Flying Itself 04-01-2013

[eee]

Whoa, a lot of questions! One answer: Atsali.

They were probably all grouped around Lily trying to figure out their nex step. They're apparently under some sort of deadline and need to move as fast as possible, which requires planning. And while they were focused on that, they weren't watching the birdie...

The pun jar is watching you...

Gaze not long into the Pun Jar, lest the Pun Jar gaze into you!

(drops a paperback copy of Beyond Good and Evil into the jar)

[jwhouk]

That's McBride in the background behind Lilly.

[as363]

To Paul...

Besides the thanks for another great cel - How is the Car Donation request ? If it is still going - I can drop another Quarter when my Social comes in.

[DilyV]

I'm beginning to seriously worry about Atsali...

[sheik]

I'm beginning to seriously worry about Atsali...

I am too.
All she really has to do is run up the rpm on the rotor and slap the stick to one side while still on the ground.
That will keel the Apache over and strike the ground with the rotor, putting the Apache out of commission.
She'll be safe in that armored cockpit but the crews may not be safe from flying debris.
It is possible, though unlikely, that she may get trapped in the cockpit once the Apache is on its side.
The problem is that we don't know if that is what she'll do.

[Fairportfan]

"...only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Voted the best movie line ever in a {British} newspaper poll a few years ago.

Personally, i prefer "Think you used enough dynamite, Butch?"

[NOTDilbert]

Wow, I'm out for a few weeks, and Our Katherine has Perils and Backstory. And way too much forum stuff to catch up on in a night. Alarums and excursions indeed.

So, how's everyone?

[Opus the Poet]

I notice that my predictive powers were spot on as Atsali is going to crash the other chopper (I wanted to put "bird" but thought better of it because, well Atsali and her wings and feet). As I pointed out she could take off and jump away from the chopper when she got high enough and it would crash on its own, particularly if she kicked the stick "accidentally" on the way out of the cockpit. Since she can shape shift into her siren form in the blink of an eye, http://wapsisquare.com/comic/do-the-decoy/ (pa-ting!) she could get away without needing any kind of rescue gear.

As far as I know, and I can be wrong, choppers don't have autopilot. Once she let's go of the controls it starts falling out of the sky or spinning in circles. So she is then supposed to jump out of the chopper, avoid the whirling chop-o-matic blades, duck down and then fly to avoid it as it falls out of the sky. This is Sali we are talking about. The flying girl who doesn't like heights? She just over came that and now we expect her to fly out and dodge the blades at the same time. Okay. Weirder things had happened in the strip so far.

AFAIK the AH64 has several seconds of hands-off stability should the pilot need to operate more controls than he has hands as chopper stability and control are not completely diametrically opposed like they are on fixed-wing flyers (which I have some more experience with than choppers). I have flown exactly 15 minutes in one piston chopper (Bell 47 I think, it has been a while) and signed off for solo in a J-3 Cub and a couple hundred hours in a 2-axis ultralight. Also built hundreds of free-flight, and control-line models since I was about 9YO, including many original designs.

[MerchManDan]

That's McBride in the background behind Lilly.

Not sure about that. No glasses or freckles or casual clothing.

[Jabberwonky]

That's McBride in the background behind Lilly.

Not sure about that. No glasses or freckles or casual clothing.

Or generous breastesses

Just sayin'.

[MerchManDan]

Oh, true. I would've mentioned McBride's great *ahem* tracts of land but didn't want to give the impression that's all I thought of her. Besides, the flight suit could be restraining her impressive form.

[Mark N]

Am I the first person to notice that the person in the first frame looks like kinda Cobra Commander????

Sorry, the lack of a face and the release of the new 'GI Joe' film made me think of it.

[DilyV]

That's McBride in the background behind Lilly.

Not sure about that. No glasses or freckles or casual clothing.

Or generous breastesses

Just sayin'.

RME... is that all you guys think about is a woman's breasticles? *giggles* I agree... not Suzie McBride. Hair is too short, and if she knew how to fly helos, why would she be working the beat with Lily?

[Jabberwonky]

That's McBride in the background behind Lilly.

Not sure about that. No glasses or freckles or casual clothing.

Or generous breastesses. Just sayin'.

RME... is that all you guys think about is a woman's breasticles? *giggles* I agree... not Suzie McBride. Hair is too short, and if she knew how to fly helos, why would she be working the beat with Lily?

It's not the only thing...

[Opus the Poet]

It's not the only thing...

Oh! I'm going on a campout in a couple of weeks and I have sent that link to the person we pay to do the cooking...

[Boxilar]

The scene of 'Sali flinging an Apache all over the sky got a genuine laugh out of me. Back in the early 2000s, a mod for the massive first person shooter Battlefield 1942 came out that was called Desert Combat Alpha. As the name suggests, BF '42 was set during WW2 and had huge maps with vehicles that included armor and aircraft. The Desert Combat mod replaced the equipment with Desert Storm era gear and vehicles, including helicopters. One of the availible helos was the AH64 Apache. I knew the basic priciples of helicopter flight, but knowing them and putting them into practice were two seperate things. DCA had some fairly realistic helicopter physics. The game modeled obscure phenomena like trailing edge stall, which is where the retreating edge side of the rotar disc tends to want to dip and the advancing edge wants to climb when the helicopter is flying forward at high speed.

The first time I played the game was at a LAN party. Ten of us got together, hooked our computers up to a LAN hub and went at each other. I had been playing Battlefield 1942 for awhile, and was excited about getting to fly simulated helicopters. That first game session, I, and everyone else, planted Apaches, Hinds, Little Birds, Blackhawks and Gazelles all over the landscape. It was especially bad on one map where the only way to get to each other was across a lake,and the only transports available were the helicopters. Not that any of us stopped trying. There were cries throughout the house of, "I think I got it!" followed by a helicopter cartwheeling wildly overhead and a crash. What was even more fun was wathing the bots, who were programed to fly WW2 era aircraft, trying to fly the helicopters.

Most of us went home, loaded up the game and practiced so that the next game session some of us were at least competent at flying the damn things. Some of us got pretty damn good at it in the months we played, and when the host computer loaded a map with choppers, cries went up of ,"Don't let player so and so get an Apache!"

Desert Combat Apache on the El Alamein map.