Older Folks and Vaping Back Porch - Part Five

[Flowersoul]

Wow, sure does! Is it my imagination, or are the eagles and eaglets on all of these sites quite aware of where the cameras are? It sure seems like they look right at the cameras a lot.

It sure does seem that way, but no, they are not aware of the camera......they just happen to be looking in that direction. Infrared lighting is on all night which does not disturb the eagles! Mighty fine technology!

Sometimes, the camera can get a little fuzzy due to obvious reasons, but they need a good rain to get it washed away; AEF Florida on Cam 1 is the current example of that!

 

[bigbells]

20 years in the Navy as a navigational specialisttype and we always said it was 2000 yards. Mmmmmm.

Guess it was close enough for gummint work. Just 1.1% too short.

 

[therussellv]

Oi

Last stinkie 10/15/2013

 

[Nermal]

But, a nautical mile is not 2000 yards; it's 2025 yards.

Gee, what a simplified improvement.

 

[bigbells]

Gee, what a simplified improvement.

Well, the principle upon which the nautical mile is based is a sensible one. It's based on 1 second of latitudinal arc of the Earth's circumference. Problem is, because the Earth is not perfectly round, the distance between seconds of arc varies depending where you are. So it turns out that a nautical mile is based on the AVERAGE circumference of the Earth.

I realize you intended your remark as sarcastic, but there was no previous system that made sense either, so the establishment of the length of a nautical mile didn't replace anything that was superior.

Thanks Google!

 

[bigbells]

Well, the principle upon which the nautical mile is based is a sensible one. It's based on 1 second of latitudinal arc of the Earth's circumference. Problem is, because the Earth is not perfectly round, the distance between seconds of arc varies depending where you are. So it turns out that a nautical mile is based on the AVERAGE circumference of the Earth.

I realize you intended your remark as sarcastic, but there was no previous system that made sense either, so the establishment of the length of a nautical mile didn't replace anything that was superior.

Thanks Google!

Of course, using 360 degrees for a circle, and then dividing each degree into 60 minutes, and then dividing each minute into 60 seconds, doesn't make a lot of sense to begin with, so I'd buy any argument that says nautical miles are just as illogical as other units of measurement.

 

[Diver9543]

The old saying used to be, "You can teach a fighter pilot, you just can't teach them very much".

It dawned on me that some folks may not have the benefit of ever knowing a fighter pilot so I will explain what I meant by the old saying. The reason you can't teach them very much is because they already know it ALL!!!

 

[LittleBird]

It dawned on me that some folks may not have the benefit of ever knowing a fighter pilot so I will explain what I meant by the old saying. The reason you can't teach them very much is because they already know it ALL!!!

A friend of ours is a (retired) USAF 4-star. Firsthand evidence!

(He's actually very sweet, and I'm extremely grateful for his service and that of all active duty and retired military. But he is pretty self assured )

 

[bigbells]

It dawned on me that some folks may not have the benefit of ever knowing a fighter pilot so I will explain what I meant by the old saying. The reason you can't teach them very much is because they already know it ALL!!!

My experience is that one could extend that maxim to all aviators. Pilots tend to be a heady bunch. One year while riding as a passenger in my Dad's plane we stopped to refuel in Brunswick GA, where all the local EAA members were wearing T-shirts that said:
"I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep, like Grandpa did... not screaming in terror like the passengers in his airplane."

Hanging out with Dad and his flying buddies there was much such humor. Any discussion of aviation death would invariably conclude with someone saying, "and the really sad part is that the pilot ruined a perfectly good airplane".

I know a woman whose husband flew a Mooney, which is a high-performance single engine plane that is even harder to fly than some others. This woman would frequently travel with her husband but had never touched any of the controls in her life. Well, her husband had a heart attack and died when they were about 5000 feet up.

She didn't even know how to turn on the radio for guidance. She didn't know about putting the landing gear down. Somehow, she crash-landed the plane and crawled in bitter cold, with all kinds of broken limbs, about a mile to a farmhouse. She survived, wrote a book about it.

Then there's my buddy Don (Snakeman) T, who was a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam. When discussing the inline twin-engine Cessna that some of his buddies flew, he would say that if one engine lost power, the purpose of the second engine was to take the pilot to the scene of the crash. I've heard helicopter pilots make the same joke regarding the purpose of auto-rotation if the engine failed.

 

[yiddleboge6]

One of my uncles was a fighter pilot in the USAF....at one time he was responsible for putting some of the planes through extreme tests to find any issues and was responsible for the grounding of all of that particular model if an issue was found. I have seen both the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds many times. It always gives me a thrill deep down inside to watch them take off and perform.
While it might appear that my first allegiance is to the Thunderbirds....I love them equally, and....if I remember correctly...the Blue Angels fly the tightest formations of any demonstration squadron, with wing tips only separated by a few inches......

 

[yiddleboge6]

It dawned on me that some folks may not have the benefit of ever knowing a fighter pilot so I will explain what I meant by the old saying. The reason you can't teach them very much is because they already know it ALL!!!

It really needs that kind of self assurance and attitude to fly the altitudes and speeds that those men do.....

 

[LittleBird]

It really needs that kind of self assurance and attitude to fly the altitudes and speeds that those men do.....

I think that's right, Yiddle. High, fast, and with the potential to be blasted out of the sky. I can't even imagine.

 

[Nermal]

I know a woman whose husband flew a Mooney, which is a high-performance single engine plane that is even harder to fly than some others.

