Lockheed Martin F-16W - FINISHED - PAG.13

[Wardukw]

I would love to get a Kinetic kit because of all the goodies you get with it but in my situation thats a lot of coin and when you consider the Mig cost $36nz you can see why the Mig is the new choice 
I was  looking at the thing this morning and thinking of a trust vectored tail pipe but it wont work ..the fuselage is very round and trying to get a rectangular shaped box to look right wouldnt work ...but i do have another idea thanks to the X-31 aircraft.
That would work and to be honest i just thought of the X-31 when i was writing about the rectangle one 
Im chuffed i remembered that because i don't want to do all this work  and still have the standard exhaust 

What you did on ya BMX bike would scare nine colours of crap out of me...back flips would normally only happen in moto X just before gravity reintroduced you to the ground..yeah we would do the tabletop jumps but the more your on the ground the faster to go but big jumps are great fun once you learn how and once i did learn..( 3 sets of hand bars..2 set of front forks and 1 fuel tank and rear seing arm ) i was loving the jumps and if you can fire out of a berm near a big jump you can get a real nice gap from your closest competitor  ..40ft to 60ft jumps are dead easy at speed but anything bigger was not in my skill set and luckily most big jumps at tracks where 40 to 45 feet.
We call it body armour too.
We didn't wear knee or elbow pads tho ..shin guards were built into my boots which were Fox brand ..thigh guards were worn by some guys but i never did .
Of course chest armour and kidney protection has to be worn and a bloody good helmet and i dont for the life of me remember the brand..it will come to me when im not thinking about 
Well its 29.7c here right now and im enjoying a coffee after unstrapping my knees with the fan at full bore pointes straight at me..the straps make my knees to hot right now but man there great in winter..thats if we get a winter this yr .
Oh dear..how sad..nevermind..the way of the world now i suppose and im jealous cause you guys are getting all the storms and we aint getting dodo..most depressing 

[NARSES2]

This was me back in 1996, riding in a European championship, 6 months after i broke my leg(compound fracture of both tibia and fibula) and had a platinum rod inserted in my tibia to hold it together.

So your worth a bit for scrap then ? 

Great photos 

[DogfighterZen]

I would love to get a Kinetic kit because of all the goodies you get with it but in my situation thats a lot of coin and when you consider the Mig cost $36nz you can see why the Mig is the new choice 
I was  looking at the thing this morning and thinking of a trust vectored tail pipe but it wont work ..the fuselage is very round and trying to get a rectangular shaped box to look right wouldnt work ...but i do have another idea thanks to the X-31 aircraft.
That would work and to be honest i just thought of the X-31 when i was writing about the rectangle one 
Im chuffed i remembered that because i don't want to do all this work  and still have the standard exhaust 

What you did on ya BMX bike would scare nine colours of crap out of me...back flips would normally only happen in moto X just before gravity reintroduced you to the ground..yeah we would do the tabletop jumps but the more your on the ground the faster to go but big jumps are great fun once you learn how and once i did learn..( 3 sets of hand bars..2 set of front forks and 1 fuel tank and rear seing arm ) i was loving the jumps and if you can fire out of a berm near a big jump you can get a real nice gap from your closest competitor  ..40ft to 60ft jumps are dead easy at speed but anything bigger was not in my skill set and luckily most big jumps at tracks where 40 to 45 feet.
We call it body armour too.
We didn't wear knee or elbow pads tho ..shin guards were built into my boots which were Fox brand ..thigh guards were worn by some guys but i never did .
Of course chest armour and kidney protection has to be worn and a bloody good helmet and i dont for the life of me remember the brand..it will come to me when im not thinking about 
Well its 29.7c here right now and im enjoying a coffee after unstrapping my knees with the fan at full bore pointes straight at me..the straps make my knees to hot right now but man there great in winter..thats if we get a winter this yr .
Oh dear..how sad..nevermind..the way of the world now i suppose and im jealous cause you guys are getting all the storms and we aint getting dodo..most depressing 

Kit choice understood... and the idea is great! 
Bur depending on the timeline, you could choose to have one of the SU-27's 360º TVC nozzles, maybe that could save you some extra work. Anyway, i bet it's gonna look great! 
You talk about fear of a backflip when you used to jump 40 to 60 feet gaps?!? I did those on 6 to 8 foot tall ramps with a 10/12 foot long decks! I did go big for a bmx bike but i had a huge respect and was always amazed at MX jumps... the height, speed and size of the gaps... crashing a MX bike at the speed it takes to clear those jumps... ouch!
No wonder MX riders don't use the knee and elbow pads, they won't make much difference on those crashes.
I had a Bell Moto 4 helmet with a Troy Lee visor and that thing saved me quite a few times from having serious brain injuries for sure. As a matter of fact, i was wearing it on both crashes that knocked me out, so just imagine if had something worse...

