After skippering the Severn Class lifeboat through many daring rescues I have now become a Gloster Javelin pilot, an unrealistic ambition in my schoolboy days.
I may be changing my blogonym to Mitty.
The cockpit has been assembled and painted and all the gadgetry highlighted. The seats are finished but not glued in on the photo below. I added some seat belts that are not included in the kit.
PLEASE CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE*
 |
| Cockpit before seats added. With seats below. (for a reason I can't determine this photo does not come into the slideshow when you click to enlarge) |
 |
| Note my added seat harnesses |
PLEASE NOTE THE "COMMENTS" LINK BELOW.
FEEL FREE TO READ.
I WELCOME NEW COMMENTS AND WILL ALWAYS REPLY.
ANY PROBLEMS EMAIL ME AND I WILL HELP. conrob@me.com
FEEL FREE TO READ.
I WELCOME NEW COMMENTS AND WILL ALWAYS REPLY.
ANY PROBLEMS EMAIL ME AND I WILL HELP. conrob@me.com
That's an ejector seat. Does it have seat belts or - shall we say - recognisable seat belts? I'm not entirely sure the ejected pilot lands sitting in his seat. Seat belts can, of course, be released but later ejector seats allowed the pilot to eject from ground level (eg, when a take-off had been fouled up). I'm not sure the pilot would have had time to do anything more than offer up a one-word prayer.
ReplyDeleteAs to that single-word utterance I had an ex-pilot working as a graphic artist on the first magazine I edited. When things got sticky, I asked, did he pray? No, he said. Just the one-word, true. But it began with f.
During National Service I did some radio work on a Canberra which, obviously, had ejector seats. We were warned not to pull out a thing on top of the seat and resembling a large hand-grenade pin, painted in red, and carrying the rubric "Do not pull!"
For me the warning was unnecessary.
RR - I looked at stock images of ejector seats and the ones I saw did have a harness or belt which looked to have complicated multi straps. At the 1/48 scale I am working at an exact replica would have been beyond my abilities. I am not fanatical about exact replication of detail, but remaining satisfied with creating a reasonable representation. For instance, I know some of the knobs and switches are painted yellow and red - I have dotted odd ones here and there at random.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sort of nerdish philosophical aspect to some of this modelling. Much of that detail I have slaved over will be invisible when the model is completed, so why bother some may ask. All I can say is that it interests me - I am continually in awe of the complexities we humans have managed to create and the inside of the cockpit of a fighter plane rates high on that list just at the visual level.
I'me getting lonely, just you and me in the comments column. Send up a flare
ReplyDeleteRR - I have spoken to quite a few people over the years who profess to read my blog posts but don't look at the comments, and also I think the prompt on the blog to go to "comments" is so easy to miss. I may have a look at that and see if I can do something to make that opportunity more obvious.
ReplyDeleteBecause I spoke to you on the phone, that's not counted as 'social media', I didn't comment further on my project of modelling a missile launching truck. Watch out on your maiden flight, and your website says I'm not a robot.
ReplyDeleteBC - I am just attaching the air to air missiles.
ReplyDelete