Eunoia
Use Ctrl+ to enlarge this blog page if you need to. | ||
--> Most recent Blog Comments Policy DSGVO Impressum Maths trivia Search this site RSS Feed Eunoia, who is a grumpy, overeducated, facetious, multilingual ex-pat Scot, blatantly opinionated, old (1944-vintage), amateur cryptologist, computer consultant, atheist, flying instructor, bulldog-lover, Beetle-driver, textbook-writer, long-distance biker, geocacher and blogger living in the foothills south of the northern German plains. Not too shy to reveal his true name or even whereabouts, he blogs his opinions, and humour and rants irregularly. Stubbornly he clings to his beliefs, e.g. that Faith does not give answers, it only prevents you doing any goddamn questioning. You are as atheist as he is. When you understand why you don't believe in all the other gods, you will know why he does not believe in yours. Oh, and after the death of his old dog, Kosmo, he also has a new bulldog puppy, Clara, since September 2018 :-)
Some of my bikes
My Crypto Pages
|
Sunday, June 19, 2022
AeronauticumIn the previous post I wrote about aeroplanes. In this one I'll stay on the same subject and show you a dozen photos I took at the Aeronauticum. The Aeronauticum is the museum of the German Navy's fleet air arm; it is located at Nordholz, just south of Cuxhaven, so we visited it on our vacation there.Museum sign at the entrance As you approach from the west side, the first thing you see is a gate guardian, a Beguet 1150 Atlantic patrol craft. On the tail, a picture of Graf Zeppelin. Gate Guardian : Beguet 1150 Atlantic The museum has two exhibitions, one inside and one outside. Inside the halls are various pieces of Zeppelin rigid airships as used in WW1; I climbed a staircase and looked inside the cabin of a Zeppelin, but didn't find it particularly intesting, although spacious. Zeppelin cabin The first plane you see outside is a Hawker 100 Sea Hawk, on a plinth as a fifties gate guardian. Subsonic fighter/bomber, single seater jet bought from the UK. Hawker Sea Hawk, a previous gate guardian Next to that was a special exhibition of a VFW 614, recognisable by its overwing engines as shown in the photo below. This design flopped due to too few orders and it was cancelled in 1977. It was a 40 seater and/or a hospital airliner for transporting injured personnel. VFW 614 overwing engine There were a number of helicopters displayed outside, none in really good condition, this turbine-powered MiG was nationalised after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall afaik. MIG helicopter For comparison there was a Sukhoi 22 M interceptor (ex-NVA) and a Starfighter high altitude interceptor (in better condition). Germany (mis-)used the Starfighter in low-altitude roles, so it got the nickname of "Widowmaker". Those leading edges were razor sharp too! Starfighter interceptor Shown below is a Fouga Magister slow & underpowered jet trainer. I've been flown in one of these; one of the few jets without ejection seats, good job it has 2 engines ;-) Fouga Magister jet trainer Next is a MIL trainer I have flown, a Piaggio 149 prop trainer, not exactly agile :-( Piaggio 149 prop trainer Over in the bushes was a Fairey Gannet, carrier-based, folding-wing anti-submarine tracker. Fairey Gannet anti-sub Then, another Breguet Atlantic 1150 turboprop twin-engined anti-sub & patrol tracker. Breguet Atlantic 1150 anti-sub & patrol And finally, a Dornier Skyservant DO-28 transporter. Dornier Skyservant DO-28 transporter I didn't bother photographing the more modern machines, like the Tornado etc. AFAIK none of the exhibits b in flying condition :-( The UK is better at this MIL nostalgia. Comments (1)
You may have heard of him as the author of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, but he has also written several autobiographical books about flying as he is
an avid pilot (still, at 85). My favourite is Biplane, the ISBN-13 is 978-0440206576. Bach flew an old JN4 Jenny biplane across the USA, giving back-country people rides
to earn money for his fuel etc, as those 1920s pilots did. He describes how barnstorming reality compares with his dream.
