Crash and Dash…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
I got a chance to watch the Navy test pilots flying the new F-35 JSF this week, and they were doing crashes and dashes…

That’s what the Navy calls touch and go landings, when they are practicing Field Carrier Landing Practice (better known as FCLPs)

Basically what you do is simulate landing on a carrier deck painted on a runway…

Below is one of those painted ‘decks’, the objects in the green circle are the Improved Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System (height increased from 4 feet to 6 feet for Datum lights), better known as the Ball, and an LSO platform


The green line is the center line of the FCLP carrier deck. As you can see, ‘most’ of the landings occur in the same place, and the run out is rather short. This is because they land and immediately go to max power and yank the bird back in the air (assuming nothing fell off)…

This is what the “Ball” looks like…


The cut lights are used for no comms clearance for landing, and the LSO uses them for power applications if they are not talking to the pilot (the longer the green, the more power they want to see…


The line of green lights in the middle are the datum lights, which is what the pilot is seeing and ‘hopefully’ the orange ‘ball’ in the center stays right at the datum level. The red lights are wave off (mandatory) lights also controlled by the LSO if they think the pilot is about to make a serious error in judgement…

This is an actual system installed on a carrier, it is fully stabilized and allows a stable point of reference regardless of ship movement. It is ‘focused’ 2500 feet behind the carrier as the stability point.

So anyhoo… I was standing with a Brit pilot who is over for the evaluation, and he was telling me the Air Force pilot had just left because he couldn’t stand to watch…


Now you’ve got to remember, the Air Force penalizes pilots if they bruise the tires on landing. The Navy, well if the tires and wheels LAST 10 landings they’re happy…


It was a nice break, and I’ll have to say, the JSF IS the sound (and a loud one) of FREEDOM 🙂


Enjoy your weekend folks!

Perspective…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


USS REAGAN

Seeing it next to the Arizona Memorial really puts its size into perspective… BIG!!!

When the Bridge pipes ‘ Man the Rail’ there is a lot of rail to man on this monster: shoulder to shoulder, around 4.5 acres. Her displacement is about 100,000 tons with full complement.

Capability

Top speed exceeds 30 knots, powered by two nuclear reactors that can operate for more than 20 years without refueling

1. Expected to operate in the fleet for about 50 years
2. Carries over 80 combat aircraft
3. Four arresting cables can stop a 28-ton aircraft going 150 miles per hour in less than 400 feet

Size

1. Towers 20 stories above the waterline

2. 1092 feet long; nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall (The USS Arizona by comparison, was 608 Ft long)

3. Flight deck covers 4.5 acres
4. 4 bronze propellers, each 21 feet across, weighing 66,200 pounds
5. 2 rudders, each 29 by 22 feet and weighing 50 tons
6. 4 high speed aircraft elevators, each over 4,000 square feet

Capacity

1. Home to about 6,000 Navy personnel (that’s 6,000 sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters of AMERICANS)
2. Carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days

3. 18,150 meals served daily 4. Distillation plants provide 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes
5. Nearly 30,000 light fixtures and 1,325 miles of cable and wiring ; 1,400 telephones
6. 14,000 pillowcases and 28,000 sheets

Last Man Standing…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Frank Buckles, the last American Doughboy from WWI is dead. He died Sunday in Charles Town, WV at 110 years old. Mr. Buckles was instrumental the last few years in promoting/speaking about the need for a TRUE WWI Memorial, and was a national treasure…

You can read the article in the NYT HERE. And Borepatch has a nice tribute up HERE with video…

Rest in Peace Corporal, your work is done… And God Bless you…

Singing the National Anthem…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

With all the kindness I can muster, I give this one piece of advice to the next pop star who is asked to sing the national anthem at a sporting event: save the vocal gymnastics and the physical gyrations for your concerts. Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten — straight up, no styling.

Sing it with the constant awareness that there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines watching you from bases and outposts all over the world. Don’t make them cringe with your self-centered ego gratification.

