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It is decorated with grotesque sculptures – every one of them different. Santa Maria church, Castro Urdiales.
Jerusalem, Israel: Distorted reflection of traffic and other lights, in the mirror-like surface of an automobile’s external, metal, spare-wheel housing… (2/3)
Demonstration of time suspension.
Two external flashes, remotely triggered.
One placed closed to the hands to provide focused illumination to hands and the marbles, power set to 1/128th, one placed away and pointed at a wall to reflect lights and provide uniform lighting.
in die noch dunkle Mörgendämmerung hinein geblitzt
9x Zoom, 185 mm
Dawn: Yellow flower and flash fired,
mist and fog, outdoor in the morning
Canon PowerShot SX60 HS, Canon, PowerShot, SX60, HS, Bridgecamera, bridge, camera, Canon PowerShot SX60, Canon SX60,Powershot SX60,SX60HS,eagle1effi, Powershot SX60,SX60 HS,SX
Photoscape:
tilt shift
lineare Einfärbung oben
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External flash
430 EX II Blitz
The 430 EX II has a Guide Number of 141' (43 m) .
The Canon Speedlite 430EX Flash and other Canon Speedlite Flashes provide a red patterned focus assist beam - enabling focusing in complete darkness within range up to 20' .
IMG_5450
ISO 320
Je suis passé dans la Cupola pile au bon moment pour cette photo prise depuis le segment russe. D’ailleurs c’est une vue que vous ne reverrez plus maintenant que le module DC1 est parti ! Mais n’ayez crainte, le hublot du laboratoire MLM est encore plus grand et transparent 👌
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I happened to be in the Cupola at the right time for a shot from the Russian segment, and it’s a view we will never have again since DC1 is now gone! Don’t fear, MLM windows are even better and bigger 😉
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
439C5836
At this point our resident weather man was able to tell us it was going to rain soon. He was right. I don't know how he does it, its an amazing gift he has
A view of the exterior structures: our UHF antenna (used for spacewalks to transmit our communication), our lab WORF window shutter (we open it to take pictures (from the inside of course)), and Columbus in the background. It shows that when on a spacewalk we need to think carefully how we move and where we place our hands. Lots of sharp and delicate equipment everywhere! That shiny square on the left is the Atmosphere Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM, or the Space Storm-Hunter as our communications people try to rebrand it. It is a Danish-led facility that monitors complex weather phenomena. For years pilots and researchers suspected things were happening above lightning cells but it was hard to research. Few pilots were crazy enough to fly into a thunderstorm (even for science!) and camping out on a mountain top for months in the hope a lightning strike would happen underneath was also not very efficient (scientists love efficiency, like astronauts!). The Space Station is ideal as we travel often over the equator where there are more thunderstorms and we fly relatively close over them. ASIM is a great success, confirming new phenomena happening in our world and it made the front page of Nature magazine, not bad for a box the size of a small fridge! #GoDenmark
Une vue de l’extérieur de la Station :
- les antennes UHF (utilisées pour communiquer lors des sorties extravéhiculaires)
- le hublot du laboratoire WORF derrière son volet, qu’on ouvre pour prendre des photos (en général de l’intérieur, oui :sweat-smile:)
- le laboratoire européen Columbus à l’arrière-plan
Vous comprenez sans doute mieux pourquoi, lorsqu’on sort dans l’espace, on doit être aussi attentif à la façon dont on se déplace et aux endroits où on s’agrippe : il y a des des équipements fragiles partout ! Le carré brillant à gauche, c’est notre chasseur de tempête ASIM (pour Atmosphere Space Interactions Monitor). C’est une installation danoise qui étudie les phénomènes météorologiques complexes au dessus des orages. Pendant des années, les pilotes et les scientifiques ont suspecté la présence de phénomènes lumineux au-dessus de ces gros nuages, mais c’était difficile à prouver. Peu de pilotes sont assez fous pour survoler un orage, même pour la science, et rester en haut d’une montage en espérant voir le dessus d’un orage, ce n’est pas très efficace (comme les astronautes, les chercheurs aiment l’efficacité). La Station spatiale internationale présente plusieurs atouts pour cette traque. Elle n’est pas très loin de la Terre, mais assez pour être au-dessus des nuages, et elle survole souvent l’équateur où les orages les plus violents se produisent plus souvent. ASIM fonctionne très bien, il a confirmé la présence de ces phénomènes lumineux don’t on commence à peine à comprendre le role, et ses résultats ont fait la une du journal scientifique Nature. Pas mal pour un instrument de la taille d’un petit frigo !
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
439B6387
Je suis passé dans la Cupola pile au bon moment pour cette photo prise depuis le segment russe. D’ailleurs c’est une vue que vous ne reverrez plus maintenant que le module DC1 est parti ! Mais n’ayez crainte, le hublot du laboratoire MLM est encore plus grand et transparent 👌
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I happened to be in the Cupola at the right time for a shot from the Russian segment, and it’s a view we will never have again since DC1 is now gone! Don’t fear, MLM windows are even better and bigger 😉
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
439C5821
An external view of Galway Cathedral - the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas - in County Galway, Ireland
Griffith Observatory is a facility in Los Angeles, California sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. It commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. The observatory is a popular tourist attraction with an excellent view of the Hollywood Sign, and an extensive array of space and science-related displays. Since the observatory's opening in 1935, admission has been free, in accordance with the benefactor's will, after whom the observatory is named – Colonel Griffith J. Griffith.
3,015 acres (12.20 km2) of land surrounding the observatory was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Colonel Griffith J. Griffith on December 16, 1896.In his will Griffith donated funds to build an observatory, exhibit hall, and planetarium on the donated land. Griffith's objective was to make astronomy accessible by the public, as opposed to the prevailing idea that observatories should be located on remote mountaintops and restricted to scientists.