Regarding rain, there's been very little of that in Portugal. We're in a severe drought state and the government will order a rationing of water supply on several districts if enough rain doesn't come soon.
No storm hit the mainland, those were on the islands. As much as i like good weather, this has gotten to a point where it's becoming very worrying.

This was me back in 1996, riding in a European championship, 6 months after i broke my leg(compound fracture of both tibia and fibula) and had a platinum rod inserted in my tibia to hold it together.

So your worth a bit for scrap then ? 

Great photos 

Thank you, Chris! 
And yes, i'll worth something after i'm dead.

[Wardukw]

Hahahaha Chris
Oh crap..i didn't say congrats Zen on ya win mate ..thats a bloody hard sport and the win means epic skills..so congratulations bud 

[Wardukw]

Rain? What the hell is that ..we havent had any where i live in months ..in the south island they've had a absolute crap load of it which is exactly what happened a couple of yrs back..they got flooding and we got cooked.
This is starting to become the norm now and as you said about there..much longer spells without rain and when it does come you'll get a months worth in a day..thats already happened to other places around the world..Brazil for example.
We never wear the knee and elbow armour for one simple reason and its not crashing..its flexibility..you've seen how we ride whoops and with how fast our legs and arms have to move those things restrict our movements .
Jumping is easy because we have one thing you dont ..a engine 
We have 2 pebbles as well but ours are cslled pegs and we dont have to turn them around and around 
I'll be checking that plane out Zen..my only concern is the 27 is a twin engined plane and its quite flatish at the rear but still im gonna take a look cause ya never know 
Aria was the helmet i wore ..road and off road and moto x ..cost a heap of coin and i had 6 of them in the end and if i rode again today ..oh man theres so many choices out there now and i do like the thought of a carbon/kevlar fiber one 

[DogfighterZen]

Hahahaha Chris
Oh crap..i didn't say congrats Zen on ya win mate ..thats a bloody hard sport and the win means epic skills..so congratulations bud 

No worries, mate! Thanks! 
It is true that it takes skill but skill comes from the hours of hard work practicing the tricks and dealing with the mind games and injuries. Determination and discipline are a big part when you wanna do well in this kind of sport. The mind games that fear creates are also an issue, it's all about overcoming the doubt and being able to concentrate when you need it the most, even while in pain when you wanted to finish a run in a contest. I did work my butt off to recover A.S.A.P. from that broken leg and get back on the bike in order to fight the fear of getting hurt again and get all my skills back up to where they were before that injury.
That win was indeed a great reward for all i'd been through since i got hurt.

Speaking of wins, i think this will probably be eligible for a trophy of thread drift...

Rain? What the hell is that ..we havent had any where i live in months ..in the south island they've had a absolute crap load of it which is exactly what happened a couple of yrs back..they got flooding and we got cooked.
This is starting to become the norm now and as you said about there..much longer spells without rain and when it does come you'll get a months worth in a day..thats already happened to other places around the world..Brazil for example.
We never wear the knee and elbow armour for one simple reason and its not crashing..its flexibility..you've seen how we ride whoops and with how fast our legs and arms have to move those things restrict our movements .
Jumping is easy because we have one thing you dont ..a engine 
We have 2 pebbles as well but ours are cslled pegs and we dont have to turn them around and around 
I'll be checking that plane out Zen..my only concern is the 27 is a twin engined plane and its quite flatish at the rear but still im gonna take a look cause ya never know 
Aria was the helmet i wore ..road and off road and moto x ..cost a heap of coin and i had 6 of them in the end and if i rode again today ..oh man theres so many choices out there now and i do like the thought of a carbon/kevlar fiber one 

Squarish... well, maybe not of the same diameter as the Mig's rear end but the Flanker's engine nozzles are round, mate. Most likely, the Flankler's engines are smaller but one could fill the Mig's rear end to make up for the extra space.

Yup, that's the problem with long droughts, when the rain comes, it comes down with brute force and it mostly brings damage and danger... Let's hope it doesn't happen that way this year but the odds aren't improving...

