Air-Minded: Bullets, Buffs, and the Contra-Rotating Nissen Hut
Although, if you think about it, next to a 155mm Howitzer round 30mm is downright small … harmless by comparison!
Sunday Bag o’ Mules
Mules, local color, wannabes.
Thursday Bag o’ Godlessness
A friend visited last night and talked us into streaming a couple of episodes of Saving Grace, a cable TV series that ran from 2007 to 2010. We’d never seen it and our friend gave it rave reviews, so I found it on Amazon Prime and we settled in to watch. I loved the lead […]
Air-Minded: Phantom Evolution (Updated)
Did you think, as I did, that the TFX/F-111 was Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s only joint-service aircraft project? No, there were two others: the F-4 Phantom II and the A-7 Corsair II, US Navy fighters more or less forced upon, but eventually enthusiastically adopted by, the US Air Force. I volunteer as a walking tour […]
Air-Minded: Rotorhead Photoblogging
Fascination and fear: that sums up my relationship with helicopters. The thought of being able to take off and land vertically, and to hover at will, is entrancing: if I had the money I’d learn to fly one. And then an inner voice speaks up: “What about all those moving parts? One bolt snaps and […]
Friday Bag o’ Relief
You may question the relevance of today’s thumbnail photo. Go ahead, question away. I don’t mind. Are you done? Good. These objects are, in fact, bags o’ relief; specifically, pilot relief bags (or, if you prefer military terminology: bags, relief, pilot). I’ve filled more than a few, particularly on long ocean crossings. Fighters don’t have […]
Friday Bag o’ Nuthin’
I feel the need to blog but my bag is empty. I notice that doesn’t stop other bloggers, though, so what the hell. Including what’s left of today, five days remain before my first knee replacement operation. I want to get out on the motorcycle today. No plan: maybe a Barnes & Noble run, then […]
Air-Minded: Converting Jet Fuel into Noise
THROTTLES—IDLE RUDDER AND AILERONS—NEUTRAL STICK—ABRUPTLY FULL AFT AND HOLD RUDDER—ABRUPTLY APPLY FULL RUDDER OPPOSITE SPIN DIRECTION (OPPOSITE TURN NEEDLE) AND HOLD STICK—ABRUPTLY FULL FORWARD ONE TURN AFTER APPLYING RUDDER CONTROLS—NEUTRAL AFTER SPINNING STOPS AND RECOVER FROM DIVE That, if you don’t recognize it, is the boldface spin recovery procedure for the T-37. Student pilots could […]