Unknown to many, I am a licensed A&P mechanic, though the license hasn't been current since 1970. Anyhow, I was once called upon to replace brake pads on a Mooney (Difinately not the Mitchwitchie Mu2) The maintenance manager challenged my time, believing it impossible to do the job in 30 minutes. "Hey, it's a Mooney. They used the Cleveland Disc Brake". It was the only one out there that didn't require the plane to be jacked up and the wheels removed.

I sure hope they haven't changed the system in the intervening 45 years.

 

[yiddleboge6]

Complete change of topic.....I haven't watched American Idol for years, but.....have tuned in from time to time for this final season....
Sometimes one hears a piece of music that is just felt way deep down, and so I chose to share this performance.....beautiful....

​

 

[bigbells]

Unknown to many, I am a licensed A&P mechanic, though the license hasn't been current since 1970. Anyhow, I was once called upon to replace brake pads on a Mooney (Difinately not the Mitchwitchie Mu2) The maintenance manager challenged my time, believing it impossible to do the job in 30 minutes. "Hey, it's a Mooney. They used the Cleveland Disc Brake". It was the only one out there that didn't require the plane to be jacked up and the wheels removed.

I sure hope they haven't changed the system in the intervening 45 years.

A&P= Airframe and Powerplant?

Mooney's gone bankrupt a zillion times. Although they're still based in Texas they are now Chinese-owned. They're still making awesomely fast single-engine airplanes.

Villanova beats Oklahoma by 44? What the....?

Go Carolina!

 

[Iffy]

20 years in the Navy as a navigational specialisttype and we always said it was 2000 yards. Mmmmmm.

Close 'nuphph phigure pher Naval navigational specialist types; 1.0127% error...

Actually, I use a 1.15 conversion phactor fer knot/NM to statue mile/mph. Dat puts me within .001% of actual measured distances/speeds (19 times more accurate dan our phoatin' phlotilla phans

).

Seriously, a NAUTICAL MILE is an interesting/intricate variable!

 

[MattB101]

Well, the principle upon which the nautical mile is based is a sensible one. It's based on 1 second of latitudinal arc of the Earth's circumference. Problem is, because the Earth is not perfectly round, the distance between seconds of arc varies depending where you are. So it turns out that a nautical mile is based on the AVERAGE circumference of the Earth.

I realize you intended your remark as sarcastic, but there was no previous system that made sense either, so the establishment of the length of a nautical mile didn't replace anything that was superior.

Thanks Google!

The Little figure wasn't easy to work with so they came up with something called a "sea mile" which essentially was 2000 yards (6000ft) and that has been commonly accepted as a nautical mile for years. Technically you are correct, practically it 2000 yards.

 

[bigbells]

The Little figure wasn't easy to work with so they came up with something called a "sea mile" which essentially was 2000 yards (6000ft) and that has been commonly accepted as a nautical mile for years. Technically you are correct, practically it 2000 yards.

The sea mile might be accepted as a nautical mile by the US Navy, I don't know. But if so, that's the only place. It is a different unit of measurement that is not equated with a nautical mile by any other entity, domestic or foreign. The standard of 2025 yards for a nautical mile was agreed upon by the US in 1929, so it's not anything new. 2025 yards is not the exact amount but it's to the nearest yard.

 

[Rotowoman]

Love them!! Have gotten to see them a few times, but not in a couple decades!


Why doesn't he like them?

Hope the kid turns out to be great and has a great work ethic! Glad you got home ok and weren't blown away!!

His logic, some of which I agree with, is that the teams serves no useful purpose, and that they cost we, the taxpayers , a tremendous amount of money for a not so cheap thrill. He also thinks that most of the pilots are arrogant POS.

Home. Yay! Now shut work out of your mind & take care of yourself. Enjoy!

My work mind is gone. Shucks, my whole mind is gone.

Good grief.
Half filled up the ginormous garbage can with debris from the yard and the street out front !

Speaking of which, I got home and found branches from my neighbor's tree all over my back yard. This has been on going, and I have resorted to throwing branches back over the fence. I love trees, and gardens, but get a doggone tree that doesn't lose branches every time we get a slight breeze. I wish I had the tools to chop everything that is now hanging over into my yard.

It dawned on me that some folks may not have the benefit of ever knowing a fighter pilot so I will explain what I meant by the old saying. The reason you can't teach them very much is because they already know it ALL!!!

My lead doesn't put it that nicely. I put it all in perspective by telling the pilots that all they're doing is flying the short yellow bus. They ran me out of the pilots lounge. I'm old enough to be mother to most of them, so let me get away with saying a lot of things.

 

[MikeE3]

So you guys had me googling knots ... what has my life come to ... googling knots on a Saturday night.

By the late 16th century, sailors had begun using a chip log to measure speed. In this method, knots were tied at uniform intervals in a length of rope and then one end of the rope, with a pie-slice-shape piece of wood (or “chip”) attached to it, was tossed behind the ship. As the vessel moved forward, the line of rope was allowed to roll out freely for a specific amount of time, which was typically tabulated with an hourglass. Afterward, the number of knots that had gone over the ship’s stern was counted and used in calculating the vessel’s rate of speed. A knot came to mean one nautical mile per hour. Therefore, a ship traveling at 15 knots could go 15 nautical miles per hour.

For a number of years, there was disagreement among various nations about the exact measurement of a nautical mile, which is based on the Earth’s circumference. In 1929, the international nautical mile was standardized at 6,076 feet; it was adopted by the United States in 1954. A nautical mile is different from a mile on land, which is based on walking distance. The Romans first defined a land mile as 1,000 paces or pairs of steps; it was set at its current measurement of 5,280 feet by Queen Elizabeth I in 1593.