Now, i know how MX racers have to move quickly but don't tell me you have to move more or faster than we do on bmx bikes. We have to pedal, that alone is more movement of the legs and also, you have shock absorbers! Just look at the pic of the tailwhip and tell me where you'd have to bend you legs and arms more than that while racing...
Not saying it doesn't hamper movement but the pads we wear are designed with skateboarding, bmx ridng and inline skating in mind and you have to admit that we have to twist and bend quicker than someone racing a dirt bike. Freestyle MX guys use them and they twist and bend as much as bmxers, skaters and inliners.
But i know the difference and i get it, lots of bmx riders nowadays don't use the big pads we used 10 years ago and that's because of freedom of movement... but they also get busted knee caps and elbows, not to mention the scars from sliding down the street or ramps...

P.S.: BTW, we also use pegs but ours are for grinds. 

[Wardukw]

Ok lets get the MX thing out of the way first 
I know you guys work like crazy to peddle like mad to get to speed ..its knida funny to watch  ...but what i should have said is we have weight to deal with .
In mid air we use the brakes to change the angle for landing for the big jumps and yep we have shocks but we still butt plant the seat too when we land and then up again for whatevers next.
I raced 250 and 500cc bikes and theres a pretty good difference in weight between those two and in some races you have to man handle the things and ruts are a right pain..you can face plant quite nicely with them 
The biggest thing is the speeds..when your blasting a track you hit whoops and corners with a heap of speed ..your legs and arms move like crazy like yoyos holding on for dear life or when you get a really boggy track your damn near walking the things and man that can wear ya out bigtime and did i mention ruts ?
Ya fall off..then got to pick the bike up ..oh boy ..then get going again if ya havent stalled it..some days can be epic fun Zen .
I was in one race which was so muddy ..wet dirt and clay..that some riders bikes got so heavy and they were so tired they couldnt pick em up..i crashed cause i had so much mud around my front brake it locked up when a stone got caught in the disc and over the bars i went..right into a puddle of mud..didnt feel a thing...epic day 
Getting back on the horse after a fall is part and parcel of any physical sport really..ours especially and we can crunch just as bad as each other ..BMX or MX.
Its just as much of a work out as each other just in different ways.
Oh and freestyle riders are nuts ..pure and simple... nuts. 

I dont think we have much thread drift..i think we have a wee intermission because we always get back to models 

Oh model plane time 
The nozzles on that SU are round alright but they look like extended tubes amd man they are cool but i cannot figure a way to make it work on a model..as in scratch building them and considering what im thinking of doing to this plane it gonna need something which sticks out..looks way different..im not settled on the X31s yet or anything else for that matter  cause knowing me im liable to change the damn thing half thru the build 

Oh got another band you need to check out....Tetrarch..look em up on youtube..stitch me up .negitve noise ..oddity..all damn good mate  .

[DogfighterZen]

  It does look weird when we're pedalling our bums off. Sometimes i wish we had an engine to get the speed i wanted but yeah, the weight you guys have to deal with surely takes a huge toll on the body and, yeah, i can imagine how the pads would become cumbersome after a few laps with a monster like a 500cc bike.
Again i have nothing but huge respect for all MX riders, be it racer or freestylers. Handling a bike that heavy for that long during a race...
We deal with different situations while riding specially when it's a mud pit like you said, i bet it simply drains the energy out of your body in a few laps. Picking up the bike after falling in the mud...
I imagine how hard it must be, all muddy and wet and having a bunch of stuff on your knees and elbows.
The shock absorbers... i was pulling your leg, mate. If you didn't have them, MX riding would've never gotten to the mad level it has, you'd smash your bodies on the bike on every landing and i could never compare the height and speed... you guys have to suck up quite a hard blow when you case a jump.
And yes, Freestyle riders are nuts!! Watching them ride always gets me fired up to grab my bike.

Regarding the Mig, i'm sure you'll come up with something cool.

Wow, Tetrarch is good!!! Thanks for that!  Reminded me of another, Spineshank. If you don't know them, listen to Synthetic, great song.

[Wardukw]

Spineshank sounds familier for some reason and i dont know why  but ill find out soon enough matey 

Oh you can bet its tiring and remember its not just the body its the mud and i dont mean what your riding thru its the crap thrown at you by the guys in front ..that can hurt ..a 500 wont rev like a 250 cause it's a four stroke unlike the 250s which are 2 stroke bikes but once they get up and go they can really move and the mud which flies off the rear tyre aint going slow either..i have had a clump hit right in my goggles and the next thing we do is called crashing 
Oh i do have something for ya about bikes which out shocks..i did it.
I grew up on a farm and got my hands of this old as hell RM125 Suzuki..a farm bike and it had no shocks on the rear..its why i got it for 40 bucks 
So i made up 2 steel bars and welding some box section to it for strenght and bolted it on..bloody great fun and man that taught me a ton about keeping the bike under control when the arse is bouncing all over the place and i just took some air out of the back tyre to soften it 
But never ride it fast..its not a good idea ..as i found out   
Rear axles aint as strong as you might think 

