JWilsonphoto wrote:
Holy cow! The F104 didn't kill enough pilots, let's design a version that has "Harrier" capabilities.....
Lots of "What were they thinking" examples around. Like the Avrocar the Air Force tinkered with in the early '50s. The saucer-shaped gizmo was originally specified for a max speed of 300 mph and a service ceiling of 10,000 feet — but in practice, it never got more than three feet off the ground or flew faster than 35mph. In the films I've seen, that altitude looked pretty hazardous. I believe one of these lurks in the AF Museum -- right Laura?
Hi Jerry, yes, the Avrocar resides at the museum, back in the R&D section in building 4. I'm sure I've got at least one shot of it Just a question of finding the right visit. I love having it in my backyard, so to speak. Trying to figure out a "light pack" to bring there while I'm out of work....
JDE1 wrote:
Lots of "What were they thinking" examples around. Like the Avrocar the Air Force tinkered with in the early '50s. The saucer-shaped gizmo was originally specified for a max speed of 300 mph and a service ceiling of 10,000 feet — but in practice, it never got more than three feet off the ground or flew faster than 35mph. In the films I've seen, that altitude looked pretty hazardous. I believe one of these lurks in the AF Museum -- right Laura?
It was worth a shot to throw the thought out there. (Now I've got visions of Jim climbing that fence for a shot....)
nickjohnson wrote:
Not so fast young lady! The ground at my view point is very uneven. The fence is over 8 ft high. Should I wobble about at the top of my steps, high enough to see over the fence, I shall be rewarded with a fine view of the fence on the other side of the enclosure! Nice try!
I guess you know me all too well. Sheila will tell you that I have come home with torn jeans many times over the decades from activities like that. I guess Popeye was right......."Iyamwhatiyam and that's all that Iyam...."
I've come to the conclusion over our years together here, that if you can't find it out form one of us, the answer likely does not exist. Mike B and I have been having a great exchange about drones via email. My P4Pro picked up a little vibration in the video late in one of last week's missions. We brainstormed it a bit and thought it might be out of balance props, so, I put custom propellers on it that I balanced following Mike's suggestions. This afternoon the rain and crud cleared long enough for a test flight, same vibration, ugh! I was in the process of using the whole experience in my argument with myself over acquiring an Inspire 2 sooner rather than later, when I went back out to look further into why the P4Pro developed this problem. In aviation one always goes back to the last thing one did before things started to go south. Well, the last thing I had done before this vibration showed up, was step in whole on the golf course (an old guy should be looking where he is walking and not a quarter mile away composing the next shot) so, one foot goes in a two foot hole that I didn't see coming, which sends me into a somewhat graceful somersault protecting the drone and controller at the expense of my body. Retracing my steps, I wondered if anything could have been jostled during my gymnastic routine. Upon closer inspection I discovered that one lip of a rubber vibration dampener around the gimbal wasn't perfectly seated, a two second adjustment, a short test flight and as the Brit's say, "Bob's your uncle!" Perfect video again. ........Back to my argument about the I2.........
I paid attention (and people yelled at me for mowing my lawn last week) And now to find out how three raccoons got into my attic, and attempted to come through the attic access panel in the hallway. If I hadn't stapled plastic over the area, they'd have been in the house.
Feeling ok, can't wait for the functions to settle down a bit though and resume their normal routine.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Good Morning Laura,
I guess you know me all too well. Sheila will tell you that I have come home with torn jeans many times over the decades from activities like that. I guess Popeye was right......."Iyamwhatiyam and that's all that Iyam...."
Once again I'm running out of storage space and back up. Just received a new OWC Raid 5 6 disk array. This time I configured it with six 14TB WD Red drives and the optional SSD. Apparently the extra boost in speed the SSD gives the unit is pretty amazing. I'm copying files over to the unit today and is lightning fast.
Every so often I go through the routine of looking at putting my imagery in the cloud and I always arrive at the same conclusion. I can keep buying reliable arrays for a fraction of the monthly fees involved in cloud based storage. Currently my files in a cloud based system runs several thousand dollars a month which means I could add a new 84TB OWC Raid 5 unit every 30 days and still be ahead. Based upon my current file expansion rate I probably need to buy one of those units every 12 months or so. The late model 14TB helium filled drives have a MTBF that is so infinitesimal it's incredible. Amazing times in which we live.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Once again I'm running out of storage space and back up. Just received a new OWC Raid 5 6 disk array. This time I configured it with six 14TB WD Red drives and the optional SSD. Apparently the extra boost in speed the SSD gives the unit is pretty amazing. I'm copying files over to the unit today and is lightning fast.
