Air-Minded: Widowmaker
One a day in Tampa Bay
"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
One a day in Tampa Bay
Oh, you want the piggy dirties? Happy to oblige, so long as you understand why I still have to be vague about certain details.
I’m sure aviators everywhere chew over details, goofs, and errors in flying movies. And like me, I’m sure they love watching them.
You could fly coast to coast in 1930, but your trip would entail a mix of short flights by day, overnight train rides, and occasional hotel stays when airline and train timetables didn’t mesh.
Even though GPS and computers do all the work today, student pilots are still taught to calculate speed the old-fashioned way, by timing how long it takes to fly between section lines, or to know how long to maintain a standard rate turn in order to turn 180 degrees (one minute). As on the sea, accurate timekeeping is essential when navigating by air.
I visited Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson this morning.
We made do with what we had and improvised when we could. So do Russian pilots, apparently.
Here’s to you, Patches, my old friend!