Royal Air Force A.400M Atlas

[Garry Russell]

In the Monochrome days the pic used to wobble especially piston engines like Dakotas. They used to say it was the magnetos.

[DaveB]

Interference on the old televisual box isn't something you see a lot of these days as RF shielding has got better. Almost everything with an HT lead would do it once upon a time

ATB
DaveB

[Airspeed]

That's right, Dave,
Even the motor mower would put big moving white dots on the screen, as did anyone in the area using electric drills & saws. Suppressors were available and optional, but these days, equipment has to comply with interference codes. See the fine print on boxes.
Aircraft did the wobble quoted by Garry, so their contribution must have been different somehow. Whether the prop effect on air pressure distorted the signal is a possibility. I majored in correct lubrication of the axles on my Dinky racing cars, and later focussed on spectacularly failed attempts at wooing girls, so my opinion on this is as a casual observer.

[Dev One]

For the loss of TV signal with an aircraft flying low overhead.........Thats how Robert Watson-Watt discovered RADAR! The airframe is deflecting the signal. In France we get it sometimes when a train is passing through the digital signal between us & the transmitter!
Keith

[DaveB]

Yes indeed. If the signal is weak enough and something passes between IT and your aerial.. you would get an out of phase picture. I seem to remember it being called convergence (a throw back from my days watching the BBC2 engineers test information)

ATB
DaveB

[J0hn]

I bought the Wilco A400M a few years back (seem to remember getting a bit of a ribbing for it here ) and I have to say, it's a very nice aircraft to fly.

It does have some quirky characteristics, such as floating along the runway, at about 50 ft and flat refusing to descend to touch down (might have been a shade on the speedy side, I suppose). It also has that dreadful 'glass' cockpit that looks a bit cheap 'n' cheerful in the Wilco model.

But I still enjoy flying it. There is also a freeware model available. The freeware one is okay, but I don't like the external model much - but I prefer its VC to the Wilco one. Maybe I should try and merge the two
It was by some French mob (Pierre, Thomas and Patrick Gmax Academy ) and at least it has a working HUD in FSX, unlike the FTW one.

Anyway, despite the functioning of the Wilco MFDs being a bit flakey, it did turn out to look very similar to the real thing. So those who were saying about "fantasy" aircraft being unwelcome around these parts may now have their slice of humble pie!

[Chris558]

The TV reception issue was when TV used VHF (before UHF). My Dad remembered Argosies causing interference flying overhead on approach to Benson.

Essentially, the Atlas is a Belfast replacement with tactical capability. Just a pity it don't look like one.

[DaveB]

I don't think it's quite a Belfast replacement since the Belfast was retired in '76.. or is RAF procurement that slow

ATB
DaveB

[Chris558]

Yes, but it should have stayed in service for at least 30 years. Or you could say it still was, under MoD contract, until Heavylift went bust.