Griffith drafted detailed specifications for the observatory. In drafting the plans, he consulted with Walter Adams, the future director of Mount Wilson Observatory, and George Ellery Hale, who founded (with Andrew Carnegie) the first astrophysical telescope in Los Angeles.
As a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project,construction began on June 20, 1933, using a design developed by architect John C. Austin based on preliminary sketches by Russell W. Porter.
The observatory and accompanying exhibits were opened to the public on May 14, 1935. In its first five days of operation the observatory logged more than 13,000 visitors. Dinsmore Alter was the museum's director during its first years.
During World War II the planetarium was used to train pilots in celestial navigation. The planetarium was again used for this purpose in the 1960s to train Apollo program astronauts for the first lunar missions.
online store: www.artfinder.com/tim-knifton
Instagram: www.instagram.com/Timster_1973
Je suis passé dans la Cupola pile au bon moment pour cette photo prise depuis le segment russe. D’ailleurs c’est une vue que vous ne reverrez plus maintenant que le module DC1 est parti ! Mais n’ayez crainte, le hublot du laboratoire MLM est encore plus grand et transparent 👌
.
I happened to be in the Cupola at the right time for a shot from the Russian segment, and it’s a view we will never have again since DC1 is now gone! Don’t fear, MLM windows are even better and bigger 😉
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
439C5814
External staircases seem to be quite common in Japan. I wonder what it's look to look over from the top!
---- procession of Holy Agate, Catania (Sicily), 4 February: the procession makes the so-called "external tour" which touches some places of martyrdom of the young Saint Agate in the Catania city. ----
---- processione di Sant'Agata, Catania (Sicilia), 4 febbraio: il corteo compie il cosiddetto "giro esterno" che tocca alcuni luoghi del martirio della giovane "Santuzza Agata" nella città catanese. -----
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click to activate the icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
Qi Bo's photos on Flickr Hive Mind
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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In the city of Catania (Sicily) in occasion of the feast of her patron saint Agatha, which took place on the 3, 4 and 5 February (this dates commemorates the martyrdom of the young Saint), and on 17 August too (this date celebrates the return to Catania of her remains, after these had been transferred to Constantinople by the Byzantine general Maniaces as war booty, and there remained for 86 years), when the Sicilian city is dressed up to feast, with a scent of orange blossom and mandarins, and its citizens show that they possess an extraordinary love and bond with the young martyr saint Agatha.
The religious sicilian feast of Saint Agatha is the most important feast of Catania, its inhabitants from five centuries, during the three days of the feast in honor of her "Santuzza" (young Saint), create a unique setting, with celebrations and rituals impressive, which means that this event is regarded as the third religious festival in the world (some say the second ...) after the "Semana Santa" in Seville and the "Corpus Christi" in Cuzco, Peru. Unlike other religious holidays, more sober, to Sant'Agata highlights a vocation exuberant typical of the south Italy, who loves to combine the sacred with the profane.
The cult of the young Santa dates back to the third century, when the teenager Agatha was martyred for refusing the roman proconsul Quintiziano. One year after the death of the young Agatha, on 5 February of the year 252, his virginal veil was carried in procession, and it is said it was able to save Catania from destruction due to a devastating eruption of Mount Etna.
The festivities begin with the procession of the "Candlemas", that are giant Baroque wooden "candlesticks" paintings in gold, each representing an ancient guild (butchers, fishmongers, grocers, greengrocers, etc.), which are brought by eight devotees; the candlemas anticipate the arrival of the "float" of Saint Agatha during the procession. Devotees, men and women, wearing a traditional garment similar to a white bag, cinched at the waist by a black rope, gloves and a white handkerchief, and a black velvet cap, and it seems that such clothing evoke nightgown with the qule the Catanese, awakened with a start by the touch of the bells of the Cathedral, welcomed the naval port, in 1126, the relics of the Holy which fell from Constantinople. On float, consisting of a silver chariot sixteenth of thirty tons, which is driven by a double and long line of devotees with the robust and long ropes, takes place the bust of Saint Agatha, completely covered with precious stones and jewels. On February 4, the parade celebrates the so-called "external path" that touches some places of martyrdom in the city of Catania; the next day, the 5 instead the procession along the "aristocrat path", which runs along the main street, Via Etnea, the parlor of Catania. On this day the devotees carry on their shoulders the long candles of varying thickness, there are some not very big, others are fairly heavy, but some skim exceptional weights.
This year 2020, I was only able to take photos of the procession which takes place on February 4th.
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Nella città di Catania (Sicilia) in occasione della festa della sua giovane santa patrona Agata, che ha avuto luogo come ogni anno il 3, il 4 ed il 5 di febbraio (questa data commemora il martirio della Santa giovinetta), festa che viene ripetuta anche il 17 agosto (questa data rievoca il ritorno a Catania delle sue spoglie, dopo che queste erano state trasferite a Costantinopoli da parte del generale bizantino Maniace come bottino di guerra, spoglie che ivi rimasero per 86 anni); per questa occasione la città siciliana è vestita a festa con profumi di fiori d'arancio e mandarini, coi suoi cittadini che mostrano di possedere uno straordinario amore e legame con la giovane martire Agata.
Gli abitanti di Catania, oramai da cinque secoli, nei tre giorni della festa in onore della "Santuzza", danno vita ad una scenografia unica, con celebrazioni e riti imponenti, che fanno si che questo evento sia considerato come la terza festa religiosa al mondo (qualcuno dice la seconda ...) dopo la "Semana Santa" di Siviglia ed il "Corpus Domini" a Cuzco, in Perù. A differenza di altre feste religiose, più sobrie, quella di Sant'Agata mette in luce una vocazione esuberante tipica del meridione, che ama unire il sacro col profano.
