|
Post by mumbles on Oct 29, 2011 7:02:41 GMT 12
Thought this may interest a few on here... Industrial Research Limited (IRL) is Jetblack’s first technology and research partner. Gavin Mitchell, GM Industry Engagement, says: “Jetblack represents a classic New Zealand adventure that stretches the horizons of technology developed in New Zealand on the world stage. IRL is delighted to support this aspirational project that we hope will encourage young people to consider science and engineering as a career and inspire New Zealand manufacturers to continue to develop world beating products.” Not directly involved, but that's where I work. The mock up was parked in a workshop next to my office for a couple of days the other week to do a photoshoot before heading up to Auckland for the launch. I assisted with the loading into the shipping container and it was a very tight fit
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 28, 2011 10:25:27 GMT 12
Oh thats right. Those F-20s never really seemed to prove too popular did they? Potentially a great aircraft, but somewhat hamstrung by the US Government not wanting to support a direct competitor to the F-16, and not procuring any for the US forces (its last great chance for success was the contract to re-equip the Continental US Air Defense squadrons when the F-106 came up for replacement. A version of the F-16 was chosen instead). There were orders from overseas customers, but like other projects they faded away when a lack of support from the country of origin became apparent.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 24, 2011 19:25:26 GMT 12
After last night's game I was wondering if being number 10 for the AB's was something akin to being the drummer for Spinal Tap. I'm surprised Cruden didn't just spontaneously combust on the pitch
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 24, 2011 19:21:35 GMT 12
Maori TV for the win. RWC aside, I have been watching the channel (and TVNZ7) more and more as a better quality free to air alternative to the general vapidity of 1, 2 and 3.
Their RWC presentation despite not being in HD was a breath of fresh air commentary wise. I enjoyed the dropping of pretense of being unbiased, the candour and humour provided, plus some of the best commentary one liners I have heard in recent years.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 23, 2011 11:16:47 GMT 12
Teletext states that the nose wheel collapsed on take off, and that 15 people were aboard. They were told that by the Fire Service. The report also says it was in the Waikato. I always assumed Pauanui was an enclave of Auckland. Nose wheel must have then popped back out? ;D Will admit to being curious on noting it was a Trislander on last night's news as to how the nosewheel might collapse on a fixed gear aircraft. Also apparently the aircraft came within metres of a playground. Whether the number of metres was dozens of hundreds was not specified ;D
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 21, 2011 9:28:38 GMT 12
OK, I'm just as much a hippy-basher as any guy here....but arent they just such easy targets??? ;D ;D ;D Being that a lot of my friends are varying degrees of trendy lefty in nature (some mild like myself, others a bit more extreme) I wouldn't be surprised to find I know people, or know people who know people in the oocupation. Shrug. While technically illegal, until they are bothering people I don't see the point in making a fuss about it. What irks me a little is their intellectual smugness and superiority, verging at times on hypocrisy given the lives of first world privilege they lead (even at the 'alternative' lifestyle level).
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 21, 2011 9:24:48 GMT 12
What happens to the rest of them I wonder? As I understand it, the G models in particular, being ex Strategic Air Command nuclear bombers, are arms-reduction treaty bound to be destroyed upon retirement.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 19, 2011 9:45:58 GMT 12
Evening all, Back home and all settled in for a month or so before moving down to Bournemouth to do my Instrument Rating and finish off with CTC. Thank you for the kind words on my last topic, especially on the CPL. I have to start my IR before I can start looking or jokes but the market right now is certainly looking very healthy in the UK with the likes of BA, Monarch and hopefully, BA. In the mean time, here are some photos from a visit to McCarren airport in Vegas when I was over there for Red Flag back in 2008. Hopefully something a bit different to the usual. Thanks, Michael That pyramid might be dramatic, but the two nondescript looking 737's in the foreground are possibly the most interesting and/or historic aircraft on the airfield in terms of who they carry and where they take them to.... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_(airline)
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 19, 2011 8:58:18 GMT 12
Who remembers this ad? While looking for something else I found this brochure for a Philips Nicam Quadraphonic television, that used RNZAF Skyhawks in the advertising campaign. There was a TV ad too, and screenshots of it are on the back page of the brochure (see below). Does anyone know when this was? 1990's sometime. Campaign dates from early to mid 1989 at least. My family replaced our venerable K-9 with a TV from this range and this campaign at that time. IIRC the campaign was also used to sponsor the first screening of 'Top Gun' on network television.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 17, 2011 14:03:28 GMT 12
Photo 8 above looks like the start of a roll under break, the same maneuver that killed Graham Carter of Kiwi Red. Thought the RNZAF banned that maneuver? I thought that too the first time I saw it, but it isn't quite the same. It is similar during the early part of the break, but the follow through is much more vertical than the historical roll-under, winding up with the aircraft in trail and no just vacated airspace to pass through.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 13, 2011 20:41:56 GMT 12
Pretty sure I have seen it some times on movies where petrol and oil slicks have been set on fire. This would burn it all up before it got to the shore. It's very hard to do intentionally on water I understand, and the smoke would potentially drop fallout wherever it went. Think Kuwait 1991. I think they tried burning off the BP oil spill recently without much success.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 12, 2011 21:08:31 GMT 12
I think you'll find they don't Dave. Police are advising the containers and contents remain the property of their original owners, so removing or interfering with them without express permission is pretty much simple theft. When did they repel the age old law of flotsum and jetsum? I have not heard of any change. If anything off a ship is found floating or washes up, it's finders keepers, simple. The police are bluffing, surely. Of course the other matter is it's washing up onto the foreshore and we know who owns that! As for not touching the containers due to contamination from the oil, I agree with you, but that won't stop most of the hicks. I saw a clip on Campbell Live of three kids sploshing about in the oil on Papamoa beach in their gumboots and oilskins. Some people just don't listen. With all due respect Dave, legal or not, in this instance it is hardly moral to pick and choose among what washes up. There is no doubt about where it has originated from, and there is a clear chain of possession back to it's owners. I don't give a rats about flotsam and jetsam laws. The stuff clearly doesn't belong to me. I understand a couple of families emigrating from christchurch have their possessions containerised on the ship. Who among all those getting excited at the prospect of beachcombing is willing to stand there and tell them "sorry, finders keepers, your stuff is mine now"?
