‘Cause nobody’d believe it…
Stuck it in a broke it off, he did… 🙂
h/t Toejam
1943 Army one, tying back to the Revolution…
And they did, and we won…
Now they’re locking in on the fact that the MA 370 copilot had a ZOMG ELEVENTY SIMULATOR at his house…
Funny thing, that is either an FSX or FS9 simulator package… by Microsoft… readily available and three screens are pretty much the NORM for both flight simulators and car racing simulators… And yokes, throttle quadrants, and rudders are also sold all over the place… Like HERE.
You can also get additional screens to ‘simulate’ the panels in a ‘heavy’ cockpit (FS9 is the leading heavy simulator) including 737-800, Airbug 320 and 747-400…
Sigh… and I’m almost surprised they haven’t blamed George Bush yet…
And why isn’t the USA doing more…
I get SO damn tired of listening to the ‘so called’ experts…
There are THREE and only three ways to present things- Facts (hard, provable, documented, etc.), pseudo-facts (maybe true, depending on ‘interpretation’) and speculations (wild ass guesses)…
The 24 hour news cycle has put us in a position of having to watch endless ‘replays’ of an incident, or situation or (insert item here)… And even more so if they want to keep ‘other’ things off the air.
Malaysia 370 has brought out some of the worst coverage I and others that know a ‘bit’ about aviation and the military have ever seen, if lunch today was any indication. All of us were laughing about how far ‘out’ some of the speculation by some of the so called experts were offering, and how absolutely stupid some of the questions were that were asked by the ‘commentators’…
All designed to ‘fill’ that air time… To put it in perspective, very few real ‘facts’ are known. The acft took off, it made one position report, the IFF was turned off shortly thereafter, and the ACARS data feed was partially disabled some 10-15 minutes later. And it didn’t “drop off Radar”; it reverted to a skin paint return (much harder to track if you’re not watching the radar) vs. the transponder which gives a nice big information laden return. And no you can’t track the plane by the pings from the satellite… Unpossible… They’re saying on some stations that the airplane climbed to FL450 immediately after the transponder was turned off… Unpossible… Gross weight would be too heavy to allow the engines to provide enough power (and that report was supposedly based on a radar skin paint)… Having been a radar operator in a previous life, I will tell you getting a range and bearing to a radar contact is not too hard, but getting an altitude is a SWAG…
IF, big if, you buy the 4-5 hour timeline ‘after’ the transponder went off, that gives a radius of about 2500nm, or something around 19.5 MILLION square mile search area (e.g. bigger than the six USAs). That’s it…
EVERYTHING else is speculation until the acft is found, either on the ground somewhere, or in the water. Once the black boxes can be retrieved, the rest of the story can then be known. But the media is still putting this ‘speculation’ out there as fact. They are all hoping they guess right, and can claim a ‘scoop’… Ratings and all that crap…
The other thing that bothered us, was the amount of information that was being spouted that ‘could’ lead to other exploitation of other flights, all to fill airtime. Not going into detail, if you know what I’m talking about, you know…
It’s NOT the first time, and every network has been guilty. We had a ‘good’ track on Bin Laden until a media outlet outed as a ‘scoop’ the SPECIFIC way we were tracking him in Tora Bora. That particular source was shut off within 4 hours… and led to years of fruitless hunting…
And if they DO find 370, depending on where it is, THAT may become an issue in and of itself… Boeing (US) acft, territorial impact point (or on land) vs. open ocean (international waters). Face saving may impact access, or blame, or recovery of the black boxes. I’m betting NTSB is sitting on go, waiting for the call, along with Boeing and a whole bunch of others.
I hope they DO find the bird soon, if for no other reason than giving those grieving families some closure in knowing what did happen to their loved ones…
Note to self- Dig out plans for TV screen protector. Could make self rich… sigh
Thanks to all those bloggers out there who cross posted my little book.
I truly appreciate your time and efforts to help this starving artist er… new kid on the block get off the ground.
And thank you for the overwhelming response from the readers!!! I literally could not do this without y’alls support.
And thank you for having more dollars than sense… 🙂
Seriously, I cannot tell y’all what this means to me.
Navy disqualifies 151 sailors after sex assault review
Pretty negative, right? Obviously the Navy can’t get it’s act together so there are rapes left and right…
But if you actually READ the story…
The Navy initially had suspended five sailors among the 10,000 personnel it reviewed. That review was expanded to about 20,000 and resulted in the suspension of 151, Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello, a Navy spokesman, said Wednesday.
The “vast majority” of the 151 didn’t receive the proper training or lacked certifications for duties involving sexual assault prevention and response.
Just a tad bit different isn’t it…
151 out of 20,000… Doing the math… that’s .0076 %…
They whole article is HERE at USAToday…
Nope no media bias, not a ‘smidgen’…
Sigh…
It’s real…
And up in electronic formats for both Kindle and Nook. Edit and apparently also as a real dead tree HERE!!!
I will warn you now, the print version is $14.00 which is high, but as a self publish I couldn’t drive the price any lower without having to pay them…
If you were one of the folks that helped as an alpha or beta read, check your email. For those who expressed an interest in a signed copy, I will be able to get those out the end of April (I still have a real job… dammit). Please send me an email with your mailing address, how you want it personalized and I’ll give you details and approximate dates I expect to be able to fulfill your requests. IF any of you folks are going to NRA, I will try my best to have a few copies there.
Thanks again to all of you for your support. It’s not the next great American novel, but I hope you’ll enjoy it anyway! 🙂
And reviews would be appreciated!!!
