Transitions

One of the reasons that there has been no posts on this blog for some time is that have forgotten how to sign in to it. Frankly, managing multiple blogs on "Bluuger" is the proverbial pain in the arse, posterior, neck, psyche - or whatever part of the anatomy hurts most.

At some point will try to migrate this blog to Wordpress, which has the facility to manage multiple blogs from the one "control panel" - but the technical details are complex, and not yet fully understood.

In the meantime, this is the embryo "new" Address.

http://davinozvid.wordpress.com/

Cheers and Best of Season's Greetings to the occasional visitor, and may all the joys for the next series of years arrive with no strings attached .. heh.

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.

Am still alive

One of the things that annoys me in this "U beaut Hi Tech" world is that I keep forgetting the "sign in" process. Stuffit, just wait.

Part 3 is complete, but am still trying to figure out how to "get it there" in the best quality.

Could, of course, just "chuck it up", and let the images speak for themselves ..

Update 2.

Gaaaaah! Have managed to get two of the three part series onto uTube, but am still battling with the recipe for "best quality".

Part 1 is four minutes long and rendered into .wmv. Somewhere close to 49MB. Quality playback via uTube acceptable. Part 2 .. 5 minutes 19 sec .. was also rendered into .wmv .. and ended up as 130MB??!!. Re-Rendered as .mp4 which cut the file size down to 19MB .. but the playback quality on uTube is crap.

Will figure it all out .. one day ..

In the meantime try here .. which should take you to my efforts so far on youTube.

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.

Template changes

Hoo boy. Have tried the "upgrade" to a new template (as suggested by Bl**gger) and lost a whole heap of stuff from the sidebar. Oh well, this IS an experimental bl*g after all.

One of these days will figure out how it all works, and get it looking how I'd like it.

Mustang

As mentioned previously, these videos are still in the experimental stage, and am still fiddling about trying to find the best settings for recording (transfer from Digital Hi8 tape to computer), edit, mixdown and then upload to youtube.

This one was transferred with different settings from the previous .wmv 's.

This aircraft is a CA-18 Mustang. Similar to the P51 but assembled at the Commonwealth Aircraft factory at Fisherman's Bend in Victoria from imported components. Approximately 200 were built here.

A68-105 began life in September 1947 and after some 250 hours with the RAAF was sent to Tocumwal for scrap. This one ended up at the Fleet Wings Service Station in Melbourne, moved to Moorabbin Airport as a static display, then moved again to Point Cook.

It was rescued and restored by the current owners, Judy Paye and Richard Hourigan of The Old Aeroplane Company, and flew again in 1998.

Powered by a Packard Merlin V-12 engine through a 4 blade Hamilton Standard propeller, the aircraft is painted in 3SQN RAAF colours as flown by SQN Leader Murray Nash in Northern Italy.

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.

Beta blogging

OK, in the interests of experiments, this blog has changed to the "beta" version of blogger.

Metacafe

OK, to be fair, have just received an email from Miri at Metacafe admitting a "mistake".

Still can't figure out why they need more than ten "reviewers", but such is the way of this world.

Comparison - P40 Kittyhawk

OK, have just uploaded the same clip into youTube. The upload took 95 minutes.
P40 Kittyhawk

(addition - Jan 1 2007)
Am slightly unsure of the background, but it most probably belongs to Alan Arthur.

This aircraft was constructed from a New Zealand P40 (NZ23125) at Wangaratta and Deniliquin over the past five years. The Allison engine was reconditioned in the USA. The entire project was shipped to Pioneer Aero Restorations in New Zealand for completion and was finished just in time for the Wanaka Airshow this Easter.

It was then brought to Australia, and the Jamestown Airshow was its first public appearance in this country

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.