Tiger Tiger Burning Bright.....

[Steve Dra 7,588]

I'm happy to report my check airmen have finished their shakedown flights and have made suggestions for enhancements that I have incorporated (and some that I caught on my last walk around inspection.)

 

Added the composite (gray) section around the APU...and added some dirt. 

 

Adjusted the Flying Tiger text as recommended by my check airmen.

 

 

Although a very small adjustment (and easy to miss) I adjusted the reflection line of the metal on the nose section to follow the compound curve as the nose comes to a point.  Look at this awesome shot by Dickens...notice the the reflection line is straight:

 

And the adjustment:

 

You can also see I made the nose cone darker, as well as the composite wing box section.

 

I have a few little issues to resolve then I'll upload her tonight.  Look for her tomorrow in the next Library upload cycle.

She's a beauty guys, and not because I painted her...but because she's a 777, she's metal, and those are good things in aviation!

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

You be the master! I am looking forward to adding this one to my hangar. Thanks Steve.

[Steve Dra 7,588]

My pleasure Tom!

And if you've been following my posts...you may have caught that I extend the Check Airman program to any forum member who's been here at least a decade...I think you qualify. 

Anyway..send me an email address where I can get you the pre-release copy, and you'll be flying her.  Or else you have to wait until she posts to the library tomorrow and makes it on the upload list (Although I have a sneaky suspicion that you could get her sooner than the general public if you wanted to  :wink: )

 

Not bad work for an old retired AT1 who worked on the same helicopter and systems you did eh?    Did you ever work on the ASQ-81 MAD towed array?

 

OMG...Guys...you are NOT going to believe this...I am not kidding...as I'm taking the release screenshots for the upload package...guess what song starts playing on the radio?  I KNOW Chris knows (he coined it in another post).

This is TOO freaky!

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

 

 

Did you ever work on the ASQ-81 MAD towed array?

Who would have thunk that an AT would have that degree of artistic talent??? You have seen my attempt at repainting, right?

 

 

Mad gear? No, that came after my time. I did the AQS-10 and 13 at IMO with some UHF and Doppler thrown in for good measure. I used to think that the Westinghouse (now Northrop) tech rep had the best job in the world. Owned a brand new Corvette and worked less than 4 hours a day in San Diego of all places. I wanted his job!

 

I will wait for it to appear in the Library as I can't do much with it tonight anyway.

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Hehe Ahh...the AQS-10 and 13.  Dipping sonar...I remember going to class on sonar concepts and how the dern thing worked...I can't remember everything from so long ago, but it has "Staves" that were gyro-stabilized so you could get an accurate bearing on the target (remembering that it would gyrate all over the place underwater otherwise...and 400 feet of cable...as an AW you never wanted to see the black cable coming off the reel turn yellow...YOU know what that means)  :wink:   

Being in a training squadron (2 tours actually), we got to see a lot of...uhh...."mishaps".  Do you know what happens when the micro-switch that stops the reel at 20 feet remaining (I think) fails, AND the slow speed switch shorts?  I do vividly remember the AW's (in training) description of the "incident"...he said it was in high speed unreel (it had 2 speeds, mainly so the AW wouldn't accidentally slam it up into the docked position), and was reeling it down to 380 feet when he thought it shoulda slowed down...but it didnt...he saw the yellow cable for just a moment then BAM, sparks, and it was gone.  I dont know how expensive the sonar transducer was, but they aint cheap!  :huh:

 

Anyway I digress hehe.  I see in your beautiful depiction of our bird, you accurately modeled the upper and lower UHF antennas.  I still remember how messy the potting compound was to slather over the rim of the antenna when we had to replace them.

 

Talk about tech reps...I'll never forget our ASW one (He may have been Westinghouse too)...Max Neal...smartest, wittiest man I ever knew.

OK..this is a cool story about him.  Older guy (I guess the age I am now...but looked old when I was a kid in the Navy)...anyway, he used to ALWAYS wear a bow-tie...and a real one, tied it himself.  The kicker to his wardrobe was the he always had socks that matched the bow-tie.

