Flyboys Movie: the aircraft

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:58:46 GMT, "kd5sak"
wrote:

I'm a Scot, through my Grandmother, and devoutly thrifty. I'll wait and see
it on cable.

Big mistake. The joy is in the wide open spaces. They won't come
through on cable, or DVD. I remember how disappointed I was when I saw
The High Road to China on the small screen. All the fun had gone out
of the airplane scenes.

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:52:13 GMT, "kd5sak"
wrote:

Actually, I am not. Though I'm interested, the wife has forbidden me to
pursue any such activity. Since I'm 74, I've decided she's probably right in
her position. I probably won't last long enough to build a craft and I'm
certainly too tight to buy a ready-made.

You may have waited a bit long, but it's not irretrievable. I soloed
at 67, and seven years later I'm still going strong.

You don't buy a plane! You rent one!

The first step is to make sure that you and your wife have separate
bank accounts and credit cards. You don't ask her what she spends at
Talbot's; she doesn't ask what you spend at the airport. With luck,
your marriage might actually last for a few years

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:13:18 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

Anyone else notice that nobody received any dual instruction? The first scene
you see the main characters in an airplane, they're flying it for the first
time. Yet there was what appeared to be a "Penguin" sitting on the field when
they first arrived.

Actually, I don't think the French went in for dual.

They did use Penguins, of course. I think we can assume that the lads
went through the usual Penguin drill.

They did a lot of taxiing in the movie, as was shown by General
DeGaulle's notepad. Some were still taxiing when the aces were
soloing. No doubt that was the Penguins. It was just too alien a
concept for a general audience.

Anyhow, who gives a damn? It ws a great flick.

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:00:35 -0500, Charlie
wrote:

After suffering through the movie, during the credits my wife leaned
over & said, "I think y'all took us to a chick-flick with some flying
thrown in."

At the Barrington 'plex, the audience applauded.

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 21:50:25 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

Some of the obvious nits could have been avoided if they'd just had pilot
involved.

David Ellison learned to fly when he was 13. He owns, inter alia, a
Hawker Hunter jet fighter.

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:06:54 +0000, Scott
wrote:

Yes, I saw N numbers

And they were historically accurate. N for Nieuport.

The knock the wings off with the landing gear really happened...

There were many Fokker tripes painted red. Not all of them were red in the movie.

Many years of research went in to the movie, and the more outrageous happenings were left out, but the director said
that facts were indeed stranger than fiction...

"Ron Wanttaja" wrote in message ...
: On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:06:06 GMT, "Dave" wrote:
:
:
: "Ron Wanttaja" wrote in message
: ...
:
:
: I think the movie handled the personal horrors of war in the air pretty
: well. Some of the photography was great, too. I did enjoy the ground scenes at
: the airfield.
:
: Sounds like a pretty bad review Ron. I'm making the wife go and see it this
: evening. I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot more than some of the sappy bits of
: treacle she's dragged me to over the years. I've never had any problem
: suspending my "reality" filter for movies, I expect that reality makes for
: pretty poor cinema.
:
: I'll forgive the nits if a film avoids obvious cliches, but this one swerved to
: bump through each one, just like a student driver on a potholed road.
:
: Some of the obvious nits could have been avoided if they'd just had pilot
: involved. In the "old days" when they had to use real airplanes to film movies
: like this, there were people around who could tell the director that an airplane
: just couldn't *do* the stunt he wanted. But when it's CGI..."Heck, let's have
: him knock off the German's top wing by backing into it with his landing gear.
: Make sure the gear isn't damaged, so he can land safely afterwards."
:
: Sheesh.
:
: I fully agree that some compromises usually have to be made for making a movie
: for mass consumption. I'm not complaining (much :-) that the movie showed more
: Fokker Triplanes that were ever *made* (oh, an exaggeration, but the type never
: was common). I'm not complaining that the Triplanes didn't reach the front
: until a YEAR after the film was set. The Fokker Triplane is a very identifiable
: aircraft; using them for the German airplanes let the non-pilot moviegoer
: instantly recognize which were the good guys and the bad guys.
:
: However, I *will* complain about having all the Fokker Triplanes painted red.
: That was an artistic decision completely divorced from historical reality. One
: Triplane was painted all red. One very famous one. Not every single one of
: them.
:
: Historical accuracy in popular movies isn't a paradox. Take "Master and
: Commander: The Far Side of the World." The film was very accurate...and a
: cracking good yarn, too. If it hadn't been for those damn Hobbits, it would
: have taken the best picture Oscar....
:
: Well, we'll just have to see if the Germans get WWI aviation right....
:
: http://www.redbaronmovie.com/
:
: ...though I admit some aspects of the synopsis are pre-engaging my
: gag reflex. :-)
:
: Ron Wanttaja

"kd5sak" wrote in message
. ..

Actually, I am not. Though I'm interested, the wife has forbidden me to
pursue any such activity. Since I'm 74, I've decided she's probably right
in her position. I probably won't last long enough to build a craft and
I'm certainly too tight to buy a ready-made. (G) I do enjoy kibitzing on
those of you that do fly, though. As an former Jr. High shop teacher, I
take special interest in some of the building details I read about.

Harold.........

Since you're down there in "5" land, I know a few Texas dwellers who would
be happy to take a passenger up (and back down again, of course).

Rich S.

On 26 Sep 2006 14:32:38 -0700, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

When the one pilot comments that it's his plan to shoot down one enemy then go
back to America, surely it would have been more dramatic to point out that this
would be desertion, for which the man (if caught) would have been the next
blindfold recipient?

Would that have been true in the all-volunteer American squadron?

The Escadrille Lafayette wasn't the Flying Tigers... it was a duly-constituted
squadron of the French Air Service, not a mercenary unit. Members were under
French military law, which, for instance, permitted members of a unit to be
randomly selected for execution (irrespective of the soldier's individual
behavior) if that unit failed in combat.

What's more, the American government at the time was pretty prickly, claiming
that citizens who pledged allegiance to a foreign government (as is usually the
case when someone joins a country's military) would give up their US
citizenship. Lafayette Escadrille members got around that by enlisting in the
French Foreign Legion (the Legion's enlistment oath only requires that the
member obey his officers) and then transferring to the Air Service. At last
report, the Legion never has been too friendly towards cowards or deserters. :-)

One of the early Americans in the French Air Service deserted in the middle of a
spying scandal, and one would suspect the French military might well have taken
a hard line in a similar case. Geopolitical realities might have prevented the
outright execution of an American deserter, of course. But French military
prisons of the time were no fun, either...kind of like Abu Graib with garlic.

BTW, the Lafayette Escadrille still exists, as the Lafayette Group in the Armee
de l'aire. They still fly with the Indian head insignia...

http://maquette72.free.fr/themes/laf...adron_2esc.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

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