"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
There I was at 30,000 feet
I recently updated older posts about the cars and motorcycles that have been part of my life. I thought I’d written a separate post about the aircraft I’ve flown, but when I went looking, it wasn’t here. I found it eventually — on Facebook. I don’t know why I never included it on my own […]
Did I mention picking up where I left off at Anytime Fitness? As before, other gym patrons have a habit of setting the wall monitors to Fox News, where old grievances are always fresh and raw. I swear, you can’t watch Fox for 10 minutes without seeing some reference to Bowe Bergdahl, Benghazi, or the time Barack Obama refused […]
Last week my friend Chuck organized a trip to the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in southern Arizona. Chuck and I are docents at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson. Like me, he’s a former fighter pilot. In his USAF days he flew F-4s; later he joined the Arizona Air National Guard, […]
Most of us think of precision weapons as smart bombs and associate such weapons with military air forces, but they’re employed by navies and armies as well. The accurate term is precision-guided munition. Definitions differ. Wikipedia says a PGM is a guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target and to minimize collateral damage. The Department of Defense says […]
How do you like my new eyePhone? Grotesque, no? It makes me think of teratomas, those legendary tumor-like growths that contain hair, teeth, and bones (sometimes even eyes). I don’t have a valid reason for showing you this photo other than to disturb your dreams. You can thank me later. I write book reviews and post […]
When you’re flying fighters, or any kind of aircraft, fuel is everything. You have to know not only how much fuel you have remaining at any time, you have to know how far you can go on it and how much you’ll need if things turn to shit and you have to divert. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a short training flight in the local area or part of a multi-jet package flying a 12-hour long overseas deployment with air refueling tankers as escorts, fuel is never far from your mind.
I follow a retired Royal Navy aviator on Facebook, not because I know him but because he posts fascinating photos of older military aircraft, many of which he flew during his career. He typically says little about his photos, but his followers post comments, and up to now I thought they were an informed and experienced group. Yesterday he posted […]
Our son, who lives in Las Vegas, turned 50 last week. Since he had to be in Phoenix yesterday for a business meeting, we drove up to have dinner with him. I’ve been wanting to visit the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field in Mesa, so we left Tucson in the morning and spent part of […]