Il culto della giovane Santa risale al terzo secolo, quando l'adolescente Agata fu martirizzata per aver rifiutato il proconsole romano Quintiziano. Un anno dopo la morte della giovane Agata, avvenuta il 5 febbraio dell'anno 252, il suo velo virginale venne portato in processione, e si narra esso riuscì a salvare Catania dalla sua distruzione a causa di una devastante eruzione del vulcano Etna.
I festeggiamenti iniziano con il corteo delle "candelore", le quali sono dei giganteschi e pesanti "candelabri" in legno, in stile barocco, dipinti in oro, ognuna rappresentante una antica corporazione (macellai, pescivendoli, pizzicagnoli, fruttivendoli, ecc.), che vengono portati da otto devoti: esse anticipano l'arrivo della "vara" di Sant'Agata durante la processione. I devoti, sia donne che uomini, indossano un tipico indumento simile ad un sacco bianco, stretto in vita da una cordicella nera, guanti ed un fazzoletto bianchi, ed infine una papalina di velluto nero, sembra che tale abbigliamento rievochi la camicia da notte con la quale i Catanesi, svegliatisi di soprassalto dal tocco improvviso delle campane del Duomo, accolsero al porto navale, nel 1126, le reliquie della Santa che rientravano da Costantinopoli. Sulla vara, costituita da un carro argentato cinquecentesco di trenta quintali, trainata da una doppia e lunghissima fila di devoti tramite delle robuste e lunghe funi, prende posto il busto di Sant'Agata, completamente ricoperto di pietre preziose e gioielli. Il 4 febbraio, il corteo compie il cosiddetto "giro esterno" che tocca alcuni luoghi del martirio nella città catanese; il giorno dopo, il 5, il corteo percorre il "giro aristocratico", che percorre la strada principale, la via Etnea, salotto buono di Catania. In questo giorno i devoti portano in spalla dei lunghi ceri di vario spessore, ce ne sono alcuni non molto grossi, altri sono discretamente pesanti, ma alcuni sfiorano pesi eccezionali.
Quest'anno 2020, ho potuto realizzare solo le foto della processione che si svolge il 4 febbraio.
The Old Summer Palace, known in Chinese as Yuanming Yuan (圆明园; "Gardens of Perfect Brightness"), and originally called the Imperial Gardens (御园), was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. It is located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) northwest of the walls of the former Imperial City section of Beijing. Constructed in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Old Summer Palace where the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty and his successors resided and handled state affairs; the Forbidden City was used for formal ceremonies. The Old Summer Palace was known for its extensive collection of garden and building architecture and other works of art. It was also called the "Garden of Gardens" (万园之园) in its heyday.
In 1860, during the Second Opium War, as the Anglo-French expedition force relentlessly approached Beijing, two British envoys, a journalist for The Times and a small escort of British and Indian troopers were sent to meet Prince Yi under a flag of truce to negotiate a Qing surrender. Meanwhile, the French and British troops reached the palace and conducted extensive looting and destruction. Later on, as news emerged that the negotiation delegation had been imprisoned and tortured, resulting in 20 deaths, the British High Commissioner to China, Lord Elgin, retaliated by ordering the complete destruction of the palace, which was then carried out by British troops.
The Imperial Gardens at the Old Summer Palace were made up of three gardens:
Garden of Perfect Brightness proper (圆明园)
Garden of Eternal Spring (长春园)
Elegant Spring Garden (绮春园)
Together, they covered an area of 3.5 square kilometers (860 acres), almost five times the size of the Forbidden City grounds and eight times the size of the Vatican City. Hundreds of structures, such as halls, pavilions, temples, galleries, gardens, lakes and bridges, stood on the grounds.
In addition, hundreds of examples of Chinese artwork and antiquities were stored in the halls, along with unique copies of literary works and compilations. Several famous landscapes of southern China had been reproduced in the Imperial Gardens.
Western Mansions
Main article: Xiyang Lou
The most visible architectural remains of the Old Summer Palace can be found in the Western mansions (Xiyang Lou) section of 18th century European-style palaces, fountains and formal gardens. These structures, built partly of stone but mainly with a Chinese infrastructure of timber columns, colored tiles and brick walls, were planned and designed by the Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione with Michel Benoist responsible for the fountains and waterwork. Qianlong Emperor became interested in the architectural project after seeing an engraving of a European fountain, and employed Castiglione and Benoist to carry out the work to satisfy his taste for exotic buildings and objects.
Western-style palaces, pavilion, aviaries, a maze, fountains, basins, and waterworks as well as perspective paintings organized as an outdoor theater stage were constructed. A striking clock fountain was placed in front of the largest palace, the Haiyan Tang. The fountain had twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac that spouted water in turn every 2 hours, but all spouting water in concert at noon. These European-style buildings however only occupied an area along the back of the Garden of Eternal Spring that was small compared to the overall area of the gardens. More than 95% of the Imperial Gardens were made up of Chinese-style buildings. There were also a few buildings in Tibetan and Mongol styles, reflecting the diversity of the Qing Empire.
In 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French expeditionary forces, having marched inland from the coast at Tianjin (Tientsin), arrived in Beijing (Peking).
In mid-September, two envoys, Henry Loch and Harry Parkes went ahead of the main force under a flag of truce to negotiate with Prince Yi and representatives of the Qing Empire at Tongzhou (Tungchow). After a day of talks, they and their small escort of British and Indian troopers (including two British envoys and Thomas William Bowlby, a journalist for The Times) were taken prisoner by the Qing general Sengge Rinchen. They were taken to the Ministry of Justice (or Board of Punishments) in Beijing, where they were confined and tortured. Parkes and Loch were returned after two weeks, with 14 other survivors. 20 British, French and Indian captives died. Their bodies were barely recognizable.
