What WW2 plane broke the sound barrier?

If you REALLY want to see a bad shoulder, try cranking up the gear on an F4F
!!
:-)))
Dudley Henriques

".Blueskies." wrote in message
om...

"Big John" wrote in message
...

Dudley

I've heard nothing about the broad with the jocks in T-birds. Have you
heard any feed back?

As a new 2nd Lt I took a P-40N to almost 25K and rolled over with full
power straight down. Pulled out about 7K and never came close to any
mach one.

Looking back stupid, stupid, atupid.

I had heard you could out dive a Zero and wanted to check it out.

Still recovering from shoulder operation.

Big John
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` `


You mean that pullout damaged your shoulder and you are still recovering
from the operation?

Just kidding ;-)

Went to the AirZoo the other day to see an ASME presentation commemorating
the wing fold mechanism of the F4F-4 Wildcat
(http://www.airzoo.org/news/asme-award). It was apparently a unique and
space efficient way to fold a wing while easily maintaining structural
integrity. An interesting fact came out about the Zero: When the Zero was
flying ~250-300 mph the controls would become so stiff that the pilot
would end up bending the stick trying to do a high G pullout, thus the
reason the Wildcat, P-40, etc could do the dive away trick. The Wildcat
could dive at WOT and not exceed any limitations, and during testing folks
bent the wing at 12 plus Gs and then couldn't fold it back...

Dudley

Some more trivia.

In Jug if you got to limiting Mach the bird tucked and could not be
stopped with elevator or reduction of power.

Procedure was to go to full power (guess this gave some airflow over
elevator and let you slowly pull the nose to a lessor angle of dive
where air resistance continued to slow bird down and you regained full
control.

This was all in ground school in RTU so never went up and tried it out
)

I only saw the initial announcement of the gal in T-birds and nothing
since.

Guess they put her on the easy wing (I could fly a lot smoother and
closer on right wing with less work than left wing which took more
careful control movement).

Hope she does good for the grueling airshow circuit which takes a lot
out of you.

My shoulder is the rotator cuff that I fell on a year ago. Doc said he
had never seen one so torn up and he has been doing them for years.

The best to everyone (even the lurkers )


Big John
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ``````````````````````````````


On Fri, 19 May 2006 00:37:31 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

Hi John;
Hope all's been well with you and yours.


----clip----

Hi John;
I have a bit of time in the Jug, but not much. I ferried an N out of a small
field in South America and up into the states once a while back. What a hog!
Very good rate of roll above 250 and a pleasure to land if you didn't drag
it in.

The word is that the Major is doing just fine on the right wing.
I take it by saying it's the easy position, you mean you flew wing on the
right side to an element lead and in the old fighting wing.
Now a days we use a wide combat spread with lead changes based on who sees
what first. Either side can go wing or lead in a heartbeat.
Hope your shoulder comes along and gets better for you.
Dudley

"Big John" wrote in message
...
Dudley

Some more trivia.

In Jug if you got to limiting Mach the bird tucked and could not be
stopped with elevator or reduction of power.

Procedure was to go to full power (guess this gave some airflow over
elevator and let you slowly pull the nose to a lessor angle of dive
where air resistance continued to slow bird down and you regained full
control.

This was all in ground school in RTU so never went up and tried it out
)

I only saw the initial announcement of the gal in T-birds and nothing
since.

Guess they put her on the easy wing (I could fly a lot smoother and
closer on right wing with less work than left wing which took more
careful control movement).

Hope she does good for the grueling airshow circuit which takes a lot
out of you.

My shoulder is the rotator cuff that I fell on a year ago. Doc said he
had never seen one so torn up and he has been doing them for years.

The best to everyone (even the lurkers )


Big John
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ``````````````````````````````


On Fri, 19 May 2006 00:37:31 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

Hi John;
Hope all's been well with you and yours.


----clip----

Dudley

On right wing. It was just easier to fly looking over throttle than
looking away from throttle. Many times on a show pass we would tuck it
with a foot clearance.

Can still remember pitching off deck for landing. Made us stop that
here in States because to many were bending it to tight and crashing
due to stalling ( I can still remember that soft popping of the
Merlin in idle in pitch up pattern. Sound of music to my ears.

Tight finger four was basically for show and combat spread let leader
clear front 180 and #2, 3 & 4 cleared the right and left of rear of
formation. If an attack was detected from rear the flight turned into
the attacking aircraft and the 'fur ball' started.

The bar joke with the '51 drivers was that they used C-47's to escort
the Jugs to 20K where the turbo gave them full sea level power and
they could hold their own in a dog fight

All of this was a long time ago in a land far away ) Haven't thought
about some of it in years.

The best

Big John
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ````````````````````````````````
On Sat, 20 May 2006 00:29:34 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

Hi John;
I have a bit of time in the Jug, but not much. I ferried an N out of a small
field in South America and up into the states once a while back. What a hog!
Very good rate of roll above 250 and a pleasure to land if you didn't drag
it in.

The word is that the Major is doing just fine on the right wing.
I take it by saying it's the easy position, you mean you flew wing on the
right side to an element lead and in the old fighting wing.
Now a days we use a wide combat spread with lead changes based on who sees
what first. Either side can go wing or lead in a heartbeat.
Hope your shoulder comes along and gets better for you.
Dudley

"Big John" wrote in message
.. .
Dudley

Some more trivia.

