In a message dated 1/6/01 7:43:02 AM Eastern Standard Time,
imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< For the RAF, a Direct Hit (or DH) has to be a little closer than that
- except on the northern Dutch ranges at Noordvader and Vliehors
where you might be given a "DH a little long" ;-). Those Dutch
scorers were my favourite... especially as they did not get too
excited if you dragged your live gun through their tower by lining up
on the wrong target!
I can understand that. The way I got into the range and tower was the fact
that one of my best buddies was in charge of the range for a couple of years.
I can remember traveling with him to a couple of Canadian Air Force meets
(great OM content there) where units from all over the US also attended, and
a couple of pilots mentioned to him that he seemed familiar. Well, it was
the fact that he was the voice, the air traffic controller in the tower AND
the scorer of their bombing runs. Well, as you can imagine, we weren't
allowed to buy a drink all weekend, they had to take care of their scorer!
<< There is generally a "berm" in front of and behind the strage targets
on US ranges to soak up the near misses. The bullseye BTW is near
invisible at open-fire range, around 1100 yards on your typical pass
with a 20mm. You can just see the shape of the target which normally
counts the rounds passing a sensor. The rounds are still supersonic
at these ranges and the crack is quite noticeable. The US
Gatling-type aircraft guns make the coolest sounds as they wind up to
speed (very quickly of course), firing their rounds. The sequence of
sounds is: high-speed electric whine, very fast banging of the rounds
firing followed by the firecrackers of sonic booms. If they were
shooting explosive rounds the bangs at the target would follow the
sonic booms.
>>
I oftened wondered if you pilots could actually see the target clearly when
you first lined up... And I'll never forget the sounds the A-10s' gatling
guns made. Super cool!
Regards,
George S.
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|