Heros Of The Skies

[Tony Collins 1073]

Channel 5 television are running a series called Heros Of The Skies, and next Thursday 20th September at 8pm
the subject is Douglas Bader. The interest for the LMA is centered on his Bristol Bulldog days leading to the crash in
which he lost his legs.
Channel 5 required screening of an authentic looking Bristol Bulldog performing aerobatics and we all know
of the only model aircraft able to fill that roll and look like a fullsize Bulldog. Yes our very own Ian Turney-White got
roped in.
It involved a full hour and a half of flying in front of the cameras which left poor old Ian ready to drop.
Apparently Ian was persuaded to make a low level landing approach flying between two trees. What??????
He also had three cameras attached to the aircraft for some good aerial shots. Ian said he also had to roll
it [ something I have never seen him do ]
Well I dont know how many seconds of actual flying will be shown but well done to Ian for representing
the Large Model Association on TV. Wonder if he'll be in the credits?

[stuart knowles 1611]

Ha! No pressure then!!

I bet when they saw Ian's Bulldog it was the answer to their prayers! I hope that it gets plenty of screen time as reward for Ian's effort.


Will he appear in the credits as Mr I Turnbuckle Tight??

stu k

[Vince Raia]

Will he appear in the credits as Mr I Turnbuckle Tight??

stu k

like it! but well done to Ian, it's certainly a stunning looking model.

[Mike Booth]

The same production company approached me for filming all the Spitfire parts. I've had several producers do the same over the last two years.
One constant feature is the pleading poverty on available budgets. In this case they decided to leave the Spitfire in model form and spend 50k with the real thing at Duxford!
I hope Ian got his true worth for his time, skill and aircraft use.
Another company contacted me and wanted a static wired model built to be filmed from under water as it crashed into the 'sea'.
We've not got much to spend' and then in the same breath tell me that they are hiring the Bond stage at Pinewood for ten days to film the scene in the water tank!
Wake up TV and film bods, some of us are pros in this game and worth taking seriously.
If the models were outsourced from commercial companies they would cost thousands plus.
LMA not to be taken advantage of just because an aircraft already exists.
Nuff said .

[Dave Hayfield]

I totally agree with the comments about the 'spend' by film companies on models. I read, some time ago, an article about the remake of 'Flight of the Pheonix'. The aircraft that was filmed crashing into the desert, a Fairchild Packet, was a large model not required to fly because it travelled down a cable for the shot, cost the film company $240k for the build. They asked the wrong people!

[Scott Douglas]

All credit to Ian, I watched the end result and, if you didn't recognise the model, it was very convincing.

[Andrew Johnston]

I watched the episode on "CatchUp" as I was away for the broadcast. I wondered how they obtained foottage of a bulldog in flight then in one scene the unmistakeable sound of a non-full size engine could be detected and I immediately thoght is could be Ian's model. Great stuff.
It is interesting to note the squandering of film company resources by producers who don't know their subject or don't know who to ask for information. They also seem to always know best.
I was once involved with ITV making a film of our Model Engineers club running live steam locomotives. They spend hours fliming, riding with us, interviewing us and the air time turned out to be appoximtely 20 seconds and introduced as "a miniature indoor model railway exhibition".

Andy Johnston
Wiltshire

[Wright Langer]

Heroes in the Sky is an intense airborne MMOTPS (Massively Multiplayer Online Third person Shooter) that combines high impact PVE and fast paced PVP as it chronicles the events from the beginning to the end of World War II. I like playing the original game as well as a freespins slot that was made from the original game for leovegas. Hope you may enjoy too.