[DogfighterZen]

Spineshank sounds familier for some reason and i dont know why  but ill find out soon enough matey 

Oh you can bet its tiring and remember its not just the body its the mud and i dont mean what your riding thru its the crap thrown at you by the guys in front ..that can hurt ..a 500 wont rev like a 250 cause it's a four stroke unlike the 250s which are 2 stroke bikes but once they get up and go they can really move and the mud which flies off the rear tyre aint going slow either..i have had a clump hit right in my goggles and the next thing we do is called crashing 
Oh i do have something for ya about bikes which out shocks..i did it.
I grew up on a farm and got my hands of this old as hell RM125 Suzuki..a farm bike and it had no shocks on the rear..its why i got it for 40 bucks 
So i made up 2 steel bars and welding some box section to it for strenght and bolted it on..bloody great fun and man that taught me a ton about keeping the bike under control when the arse is bouncing all over the place and i just took some air out of the back tyre to soften it 
But never ride it fast..its not a good idea ..as i found out   
Rear axles aint as strong as you might think 

I've been to a few races to go support a friend of mine who was one of the best MX riders in Portugal back in the 90s and yes, i remember seeing at least one guy crash exactly because of being blinded by mud coming from the wheels of the people ahead of him... and it was a very hard crash, the guy had just got out of a berm and hit the lip of a jump right after two other guys that were going fast and digging through the ruts.
Apparently, he lost the notion of how he took off and land right on the back side of the landing of a big double jump, head first...
On top of that, he was run over by one guy that didn't jump. He was knocked out cold and was rushed to the hospital. 
As i said, i have nothing but respect for MX riders. It's way more dangerous than bmx riding, that's for sure.
Oh, and regarding that Suzuki of yours, all i have to say is... you're nuts.

[Wardukw]

Oh that would not feel good the next day thats for sure or for probably the next couple of weeks..anything involving the neck and spine is a problem and can take months to yrs to get right.
My spinal damage didnt come from racing ..thats plainly known what did that but like you i expect i didnt think about crashing at all..ya couldnt..think of getting past the dude in front and then the next one thats all i thought about.
Course if you keep thinking about pranging your going to..ya dont have to be a professor to figure that out   
Im always going to miss MX but theres nothing i can do about never riding again..the ol bod is to stuffed now and if i ever to ride again it will be a road going trike and one where i lean back to ride..my knees are rooted and i cant bend em for very long or they lock up..which is quite uncomfortable 
Oh well such as life ..do silly things ..get blown thru a wall 
Im thinking of something for the Mig..the 23 is a swept wing bird and the wings sweep backwards...im thinking of them sweeping forwards..like a X29 but also being able to move..with twin tails and carnads..see this is what happens when i think for to long 

[DogfighterZen]

Like you said, it is what is... there are some things that we just can't control but we all do silly stuff when we're young, some of us just do sillier stuff than most...

Im thinking of something for the Mig..the 23 is a swept wing bird and the wings sweep backwards...im thinking of them sweeping forwards..like a X29 but also being able to move..with twin tails and carnads..see this is what happens when i think for to long 

Yes, nothing wrong with thinking too long, that sounds good!!

[Wardukw]

Oh i have to be careful when it comes to thinking for to long bacause if it takes a weird turn you could end seeing the worlds first trust vectored forward swept wing biplane so control has to be there 

Oh and for your information mate my Suzuki was grest fun 
Fact it was scarey as hell to ride with the solid rear wnd at speed but at slow speed it was just a little bouncey and dude it started every time without fail and being only a 125cc farm bike it was never powerful to start with..i think when it was brand new it would only do like 75 kph ..it was designed for farm work after all and yes i did get shocks for it....eventually  oh and a new back wheel too.

[Wardukw]

Mate since you seem to be a fan of the Huey i want you to do something.
Jump on YouTube..search for this name ...Mike Killian..go thru what he has..think your gonna find something you'll like 

[DogfighterZen]

So, over 120 days since the last post, i come back to this...
This one is even taking longer than the first version... but anyway, i've done some work on it recently and there's been some significant progress, although it may not seem like much.
After a final PSR session on the H stabs, i glued the fin bases in place to start making things fall into place and in symmetry.
Today i managed to finish scratching some bits for the aft section to add some detail and cover up the original single tail location from scrap evergreen sheet.




Work goes on...