Kittyhawk and Mustang

This post is a sort of adjunct to the previous one.

The "screenshot" in the previous post belongs to this clip ..



Which have only just had the facilities to upload .. but was created and rendered into .WMV in Magix P12, not P14.

Clip is of an air display by a P40 Kittyhawk and P51D Mustang (CA-18) at the Jamestown (South Australia) Airshow in October 2006. Includes a "mock" attack on a General Grant tank.

Pyrotechnics arranged by Mark Hollowell.

Pip Borman Aerobatics

Has taken a while, but have just posted this clip to youTube. Pip Borman aerobatic display in his Edge 540 at Jamestown Airshow October 2006. 4 minutes 5 sec.

Apart from being pleased that I could keep him in frame for the entire length (all one take, except the last bit) this one is a sort of an experiment.

Have been curious about the creation (composition) of "original" electronic music, so spent some time (a lot) finding snippets (can't remember what they are called in the "bizniss") of sounds and electronically created music, and trying to match them with the "action" of a video clip. Magix Movie edit gives me 12 tracks to play with so, with this one, have "created" the backing "music" track from scratch. Am still not really happy with it, as there are some timings that went askew, and probably some beats and keys that don't quite match.

However, it really DID take a long time fiddling, became impatient, and posted it.

Pip Borman aerobatics clip

This one was rendered into .wmv, and ended up at roughly 8.5 MB.

Visiting Truscott Airbase.

Ok, have .. after all this time, managed to complete and upload the last of the three parts of that visit to Truscott Airbase. Part three is not all that exciting (which is why I haven't thought of it as urgent). Just a series of aerial shots from the aircraft on the way back from Truscott to Kununurra. Gives some idea of the Kimberley region of North-West Australia.

Davoflix
profile page.

Update

Just a note to say that haven't really “forgotten” this blog. Have recently moved house, so much of my stuff was in cardboard boxes for a couple of months.

Am gradually getting re-organised; the editing equipment - camera, cables, tapes, etc.- are gradually being restored to functionality.

My first priority, with minimal "spare" time for the past weeks, has been to edit the footage that was taken in 2004 of a journey that I made to Truscott Airbase - a "secret" airbase in the Kimberley region of North-west Australia.

Am getting very close to posting the footage to youTube. Have split it it into three 4-5 minute sections.
Part 1, the trip from Kununurra to the Airbase:
Part 2, the footage of the Base itself and what we saw - the wreckage of at least two aircraft (B24 Liberator A72-160 and Spitfire A58-364) were still visible - and:
Part 3, views of the Kimberley from the aircraft on the trip from Truscott back to Kununurra.

Cessna "Bird Dog".

mm, keep forgetting that I have this blog. This "display"was supposed to be in conjunction with the T-28 Trojan, but the Trojan had some difficulties getting airborne at the time and didn't quite make the "rendezvous", so the Cessna had to pretend to be a heavy hitter.

From the Airshow programme.

VH-FXY. This aircraft was the second to last one of the 1915 made and was flown by a National Guard unit in the USA from 1953 until 1969. In that year it was converted for military use and fitted with self sealing fuel tanks, rocket launcher and anti ground-loop axles.

Shipped to Vietnam later that year, it was flown by the 219th RAC where it collected over 40 bullet holes in service, a testament to the dangers of low level flying.

Given to the South Vietnamese in 1972 it eventually fell into the hands of the North Vietnamese.

In 1989, Col Pay procured this, and several other aircraft from Saigon and so this Bird Dog came to Australia. Rob Fox bought this aircraft from another owner, but it had been dismantled and parts were scattered all up the Eastern seaboard of Australia. So began a 9 year restoration during which Rob even met with one of the former pilots from the USA.

Rob can be very proud of 0-12471, a typically difficult but highly rewarding restoration of a warbird with a rich history.

Rob Fox is currently editor of Flight Path aviation magazine.

(click pic , not "play")

North American T-28 Trojan

Info from the Jamestown Airshow programme of events.

Built in 1954, this aircraft entered service with the U.S. Navy in 1955 where it was used as an instrument flight trainer until 1972. Placed in storage for four years it then entered service again in 1976 and was used until retired in 1983. Entering civilian service the aircraft received a huge restoration in the late 1990's and was brought to Australia by Wayne Pearce in 2004

Extensive work was required to put it onto the Australian register [VH-DUD] and today this beautifully restored aircraft is finished in the colours of the Navy attack squadron VA-122 and in particular the personal mount of H. Charles McCoy.

This aircraft was supposed to perform in a joint display with the Cessna "Bird Dog" [VH-FXY], but there was some difficulty getting it airborne at the time. The video is short, 1 min 10, as it was only towards the end of the day that the Trojan took to the air.

Harvard T-6's Jamestown Airshow.

Am gradually getting the hang of this. This clip "captured" with higher settings (can't remember details), took five hours in total - from finding the sections on video, capture, edit, render to *.wmv and upload to youTube. Enjoy.