Sing it as if you are standing before a row of 86-year-old WWII vets wearing their Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and flag pins on their cardigans and you want them to be proud of you for honoring them and the country they love — not because you want them to think you are a superstar musician. They could see that from the costumes, the makeup and the entourages.

Sing “The Star Spangled Banner” with the courtesy and humility that tells the audience that it is about America, not you.

If you can’t or won’t, then don’t do it again…

Random things…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Got a little range time with Me from Lagniappe’s Lair today, and got to meet Murphy for the first time… 60+lbs of friendly, shedding German Shepard does “interesting” things to a fleece jacket…LOL

I don’t particularly care for shooting in the cold, but it’s good ‘practice’… And it looks like 340+ rounds without cleaning are about all the FN Tac 45 will take without cleaning, as it did start having FTFs, so tomorrow it gets a detail strip and cleaning tomorrow.

I was breaking in a new 30-06 and Me was trying to get the final zero on his lefty Savage Tactical in .308…

Those last half inches of scope alignment are hell… 1 click up, 1 click left; lather rinse repeat, drop a flyer, shoot two, adjust… sigh…

ME ran out of ammo, and I ran out of shoulder… 30-06 in a Featherweight DOES get your attention, trust me!

But a fun time was had by all 🙂

In other news, I’m beginning to believe the dems ARE going to try to close down the government… I think these idjits in DC are looking at what the dems are doing in WI and thinking they can do the same thing and blame the Republicans (and they are already positioning themselves to do that on the political programs)…

Libya has truly blown up, with Gaddafi hiring mercenaries to come in and kill his ‘opponents’ (his own people), and the US has ‘finally’ said they will embargo him and have frozen his US holdings. The ‘delay’ was waiting for US citizens to get out of Tripoli (on a boat that was WAY too small)…

Hello State Dept? Ya ever hear of HEAD COUNT??? 210ft boat is NOT BIG ENOUGH!!! The Greeks, with half the number of people, had a boat twice as big!

And Zercool has an excellent post up HERE on situation awareness when you are buying or selling via any list… Well worth the read, and good common sense!


Now back to gun cleaning, y’all enjoy the weekend!!!

In the YGTBSM File…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

From Politico… By Glenn Thrush…

February 24, 2011

The Democratic National Committee wanted to honor Nancy Pelosi Thursday — but its praise wasn’t good enough for the House minority leader.

When the DNC’s Resolutions Committee brought up a resolution commemorating Pelosi’s years as speaker of the House, Pelosi’s daughter sought to alter the proposal at her mother’s behest, adding some of the accomplishments that the elder Pelosi felt the committee had overlooked.

“I have some friendly amendments,” said Christine Pelosi, a political strategist, at the committee’s session during the DNC Winter Meeting at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel Thursday afternoon. She is a member of the committee.

“You think I’m kidding,” Christine Pelosi added, to surprised laughter from the room. The proposed changes, she indicated, came out of a discussion with her mother.

First, Pelosi wanted to add a mention of her fight against HIV and AIDS, because it was “why she went to Congress.” Then, she wanted to insert a paragraph on her “accomplishments for equality,” mentioning the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in December.

“Finally, since, as she said, ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she wanted to add, in the final ‘whereas’ clause, ‘…and will continue the fight for America’s working families,'” Christine Pelosi said.

The committee applauded that point, and approved the amended resolution on a voice vote.

It is more and more obvious Pelosi’s ego knows NO bounds… sigh…

I really don’t know what else to say, since I KNOW I’d have to start using four letter words to express myself…

Accuracy…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Now THIS is the definition of accuracy… from the pointy end, not the usual view…

The attached video was filmed by some Air Force Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTAC) in Tal Afar, west of Mosul in Iraq . A marine unit got pinned down in the street. They set their video camera on the bumper of their armored HUM-V, which they were using for cover. Keep an eye on the opposing van parked just down the street. On the audio you can hear them shooting back and forth. The rounds you can hear are from the Marines, and the ones you hear pinging against the side of the vehicle with no accompanying pop are from the bad guys. When the Marine says they just fired the “rifle,” it means an F-16 aircraft just launched a Maverick missile. You can hear it come in and see it strike the vehicle the bad guys were using for cover.

