12 Gauge magnum test

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

We all get strange when we can't fly.
Hank

[Robert Lees]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Ron, you are a card!

[Ron Coleman]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

OK Mike....
Here is the cannon mounted to the jury struts with industrial velcro. An STC is not needed because there is no structural change or permanent fixture for the appliance. It would be a good idea to put a paint mark on the barrel so that you can properly locate it to the CG. I found that you have to load the ball before you mount the cannon, otherwise the T-craft will fall on it's nose. Without the ball the cannon will be too far forward on the wing. That makes landing difficult if you have fired the cannon in the air. You will have to hold elevator full up with full throttle to keep the tail down and use the brakes to get stopped. You will need to have someone on the ground to hold the tail down long enough for you to jump out and put stick under to prop to hold the nose up while you to put another ball in the cannon.
I always carry a spare set of balls. I found a couple of used ball bags at Good Will which I lined with straw to keep them from banging together.

RonC

[flyguy]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Boy what did I start here. LOL, gets better all the time.
I think I already mentioned here someplace about shooting at my brother and his friend, on a raft on the local pond, with a super slingshot that my friend and I put together. We were shooting dried mud balls about the size of baseballs. Looked like an artillery round when they hit the water. Don't even want to think about what would have happened if we had hit either of them.
Kids. Dumb. That is my best tale just now.
Any more good ones out there?
Darryl
EDIT: A while back I was wondering whether it would be possible to hit a target on the ground if a paint ball gun was mounted on the struts. Finally figured that the muzzle velocity was too low and they would just be falling vertically very shortly after coming out of the barrel.
Any thoughts on that out there?

[Robert Lees]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Some thoughts & input required, please:

For many years now, I have been regularly flying up & down the Eyebrook Reservoir, and the Derwent & Howden Reservoirs, all local to me here in the UK Midlands (Google them).

These are the reservoirs that the Dambuster Lancaster squadron used as practice for the famed (infamous?) Dambuster raids on the Sorpe, Eder and Mohne dams in the Ruhr valley in 1943. My flights have been in commemoration of the crews’ bravery.

Well this year, on the 65th Anniversary of those raids, I will find myself over the German dams en route Berlin Templehof, of Berlin airlift fame, (which is closing this year, hence going there).

So my thoughts are: whilst over the German reservoirs, on my way to a famous Berlin airfield, I ought to acknowledge my countrymens' sacrifice, and drop a symbolic "bouncing bomb" from the Taylorcraft, 60 feet over the water, using flashlights to maintain my height above the water.

Ron's idea of using a bowling ball appeals to me...but how do I drop the bowling ball? The window might be a bit awkward. I'm thinking of using Ron's cylinder, but modified to allow the ball to just roll out (instead of using powder, which of course is dangerous close to aeroplanes).

Because of the airflow, I reckon a jury-strut-mounted cylinder with the open end pointed forward (and tilted slightly upward) to prevent the ball falling out under take-off acceleration and gravity. But I then need a means of lowering the open end of the cylinder, to make the ball roll out. Would lowering the nose & decelerating be sufficient, or would I need a tilting device?

Of course, all UK bowling balls are the same diameter as USA bowling balls, but we use metric cylinders over here, so how hard exactly is it to turn a ball down to the correct diameter? Or should I hire a gun-driller to drill out the internal diameter of the cylinder to suit? Of course, without internal explosive gaseous pressures, the wall thickness of my cylinders is not quite so critical.

If I might indulge your collective expertise for a few more moments, I’m researching the expected trajectory:

At my Taylorcraft projected airspeed of 83 knots, 60 feet over the water, with an anticipated 8 metre dam height over the mean May water level, maximum water depth of 12 fathoms, maximum wave height of 3” and a bowling ball weight of 3.6 kg with no pre-spin (and assuming no weighted off-centre rounds), what distance from the dam should I launch, assuming no more than a 6 m/s crosswind component and 7 degree magnetic compass variation?




The real bugger of it all is that there are three German dams, and I only have two jury struts to hang two cylinders off...where do I position the third?

