very long time I did not know that. I thought it was passengers simply taking a stroll. Most disturbing was the figure on the left sitting down. It looked as though he might slowly slide off into the night. Later, when I discovered they were crew members working, I could see that they had safety ropes.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Hauksbee

[HumanDrone]

Ulp!

[Hauksbee]

"Ulp!" indeed. Even with safety ropes and harnesses, I still wouldn't want to be the guy on the left.

[von Baur]

I would love it!!!

 

When I was skydiving I always wanted to jump from a balloon. Jumping from a plane you're already moving nearly at terminal velocity, just horizontally and slowly transitioning to the vertical. The idea of dropping "into the void" from a basically motionless platform and having that first few seconds of absolutely no control...it seemed like the coolest thing I could do. Second place was running across the top of a Zeppelin to take the plunge. Those guys were among probably fewer than 100 people who ever lived to have experienced what they did. Pretty exclusive club.

[Olham]

With my vertigo, that job would be a total nightmare for me!

[Maeran]

I still can't work out how they passed him cups of tea.

 

There will have been walkways inside the derigible itself (it isn't just the gas bag in there).  But I expect that anyone with any sense doing that job would take a flask or two.

[Hauksbee]

But I expect that anyone with any sense doing that job would take a flask or two.

An idea worthy of the BOC, but you might have difficulty getting your CO on the program.

[Lewie]

Just keep thinking about when you get back home, all snug in your hangar..

 

[HumanDrone]

With my vertigo, that job would be a total nightmare for me!

 

You and me both, pal!  They'd have to add about a half a dozen zero's to my paycheck before I even started to think "maybe...".

[Hauksbee]

Just keep thinking about when you get back home, all snug in your hangar..

Here's the Zeppelin/airship hangar at Moffat Field, Sunnyvale, California. When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I drove past this at least once a day. Not exactly what I'd call 'snug'.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Hauksbee

[JimAttrill]

And if you were the gunner on top you couldn't exactly have a fag when nobody was looking

[Hauksbee]

Especially if you were German on a hydrogen-filled Zepp.

[JimAttrill]

 

 

When I was skydiving I always wanted to jump from a balloon. Jumping from a plane you're already moving nearly at terminal velocity, just horizontally and slowly transitioning to the vertical. The idea of dropping "into the void" from a basically motionless platform and having that first few seconds of absolutely no control...it seemed like the coolest thing I could do.

 

My father was in charge of the paratroopers hangar at RAF Abingdon in 1958 where paras were trained to land correctly etc by among other things jumping off a twenty feet high platform onto coconut matting.  Their first drops were from a captive WWII barrage balloon with a basket underneath.  As a 'scaley brat' (RAF slang for children of serving members) I used to watch them jumping out nearly every day. 

 

The paras said that jumping from the static balloon was a hundred times more scarey than jumping from an aeroplane.   There was a Sgt para instructor who got the George Medal when he was up there with (I think) three trainees when the bag burst.  He pushed them all out before jumping himself and was very lucky to live.

[Hauksbee]

... 'scaley brat' (RAF slang for children of serving members) I used to watch them jumping out nearly every day. 

"Scaley Brat'? I love it. If I could have come by that name honestly, I'd use it as a screen name everywhere.

[JimAttrill]

The slang had something to do with the 'Scale' of pay or something.  I will find out.  Of course RAF slang was something else as those who have seen the Monty Python scetch will know

 

Apparently Married persons were paid on 'Scale E'   and that's where it came from.   Simple!

Edited December 8, 2014 by JimAttrill

[Hauksbee]

"...RAF slang was something else as those who have seen the Monty Python scetch will know

Quite so. One can't banter slowly.