Probability is the 16 used either TV or Laser designator…

Old School…

Posted on by March 6, 2013



I’d actually forgotten I’d ordered the rig below, as it’s been a “while” in the finishing, but it was well worth the wait!!!


This is old school holster work, done by a master craftsman! Kenny Rowe and his son Cody out of Hope, AR did this work for me, based on the old style floral (also called Mexican) patterns dating back at least to the late 1800s and popularized by Heiser around the turn of the last Century.


The belt matches the holster, and both are outstanding! And NONE of the work was done with machines, it was all done by hand, and I can’t find any mistakes anywhere!!!

Taking nothing away from the young holster makers (and I support them too), this is the kind of work it is almost impossible to find anymore, anywhere… Kenny has been doing this for over 30 years, and was trained by his Dad, who started doing this back in the 50s! They are a soup to nuts shop… Boots to saddles and everything in between.


And I gotta tell ya, given a choice between wearing Kydex and this…


Well, lets just say the Kydex will be residing in the back of the spare holster box…

Mini Blog Shoot…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

A few of us got together at NRA today for a mini shoot, in attendance were The Miller and his son, Bus Error, New Jovian Thunderbolt, Newbius and myself. A couple of others couldn’t make it due to work/other reasons…


I got there at 0800, figuring a half hour early would be fine, but NOooo… I was about 20th in line… NJT, Miller and his son were there at 0730 and were about 4th in line (OBTW, they don’t even OPEN until 0830).


After sign in, they gave us three lanes, and a hard one hour stop, as there was a waiting list, and reminded us NO PICTURES… sigh…


Anyhoo, we set up proceeded to shoot a WIDE variety of weapons… I “think” NJT actually kept track. On a funny note, NJT asked me to watch him and see if I could see what he was doing wrong, so I handed off a pistol to Newbius and got behind NJT- He promptly proceeded to keep em all in the black, looked around at me and shrugged…


I told him I WAS NOT going to stand behind him every time just so he could get it right…


NJT tried the FN Tac 45 with the Trijicon optic and turned around and said, “This is so easy, it’s boring”…


Note to self- When you practice mag changes, KEEP YOUR FRIKKIN FINGER OUT OF THE WAY… Magazines WILL seat even if part of your finger happens to be in the way, and blood gets everywhere… sigh…


We got done about to the minute (I was still cleaning up the lane when the next group started setting up), and cleaned up and adjourned to the NRA museum for a walkthrough. They had changed a few exhibits since the last visit, so I was trying to find all the ‘new’ stuff since the last trip…


A couple are shown below…


Ironically, Bloviating Zepplin put up a video of this very gun today, so HERE is the link to see the video about it- This is the Lewis and Clarke Air Gun…

And for you Vampire Slayers…

A silver chased, engraved Colt Python, with silver bullets (which were carved into representations of little silver heads)…
And JFK’s presentation Colt SAA, beautifully engraved with Navy stuff including PT109. Sorry for the lousy picture, my fault…

And for all you Serenity fans… Fillion’s pistol! Based on a Taurus of all things… sigh…

After a lap around the museum, we adjourned to Friday’s for lunch and the usual BS session… I good time was had by all, and new friends were made yet again! And we agreed, Newbius has the ‘strangest’ excuse to buy a new gun… His Astra finally failed, so now he has to go buy a Sig 229, since he’s already got the holster, etc. for it…
I’m sure others will put up their recollections, but again, it was fun guys! Too bad we didn’t have any ladies there, but we will be doing this again!

Why are we so stupid???

