Whur’s my shootin’ iron?
These things go over so low, it’s tempting to pour out the front door in a loincloth, shake a spear skywards and go, “ulululu!” at them.
Awesome day in the sunny South today. When this climate is nice, it is the best — warm in the sun, cool in the shade. It’s turning to rain tomorrow for a few days, so we spent the evening sitting out in the garden drinking fizz and burning junk in the chimenea.
Happy Solstice! Okay, it’s tomorrow, but the Druids have started their sundown procession up to Stonehenge, so y’all can sleep safely in your beds tonight.
Posted: June 20th, 2012 under britain, personal.
Comments: 22
Comments
Comment from Oldcat
Time: June 20, 2012, 11:18 pm
Figures the hippies would be there at the wrong time. The ancients probably were there at the Winter Solstice to make sure the sun began coming back on schedule.
Comment from J.S.Bridges
Time: June 20, 2012, 11:39 pm
The Invasion Of The Ultralights, hey?…
Those things look like a lot of fun, but they seem to be nearly all a solo-kind of thing – you suppose (I’d hope)that means they’re that dead-simple to fly, no dual-instruction needed?
Ask those Druids to keep it low on the way back home; no need for noisy carousing late into the gloaming, and all that.
Comment from the fella what is called sandman and such like
Time: June 20, 2012, 11:45 pm
Hey now, from the ground you could just get a shot to hit that ultra-light with a strong pellet gun. I’m sure that’s illegal in Her Mum’s Disarmed Kingdom, but it can be done. Anything in the airspace over your property and 100 feet in the air above it is yours. Least here in NC it is.
So go get a wrist rocket, a beer or twelve and have at it. The conscientious pilot will thank you for the obstacle avoidance training on the cheap.
Note: We trained WW2 Gunners how to shoot down the Germans with pellet guns and wrist rockets. Before they bombed Hawaii. When the Italians invaded NYC.
Honestly *fingers crossed* I wouldn’t lie to you, Tamer of Chickens…
Comment from Doubting Rich
Time: June 21, 2012, 12:05 am
JS Bridges
They are called microlights in the UK (same thing as ultralights elsewhere), and they do require dual instruction to fly, and a licence. There are plenty of two-seaters around, in fact this type can carry two. A friend of mine is just setting off round the country in one in company; fortunately her copilot is an engineer and test pilot for the BMAA, as these machines are not quite as reliable as the King Airs I fly.
From the photo you can, of course, find out all about this machine, even the owner’s name and address: http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1&mode=detailnosummary&fullregmark=MYZY
Comment from Laughing Buddha
Time: June 21, 2012, 12:35 am
Ah, ultra-lights are terrifying (scared of heights), but such a great ride. A friend’s boyfriend (an instructor) took me over Las Vegas. I think he still has the indentations in the seat from my fingers from several years ago.
And Thanks for the imagery. ‘ULULULULU’
Comment from Mike James
Time: June 21, 2012, 2:22 am
Sort of like the first ten seconds or so of the Jonny Quest closing credits?:
Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: June 21, 2012, 3:11 am
Friday, the days start getting shorter. Winter’s coming!
Comment from Oldcat
Time: June 21, 2012, 3:14 am
The flying disks and jet packs in JQ were taken from actual US experimental craft from the period.
Except for the UFO and the spider robot, unless that is still secret…
Comment from Oh Hell
Time: June 21, 2012, 4:13 am
Bunch of idiots protesting something or other flew a drone over a shooting range to spy on the shooters. Hilarity ensued….
Comment from mojo
Time: June 21, 2012, 5:02 am
Somebody tell the damn Druids that the solstice don’t mean squat. It’s the equinoxes, if you’re interested in planting.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: June 21, 2012, 5:19 am
I can understand the urge to shoot one of those things down, but how the dickens does one clean and cook it afterwards?
Comment from Mike James
Time: June 21, 2012, 5:26 am
Oldcat, while I was a Warner Brothers snob, and had no use for Hanna-Barbera, JQ was the best. The only Saturday morning cartoon show from the sixties which had characters getting killed.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: June 21, 2012, 10:43 am
Thanks for the link, Doubting Rich. Ver-y cool. When I posted the picture, I guessed it would be possible to mine that information from the registration number…I didn’t realize it would be quite that easy.
😯
Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: June 21, 2012, 3:39 pm
When The Husband and I first pledged our troth, he had this gleeful plan of planting a circle of oaks (on the large tracts of land we wish we owned) and declaring it a sacred Wiccan\Druid temple.
Apparently it makes it tax-exempt. Still waiting on the land to plant the trees, though.
Comment from Mysterion
Time: June 21, 2012, 6:45 pm
A couple weeks ago my house was getting buzzed by a crop duster so I can understand the impulse to want to shoot it down. It was like I was having flashbacks from WWII or something.
Comment from JC
Time: June 21, 2012, 7:22 pm
LeRoy Neiman, he daid. http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/showbiz/obit-neiman/index.html
Comment from ryukyu
Time: June 21, 2012, 7:44 pm
“it’s tempting to pour out the front door in a loincloth, shake a spear skywards and go, ulululu!”
That’s called Friday night at my house.
Comment from Mike James
Time: June 21, 2012, 7:51 pm
Mysterion, back in 1977 when I was a kid my family lived in a little place in Kern County in California surrounded by the oil patch and farms.
The coolest airshow of my life took place one day when three TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, converted for ag work and painted in a blue and gold livery worked the fields around our little wide spot in the road applying what I think was defoliant on the cotton fields. Went on for half an hour or so, and many times the aircraft flew right over the house at about 100′ AGL.
Utterly badass. My brother and I were running around dodging the pretend bombs and yelling at each other, “Don’t just stand there, get one up!”, as another TBM made a pass low enough to rattle the windows.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: June 21, 2012, 8:38 pm
My friend and I took a few shots at a low-flying aircraft over his farm with an air rifle when we were kids. It didn’t come down, and it didn’t even register that it was being hit (maybe it wasn’t). So we went and killed a pigeon instead.
Comment from Clifford Skridlow
Time: June 22, 2012, 12:58 pm
A sack of potatoes and a can of Aqua Net will solve your microlight problem in very short order.
Comment from mojo
Time: June 25, 2012, 6:25 pm
“My friend and I took a few shots at a low-flying aircraft over his farm with an air rifle when we were kids.”
Note for Alannis Morrisette: Had you somehow shot the pilot’s eye out, it STILL wouldn’t be irony.
Comment from Coach hire Cape Town
Time: October 2, 2012, 11:42 am
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