[T.Taylor]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

By the time you get the second one in the water, you probably won't have to worry about the 3rd, , T.T.

[Ron Coleman]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Hi Kevin
here is where I am in Ohio (NW). and here is where we shoot the balls.

RonC

[Mark Julicher]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Just D__M Ron!
I never checked the color of my balls after I turned them on a lathe.

sorry, I couldn't help it

[flyguy]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Rob,
Why not put a short piece of wood say 1 x 3 across the struts right at the point where the tapered between the two struts is right to support the ball just outboard of the wood cross piece. Then all you have to do is push out on the ball and it will fall out between the struts. Wrap something thick around each strut outboard of the ball that you have to push the ball over and there you are, bowling ball b*mb release. Use a long stick with a cup shape at the end to do the pushing. Piece of cake.
DC

[Forrest Barber]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Ron you are my hero; I have used black powder a few times. At the OLD Taylorcraft Fly-Ins when men were men and they flew from way far away to get here, we had a fireworks show just for us.
We had a 14" mortor and used 14-16 oz for the lifting charge on three & four break shells. then we had the golf ball one , drop an M-80 and then the ball down the tube and look out. The latest around here is the Air cannon over at Maize Valley farms , shoots the bowling balls 3000 to 5000 ft.
I did fire the 6 12 guage Browning Auto shotguns mounted on the Super Cub ; fired one shot from each side at once, had three on each wing. Varmint getters.
As a young man I had a small cannon and am ashamed to say I shot a lot of spar bushings ( yes the ones we need now) from it , placed a firecracker with the fuse out forward through the hole, lit it and dropped it along with the bushing. Hmmmmmm i have an old Ox cyl out back.......

[taylorcraftbc65]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

3rd try. It had better work this time!

RonC

A Pre War Taylorcraft AND an Indian? I'm envious. Brie

[taylorcraftbc65]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

My friend Jim used to push a bowling ball out his Commonwelth Sky Ranger while flying at 2,000 AGL over the Salt Flats just West of Guadeloupe Peak on the border of Hudspeth and Culverson Counties in Texas. He'd put the plane in a moderate 360 turn and pitch it out the window. First time he tried it, he almost shot himself down when it BOUNCED off the concrete hard salt flats. It bounced almost as high as he was flying. Brie

[VictorBravo]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

My flights have been in commemoration of the crews’ bravery.

I ought to acknowledge my countrymens' sacrifice, and drop a symbolic "bouncing bomb" from the Taylorcraft, 60 feet over the water, using flashlights to maintain my height above the water.

Well, first you will have to spend several evenings in the local exotic dancer's club, paying particular attention to the lights as they reflect off the dancing girls' bodies. (that's one of my favorite movies)

Chances are you won't have a Mosquito lying around to test the bomb spin mechanism and the effect of spinning it (that's one of my favorite slow motion film clips). So you may not be able to get it right the first time. But since there were more than one Lancaster, there has every right to be more than one Taylorcraft on your commemorative flight

The bowling ball is the wrong shape. A half size replica of the real bomb would make a much more historically correct impression on the nice folks at the dam and the local citizenry. Especially if they were buoyant and managed to float around in the water for all to see.

If it were me, I'd paint the bomb replicas with a "happy anniversary" greeting from the families of Barnes Wallis, Guy Gibson and the rest of the crews, but then again I'm kind of a smart ass.

[TimHicks]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

I've been away for a while, but I was intrigued by Robert's physics problem. I'm not sure if you want to actually hit the dam. And I'm not sure if you want to try to skip the ball.
But if you're flying at 60ft and 83 kts (140 ft/sec),
and you drop a ball when you are 270 ft away from the dam,
and the ball meets no wind resistance,
the ball will hit the waterline of the dam.
I calculated the 270 feet by plugging your numbers into the equation for projectile motion. I assumed that the launch angle was 0 degrees to make the math easy.

[flyguy]

Re: 12 Gauge magnum test

Would be nice if the (drum) was painted checkerboard, black and white of course.
DC