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 12, 2011 15:23:27 GMT 12
And police are telling people if the containers wash ashore not to touch them? Why not? They have every right to do so. Even if they are a bit oily. I think you'll find they don't Dave. Police are advising the containers and contents remain the property of their original owners, so removing or interfering with them without express permission is pretty much simple theft.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 12, 2011 15:15:12 GMT 12
And police are telling people if the containers wash ashore not to touch them? Why not? They have every right to do so. Even if they are a bit oily. There is a probability that some of the containers may contain toxic materials ( no doubt in sealed containers , but after falling off a ship into the sea , who knows ) ? For that reason alone I wouldn't go near one personally (I work in industrial chemistry and routinely encounter hazardous materials), and some of the containers are known to contain hazardous materials. I wouldn't be rushing down to the beach to help clean up without adequate PPE either. The amateur turn out is pleasing, since oil is toxic the risk they are putting their health under isn't.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 8, 2011 22:14:55 GMT 12
The assembled fleet from Mount Victoria: Most in this shot, only HMNZS Endeavour and Resolution missing as they were berthed around the corner a bit. HMNZS Te Mana and Otago: HMNZS Taupo and Rotoiti (left), Canterbury (middle), and Hawea and Pukaki (right): HMNZS Wellington: HMNZS Endeavour and Resolution (along with the InterIslander Aratere): HMNZS Te Kaha and Canterbury from the wharf:
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 8, 2011 22:06:35 GMT 12
I only saw three there, so that's a bit more reassuring. I was worried haha Some shots from the weekend: NZ3603 aboard HMNZS Canterbury NZ3604 aboard HMNZS Te Kaha And NZ3601 at Wellington Airport on the Saturday: '03 contrasting with Helipro's BK117 at it's base on Queens Wharf: and a nice touch from the maintainers: HMNZS Canterbury did loom over Helipro's pads a bit : Three helicopters in one shot:
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 8, 2011 20:26:36 GMT 12
About that sign....why would Wellington Airport need to be too concerned if people didn't like a WELLYWOOD sign on their land? The ARE a virtual monopoly, as is virtually every other airport offering airline services in NZ. If people didn't like it, what are they going to do? Boycott Wellington Airport and cut their noses off to spite their faces? Travel to Paraparaumu Airport or Hood Aerodrome to catch a flight to Auckland? Travel to Palmerston North Airport to catch a flight anywhere else? Because like Auckland Airport and Christchurch Airport and Dunedin Airport and Napier Airport and virtually everywhere else, Wellington Airport don't have an effective competitor people will bugger off to if they do stick up a WELLYWOOD sign and people don't like it. I reckon this whole suggestions thing is a ruse. I reckon they made their minds up to put a WELLYWOOD sign up and they are going to do it no matter what public opinion is. They've got the foundations up there now with the ALL BLACKS sign on them, so they can change it to WELLYWOOD any time they like, even overnight if they so desire and people won't even know about it until it has occured. I guess time will tell if I am right! I think they have been very clever by putting up that All Blacks sign; it gets people used to the idea, and may convince some that it isn't so bad. Given that "No Sign at all" isn't a voting option despite being the preference of many, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if "Wellywood" is magically declared the winner anyway. I didn't have that much respect for WIAL anyway in favouring flash new terminals over safer runway extensions, but their conduct over this thing has been even more alienating. I played against a WIAL CEO in one of my indoor sports a few years ago. He was a complete w*nker on the court, thinking the game revolved around him and the rules only applied to other people. If that was any indication of the attitude of WIAL management it explains a lot.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 8, 2011 7:33:02 GMT 12
Do Wellington claim Flight of the Conchords as their success? I think the BBC and New York has a lot better claim to making them stars. they were practically unknown before their BBC series. Well they are from Wellington Dave, and were well known here long before they made it big overseas, so I think it is a legit claim. Without the start they got in Wellington they wouldn't have done any of the other things. It is an old montage to be fair. That might be Jonah, who played for the Lions and Hurricanes for a bit, but more likely it is a 7's reference.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 5, 2011 8:28:07 GMT 12
Someone needs to educate the "CCCP Rugby" T wearing locals that Russia and the Soviet Union were not the same thing (besides the latter not actually existing for the last twenty years).
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Oct 5, 2011 7:52:51 GMT 12
Those shots are terrific Sam, well done. That first crop of the CT/4E over the street looks like a scene from "1941". Thanks Dave "I wasn't sure if it was due to the weather or the display being tailored to the location." One in the same in Windy Wellington I'd bet. Not really. The last Checkers display I saw over the harbour was complete and in perfect conditions, and of all the displays I have seen over the harbour in the last 25 odd years, only a couple have been affected by adverse wind conditions. My comments on tailoring were more reflective of the fact the venue is a big bowl with high terrain in many directions. The irony is that as I mentioned earlier we have had a week of fine and calm weather prior to Sunday, it is just bad luck the weather closed in when it did, which isn't Wellington's fault in particular, more something that can happen anywhere.
|
|