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Breda and Tam have stirred up the masses with two different posts about the gun world, and the various commenters showed just about every perspective from agreement, to envy, to jealousy, to dismissal, to out and out stupidity because one or both tromped on “their” pet belief… Now Jay, on the other hand, just does it to stir the pot 🙂 And Peter chimed in with a bit of background on Tam…


It’s not a wonder we (gun owners) are always under attack from both the right and the left. Rather than having open minds, people seem t0 ONLY want to advance their personal agendas, rather than taking a big picture look at what is happening, or actually admitting there may be another point of view.

1911 vs. plastic semi-auto vs. revolver- Honestly, who frikkin cares???

The are ALL hand held weapons, and ‘some’ of us actually have more than one type… So much hyperbole is out there that you could spend years trying to get to the truth. And if you did, somebody from the ‘other’ camp would give some example only “they” know about that “shows” their pet belief is right.

Open carriers vs. concealed carriers- Same thing…

Shotgunners (skeet/trap) vs. shotgunners (tactical/hunting)- Same thing…

EBRs vs. “hunting” rifles vs. “target” rifles vs. “patrol” rifles- Same thing…

What we NEED to do, if we can’t have open minds, is at least be courteous to those who differ with us.

Not everyone can afford a custom pistol/shotgun/rifle (or multiple guns period), not everyone has the option of multiple carry pistols, not everyone has the opportunity to shoot competitively, not everyone has access on a daily, or weekly, or even monthly to a range, and I’m not even going to get into the restrictions some ranges have…

Not all of us grew up handling/owning guns our entire lives, not all of us have worked in the gun business, not all of us have seen combat, not all of us have had to use a gun in anger, not all of us have had the opportunity to attend training classes for rifles/pistols/shotguns…

And sure as hell, not all of us are experts in ANYTHING gun related…

BUT, we all need to stand together against the gun grabbers, antis of whatever stripe, and those Hoplophobes who cannot stand the fact that we ‘civilians’ are allowed to own guns; Second Amendment not withstanding…

Do we do that???

Oh hell no… we revert to ‘type’…

Like the skeet/trap types that look down their noses on the tactical shotgun crowd and ‘agree’ with banning tactical shotguns (and forget that their precious $10,000+ 12 ga skeet gun will probably be part of that ban).

Like the ‘hunters’ who agree with banning EBRs because they are assault rifles (but forget that the 30 cal, 30-06, .308 and other calibers are also military calibers and could very well be subject to the same ban if they are anything other than single shot)

Like the C&R crowd that turn up their noses at anything ‘modern’ in pistol or rifles and agree with magazine bans (and forget all the Winchesters, Remingtons, and other rifles that will be banned because of their internal magazines), and some of the classic pistols that would go away too…

Like the 1911 vs. Plastic fantastic vs. revolver crowd… sigh…

Why???

Are we really that stupid??? Probably… And the antis and gun grabbers continue to chip away at us because of it…

Just because Heller and McDonald succeeded, we are not out of the woods yet, and America is one of the few countries were guns can be (for the most part) freely owned as long as you are not a criminal…

But there is definitely a segment of the left that DOES want to make us criminals through new and or more restrictive laws, rather than enforce the ones already on the books…

I would ask that you (the few that read my blog, and I truly thank you for that) stop and think before you post or comment and look at the big picture, not just your specific area of concentration/desire/knowledge.

Take a moment to consider there are other points of view, and others (like Tam, Frank, JPG) who really ARE experts and have done the research, done the testing, done the shooting and KNOW what they are talking about…

My Mother and Grandmother both used the saying, if you can’t say anything nice (or at least neutral) don’t say anything… And if you do, have your research done, and be ready to back up what you say.

And yeah, I’m STILL on that civility kick… sigh…

And no, I’m NOT an expert, but I do own and shoot 1911s, Glocks, Colt Revolvers, shotguns, EBRs, bolt actions and I ‘attempt’ to shoot in competitions when time allows…

And I would like to continue to have that ability. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I welcome your comments and impressions (good or bad, but civil please).