Coo-
Don't they have some funny ideas, these holy types?
Orthodox priests in the central Russian city of Tver have been practising an original method of ridding locals of alcohol abuse and fornication: grab some religious relics, jump in a bi-plane, circle overhead and pour holy water onto citizens from the skies while reciting prayers. Russian news site tnvernews.ru reported that …
They'll be wanting a triplane with a bigger bowl, in order to address the spiritual diseases of childhood such as measles mumps and whooping cough. Line those children up in the streets so we can rain down the healing liquids from on high.
Oh my god, my catholic past is about to head off a cliff of puns, moralism and testamentary polemics.
No need for a tripe. The Antonov AN-2, which the priests were using for holy water bombing, promises to be around forever. 18,000+ have been built between 1947 and 2001, they are very strong and fairly crash-proof (no stall speed: like the Fieseler Storch it can land vertically, power off, without damage). They ARE thirsty but I'd think that the turbo-prop conversion improves that. Its on the list of planes I want to fly in.
>The Antonov AN-2, which the priests were using for holy water bombing, promises to be around forever. 18,000+ have been built between 1947 and 2001, they are very strong and fairly crash-proof
I beg to differ actually having flown in one of these things in Cuba with the internal airline AeroTaxi a few years ago. The thing was falling to bits and it did a few months later when exact same plane's main wing spar snapped killing all on board, however this may have been due to lack of spares, poor maintenance and operation in a salty area. A somewhat sobering experience when you've dodged one of life's bullets.
No you don't, unless you like being bored to death. I had to fly one at times when I worked as a bush pilot in central Africa (longer ago than I like to remember). Really, you could walk faster on a windy day, the most fun was starting the thing as it had the original centrifugal starter, sounded like someone throwing a bucket of spanners out of a top floor window. Had it's uses though, good for soft and short strips. Couldn't wait to get back to the DC3 I usually flew, now THATS a fun airplane.
The DC3, I used to work at a servicing company in Exeter after I left school.
Fate & timing meant that the number of "test flights" for the staff had all but ceased, there were two more & I missed out on both of them.
I finally got to fly in one in 2009, as part of the farewell tour before they were forcibly withdrawn from "Heritage" flights (Still have the t-shirt & mugs).
Removing & refitting the wings was usually a all hands on deck task (Wing washer part number 143908-SR300-093 is still ingrained in my memory).
Despite a fairly grotty time there as a school leaver, I recall the birds fondly, but the things I don't miss about them is pumping oil into the engine or manually pumping the undercarriage up & down (It was on jacks).
Fun sites.
https://www.dc3dakotahunter.com/
http://www.douglasdc3.com/
Really fun thing to do with a DC3
https://www.dc3dakotahunter.com/blog/airborne-aircraft-carriers-wing-tip-coupling-giving-a-free-ride-2/
I know about DC-3s - I used to travel in them regularly when they were the standard plane used by NAC, the NZ internal airline, but have never visited the cockpit of one. I still have vivid memories of going through French Pass below cloudbase, which was on the hilltops, in a DC-3 during a flight from Nelson to Wellington. Very turbulent - in each big drop the massed retch from pax almost drowned out the engines. Me? I wasn't ill.
I'm also familiar with seeing AN-2s when visiting former Eastern Block countries, and so would enjoy a ride in one. I'm a glider pilot, so not particularly interested in actually flying something with an engine on it, though I did enjoy having hands-on in a Tiger Moth at Duxford a few years back.
They certainly take a lot of punishment, I remember flying a team of mechanics out to some other company's DAK stranded in the bush due to hitting a wing on a tree on landing. (Zaire back in the 80's). The guys just pulled off the loose bits, stuck a bit of Gaffer tape over the stump and good to go. (It was a good 20 inches lopped off the end). I believe it flew normally.
As for fitting/removing wings I once saw, (Zaire again) Some of the locals using a fork lift to straighten out a bent wing on a 727 at one of the northern Airports. It seems due to incompetence the pilot touched a wingtip on landing. His punishment? he had to fly it back to Kinshasa (long flight) or they'd just leave him there. (no one else would fly it).
Ah Zaire, a laugh a minute.
centrifugal starter, sounded like someone throwing a bucket of spanners out of a top floor window
So - much like the sound you get when starting a Ducatti motorbike? Also akin to the noise that said Ducatti makes when all the engine internals attempt to make their frequent breaks for freedom..
With that type of chemistry in their bloodstream they should be able to fly just fine. Using a plane is cheating. Real believe is doing it without earthly tools and simply praying that it works(*).
(*) Works well any way that turns out. Either it is divine proof or ceremonial bye-bye.
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You mean they actually had to use a plane? Cripes - THAT'S no sign of religious power! I would expect nothing less than a hoard of angels, hauling the religious bumpkin up into the clouds with levitating golden ropes, for him to do his sprinkling from his elevated position. By the way, you absolutely sure it WAS holy water he was throwing around?
I do like Russia and the things they are reported for due to some extreme weirdness by western standards.. But one thing is certain. They don't f^%k about too much.
"Red tape" is not so much a bureaucratic thing in Russia. It is what what you get forced wear around your important bits for being an A$$.
Well, since the first clearly isn't true (unless genetic problems and bacteria are somewho reclassified as 'a'virus' I'm not holding out much[1] hope for the second being true..
[1] Does zero count as 'not much'? Even if (an equal chance methinks) demons exist then the chance of a virus also being a demon is vanishly small.. Not good on logic are they these Slavic Orthodox types?
Turns out this practice has been widespread in other parts of the world for years! You perform the prayer service and sprinkle the stuff into the clouds as they form, so the precipitation all contains a titration of holy water. And it eradicates vampires wholesale.
That's why all the vampire stories are from eastern Europe -- somebody already blessed the rains down in Africa!