Geithner has postponed the announcement of the use of appx $350B left of TARP money (link here), so they can concentrate on spending the $850+B of the “new” stimulus (pork) package. Is it just me, or are now looking at OVER $1.4 Trillion dollars going out the door in basically 6 months? And for what, really?

Listening to the news this morning, it appears that John Q. Public is roughly 7:1 against this spending bill; but is anybody listening??? I think not…

On a different note- From a discussion I’ve been in, a different take on the Airbus forced landing in the Hudson. This is STRICTLY a discussion of the airframe, NOT a slam at the pilots or the crew!

Don’t be surprised if the Airbus fly by wire computers didn’t put a perfectly good airplane in the water. In a older generation airplane like the 727 or 737 300/400 the throttles are hooked to the fuel controllers on the engine by a steel throttle cable just like a TBM or a Comanche.

On the Airbus nothing in the cockpit is real. Everything is electronic. The throttles, rudder and brake pedals and the sidestick are hooked to rheostats who talk to a computer who talks to an electric hydraulic servo valve which in turn hopefully moves something.

In a older generation airplane when you hit birds the engines keep screaming or they blow up but they don’t both roll back to idle simultaneously like happened to Flt. 1549. All it would take is for bird guts to plug a pressure sensor or knock the pitot probe off or plug it and the computers would roll the engines back to idle thinking they were over boosting because the computers were getting bad data.

The Airbus is a real pile of crap. I didn’t like flying them. Google Airbus A320 Crash at the Paris Airshow in 1998. Watch the video of an airbus A320 crash into a forest because the computers wouldn’t allow a power increase following a low pass. The computers wouldn’t allow a power increase because they determined that the airspeed was too low for the increase requested so the computers didn’t give them any until it was way too late.

Pushing the throttles forward in a Airbus does nothing more than request a power increase from the computer. If the computer doesn’t like all the airplane and engine parameters you don’t get a power increase. Airbus blamed the dead French crew since they couldn’t defend themselves. A Boeing probably would have still been flying…

On a personal note- I was on an A-320 going into LAX last year in moderate turbulence on final where the auto throttles went to max power at about 10 feet off the deck. The pilot did manage to land that sucker, but talking to him after the flight he told me the airplane tried to wave off, he thought, due to the turbulence and fluctuating airspeed…

AD put up this post a few days ago which prompted me to put these words down on paper (so to speak)…

In the last six months, I have had a friend and two acquaintances die from alcohol and drugs. These were not young kids, these were mature successful adults who had retired and basically decided they had no reason to continue living…

“Ron” was a long time government engineer, divorced, kids grown and gone, who drank himself to death in 60 days. He had NO hobbies, no really close friends, no outside interests- basically his work was his life. When he retired, he basically went home and drank all day every day. Another acquaintance saw him about a week before he was found dead, and said he had put on about 60 lbs, reeked of booze and was staggering around the grocery store at 8am. A week later, they busted down the door to his apartment and he was found dead in a litter of empty fifths of booze…

My friend “John” who lived in Florida, was a bit “different” due to his time in Nam- I think based on what he told me, he had seen and done some things that he never wanted to face. He also was medically retired for many years from the Army and had been treated for years for PTSS. He was one of those folks who didn’t really like people, hated being indoors, and never really held a full time job, but worked 60-70 hours a week.

But he was always ready to help friends with any tasks (and a damn good handyman). Ironically, he was excellent with kids! We finally convinced him to take up golf, and always made sure he was included in our foursomes when we played. He seemed to enjoy it, but I don’t think he had another outlet or hobby.

I’m sure he was taking a variety of drugs, because he would often disappear for days at a time, but he always showed back up if he’d made a commitment to help somebody or we’d told him we were playing golf.

I saw him about a year ago, we talked about golf, work and my kids, whom he remembered when they were little. He seemed tired, and wasn’t taking as good care of himself as he had been. I talked to another friend, who was also concerned; but told me “John” was just giving up on life, and openly doing drugs and booze in combination. He just didn’t care. Two weeks ago I got the call that “John” had been found dead in his apartment.

Last was “Billy” a retired 30 year CWO4 from the Navy. “Billy” was a maintenance wizard, the original go to guy when weird problems cropped up. He was known for working 16-18 hours a day, was almost always in on weekends, and had to be forced to take leave. When “Billy” retired, he was fine for a couple of months, but then we started seeing him at the golf course at lunch, except his lunch was 12 oz at a time, and many of them. It wasn’t long before he was passing out at the bar, and the cops were called a couple of times. When they tried to get him into treatment, he refused and basically told the Docs, “I’m done, nobody wants me and I have no where to go.”

Again, no hobbies, no friends outside work, no social life after his wife died about 5 years ago. A month ago he was found dead, in his car in the golf course parking lot with two fifths…

The moral of this- Work is NOT a substitute for a life! Now some will say I’m the pot calling the kettle black; but please people, find SOMETHING outside work to put your energy into- Travel, golf, shooting, petite point, whatever… But don’t let everything revolve around work to the exclusion of everything else. Stop and smell the roses, or the gunpowder, your choice…

That is all.