As a pilot myself, I could identify with the story; however of my several thousand hours less than a hundred have been in old wood-and-fabric tail-dragging biplanes
(or pink-string-and-sealing-wax, as Sarah used to say).
In the interegnum between WW1 and WW2 many manufacturers produced 2 seater training biplanes, mostly easy to fly,
and mildly aerobatic (for MIL training), let me show you some types I have flown :-
This is a german Bucker Jungmann,
this one is owned by the Quax club at Paderborn airport (EDLP). Blogger Cop Car
also had a part share in one of these, afaik.
The UK equivalent was the Tiger Moth, recognisable by the central tank in the top wing.
Over in Belgium, they had the Stampe SV4, which was
also produced under licence in France, like the Bucker was produced in Spain under licence.
All three are docile trainers, flown from the back seat, with an optional passenger or a student pilot in the front seat. Rather underpowered; but
I flew an OVERpowered biplane when learning crop-dusting : a radial-engined Stearman. Strong gyroscopic effect when raising the rear wheel :-(
But biplanes don't have to be docile. This is a Pitts S2B.
When I was working in Silicon Valley in the 1970s, I chartered one like this at Palo Alto. Competition-level aerobatics, +9/-6g if you are fit enough,
which I no longer am :-(
Here's a 6 minute YouTube video of someone
aerobatting a Pitts from the pilot's POV. Enjoy!
And here's an airshow spectator view of a Pitts. Smoke on! Go!
Comments (2)
1 The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
Perhaps obviously, because theirs is an American list, it ignores many German books which I have read too.
It also excludes the Bible, Thora, and the Koran which I presume they (correctly) classified as fiction ;-)
Sadly, they also exclude one of my favourite physics textbooks : The Road to Reality, by Roger Penrose, probably on the grounds of it being
a very difficult read.
Time to read more books . . .
Comments (3)
Windmill in northern Germany
This year SWMBO, the dog, and I just went to visit three local water-powered mills which we had not seen before. All are still productive.
Here is the mill in nearby Borchen, well hidden away. It is about 300 years old and used to grind local grain.
As you can see the wheel is driven from the stream at the top.
Top-fed millwheel in Borchen
Inside everything was very dusty, so no smoking, lest the dust ignite. The big triangular feed hopper is on the right, it feeds grain to the
enclosed grinding wheel below. A sampling chute is shown on the left.
Enclosed grinder in Borchen's watermill
Then we drove on about 20 miles to see a mill in restoration in Salzkotten, now 203 years old. In this old painting, one can see where an additional
storey was added over 150 years ago. That peaceful little stream feeds about 1000 liters per hour, generating 14 bhp at the turbine. The innards now work again.
1819 Watermill in Salzkotten
Inside, an open crownwheel gearbox drives a horizontal shaft. Exposed leather belts take off power to drive each individual machine and to pass power on to other storeys.
Massive oak beams keep these shafts stable.
Driven shaft and exposed gearbox in Salzkotten
Inspection Hopper in Salzkotten
We then drove another 20 miles to Buren to see German's only remaining minerals-grinding mill. The massive stone building has been excellently
restored. The original mill dates back to the 13th century, so a truly historic mill.
13th century Watermill in Buren
Inside the minerals mill in Buren
Now this was a two-part building. The miller and his family lived in 3 rooms inside the mill. I took this photo of the
(19th century?) wood stove in his kitchen; all mod cons :-) Their apartment was dust-free and clean, better than I expected.
Inside the miller's kitchen in Buren
All in all, a pleasant outing, educating us about an aspect of life 200 - 700 years ago. And no, none of these mills were dark and satanic :-)
Comments (2)
Polar bear
Seal
Sea Lion
Walrus
Pinguin
Puffin
Next up, National Mills Day photos.
Congratulations, Ma'am. Now abdicate and let Charlie-boy work for the first time in his life. Or just scrap the whole monarchy thing now.
Comments (1)
|
Index/Home | Impressum | Sitemap | Search site/www |