Every so often I go through the routine of looking at putting my imagery in the cloud and I always arrive at the same conclusion. I can keep buying reliable arrays for a fraction of the monthly fees involved in cloud based storage. Currently my files in a cloud based system runs several thousand dollars a month which means I could add a new 84TB OWC Raid 5 unit every 30 days and still be ahead. Based upon my current file expansion rate I probably need to buy one of those units every 12 months or so. The late model 14TB helium filled drives have a MTBF that is so infinitesimal it's incredible. Amazing times in which we live....Show more →
It’s easy for me to say it – but I’m sure your doing the right thing Jim. In broad terms, what your using is a small version of what the cloud folks are using. So no big deal either way there. But then we have the small mater of getting enough pipeline bandwidth to make loading your data up to the cloud a practical proposition. I’ve a feeling that your one man three ring circus is now generating data faster than a practical upload scheme can cope with. So the cost of any cloud solution is going to have to swing a long way before your risk / reward is acceptable. But in the end, when push comes to shove, who really cares about your data? I guess that when the tide comes in there will only be one person on the beach getting their feet wet!
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Once again I'm running out of storage space and back up. Just received a new OWC Raid 5 6 disk array. This time I configured it with six 14TB WD Red drives and the optional SSD. Apparently the extra boost in speed the SSD gives the unit is pretty amazing. I'm copying files over to the unit today and is lightning fast.
Every so often I go through the routine of looking at putting my imagery in the cloud and I always arrive at the same conclusion. I can keep buying reliable arrays for a fraction of the monthly fees involved in cloud based storage. Currently my files in a cloud based system runs several thousand dollars a month which means I could add a new 84TB OWC Raid 5 unit every 30 days and still be ahead. Based upon my current file expansion rate I probably need to buy one of those units every 12 months or so. The late model 14TB helium filled drives have a MTBF that is so infinitesimal it's incredible. Amazing times in which we live....Show more →
I see a new building in your future " The Jim Wilson Library " all kidding aside with al the new tech the files will get bigger and bigger.. so the need for more arrays will continue.
Add to that that you need really need one in HQ, another one stored locally in a safe area (bank vault?) and a third one in another part of the country in case something like an F6 tornado hits.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Once again I'm running out of storage space and back up. Just received a new OWC Raid 5 6 disk array. This time I configured it with six 14TB WD Red drives and the optional SSD. Apparently the extra boost in speed the SSD gives the unit is pretty amazing. I'm copying files over to the unit today and is lightning fast.
Every so often I go through the routine of looking at putting my imagery in the cloud and I always arrive at the same conclusion. I can keep buying reliable arrays for a fraction of the monthly fees involved in cloud based storage. Currently my files in a cloud based system runs several thousand dollars a month which means I could add a new 84TB OWC Raid 5 unit every 30 days and still be ahead. Based upon my current file expansion rate I probably need to buy one of those units every 12 months or so. The late model 14TB helium filled drives have a MTBF that is so infinitesimal it's incredible. Amazing times in which we live....Show more →
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I've come to the conclusion over our years together here, that if you can't find it out form one of us, the answer likely does not exist. Mike B and I have been having a great exchange about drones via email. My P4Pro picked up a little vibration in the video late in one of last week's missions. We brainstormed it a bit and thought it might be out of balance props, so, I put custom propellers on it that I balanced following Mike's suggestions. This afternoon the rain and crud cleared long enough for a test flight, same vibration, ugh! I was in the process of using the whole experience in my argument with myself over acquiring an Inspire 2 sooner rather than later, when I went back out to look further into why the P4Pro developed this problem. In aviation one always goes back to the last thing one did before things started to go south. Well, the last thing I had done before this vibration showed up, was step in whole on the golf course (an old guy should be looking where he is walking and not a quarter mile away composing the next shot) so, one foot goes in a two foot hole that I didn't see coming, which sends me into a somewhat graceful somersault protecting the drone and controller at the expense of my body. Retracing my steps, I wondered if anything could have been jostled during my gymnastic routine. Upon closer inspection I discovered that one lip of a rubber vibration dampener around the gimbal wasn't perfectly seated, a two second adjustment, a short test flight and as the Brit's say, "Bob's your uncle!" Perfect video again. ........Back to my argument about the I2............Show more →
Looking good. So easy to over-analyze the problem. You still need the Inspire 2! 🤑🤑.
Back on the topic of "what were they thinking." The early efforts at VTOL airplanes fit the category, such as the Air Force's Ryan X13 "Vertijet" (initially started under a 1947 Navy contract) to the Navy's Convair XFY "Pogo" and Lockheed XFV "Salmon" (which were "tailsitters).
The X-13 required the pilot to make an belly-first approach to essentially a vertical trailer (which he could not see) and hook onto it. The Navy XFY and XFV called for the pilot to descend onto a (pitching & rolling) deck (which he could not see) and land the airplane still pointed at the sky. Surprise, surprise -- they didn't work.
The only image I have of any of these things is this 2007 point-and-shoot of the X-13 at the AF Museum.
