What's Happened to Walrus? And others?

[Jerry_Atrick]

We haven't heard from Walrus for a while, and I quite enjoyed his sea shanty stories.. .Has anyone seen or hearrd of him since? (I don;t go to rec aviation as much but haven't seen him there in a while as well..

 

Bexrbetter also seems to have gone AWOL.

 

And StorchyNeil - I do fear the worst as he was ill a while ago - came back and then disappeared.

 

Are there any others (apart from Phil) tha I have missed?

 

 

[red750]

djpacro hasn't been seen for a while. My friend Robbo disappeared a couple of years ago. He did email me about 12 months ago, but keeps changing his emails so I cannot contact him. I believe he has ceased flying but works in the avionics industry. He is the one who got me started on the Aircraft showcase on RecF.  

[Bruce Tuncks]

I really like this site but alas our numbers are falling. We had a few new ones try to join us, but some of them were nut cases and their ideas were ( correctly in my view ) given short shrift. Maybe they are to be found on pro-nutcase sites which I have never visited.

My suggestion is to be patient and to support Ian financially. Personally, I get better technical advice here than I would with a magazine subscription, so why not contribute a similar amount?

 

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Personally, I get better technical advice here than I would with a magazine subscription, so why not contribute a similar amount?

I'm thinking of baling out of RecFlying. On that site I try to be serious, leaving the wit and tomfoolery for this site. However, of late I've been attacked there when I have started discussions. I have a distinct writing style. Is that what gives reason for those attacks? 

 

Back on topic, what's the latest with Phil?

[red750]

Haven't heard. I thought he would have logged on by now. I knew there was another regular contributor who dropped out a couple of year ago. I knew his name but couldn't remember his login. It just came to me while typing about Phil. You may remember Metalman. Flies a Skywolf.

 

 

[gareth lacey]

OME dont go 

 

[nomadpete]

Hey everyone, I truly value the friendship, support and civility of our forumites here. It's a rare thing these days.

 

True, It would be better with more contributors and I do miss those who (for whatever reason) have drifted away.

 

Sadly, many forums are losing followers due to snappy thoughtless comments being made by contributors who haven't yet learned the power of respectful debate.

 

That kind of person puts me right off. Consequently, this is now pretty much the only forum that I feel part of.

Edited January 4, 2021 by nomadpete
Had to correct the autocorrector

[onetrack]

There's any number of reasons why contributors to forums leave. One is, contributors die. I have been surprised to find the number of contributors to forums I frequent, who have died. Some simply become too decrepit to contribute.

Others get diseases that alter their lifestyle enormously. Others decide to change what they are interested in, and drift away.

Some decide they're spending too much time online and decide to reduce it, to get more done in the "real" world.

Still others suffer from marriage breakups, financial disasters and natural disasters, that completely alter their priorities.

 

If you feel you've been slighted or offended by someone in the forum, I'd say it's time to ease back on your contributions, you may be trying too hard.

The problem with providing information, particularly in areas of high technical expertise, is that you will always get someone challenging you, as many technical people are very strong-minded and aggressive.

It just pays to pull your head in, and not try so hard to "educate" people who think they are already well-educated.

Edited January 4, 2021 by onetrack

[nomadpete]

Whether it is on a forum, or face to face, when an arrogant person makes a personal attack instead of a source referenced logical response, most of us do 'pull our head in', and back away. Which stops me discussion in its tracks and also makes others reluctant to contribute.

[willedoo]

I find RecFlying can be a little confrontational at times, but still fairly good compared to a lot of other sites out there. I've always thought that the civility toward one another on both sites is influenced by our common interest in aviation. If it was a just a general forum without common backgrounding it would probably be one never ending barney. An echo chamber becomes boring and a boxing ring gets tiring, but this site strikes a good balance.

[spacesailor]

I thank ALL contributer,s.

Sorry if my two cents worth has upset Anyone! .

I am just Hoping that the dreaded virus  has not got to Anyone I know.

It,s bad enough hearing about those that passed, without it being personal.

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

These two are the only forums I keep coming back to. I enjoy all contributions and try not to stir. And I miss many past members who were really interesting contributors.

[Yenn]

I have been around for several years and my aim has always been to try and provide some sanity and en educated response. I am finding that there is a change in the content lately, people posting without either thinking through what they are trying to say, or making statements that show that they have no grasp of what is being said. I was thinking that maybe they were just stirring the pot, but they just lack credibility. For pot stirrers OME  goes pretty well and his output is good to read.

Maybe I am really getting old and cranky and that is all of the problem.