FA-18 Hornet, Jamestown Airshow

This display was a complete surprise at the show, was not on the programme, and only announced about half an hour before the arrival of the aircraft.

Tried to keep it in frame, but those things are FAST. Was not able to keep it in frame at the last flypast, so missed the "vertical departure".



And there is, of course, this F-18 video on youTube showing some speccy vapour trails.

YAK 52 Jamestown Airshow.

YAK-52,at the Jamestown Airshow. October 2006. Pilot Chris Sperou.
Including quick shots of the P-40 and Mustang as they fly past.

Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk

Metacafe are giving me the irrits at the moment. Apparently there is some sort of "review" system before a video gets released to "the public". Have just received notification that the "Inverted aircraft .." video in the post below has been "rejected" as one of their "reviewers" has " seen it before" .. so there is a "duplication" and the video has been withdrawn from "public" view. This is a whole load of crap as there is only one, and it belongs to me.

When I first uploaded them, the videos "hung" under "review" for several days. There is no information as to how many "reviews" it needs, nor how long, nor what they need as a rating, so had to email them to find out how long it would be before they were released. I did, however receive a very nice email from one of the staff, and the videos were relased soon after. Am a little bemused, considering some of the crap that makes it into their "public space".

So far youTube has the best management system. (and no bloody "review"system. When it's finished uploading .. there it is, available for "public" view and embedding.)

Actually, now that I think of it that may well be the problem with the Metacafe system. The URL was available to me shortly after the upload, so I put it into this blog. Unbeknownst to me it was not actually "available" to the Metacafe viewing public but was also being distributed to the "reviewing community". In the meantime, someone must have found it on this blog .. or something.

I sent an email of enquiry this morning, but have heard nothing back. Meanwhile, this is probably the only place where you can access it.

So, am still experimenting. This one has been uploaded to photobucket. Am not all that impressed with them, either. They apparently organise and handle "still" photos extremely well, but the "video" section is new, so the "management" screen for the upload is a pain in the proverbial. The upload took just under an hour.
This clip is 1 minute 38.

The quality of this one, while still a compromise, plays and looks quite good on my Windows Media Player, but am not now sure of the quality of replay here, as photobucket have changed the file extension. It was originally rendered and uploaded as .WMV with the setting "Windows Media 8 best quality based VBR for broadband" whatever that means. I did try several experiments with rendering it into AVI and MPEG4, but the playback in the Windows Media Player was crap, so went back to what seems to work best.

Jamestown Airshow (3)

Chris Sperou and Warren Stewart do some "close quarter" flying. Just over 2 minutes.

Chris Sperou Aerobatics - video powered by Metacafe

Chris Sperou. Ribbon cut, Inverted. 1 min 12.

Inverted Aircraft cuts ribbon - video powered by Metacafe

Jamestown Airshow (2)

Haven't really had time to write up the whole day, but here are a few pics. They all flew (except the tank :-), which actually got "blown up" several times with some speccy pyrotechnics), but anything actually in the air is on video. Am trying hard to edit stuff (i do have a 'day job') so have only managed a couple of short clips which are now on METACAFE, but probably not available to the public just yet, as they have some sort of "review" system. Will include the links in a further post.

General Grant tank
T-28 Trojan

P40 Kittyhawk

T-6 Harvard (one of three)

CA-18 Mustang
(background)

DHC1 Chipmunk (there were three)

Tiger Moth (one of several)

Douglas DC-3 (was supposed to, but didn't fly)

Stampe

(Dunno)

Jamestown Airshow (1)

Well, made it there and back in one piece. A very enjoyable day. Have just over an hour of footage, including some speccy aerobatics by Chris Sperou in his Pitts special. Other aircraft include a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, CA-18 Mustang, Chipmunks, T-6 Harvards, YAK-52, T-28 Trojan and a surprise visit from an FA-18 Hornet which did three low level fly-pasts. Did my best to keep it in frame - but those things are FAST!

Will have to do a series of short clips, so will take a week or so. In the meantime, have fun.

Cable Beach, Broome.

This beach used to be a favourite "hide-away" for backpackers and hippies. As far as I understand, it is no longer possible to 'pitch a tent'. As with most things 'pristine', the "developers" have 'discovered' it, and the 'value'of the real estate has skyrocketted. It's still a nice beach, though.

Crocodiles. Broome.

These are just some short scenes, taken while at Malcolm Douglas' Crocodile Farm in Broome. May 2004. Am trying to keep things short. Is also an experiment, as Magix Edit allows me to "mixdown" the edits into different file formats. The previous were saved as Windows media files (.wmv). This one has been formatted as Quicktime (.mov).

Broome

The visit to Broome will appear in due course.
As will the visit to Kununurra North Western Australia and ..
Truscott Airbase. A long forgotten, but vitally important piece of Australian history - circa 1942 - 2006.