He'd have some crazy ones..with polka dots, etc.  Whenever we saw a bizarre one, we'd say Max, let's see your socks!  Sure enough, they'd match the tie.

So its near Christmas and he's wearing one that is green on one side and red on the other...we figured we got him!  "Max, let's see your socks!"

You guessed it, one green, one red.  We laughed so hard one guy almost fell off the engine deck!

 

Oh and the Doppler I worked on was the ASN-123 (don't ask me how I can remember systems I worked on 25 years ago, but can't remember what I had for breakfast! LoL).

Story about that system (yeah I have a lot of life stories).  So being in a training squadron, our pilots actually practiced water landings in the St. Johns River (HS-1 in Jacksonville...East Coast sailor here...bit of trivia for those reading other than Tom...who knows this...East coast SH3 squadrons had odd numbers, West cost even...soooo...I was East and Tom was West. cool huh?)...back to the story.  The ASN-123 "Dopper" radar was a system that helped the pilots to maintain a steady hover.  It had 2 antennas on the bottom of the airframe we referred to as "Tubs", because they were shaped like...you guessed it.  So one day we get a call that one of our birds is coming back to the flightline after a "hard" water landing and to be on the line to receive it and troubleshoot.

Hehe....as it was coming in, our jaws just dropped as the tubs were dangling below the helo by their antenna cables!  He slammed the bird into the water so hard he dislodged and smashed them (not an easy feat to do it you saw all the rivets holding the tubs in.  How he didn't capsize the bird still amazes me...if you understood the dynamics (too tired to explain it tonight) of a water landing, how incredibly top-heavy the SH-3 is, and the fact he didn't deploy the sponson airbags (another funny story about those too)...it is really fortunate we didn't lose the whole airframe. 

 

Anyway...better stop telling sea stories and get this metal monster uploaded. 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

OK guys.....you know what this screenshot means

 

 

Not sure if you guys notice on my release photos, I try to match the colors of the paint to the bottom banner.  How do you do metal?  Hehe...tricky.  Go look at all my paints...one of those trademarks. :wink:   One's that don't follow that pattern, I was experimenting, hehe. Just something fun to do...Kinda like the Max Neal, bow-tie/socks story...maybe we're both whacky! Hehe

 

She should be in the next upload cycle.

Enjoy her guys, and let's see some shots of the interesting places you fly her.  A freeware painter's only request for ROI. 

[JAT 185]

Looks great.

 

nm

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Good morning simmers! (Well morning in Dallas).

I'm not going going to speculate as to why this repaint seem to make it through the library process at a quicker than usual pace...but I'm thinking there may have been some "Executive" involvement.   Let the conspiracies begin! :Just Kidding: 

 

She is in the library NOW guys...go grab that Tiger by the tail! 

[pinlifter 502]

I love executive involvement    You'll be seeing many more FTL flights in the future Steve.  I wonder if I can take her down to McMurdo Station Antarctica sometime?  Perhaps Thule Greenland or Lukla near Mt Everest.  I may wanna scratch that last idea B)

[Tim-HH 572]

Amazing livery, Steve! Thanks for another masterpiece :smile:

[Steve Dra 7,588]

 

 

Amazing livery, Steve! Thanks for another masterpiece

 

From one metal man (a vintage one) to another...thanks.  I love the way the sun glints of shiny aluminum, and the 777 has that in spades! 

[Dickens 1]

 

 

You have seen my attempt at repainting, right?

Tom, honestly I wouldn't even try to paint   

 

Anyway, I've caught these which I've sent to you, Steve.

 

 

[pinlifter 502]

I shook the cobwebs off the touched up version Steve, on a short hop from Chubu-Taipei under an early morning hazy sun as FTL33

 

 

 

 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Thanks Juan and Chris!  Stunning pics guys....keep them coming. This one is special...METAL RULES, PAINT DROOLS! 

I think its ironic that I spent more time "not" putting paint on this bare metal beauty that I have on most of my paints that are laden with 100's of pounds of the white stuff (and other various colors)!

[pinlifter 502]

 

 

METAL RULES, PAINT DROOLS

 

I was actually thinking about wearing sunglasses while flying her, she's so shiny