Verbicidal Maniac II: An SL Saturday Morning

It was early Saturday morning and I was looking for a bit of SL fun before digging into weekend work (the horrah!). I ended up going back to an old favorite. In recent SL times, vehicles have not been a part of my daily experience. There was a time when I spent much of my time cruising about, crossing the SL continents in all manner of vehicles. Due to various SL issues, I haven't bothered of late.

I took the opportunity Saturday to see whether I could make a go of it. Abbott's Aerodrome seemed like just the spot to rekindle my passion.

Things lurched out to a rather sorry start when a local flimflam man accosted me mid-purchase to offer me "a better deal". He wasn't taking the hint that I wouldn't be buying from anyone but Cubey Terra. Regardless, the situation was eventually resolved.

I followed up the nonsense by taking a ride on the baggage claim and then over to the Abbott's Loop Airship Tour. Things were, technically speaking, going fairly well.

Following the Airship tour, I went down to the docks to look at the submarines on display and was really fond of the work done on the Linerunner, seen below (retro Vendetta shirt availabe at Nocturnal Threads in the Pimushe sim).

I was inspired to go pickup the available airship (which, I actually had been going to purchase at the outset, before I was interrupted), and ended up also grabbing a submarine and a biplane. What followed was in many typical, but also fairly entertaining.

I trudged on over to one of the Linden vehicle sandboxes (Georgean) and was, of course, unable to rez anything. I tried two more before finding a vehicle sandbox that would cooperate. I ended up having to rez my Terra Dolphin Submersible (TDS) on one sim and dragging it to the water in another sandbox. Despite the hiccups, I was able to pilot the TDS smoothly in the available sandbox waterway.

You have to admit, the submersible looks pretty spiffy.

It was good to see a decent number of people making use of the vehicle sandboxes. It had been a while for me and it brought back memories. Just standing aside and watching planes, boats and cars tooling all around brought a smile.

I caught a snapshot of akhenatan Grommet driving by in this beauty.

The culmination of my morning jaunt was an extended flight in my newly purchased AircoDH.2 from Cubey Terra (a "high-prim flyable combat aircraft"). This WW1-era, replica biplane is a nice looking machine. New in box, the AircoDH.2 comes with the craft, the HUD controller, an unscripted display model, a ground shadow (for use with display), a 500 round gun magazine, and fuel can.

The easy to follow instructions detail the use of the HUD to rez the plane, fire up the engine and get flying. There is a full explanation of how to refuel (the plane will run up to 15 minutes on one fuel can), monitor the engine temp and use the combat system.

Also provided is a brief historical note recording the plane:

HISTORICAL NOTES
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The Airco DH.2 was a British combat aircraft introduced in 1915. Designed by Geoffrey de Havilland for the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco), this "pusher" biplane helped the Royal Flying Corps repel the agile and capable German Fokker airplanes, known to British pilots as the "Fokker scourge".

Because the British had not yet developed the interrupter gear that allowed guns to fire between spinning propeller blades, aircraft with front-mounted engines had to position the guns awkwardly above the pilot, lest pilots shoot off their own propellers. The rear engine placement of the DH.2 allowed a Lewis gun to be mounted directly in front of the pilot.

The DH.2 remained in service until 1918.

Seats: 1
Engine: 100 hp, 7 cylinder Gnome Monosoupape
Wing Span: 28 ft 3 in
Length: 25 ft 6 in
Armament: .303 (7.7 mm) Lewis gun using 47-round drum magazines

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References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWairco.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/airco-dh-2