On the night of 5 October, French units diverted from the main attack force towards the Old Summer Palace. At the time, the palace was occupied by only some eunuchs and palace maids; the Xianfeng Emperor and his entourage had already fled to the Chengde Mountain Resort in Hebei. Although the French commander Charles Cousin-Montauban assured his British counterpart, James Hope Grant, that "nothing had been touched", there was extensive looting by French and British soldiers. There was no significant resistance to the looting, even though many Qing soldiers were in the vicinity.
On October 18, Lord Elgin, the British High Commissioner to China, retaliated against the torture and executions by ordering the destruction of the Old Summer Palace. Destroying the Old Summer Palace was also thought to be a way of discouraging the Qing Empire from using kidnapping as a bargaining tool. It took 3,500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze, and the massive fire lasted for three days. Unknown to the troops, some 300 remaining eunuchs and palace maids, who concealed themselves from the intruders in locked rooms, perished with the burnt palace buildings. Only 13 buildings survived intact, most of them in the remote areas or by the lakeside. The palace was again sacked and completely destroyed in 1900 when the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing.
British and French looters preferred porcelain (much of which still graces British and French country houses) while neglecting bronze vessels prized locally for cooking and burial in tombs. Many such treasures dated back to the Shang, Zhou and Han dynasties and were up to 3,600 years old. A specific exception was the looting of the Haiyantang Zodiac fountain with its twelve bronze animal heads. Some of the most notable treasures ended up at the Chinese Museum in the Palace of Fontainebleau, which Empress Eugénie specifically set up in 1867 to house these newly acquired collections.
Once the Old Summer Palace had been reduced to ruins, a sign was raised with an inscription in Chinese stating, "This is the reward for perfidy and cruelty". The burning of the palace was the last act of the war.
According to Professor Wang Daocheng of the Renmin University of China, not all of the palace was destroyed in the original burning. Instead, some historical records indicate that 16 of the garden scenes survived the destruction in 1860. Wang identifies the Republican era and the Cultural Revolution as two significant periods that contributed further to the destruction of the Old Summer Palace. Photographic evidence and eye witness accounts make it clear that (although the palace complex was initially protected by the Qing emperors)it was during the Boxer Rebellion and in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the dynasty when most of the surviving structures were destroyed. Further, the Imperial household itself sold off the magnificent trees in the garden for revenue during the 1890s and after 1900 the palace was used as a veritable builder's yard for anyone who wanted construction materials. Entire buildings were built of materials taken from the Yuanming Yuan and smart Peking houses were adorned with sculptures and architectural elements plundered from the site.
Like the Forbidden City, no commoner had ever been allowed into the Old Summer Palace, as it was used exclusively by the imperial family of the Qing Empire. The burning of the Old Summer Palace is still a very sensitive issue in China today. The destruction of the palace has been perceived as barbaric and criminal by many Chinese, as well as by external observers. In his "Expédition de Chine", Victor Hugo described the looting as, "Two robbers breaking into a museum. One has looted, the other has burnt. one of the two conquerors filled its pockets, seeing that, the other filled its safes; and they came back to Europe laughing hand-in-hand. Before history, one of the bandits will be called France and the other England." In his letter, Hugo hoped that one day France would feel guilty and return what it had plundered from China.
Mauricio Percara, journalist and Argentine writer who works at China Radio International, talks about the apology through the literature by Victor Hugo and mentioned in his story entitled redemption the bust of the French writer located in the old Summer Palace: "at the site where their French peers ever posed his destructive feet today a radiant bust of the great Victor Hugo rises. From the old Summer Palace, the gardens of perfect brightness, a righteous French poses her look of stone in the snow falling obediently on the worn floor of the capital of the North
Following the sacking of the Old Summer Palace, the Qing imperial court relocated to the Forbidden City.
In 1873, the teenage Tongzhi Emperor attempted to rebuild the Old Summer Palace, on the pretext of turning it into a place of retirement for his two former regents, the empress dowagers Ci'an and Cixi. However, the imperial court lacked the financial resources to rebuild the palace, and at the urging of the court, the emperor finally agreed to stop the project in 1874. During the 1880s, an adjacent imperial gardens, the Gardens of Clear Ripples (the present-day Summer Palace) was restored for the use of Empress Dowager Cixi as a new summer resort, albeit on a smaller scale.
In the present day, the ruins of the European-style palaces are the most prominent building remnants on the site. This has misled some visitors to believe wrongly that the Old Summer Palace was made up only of European-style buildings.
A few Chinese-style buildings in the outlying Elegant Spring Garden also survived the fire. Some of these buildings were restored by the Tongzhi Emperor before the project was abandoned. In 1900, many of the buildings that had survived or had been restored were burnt for good by the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance.
Most of the site was left abandoned and used by local farmers as agricultural land. Only in the 1980s was the site reclaimed by the government and turned into a historical site. The Yuanmingyuan Artists Colony became famous for germinating a new wave of painters such as Fang Lijun and musicians such as Fa Zi on the site before it was shut down by the government and many artists relocated to the Songzhuang area outside of Beijing. Debates in the 1990s arose regarding restoration and development issues and a more recent environmental controversy brought a new political life to the park as it became a symbol of China's "national wound".
from Wikipedia
Fraserburgh passenger railway station a few months before closure.
NBL type 2, D6145 has recently arrived with the train from Aberdeen.
(Picture taken by the late Robin Barbour)
At the other end of this train is another NBL type 2, D6142. By co-incidence a few months later from when this photograph was taken, on the 15th October 1965 these 2 locos hauled the very last Royal train from Ballater to Aberdeen.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the T53 turboshaft engine of the UH-1 "Huey". By June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Bell built 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U.S. Army between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras chalked up over a million operational hours in Vietnam.
The U.S. Marine Corps was very interested in the AH-1G Cobra, too, but it preferred a twin-engine version for improved safety in over-water operations, and also wanted a more potent turret-mounted weapon. At first, the Department of Defense had balked at providing the Marines with a twin-engine version of the Cobra, in the belief that commonality with Army AH-1Gs outweighed the advantages of a different engine fit. However, the Marines won out and awarded Bell a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras in May 1968. As an interim measure the U.S. Army passed on thirty-eight AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969. The AH-1J also received a more powerful gun turret with a three-barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon based on the six-barrel M61 Vulcan cannon.
During the 1990s, the US forces gradually phased out its Cobra fleet. The withdrawn AH-1s were typically offered to other potential operators, usually NATO allies. Some were also given to the USDA's Forest Service for fire surveillance, and a handful AH-1s went into private hands, including the NASA. Among these airframes were some USMC AH-1Js, which had in part been mothballed in the Mojave Desert since their replacement through more powerful and modern AH-1 variants and the AH-64.
About twenty airframes were, after having been de-militarized, bought by the Kaman Corporation in 2003, in a bold move to quickly respond to more than 20 inquiries for the company’s K-1200 ‘K-Max’ crane synchropter since the type’s end of production in 2001 from firefighting, logging and industry transport requirements. While not such a dedicated medium lift helicopter as the K-1200, which had from the outset been optimized for external cargo load operations, the twin-engine AH-1J promised to be a very effective alternative and a powerful basis for a conversion into a crane helicopter.
The result of this conversion program was the Kaman K-1300, also known as the “K-Cobra” or “Crane Cobra”. While the basic airframe of the AH-1J was retained, extensive detail modifications were made. To reduce weight and compensate for the extensive hardware changes, the SeaCobra lost its armor, the chin turret, and the stub wings. Beyond that, many invisible changes were made; the internal structure between the engine mounts was beefed up with an additional cage structure and a cargo hook was installed under the fuselage in the helicopter’s center of lift.
To further optimize the K-Cobra’s performance, the dynamic components were modified and improved, too. While the engine remained the same, its oil cooler was enlarged and the original output limit to 1.500 shp was removed and the gearbox was strengthened to fully exploit the twin-engine’s available power of 1,800 shp (1,342 kW). The rotor system was also modified and optimized for the transport of underslung loads: the original UH-1 dual-blade rotors were replaced with new four-blade rotors. The new main rotor with rugged heavy-duty blades offered more lift at less rotor speed, and the blades’ lift sections were moved away from the hub so that downwash and turbulences directly under the helicopter’s CoG and man hook were reduced to keep the cargo load more stable. Due to the main rotor’s slightly bigger diameter the tail rotor was changed into a slightly smaller four-blade rotor, too. This new arrangement made the K-1300 more stable while hovering or during slow speed maneuvers and more responsive to steering input.
The Cobra’s crew of two was retained, but the cockpit was re-arranged and split into two compartments: the pilot retained the original rear position in the tandem cockpit under the original glazing, but the gunner’s station in front of him, together with the secondary dashboard, was omitted and replaced by a new, fully glazed cabin under the former gunner position. This cabin occupied the former gun station and its ammunition supply and contained a rearward-facing workstation for a second pilot with full controls. It was accessible via a separate door or a ladder from above, through a trap door in the former gunner’s station floor, where a simple foldable bench was available for a third person. This arrangement was chosen due to almost complete lack of oversight of the slung load from the normal cockpit position, despite a CCTV (closed circuit television) system with two cameras intended for observation of slung loads. The second pilot would control the helicopter during delicate load-handling maneuvers, while the primary pilot “above” would fly the helicopter during transfer flights, both sharing the workload.
To accommodate the cabin under the fuselage and improve ground handling, the AH-1J’s skids were replaced by a stalky, fixed four-wheel landing gear that considerably increased ground clearance (almost 7 feet), making the attachment of loads on the ground to the main ventral hook easier, as the K-1300 could be “rolled over” the cargo on the ground and did not have to hover above it to connect. However, an external ladder had to be added so that the pilot could reach his/her workstation almost 10 feet above the ground.
The bulky ventral cabin, the draggy landing gear and the new lift-optimized rotor system reduced the CraneCobra’s top speed by a third to just 124 mph (200 km/h), but the helicopter’s load-carrying capacity became 35% higher and the Cobra’s performance under “hot & high” conditions was markedly improved, too.
For transfer flights, a pair of external auxiliary tanks could be mounted to the lower fuselage flanks, which could also be replaced with cargo boxes of similar size and shape.
K-1300 buyers primarily came from the United States and Canada, but there were foreign operators, too. A major operator in Europe became Heliswiss, the oldest helicopter company in Switzerland. The company was founded as „Heliswiss Schweizerische Helikopter AG“, with headquarters in Berne-Belp on April 17, 1953, what also marked the beginning of commercial helicopter flying in Switzerland. During the following years Heliswiss expanded in Switzerland and formed a network with bases in Belp BE, Samedan GR, Domat Ems GR, Locarno TI, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS, Gstaad BE and Gruyères FR. During the build-up of the rescue-company Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht (REGA) as an independent network, Heliswiss carried out rescue missions on their behalf.
Heliswiss carried out operations all over the world, e. g. in Greenland, Suriname, North Africa and South America. The first helicopter was a Bell 47 G-1, registered as HB-XAG on September 23, 1953. From 1963 Heliswiss started to expand and began to operate with medium helicopters like the Agusta Bell 204B with a turbine power of 1050 HP and an external load of up to 1500 kg. From 1979 Heliswiss operated a Bell 214 (external load up to 2.8 t).
Since 1991 Heliswiss operated a Russian Kamov 32A12 (a civil crane version of the Ka-27 “Helix”), which was joined by two K-1300s in 2004. They were frequently used for construction of transmission towers for overhead power lines and pylons for railway catenary lines, for selective logging and also as fire bombers with underslung water bags, the latter managed by the German Helog company, operating out of Ainring and Küssnacht in Germany and Switzerland until 2008, when Helog changed its business focus into a helicopter flight training academy in Liberia with the support of Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
A second Kamov 32A12 joined the fleet in 2015, which replaced one of the K-1300s, and Heliswiss’ last K-1300 was retired in early 2022.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2, plus space for a passenger
Length: 54 ft 3 in (16,56 m) including rotors
44 ft 5 in (13.5 m) fuselage only
Main rotor diameter: 46 ft 2¾ in (14,11 m)
Main rotor area: 1,677.64 sq ft (156,37 m2)
Width (over landing gear): 12 ft 6 in (3.85 m)
Height: 17 ft 8¼ in (5,40 m)
Empty weight: 5,810 lb (2,635 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 9,500 lb (4,309 kg) without slung load
13,515 lb (6,145 kg) with slung load
Powerplant:
1× P&W Canada T400-CP-400 (PT6T-3 Twin-Pac) turboshaft engine, 1,800 shp (1,342 kW)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h, 110 kn)
Cruise speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 kn)
Range: 270 mi (430 km, 230 nmi) with internal fuel only,
360 mi (570 km 310 nmi) with external auxiliary tanks
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
Hovering ceiling out of ground effect: 3,000 m (9,840 ft)
Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s) at Sea Level with flat-rated torque
External load capacity (at ISA +15 °C (59.0 °F):
6,000 lb (2,722 kg) at sea level
5,663 lb (2,569 kg) at 5,000 ft (1,524 m)
5,163 lb (2,342 kg) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
5,013 lb (2,274 kg) at 12,100 ft (3,688 m)
4,313 lb (1,956 kg) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
The kit and its assembly:
This is/was the second contribution to the late 2022 “Logistics” Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, a welcome occasion and motivation to tackle a what-if project that had been on my list for a long while. This crane helicopter conversion of a HueyCobra was inspired by the Mil Mi-10K helicopter – I had built a 1:100 VEB Plasticart kit MANY years ago and still remembered the helicopter’s unique ventral cabin under the nose with a rearward-facing second pilot. I always thought that the AH-1 might be a good crane helicopter, too, esp. the USMC’s twin-engine variant. And why not combine everything in a fictional model?
With this plan the basis became a Fujimi 1:72 AH-1J and lots of donor parts to modify the basic hull into “something else”. Things started with the removal of the chin turret and part of the lower front hull to make space for the ventral glass cabin. The openings for the stub wings were faired over and a different stabilizer (taken from a Revell EC 135, including the end plates) was implanted. The attachment points for the skids were filled and a styrene tube was inserted into the rotor mast opening to later hold the new four-blade rotor. Another styrene tube with bigger diameter was inserted into the lower fuselage as a display holder adapter for later flight scene pictures. Lead beads filled the nose section to make sure the CraneCobra would stand well on its new legs, with the nose down. The cockpit was basically taken OOB, just the front seat and the respective gunner dashboard was omitted.
One of the big challenges of this build followed next: the ventral cabin. Over the course of several months, I was not able to find a suitable donor, so I was forced to scratch the cabin from acrylic and styrene sheet. Size benchmark became the gunner’s seat from the Cobra kit, with one of the OOB pilots seated. Cabin width was less dictated through the fuselage, the rest of the cabin’s design became a rather simple, boxy thing – not pretty, but I think a real-life retrofitted cabin would not look much different? Some PSR was done to hide the edges of the rather thick all-clear walls and create a 3D frame - a delicate task. Attaching the completed thing with the second pilot and a dashboard under the roof to the Cobra’s lower hull and making it look more or less natural without major accidents was also a tricky and lengthy affair, because I ignored the Cobra’s narrowing nose above the former chin turret.
With the cabin defining the ground helicopter’s clearance, it was time for the next donors: the landing gear from an Airfix 1:72 Kamow Ka-25, which had to be modified further to achieve a proper stance. The long main struts were fixed to the hull, their supporting struts had to be scratched, in this case from steel wire. The front wheels were directly attached to the ventral cabin (which might contain in real life a rigid steel cage that not only protects the second crew member but could also take the front wheels’ loads?). Looks pretty stalky!
Under the hull, a massive hook and a fairing for the oil cooler were added. A PE brass ladder was mounted on the right side of the hull under the pilot’s cockpit, while a rear-view mirror was mounted for the ventral pilot on the left side.
The rotor system was created in parallel, I wanted “something different” from the UH-1 dual-blade rotors. The main rotor hub was taken from a Mistercraft 1:72 Westland Lynx (AFAIK a re-boxed ZTS Plastyk kit), which included the arms up to the blades. The hub was put onto a metal axis, with a spacer to make it sit well in the new styrene tube adapter inside of the hull, and some donor parts from the Revell EC 135. Deeper, tailored blades were glued to the Lynx hub, actually leftover parts from the aforementioned wrecked VEB Plasticart 1:100 Mi-10, even though their length had to be halved (what makes you aware how large a Mi-6/10 is compared with an AH-1!). The tail rotor was taken wholesale from the Lynx and stuck to the Cobra’s tail with a steel pin.
Painting and markings:
Another pushing factor for this build was the fact that I had a 1:72 Begemot aftermarket decal sheet for the Kamow Ka-27/32 in The Stash™, which features, among many military helicopters, (the) two civil Heliswiss machines – a perfect match!
Using the Swiss Helix’ as design benchmark I adapted their red-over-white paint scheme to the slender AH-1 and eventually ended up with a simple livery with a white belly (acrylic white from the rattle can, after extensive masking of the clear parts with Maskol/latex milk) and a red (Humbrol 19) upper section, with decorative counter-colored cheatlines along the medium waterline. A black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen. The auxiliary tanks were painted white, too, but they were processed separately and mounted just before the final coat of varnish was applied. The PE ladder as well as the rotors were handled similarly.
The cockpit and rotor opening interior were painted in a very dark grey (tar black, Revell 06), while the interior of the air intakes was painted bright white (Revell 301). The rotor blades became light grey (Revell 75) with darker leading edges (Humbrol 140), dark grey (Humbrol 164) hubs and yellow tips.
For the “HELOG/Heliswiss” tagline the lower white section had to be raised to a medium position on the fuselage, so that they could be placed on the lower flanks under the cockpit. The white civil registration code could not be placed on the tail and ended up on the engine cowling, on red, but this does not look bad or wrong at all.
The cheatlines are also decals from the Ka-32 Begemot sheet, even though they had to be trimmed considerably to fit onto the Cobra’s fuselage – and unfortunately the turned out to be poorly printed and rather brittle, so that I had to improvise and correct the flaws with generic red and white decal lines from TL Modellbau. The white cross on the tail and most stencils came from the Begemot sheet, too. Black, engine soot-hiding areas on the Cobra’s tail were created with generic decal sheet material, too.
The rotor blades and the wheels received a black ink treatment to emphasize their details, but this was not done on the hull to avoid a dirty or worn look. After some final details like position lights the model was sealed with semi-matt acrylic varnish, while the rotors became matt.
A weird-looking what-if model, but somehow a crane-copter variant of the AH-1 looks quite natural – even more so in its attractive red-and-white civil livery. The stalky landing gear is odd, though, necessitated by the ventral cabin for the second pilot. I was skeptical, but scratching the latter was more successful than expected, and the cabin blend quite well into the AH-1 hull, despite its boxy shape.
The Sony ILCE7R A7r rocks! New Sony A7R Test Photos (with Sony HVL-F60M External Flash) of Tall, Thin, Fit Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Long legs and then some! Shot with the Carl Zeiss Sony Sonnar T* FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA Lens finished in Lightroom 5.3 ! Was using the B W 49mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer MRC Filter on partly cloudy day with some intermittent sun, but mostly cloudy. Check out the low glare off the rocks and water and dramatic, polarizwer-enhanced sky! Super sharp images and crystal-clear pictures!
Was testing the Sony HVL-F60M External Flash on the Sony A7r. You can see it going off in some of the photos (check the exif if in doubt)--worked great, but it overheated a bit sooner than my Nikon flash on the D800E. But it's all good!
Here's some epic goddess video shot at the same time as stills using my 45surfer method/philosophy: vimeo.com/45surf
Join Johnny Ranger McCoy's youtube channel for goddess video shot @ the same time as the stills with the Sony A7 !
www.youtube.com/user/bikiniswimsuitmodels
Beautiful swimsuit bikini model goddess on a beautiful December Malibu afternoon! Shot it yesterday. :) Love, love, love the new Sony A7 R!
Was a fun test shoot. Many, many more to come!
All the best on your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Join my facebook!
www.facebook.com/45surfHerosJourneyMythology
Follow me on facebook www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken !
Modeling the black & gold "Gold 45 Revolver" Gold'N'Virtue swimsuits with the main equation to Moving Dimensions Theory on the swimsuits: dx4/dt=ic. Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! :) You can read more about my research and Hero's Journey Physics here:
herosjourneyphysics.wordpress.com/ MDT PROOF#2: Einstein (1912 Man. on Rel.) and Minkowski wrote x4=ict. Ergo dx4/dt=ic--the foundational equation of all time and motion which is on all the shirts and swimsuits. Every photon that hits my Nikon D800e's sensor does it by surfing the fourth expanding dimension, which is moving at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic!
May the Hero's Journey Mythology Goddess inspire you (as they have inspired me!) along your own artistic journey! Love, love, love the 35mm Carl Zeiss Lens on the new Sony A7R! :)
All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Mental Constructs: the cornerstone of self-improvement
Think about what moved you to self-improvement in the first place.
I guess that it probably was some frustration or some obstacle on the pursuit of an objective, which made you stop, step back, and think that maybe it was your own behavior or attitude which needed to change, rather than external circumstances.
Hopefully you solved your problem.
Nonetheless, the assumption you made — that you could change your own point of view and beliefs — would have not been possible for normal people before some centuries ago.
Before the birth of Kantian philosophy and then psychology, people could not even imagine that they had an inner life, that their psychology was separate from external reality, and that the former was viable to errors, and to be even doubted and changed. Your banal assumption is then the product of centuries of philosophical speculation by the finest minds humans have ever known.
What’s truly interesting about that idea though, is that its explicit content — that we can change our way of seeing things — is at once the application of such content to yourself. By thinking that maybe your way of seeing things can be modified, you are indeed already influencing your though patterns. You are moving your focus on different elements, from external elements, to your own thought process.
The consequences are real: your actions might change, your empathy towards others might too — maybe you’ll stop thinking you are right, and you might start thinking that your opinion is one among many. You might experiment with new ways to deal with people, or do things.
There nowadays exist entire professions devoted to studying and influencing our perceptions of things: psychologists, psychiatrists, marketers, politicians, philosophers, journalists. The common thread is the basic, uninteresting idea that our ideas, feelings and reality might not coincide. That we might be wrong.
Welcome to mental constructs.
The anatomy of Mental constructs
The example above is the father of mental constructs, while being a mental construct itself.
Mental constructs are simply the set of ideas and beliefs that we hold. While this seems easy on the surface, truth is that most mental constructs are so deeply ingrained in us, and backed up by so many experiences and emotional baggage, that we fail to see them as opinion, not facts.
Furthermore, I like referencing to them as constructs, rather than only beliefs, because they they indeed possess entire scaffolds to back them up, and we mostly experience them as entire world views, rather than individual ideas. This makes it even harder to separate them from facts.
Mental constructs literally form the structure of our world. This is because they orient our attention, and therefore actions in the World. They give meaning to our experiences. They are meaning itself. Experience without it would be raw data, as much as a foreign language is just mere sound before you know not only its words, but its rules as well.
The very idea of “World” is a mental construct.
We can’t ever really escape mental constructs, nor should we. The very beliefs which might not be fully accurate are the same ones that allow us to feel emotions and give richness to experiences.
The power of Mental Constructs
Mental constructs are power itself, as philosopher Michel Foucault held. They are since power itself is the desire to influence the world, and we define what is the world, and how to influence it, by mental constructs.
Mental constructs form the invisible net through which you live your life, the maze which you try to navigate and which determines which choices you’re allowed to take, and which ones seem inaccessible to you.
Your emotions are products of them, since emotions are our reaction to our perception of events. Between events and feeling stand the transparent world of ideas and beliefs, which determine if we feel sadness or joy, anger or calm.
We like to think that events are reality: we do since events are tangible, and therefore more readily available. Thoughts are not. We also do since most of our mental constructs are strongly backed up by hard emotions, since they constitute our most fundamental mean of power and security in life.
Mental constructs are the fabric of our worlds, and this is not going to change.
What can we do about it?
Some practical tips to use mental models
1)Discerning emotions, thoughts and facts
The basic tip is one from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
When living an experience, learn to discern between emotions and thought, and thought and facts.
You do this by questioning “is this an emotion, a thought, or a fact?”. Everyone gets this wrong from time to time. “I feel you are right” is actually an opinion, and should say “I think you are right, therefore I feel secure”.
The above tool is useful, and is taught in CBT sessions to patients, because emotions, thoughts and facts need to be dealt with differently.
Emotions need to be accepted as they are and experienced. They cannot be directly changed.
Facts must be accepted, but can be influenced with action.
Opinions can be seen, accepted but also questioned. “How much is this opinion realistic, and useful?”. This is the question to apply to opinions, after you’ve spotted it out.
Problems start when:
you treat emotions as facts, so you try to force them to change, you deny them, or you apply judgement (so called secondary beliefs) to them, thus making the feeling usually worse
you treat thoughts as facts or emotions, therefore forgetting that they can be questioned in their usefulness
It’s usually hard to treat emotions as thoughts since emotions are more direct and hardly get mistaken for something colder like a thought.
It is usually helpful to start from emotions, as they are directly noticeable due to their physical quality, then discern the event or fact associated to it, and last individuate the thought which stands in the middle. Thoughts are more elusive and usually taken for granted, so they are harder to pinpoint at first.
2)Finding alternatives to thoughts
Try it now. Pick a thought you had recently, maybe about an argument you had. Try for a moment to imagine an alternative explanation to it. Maybe you thought “they’ve been really rude to me”. Try to think “they behaved rudely, but maybe I need to understand their reasons”. Now check your emotions. Do you feel a difference? At first you felt resentful, annoyed. Now you feel calmer.
This brief experiment is simply to show you how experimenting with different perspectives can truly shift our feelings about a situation, and it also show how two different opinions are not more or less real, as they both feel true when you hold them.
It is not “lying to ourselves” as we do this all the times, albeit unknowingly.
The knowledge of mental models hopefully give you the tool to be more in control of your inner state in a conscious way.
A core idea is that of experimenting with new perspective after you’ve spotted an opinion. This is since we all hold our opinions very dearly and trying to force them to change can actually work against us, causing negative emotions and self-judgement to take place.
3)Accept your emotions, be compassionate of your mental constructs
Emotions are experientially closer to facts than opinions, because they are experienced in the body. Emotions cannot really be influenced directly (without the use of substances) but can be influenced modifying opinions and facts (although the latter are always filtered by mental constructs).
We often feel bad for some emotions we experience, or some thoughts we entertain. You might feel shame, or guilt. These are usually the consequence of secondary thoughts which we formulate about our own emotions.
Fact is, our mental construct were mostly there before we even noticed them. We are not to be held responsible for their creation (nor are our parents). Most importantly, we can put them in perspective and even experiment with alternative ones.
We can react to our own mental constructs, and work on building more useful ones.
An useful mental construct is to see them as something we were endowed with during our growth, but which are passible of change, and improvement.
4)In every situation, know a mental construct is in action
We often get stuck in life and feel there is no way out of situation when we forget that we are employing a mental construct to interpret it.
We see reality and our emotions so tied that we deduce they must be one.
The knowledge of mental constructs lets you now that the key to your wellbeing is really inside of you, not in some deep way but simply in your possibility to choose the mental construct which you live by.
Often facts need to change to make us finally well-off, but cannot influence facts until we come to see them as passible of being acted upon, and that comes through a change of mental construct.
Change comes after we decide we can change, or something makes us realize that we can do it.
The way you see and approach a situation determines the elements you’ll pay attention to, and the action you will take.
By knowing this and reminding yourself of it, you will hopefully feel more empowered and less victim to circumstances.
To conclude
Mental constructs are at work continuously in our lived. There is no escape from them.
While this might seem a prison, and we might never come to see reality as it is, it actually is the source of great power. The power to, literally, choose the form of the world we live in.
Self Improvement
Mindset
Thoughts
Personal Development
Self Awareness
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