Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.[

Its just over 399 years since William Shakespeare was buried under a stone in the Holy Trinity church in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Just six miles or so from where he is buried is the village of Long Marston, where in 1941 John Laing & Son built a satellite wartime airbase, closed in 1952 it is now used for various car driving activities, a model aircraft club and flying.
Last weekend they had a model aircraft show, but there was more to see than just model aircraft.
I posted some pictures of the model aircraft on my blog, I thought some of you might like some of the other things I saw while Lady Punkie and I had a nice day out.
Its a two hour drive from the fens to Shakespeare's birthplace, but drive through the gate of the airfield and you get the feeling you are in the right place.
It could be the battered Sea Prince on the mound by the gate.

Or it could be the radio control ducks.

Punkie, to be honest, old guys on live steam never grabbed me (well, they tried but I made a run for it)

My wife tossed the plastic duck I was going to RC.

You've managed to bring back several unpleasant memories. Well done, mate

One of the uses the old number two runway is put to is drag racing.
We met a nice 62 year old who liked to do 0-60 in .8 of a second.
I took some photos, then one of the owners said something that made me glad I had lost a bit of weight.
"Do you want to take a picture from the drivers point of view?"

Originally Posted by Marten

Punkie, to be honest, old guys on live steam never grabbed me (well, they tried but I made a run for it)

My wife tossed the plastic duck I was going to RC.

You've managed to bring back several unpleasant memories. Well done, mate

I like steam, I keep meaning to build a steam engine, I have a kit of unmachined bits somewhere.

I will pass on the duck as well, they were cute, but I have been requested to build an RC shark fin, it could be fun when some drunks go swimming in the river by the pub in the summer.

Punkie, surely physics would preclude anyone doin 0-60 in less than a second. Maybe you meant 60-0. I've seen that a few times.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...2124513AAxdA0O

A Top Fuel dragster accelerates from 0 to 100 mph (160 km/h) in less than 0.8 second, subjecting the driver to a force about 5.7 times his weight.

Originally Posted by Punkie

I like steam, I keep meaning to build a steam engine, I have a kit of unmachined bits somewhere.

Get her built, steam can be alot of fun.... also dangerous.

I recently began building simple steam and hot air engines using common junk and basic tools with no lathe.. its alot of fun to watch them run after they are complete... heres a simple oscillator i built last month from scraps of junk i had laying around...

A Top Fuel dragster reaches 300 mph before you can finish reading this sentence.

To reach that speed, the launch acceleration is nearly 8 g's, then fades to merely 4 g's at the halfway point.

A dragster's 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first four rows of cars at Daytona.

A supercharger rams air into the engine at 3000 cfm. The pistons compress the air/fuel mixture into a near-solid form. At full throttle the cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.

A Dodge V-8 engine can't produce enough horsepower to turn the dragster's supercharger.

With a redline as high as 9500 rpm, Top Fuel engines only turn 540 revolutions from start to finish.

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps (the same output as an arc welder) to each spark plug. Electrodes can be totally consumed during a single pass. If a spark plug fails early in the run, un-burned nitro in the cylinder can explode with enough force to blow the cylinder head off or split the steel block in half.

To put all that into perspective, if a twin-turbo Corvette crosses the starting line at 200 mph and a Top Fuel dragster launches at the exact same moment, the dragster catches up to the Corvette in three seconds and in just one more second reaches 300 mph for the win.

Aw, RC ducks are neat toys.

Here's my duck:

And duck-related toys are fun, too...



--Bill

Originally Posted by Bill Harris

Aw, RC ducks are neat toys.

Here's my duck:

And duck-related toys are fun, too...



--Bill

I like a good duck.

The brown one had the added touch of a moving head, that made it look quite real from a distance.

Gear pictures mate - looks like a Grand Day Out

Originally Posted by Heliman420

Get her built, steam can be alot of fun.... also dangerous.

I recently began building simple steam and hot air engines using common junk and basic tools with no lathe.. its alot of fun to watch them run after they are complete... heres a simple oscillator i built last month from scraps of junk i had laying around...

Clever, have you more detailed photos?

I'm planning to get another duck (decoy) body and making it with a swivel-able head. The decoy fits over a dedicated boat hull, so I have easy options. I'm looking for one of those yellow "Rubber Duckies" to fit over the hull, too.

Steam is neat, too. On my to-do list.

Grand photos, BTW.

--Bill

Steam powered duck?

Originally Posted by leccyflyer

Gear pictures mate - looks like a Grand Day Out

OH, Wallace...er I mean Leccy, you are showing your true Trousers....er I mean Colours.