Flyboys Movie: the aircraft

Jay Honeck wrote:
snip

Aw, that scene was just unbelievable, full moon or not. Just like the
scenes in "Pearl Harbor" where the protaganist fights in the Battle of
Britain, the attack on Pearl Harbor, AND the Doolittle Raid on Japan.
It's just Hollywood being Hollywood, and there is apparently nothing
anyone can do to stop them from doing this sort of thing.


snip

Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Ah, Pearl Harbor. Brings tears to me eyes how bad that movie was. Even
suspending my gullability I couldn't stomach it. I even read the book
and it wasn't much better. A whole bunch of cliches strung end to end
with only a nebulous story line. I mean, really! Boy finds girl, boy
goes to war, boy gets killed, boy shows up allive...BARF.

One of the worst was the "We need some hotshot bomber pilots. Lets go
out and get us a bunch of fighter pilots"...uhuh.

Harry K

SPOILER ALERT




On 26 Sep 2006 20:01:55 -0700, "Harry K" wrote:

Aw, that scene was just unbelievable, full moon or not. Just like the
scenes in "Pearl Harbor" where the protaganist fights in the Battle of
Britain, the attack on Pearl Harbor, AND the Doolittle Raid on Japan.
It's just Hollywood being Hollywood, and there is apparently nothing
anyone can do to stop them from doing this sort of thing.

Ah, Pearl Harbor. Brings tears to me eyes how bad that movie was.

Urrrrp. I am reminded of the old proverb, "I cried because I had no shoes,
until I had a man who had no feet."

Or to paraphrase a more recent quote: "Sir, I've seen 'Pearl Harbor,' and
'Flyboys' is no 'Pearl Harbor.'"

Flyboys doesn't even come CLOSE to the skankiness of PH. I fully intend to get
the DVD of Flyboys and watch the movie again...skipping through the worst bits,
of course, but there's no way I'm even getting NEAR 'Pearl Harbor.'

All right, enough of my whining. What did I *like* about Flyboys?

1. Introductory scenes at the beginning. Thought the movie did very well at
introducing the main characters and their varying backgrounds.
2. Most of the acting. Richard's probably a better judge than I, but I thought
that young cast did pretty well.
3. The *ages* of the pilots. We tend to forget how young they were. I love
the way the producers found some baby-faced actors.
4. Jean Reno. He's always fun to watch.
5. Most of the combat sequences. Very exciting...I may have some nits about
how the planes moved, but the CGI was used effectively to allow the action to be
both exciting and easily followed.
6. Ground sequences around the airfield. I though it appeared to be a pretty
realistic depiction of a WWI combat airfield. I especially liked them showing
Rawlins inspecting his own ammunition...a pretty common theme, among the
survivors of the WWI air war.
7. Depiction of the Germans. Yes, we had a nice, hissable villain, but he was
nicely contrasted by the other major German pilot.
8. Rawlins' internal conflict the "good guy" German... his reluctance to
shoot him down after the guy had spared his own life on a previous flight. This
was a well-depicted internal conflict, very nicely depicted.
9. The scenes in the pilot's mess, where the (new) Americans can't believe the
old hands are ignoring the recent losses.

Doing some heavier-duty thinking about the movie made me reflect that I was
perhaps wrong in my earlier comment that the control positions of the CGI
airplanes weren't matching those of a real aircraft. The main case was one
where a Fokker in an established 90-degree bank was showing almost full left
rudder. I came to realize that the rudder position was probably accurate *for a
rotary-engined* aircraft! The gyroscopic effect of the high pitch rate would
probably be driving the nose to the right, hence the depiction of full left
rudder. Cool.

Ron Wanttaja

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:35:26 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

The main case was one
where a Fokker in an established 90-degree bank was showing almost full left
rudder.

Yes, that really bugged me, not only about the German but about the
French planes. But like you I decided that the movie-makers probably
had worked this out, and that Nieuports actually did require all that
rudder input.

On Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:31:16 -0400, Cubdriver usenet AT danford.net
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:35:26 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

The main case was one
where a Fokker in an established 90-degree bank was showing almost full left
rudder.

Yes, that really bugged me, not only about the German but about the
French planes. But like you I decided that the movie-makers probably
had worked this out, and that Nieuports actually did require all that
rudder input.

Turn, or knife-edge? (Or knife-edge while using up elevator to skid?)

Don

"Don Tuite" wrote in message ...
: On Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:31:16 -0400, Cubdriver usenet AT danford.net
: wrote:
:
: On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:35:26 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
: wrote:
:
: The main case was one
: where a Fokker in an established 90-degree bank was showing almost full left
: rudder.
:
: Yes, that really bugged me, not only about the German but about the
: French planes. But like you I decided that the movie-makers probably
: had worked this out, and that Nieuports actually did require all that
: rudder input.
:
: Turn, or knife-edge? (Or knife-edge while using up elevator to skid?)
:
: Don


Or steering the guns...

"Cubdriver" usenet AT danford.net wrote in message
...
On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:35:26 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

The main case was one
where a Fokker in an established 90-degree bank was showing almost full
left
rudder.

Yes, that really bugged me, not only about the German but about the
French planes. But like you I decided that the movie-makers probably
had worked this out, and that Nieuports actually did require all that
rudder input.

http://varifrank.com/archives/2006/0...ys_a_revie.php (Flyboys: A
Review)

Lengthy...detailed!

Matt


--
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot
survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable,
for he is known and carries his banner openly, but the traitor moves
amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through
all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the
traitor
appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and
he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness
that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he
works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the
city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A
murderer
is less to fear. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero