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| 1999 Closed threads from 1999 (read only) |
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30 December 1999, 01:05 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Guest
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I'm researching some terms used by WW-I Allied Pilots.
In "War Birds" Elliott Springs mentioned that Billy Bishop made an embarrassing reference to a wind sock in mixed company. Does anybody know what a windsock was called in the pilots' vernacular?
Also, would be interested in whatever else anybody can remember in reference to aerodromes and equipment and personnel thereon.
I know that "Ak-Emma" means Aircraft and Engine Mechanic, but that's about all.
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30 December 1999, 01:36 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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just a dumb modeler
Contributor
Join Date: Sep 1998
Location: Stockport UK
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A one time RE8 man told me that German kite balloons were refered to as "Randy Ruperts". Apparently they resemble the erect male wos'name complete with dangly bits
__________________
cheers
Peter L
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30 December 1999, 02:18 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 919
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JohnL,
A long, long time ago there was a thread I kicked off on just this topic. I have searched my hard drive and can't find the saved document. However, I know I have a hard copy of it 'somewhere' (which is a very big place!!).
If we are all still here tomorrow *G* (it is 31/12 here) I will try to find it and post the terms gathered.
regards
Darryl
__________________
Nunquam obliviscar
Not here are the goblets glowing,
Not here is the vintage sweet;
'Tis cold as our hearts are growing,
And dark as the doom we meet.
But stand to your glasses, steady!
And soon shall our pulses rise:
A cup to the dead already-
Hurrah for the next that dies!
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30 December 1999, 04:39 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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Forum Ace
Contributor
Join Date: Sep 1998
Location: Kyle, TX
Posts: 2,019
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Darryl,
Just in case the doomsday prophets are right, it's been grand. See you in the next world.
Maybe.
Mike
__________________
"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down."
Fredrick Douglass
"I'm an optimist, the kind of optimist that falls off a ten story building, and as I pass the 5th story, think 'So far, so good'."
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30 December 1999, 05:51 PM
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#5 (permalink)
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just a dumb modeler
Contributor
Join Date: Sep 1998
Location: Stockport UK
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Steady on Mike, it's only the appocalypse. It's not like it's the end of the world.
__________________
cheers
Peter L
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31 December 1999, 01:05 AM
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#6 (permalink)
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Aug 1998
Location: USSRA. One Nation, Under Surveillance.
Posts: 2,516
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Getting the "wind up" meant you were scared.
__________________
There will never be concentration camps in America.
We'll call them something else.
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31 December 1999, 03:43 AM
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#7 (permalink)
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: In the Great Miami Valley of the old Northwest Territory.
Posts: 565
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Mike
If worse comes to worse maybe we'll all end up in Valhalla.
My personal outlook is:
The situation in the real world is serious but not hopeless. Here on The Forum, the situation is hopeless but not serious.
Happy New Year, Feliz Ano Nuevo und ein Gluckliches Neues Jahr to you, yours and all my fellow Forumites. We might fight among ourselves but it's us against the world.
VBR
Kirby
__________________
Those who beat their swords into plowshares are now plowing for those who did not.
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31 December 1999, 05:38 AM
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#8 (permalink)
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Forum Ace
Contributor
Join Date: Sep 1998
Location: Kyle, TX
Posts: 2,019
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Valkyries, Houris, whatever, as long as they're cute.
__________________
"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down."
Fredrick Douglass
"I'm an optimist, the kind of optimist that falls off a ten story building, and as I pass the 5th story, think 'So far, so good'."
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31 December 1999, 05:54 AM
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#9 (permalink)
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Guest
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They're cute all right; they shave every morning. Yechhht!
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31 December 1999, 06:00 AM
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#10 (permalink)
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Scout Pilot
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 422
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The phrase Bish used was probably calling the wind sock a "French Letter", vernacular of the time referring to a condom (packaged in an envelope; the French of course being seen as the home of all things sexual at the time). The similarity between the wind sock and a condom are pretty obvious.
"Ack Emma" stands for "AM"--so it could refer to an Air Mechanic or a.m. in the morning depending on context. "Pip Emma" was p.m. There were phonetic words for each letter of the alphabet, useful when trying to be understood over the relatively poor quality telephones used in the trenches and balloons. Similar systems are still used today by the police and the military.
A "gasper" or "fag" was a cigarette (from "faggot" but referring to the slow-burning log, not a homosexual!). A "Lucifer" was a match from a common brand of the time. While "having the wind up" did indeed mean being frightened, "being windy" meant something else entirely, although pilots suffered from both.
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