Thanks again,
Old NFO
Apparently Di-Fi doesn’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot… OR up her ass…
“Based on what Director [John] Brennan has informed us, I have grave concerns that the CIA search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution including the Speech and Debate clause,” she said. “It may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function.”
The rest of the story appears to be that congstaff apparently smuggled out classified unreleased documents from a report on waterboarding, and the CIA took offense. And started tracing where the documents had come from and guess what…
They went and found the docs and erased them… So Di-Fi is stomping feet and throwing a hissy fit, while ignoring the fact that her OWN folks are guilty as hell…
Full article HERE on foxnews.com
In the WTF news, the Navy is building a new class of large ocean going research vessels named after astronauts (turn about being fair play, since the shuttles were named for research vessels). The first two are the R/V Neil Armstrong and R/V Sally Ride.
BUT, the administration is cutting funds to ocean research (I guess they’re doubling down that climate change is ‘fixed’ science now)…
So the UARCs are getting less $$ to go do research on these brand new vessels that are literally state of the art!
Bottom line is they probably will not be utilized anywhere near their full capacity, and will cost the Navy more $$ to maintain them at WHOI and Scripps…
Link HERE to their little charade…
Sigh…
On the GOOD news side, the Pentagon has decided to make the Swedish-made Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon System (MAAWS)– or the M3 Carl Gustaf for short– standard issue!!!
Full article HERE. I’ll guarantee THAT will leave a mark on anything it hits!!!
And in the it’s STOOPID class…
Enforcement issues surround two Northern California cities’ bans on high-capacity magazines. The Oakland Tribune reported Saturday that since Sunnyvale’s ban went into effect midnight Thursday, not one of the now-illegal magazines has been turned in. San Francisco police report that they have no system to track whether any magazines have been turned in for destruction under the new ordinance. San Francisco residents must surrender their high-capacity magazines to police by April 7.
Full article HERE.
I am really beginning to wonder why we’re in this handbasket and where we’re going…
It’s like there is just a total blanking on what’s happening in this country and around the world. The almost total reliance on social media, nobody is even bothering to check out events, just listening to sound bites and blindly believing them…
Kids don’t know geography, can’t name the states, can’t add subtract or spell. And they sure as hell can’t punctuate… All they know how to do is txt LOL…
Schools only teach ‘approved’ history, I don’t think they even offer Civics courses anymore, and nobody can punish an unruly child. Parents refuse to take responsibility, kids don’t even understand that they SHOULD be responsible for their actions, and if you DO hold someone responsible, you’re gonna get sued…
The reality is this country is in serious trouble, and nobody seems to care. It’s all partisan politics and infighting in DC, while the USA burns… And the unions want more $$ and more unionization for less work and push off any attempts to have any workplace competency…
The military is being cut off at the knees, senior leadership that doesn’t toe the party line are relieved, retired or forced out. Manufacturing has gone overseas for damn near all the major capabilities that made this country great no longer can even be done here; religions are under fire, especially Christians and Jewish.
Political correctness is all the rage, to the detriment of the good of the country, and everything is either racist, or homophobic, or (insert minority here)…
If you’re a small business owner, you no longer have the right to refuse service without risking lawsuits…
It seems everybody has their own special ‘month’ except America… sigh…
Our universities are training people from everywhere in the world in hard sciences, but American students by and large are going for soft degrees, and wonder why they can’t find jobs.
And I’m not even going to get into the whole health care mess…
You can’t find ammo, because any time standard calibers come on the shelves, they’re gone in a heartbeat, or they want an arm and a leg for it. (like $60/500 rounds of .22).
People in CT, NY, MD, NJ and some other blue states are damn near in revolt over crushing gun regulation, and people and businesses who can are voting with their feet…
Our country is becoming a land of the haves and the you owe me’s… And they you owe me’s have the government at their back…
I’m sensing an undercurrent of grumbling and people seem to be getting fed up with all the BS, and I think this country is turning into a powder keg that is getting closer and closer to blowing…
I’m also seeing friends that can, pulling the plug and heading for the hills, either literally or figuratively. Downsizing, or whatever you want to call it, but they’re abandoning the high paying jobs in the metro areas, and going low profile in an attempt to preserve their sanity. Folks are converting 401Ks and savings into ‘convertible’ items, whatever that may be (Gold, Silver, ammo, you name it).
I’m getting closer to doing that same thing, because I don’t want to have to fight my way out of town when all this goes to s**t, and I wonder if I’ll be able to…
And I’m scared for my kids and grandsons… This is NOT the America I wanted them to have; nor is it the America I spent 22 years defending around the world. And when I see that generation, I’m not impressed with most of them; nor the ones coming behind them.
What happens when the civility ends? What happens when one of us ‘old farts’ has had enough? Will we be shot down in our homes in a SWAT raid? Or die on the street in a running battle with (insert group here)…
And most of all, HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN??? I think ‘most’ of us know better and we just haven’t stood up to the gradual erosion of our rights, choosing to go along rather than push back and get involved in politics. Spit…
It now may be at the point that it’s too late, and the only option is fight or flight…
I truly hope not, but my level of confidence is probably at an all time low. Sorry for such a downer post, but NOTHING I’m seeing/hearing is good news on any front.
Comments? Recommendations? Buhler?
Okay, I need some expertise… Stabby I’m NOT good at…
I ‘think’ this is a Japanese Model 30 from Nagoya… Hooked quillion gave it away
No hangar, and it’s been used, but all original including the wood and the ‘button’ sheath… I ‘think’ it fits a Arisaka rifle.
I think this is the Nagoya Armory mark.
Not a pristine blade, some rust…
Looking for a good home for this, since I don’t have a rifle to put it on. Make offer… 🙂