In Jug if you got to limiting Mach the bird tucked and could not be
stopped with elevator or reduction of power.

Procedure was to go to full power (guess this gave some airflow over
elevator and let you slowly pull the nose to a lessor angle of dive
where air resistance continued to slow bird down and you regained full
control.

This was all in ground school in RTU so never went up and tried it out
)

I only saw the initial announcement of the gal in T-birds and nothing
since.

Guess they put her on the easy wing (I could fly a lot smoother and
closer on right wing with less work than left wing which took more
careful control movement).

Hope she does good for the grueling airshow circuit which takes a lot
out of you.

My shoulder is the rotator cuff that I fell on a year ago. Doc said he
had never seen one so torn up and he has been doing them for years.

The best to everyone (even the lurkers )


Big John
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ``````````````````````````````


On Fri, 19 May 2006 00:37:31 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

Hi John;
Hope all's been well with you and yours.


----clip----

"Big John" wrote in message
...
Dudley

On right wing. It was just easier to fly looking over throttle than
looking away from throttle. Many times on a show pass we would tuck it
with a foot clearance.

I also favor the right side. It just feels better and more natural tucked in
there.


Can still remember pitching off deck for landing. Made us stop that
here in States because to many were bending it to tight and crashing
due to stalling ( I can still remember that soft popping of the
Merlin in idle in pitch up pattern. Sound of music to my ears.

The Merlin loads up easily in idle. On my bird for a show pattern, I'd
usually hit the break on initial at about 250 carrying about 30 inches,
coming back to no less than 15 inches in the pitch. Anything less and I'd
start loading up the plugs. You could clean them out easily enough with
power, but the -7 would back up and start popping you a reminder if you
idled it back and left it there long enough :-)

Tight finger four was basically for show and combat spread let leader
clear front 180 and #2, 3 & 4 cleared the right and left of rear of
formation. If an attack was detected from rear the flight turned into
the attacking aircraft and the 'fur ball' started.

Oh, for the good ole' days!! I was a civilian as you know and never went to
war in the fighters I flew, but I did some "consulting" for the ACM guys
doing lead in on maneuvering.

The bar joke with the '51 drivers was that they used C-47's to escort
the Jugs to 20K where the turbo gave them full sea level power and
they could hold their own in a dog fight

Yeah, the Jug was good up there, and nothing short of an iron ingot could
outdive the thing :-)



All of this was a long time ago in a land far away ) Haven't thought
about some of it in years.

I know what you mean.
Sometimes, as I sit here in retirement, it's like it all happened in another
life somewhere :-)

Oh well......there's always yard work!!! :-)))

All the best,
Dudley

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...
If you REALLY want to see a bad shoulder, try cranking up the gear on an F4F !!
:-)))
Dudley Henriques


Yes, they mentioned that also. I guess the book says 30 cranks, but the pilot ("Flash" Gordon) said it was 27 and a
half...

Thanks!

Tell you what: for those who had been there and done that, someone else
should be doing their yard work. Their gardens should be tended during
their lifetimes, not just their graves at its end.

Thank you isn't nearly a strong enough phrase for those we'll honor the
end of this month.

"Tony" wrote in message
oups.com...
Tell you what: for those who had been there and done that, someone else
should be doing their yard work. Their gardens should be tended during
their lifetimes, not just their graves at its end.

Thank you isn't nearly a strong enough phrase for those we'll honor the
end of this month.

..............and we've just lost one of the best.
Chris Patterakis died on May 9th.
I'm sure many of you wouldn't know his name, as he was one of the "quiet"
guys out here.
Chris led the Thunderbirds among his many other major achievements; was one
of the finest pilots, and one of the finest guys ever to wear the uniform.
On his tombstone it should read,
"He retired a Major because he believed in the truth."
Dudley Henriques

Dudley


----clip----
Merlin in idle in pitch up pattern. Sound of music to my ears.

The Merlin loads up easily in idle. On my bird for a show pattern, I'd
usually hit the break on initial at about 250 carrying about 30 inches,
coming back to no less than 15 inches in the pitch. Anything less and I'd
start loading up the plugs. You could clean them out easily enough with
power, but the -7 would back up and start popping you a reminder if you
idled it back and left it there long enough :-)


Before I quit flying the '51, they started restricting us to 15 or so
inches in pattern until we had field made. If you were at idle all the
way around they found that with the short stacks they would suck in
cold air at idle and warp the exhaust valves many times.

This was not a problem in combat as average life of engine was
something like 75 hours as I remember. After War they set up a lot of
rules to extend life of parts to keep peace time costs down.

We've beaten this thread to death so will let die an honorable death.

Have a good week end.

Big John


-----clip----

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
news
.............and we've just lost one of the best.
Chris Patterakis died on May 9th.
I'm sure many of you wouldn't know his name, as he was one of the "quiet"
guys out here.
Chris led the Thunderbirds among his many other major achievements; was
one of the finest pilots, and one of the finest guys ever to wear the
uniform.
On his tombstone it should read,
"He retired a Major because he believed in the truth."

Care to elaborate on that last part?