Dambusters Fly Again

Phil Allison

unread,

Apr 13, 2012, 12:15:11 AM4/13/12

to

** " As It Happened " doco:

Tonight at 9:30 on SBS 1

Follows right after the Titanic doco.

..... Phil

Phil Allison

unread,

Apr 13, 2012, 8:46:38 AM4/13/12

to

"Phil Allison"

>
> ** " As It Happened " doco:
>
> Tonight at 9:30 on SBS 1

** See:

http://www.history.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=261043

The first half was fascinating and the second promises to be even better.

BTW:

The "brains" behind the project is Dr Hugh Hunt, who hails from Melbourne.

Could easily be renamed " Mythbusters meets Dambusters " .

.... Phil

Sylvia Else

unread,

Apr 23, 2012, 9:29:02 PM4/23/12

to

Supposedly, there old pilots, bold pilots, but no old bold pilots.

I have to wonder, though, at this pilot's decision to fly even lower
than asked, given that they'd already had the splash impact the
airframe, and had seen footage of what can happen, including of the
complete destruction of an aircraft when the bomb itself impacted the
airframe after bouncing.

Sylvia.

D Walford

unread,

Apr 23, 2012, 10:03:31 PM4/23/12

to

In an episode of "Ice Pilots" seen on Foxtel the same pilot who also
owns the airline had his license suspended for a month but I don't
remember them saying why.
I wonder if it was for flying too low whilst making the film?

Daryl

Paul Saccani

unread,

Apr 24, 2012, 7:49:52 AM4/24/12

to

On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:03:31 +1000, D Walford
<dwal...@internode.on.net> wrote:

>In an episode of "Ice Pilots" seen on Foxtel the same pilot who also
>owns the airline had his license suspended for a month but I don't
>remember them saying why.

I haven't seen it, but;

I thought it was the Airline AOC that was suspended. Joe McBryan is a
cranky old prick, and he fired his flight attendant manager. That
meant he had no system of supervision, so no airline operations.

He has multiple AOC under his control, so presumably freight, fire
bombing and training operations would continue.
Cheers,

Paul Saccani,
Perth,
Western Australia

D Walford

unread,

Apr 24, 2012, 9:25:50 AM4/24/12

to

I don't remember the blokes name but he was the owner.
The airline was still operating he just wasn't allowed to fly or that
was what happened in that particular episode, maybe they pulled his AOC
in another episode?

Daryl

matt weber

unread,

Apr 24, 2012, 2:49:24 PM4/24/12

to

Joe had his license suspended by Tranport Canada for 10 days,
Supposedly because he landed a passenger flight below minimums.

Paul Saccani

unread,

Apr 24, 2012, 10:41:22 PM4/24/12

to

On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:25:50 +1000, D Walford

I haven't seen the series. It sounds like two different suspensions.

Paul Saccani

unread,

Apr 24, 2012, 10:43:16 PM4/24/12

to

On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:49:24 -0400, matt weber
<matth...@verizon.net> wrote:

>Joe had his license suspended by Tranport Canada for 10 days,
>Supposedly because he landed a passenger flight below minimums.

I see. I know his airline AOC was also suspended.

Which doesn't sound good - but he has been operating a fair number of
aircraft at high utilisation in a very demanding environment for forty
odd years without killing anyone, so he must be doing something right.

Mike

unread,

Apr 25, 2012, 2:26:06 AM4/25/12

to

One aspect they didn't cover, unless I missed it, was the method used on
the actual raid to ensure they flew at the correct height.

I think the story goes that they were scratching their heads trying to
figure out how they could make sure they were flying at the correct very
low height over water at night. Someone (Guy Gibson? Barnes Wallis? )
happened to go to a stage show and was struck by an idea when he saw the
spotlights on the stage. So what they ended up doing was rigging two
spotlights on the Lancasters so they converged when the aircraft was at
the correct height.

I understand it worked really well but you'd think it must have made the
aircraft even easier to air at for the defenders.

Mike

JW²

unread,

Apr 25, 2012, 8:36:35 PM4/25/12

to

The

While watching, I recalled the idea of the two searchlights too, but then I reasoned that it might work at night, but not in daylight?

P.S. I doubt whether BW frequented nightclubs? But then you never know about those (we) old guys!
JW²

veritas

unread,

Apr 25, 2012, 8:49:50 PM4/25/12

to

On 26/04/2012 10:36 AM, JW² wrote:
> The
>
> On Wednesday, April 25, 2012 2:26:06 PM UTC+8, Mike wrote:
>> On 13/04/2012 2:15 PM, Phil Allison wrote:
>>> ** " As It Happened " doco:
>>>
>>> Tonight at 9:30 on SBS 1
>>>
>>> Follows right after the Titanic doco.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ..... Phil
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> One aspect they didn't cover, unless I missed it, was the method used on
>> the actual raid to ensure they flew at the correct height.
>>
>> I think the story goes that they were scratching their heads trying to
>> figure out how they could make sure they were flying at the correct very
>> low height over water at night. Someone (Guy Gibson? Barnes Wallis? )
>> happened to go to a stage show and was struck by an idea when he saw the
>> spotlights on the stage. So what they ended up doing was rigging two
>> spotlights on the Lancasters so they converged when the aircraft was at
>> the correct height.

The original movie covered/confirmed that....

veritas

unread,

Apr 25, 2012, 8:51:17 PM4/25/12

to

..... that was the movie when 'Nigger' was called 'Nigger'

Nick O'Tyme at

unread,

Apr 25, 2012, 9:04:27 PM4/25/12

to

"veritas" <ver...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:jna63h$na5$1...@dont-email.me...

> On 26/04/2012 10:36 AM, JW² wrote:
>> The
>>

>>> One aspect they didn't cover, unless I missed it, was the method used on
>>> the actual raid to ensure they flew at the correct height.
>>>
>>> I think the story goes that they were scratching their heads trying to
>>> figure out how they could make sure they were flying at the correct very
>>> low height over water at night. Someone (Guy Gibson? Barnes Wallis? )
>>> happened to go to a stage show and was struck by an idea when he saw the
>>> spotlights on the stage. So what they ended up doing was rigging two
>>> spotlights on the Lancasters so they converged when the aircraft was at
>>> the correct height.
>
> The original movie covered/confirmed that....
>
>>>
>>> I understand it worked really well but you'd think it must have made the
>>> aircraft even easier to air at for the defenders.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>
>> While watching, I recalled the idea of the two searchlights too, but then
>> I reasoned that it might work at night, but not in daylight?
>>
>> P.S. I doubt whether BW frequented nightclubs? But then you never know
>> about those (we) old guys!
>> JW²
>

I can't remember where I read it, but the theater spotlight thing was a bit
of poetic license for the movie. The idea came from the DoD or whatever it
was called then.

Google is my friend - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dam_Busters_(film)

Check the fourth item down in 'Historical Accuracy'.

Tudor5

unread,

Apr 27, 2012, 2:28:00 PM4/27/12

to

Chap that came up with it was Benjamin Lockspeiser, from research
institute .

Similar system is still in use for night ag flying in both fixed &
rotary wing .
Cheers P