[spacesailor]

BUT Some of us are badly Educated, and can't talk to people face to face. ( shows how ignorant we are ( much easier typing with this New spell & grammar check)) !.

spacesailor

 

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

Some of us are badly Educated

That makes writing serious stuff very hard. I could write a paper with some extended, but basic trigonometry and algebra, but it would go over the heads of many and therefore would not be an example of good communication. At the other extreme, I could write to suit the comprehension level of a Year 7 kid, but that would be too childish for another part of the audience. What annoys me is as Yenn said, "making statements that show that they have no grasp of what is being said", or find delight in homing in on one or two words and making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

Actually, Spacey, on the other forum you questioned how much lift the wings of an ME163 produced during its upward flight. Since at the top of the rocket ride it turned into a glider, you can say that the wings in the gliding phase produced enough lift to maintain controllable flight. It stands to reason that as the Me163 rocketed skywards, nearly vertically, the airflow over the wings would have been similar to that of a plane flying horizontally. The Me163 had an MTOW of 4300 kgs, and 2000 kg of that weight would have been shot out the back as it flew skywards as burnt fuel. So the wing might possibly have been designed to produce about 2300 kgs of lift. During the flight skywards, it was virtually all Thrust and insignificant Lift. They say that with sufficient Thrust, you can make a brick fly.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

They say that with sufficient Thrust, you can make a brick fly.

They used to say the F-4 Phantom was proof of that. One of it's nicknames was the Flying Brick. Thrust (+ Stab Aug).

[Yenn]

I don't know about the ME163, but if it was rocket powered with enough power,, it would not need to produce any lift from its wings, just minimum drag. At the end of the rocket ride the plane would brought to a near horizontal sttitude and the wings would produce lift as the wings reached the correct angle of attack.

Rather along the lines of a hammerhead stall in a normal aircraft.

[willedoo]

The Germans had a lot more success with the Me163 than the Soviets had with their rocket powered fighters. They might have been the first to have a prototype fly but it never resulted in an operational aircraft. They started work in 1932 and during the war years did a lot of testing and development, including test flights, but never had enough success to use it. By the mid forties, up and coming jet technology killed the project off. A lot was learned in the process, sparking studies into shock stall and transonic effects on control surfaces. The two main engineers went on to run design bureaus working on cruise missile and space rocket technology respectively.

 

The BI was smaller and lighter than the Me163.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

On 04/01/2021 at 9:34 PM, old man emu said:

That makes writing serious stuff very hard. I could write a paper with some extended, but basic trigonometry and algebra, but it would go over the heads of many and therefore would not be an example of good communication. At the other extreme, I could write to suit the comprehension level of a Year 7 kid, but that would be too childish for another part of the audience...

You pitch things about right, OME.

Some well-educated writers can’t help showing off their wide vocabulary. The best authors keep sentences and paragraphs short and avoiding unnecessary big words that slow down the flow of their writing.

[Old Koreelah]

On 05/01/2021 at 12:15 AM, willedoo said:

They used to say the F-4 Phantom was proof of that. One of it's nicknames was the Flying Brick. Thrust (+ Stab Aug).

I have it on good authority that after takeoff a fully-armed F-4 had enough fuel for 13 minutes-

just enough time to climb up and connect to a tanker.

[old man emu]

38 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

Some well-educated writers can’t help showing off their wide vocabulary

And I know that "showing off" doesn't produce the best communication. Unfortunately, when you do have a wide vocabulary as a result of sticking your nose into numerous topics, those obscure words tend to come out quicker than the common ones. We all have our failings.

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

I have it on good authority that after takeoff a fully-armed F-4 had enough fuel for 13 minutes-

just enough time to climb up and connect to a tanker.

I always liked the story of Pardo's Push. Unfortunately he used up all his own fuel and had to bail out as well. As far as I know, it was the intervention of Robin Olds that stopped him from facing a court martial. Ironically, they awarded him a medal for it twenty years later.

[spacesailor]

MY  Vocabulary, comes straight from GOOGLE or WILIPEDIA.

half my native words don't look right even after I spell check them,

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

3 hours ago, willedoo said:

I always liked the story of Pardo's Push. Unfortunately he used up all his own fuel and had to bail out as well. As far as I know, it was the intervention of Robin Olds that stopped him from facing a court martial. Ironically, they awarded him a medal for it twenty years later.

I told that story once and wasn't believed. I couldnt remember the name Pardo so could not look it up.

[spacesailor]

I Just watched the video.

spacesailor