Two Days of Stirring Air

You've seen a machine similar to the one we flew home in the video I posted and thought was a fake.

The Robinson R44 Raven II we flew home had this same paint scheme.

I just got home from work this morning and I have a bit of a sore throat.


I'm gonna give ya some coordinates to get us started on our journey, and I'll post again later, if you don't mind.


We took off from Torrance, CA., West of Long Beach, and flew Eastbound, just North of the Long Beach airport.
There is now a permanent flight restriction over Disneyland, just south of Fullerton, so I contacted Fullerton Tower and asked to pass just North of them to avoid drawing the attention of the Federalis.

We then followed Highway 91 Eastbound past Corona and Riverside, and called March AFB approach to pass just North of them. Just East of March Air Base we join Interstate 10, and will follow it all the way to El Paso.

East of the Pass at Banning, CA., we contact Palm Springs approach control. Palm Springs always has trouble picking us up on radar because we are too low......behind the mountain from him. But around Palm Springs at coordinates: 33 54 50.69N 116 42 37.99W there are windmills just about everywhere. It's difficult to see them in the satellite image, but you can see the service roads, and that'll give you an idea how many of them are there. The wind flows through the pass one way in the morning, and then the opposite way in the evening. The windmills are always spinning!

Clearing Palm Springs, we can look forward to about an hour's flight to Blythe. I have a friend at Blythe that asked if I had ever seen the "Blythe Intaglios".
I hadn't.
He gave me directions to find them, and I have twice been in the area he directed me to without seeing them.
Turns out, they are much smaller than I expected. The artwork done in the Andes during this same time frame is huge.........the size of a small town. If you are looking for something that large, it's easy to overlook something about the size of a tennis court.
The Intaglios are at 33 48 02.16N 114 31 55.67 W. That coordinate will take you to the two legged figure. If you look just Southeast of this figure, you'll see another artwork....this one with four legs.
Blythe was a large training area during World War II. The airport was a B-17 base.....there is a commemorative marker at the entrance to the terminal.

General Patton also used the area to train his tank Corps. My friend in Blythe told me the tanks ran over and ruined many of the Intaglios before they realized they were treading over ancient, irreplaceable works of art. How sad.

Look closely at the image, and you can see where someone drove over the two-legged figure.
These images are now surrounded by a protective fence.

These two figures are on sloping ground overlooking the Colorado river. As we fly over the river I comment that it's odd to realize we are looking at water that has been through the Grand Canyon.

Blythe uses the river for irrigating many crops: Hay, Lemons, Oranges, Cotton.
It is an oasis in the middle of rocks and small bushes.

Gonna hit the hay now. I'll be back later with some more sights to see, via Google Earth.

Before My Debrief.......

I look forward to reviewing my low-level trip home from L.A. with you soon, but I'd like to give some of you time to do something so you'll get more out of it.

Have you downloaded "Google Earth" yet?
If not, go do it ASAP.
It's an amazing program that you'll enjoy spending hours on after you have it.

I'll be giving you coordinates of things we saw so you can see, via satellite images, some of what we saw along the way.

I think you'll enjoy my narrative a little more if you don't have to depend solely on my description of objects of interest to form a picture.

So go download the program. I hope to have my after-action report waiting on you tomorrow.

7 December

"A date which will live in infamy", according to Franklin D..

This is a day that means a great deal to our family.

I flew home from San Antonio today.
As I walk through the concourse on my way to the plane, I always watch the gates that have just boarded and pick up newspapers the departing passengers have left behind......
It's okay to call me cheap.....I take some pride in it!

This morning I was lucky enough to grab the Chicago Trib, the San Antonio Express-News, and the USA Today.

All had articles about Pearl Harbor, but oddly, most of the articles were about how few of the survivors remain, and how many younger people don't even know the import of the date.
What a shame.

My Dad was born on 7 December 1921.
So had he lived, he would have been 84 today. Dad started smoking when he was 13 or so, and succumbed to lung cancer two years ago.
He was truly a part of what we now call "The Greatest Generation."

Dad had joined the Indiana National Guard when he was 19. When the news came on his 20th birthday that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, I wonder what he thought about this surprise birthday present?
At 20, I suspect he was frightened, but like most of his generation, knew there was a job that needed doin' and was ready to get to work.

My Dad was typical of many Dads of that era. He didn't talk a lot about what happened to him during the war, but in the jewelry box I had found the Purple Heart and knew my old man was special. He was like that about life too.
He didn't brag. He was not formally educated, but he was the type of guy the neighbors would bring their broken appliances to because they knew if Greybeard's Dad couldn't fix it, it was genuine junk!

He was a carpenter, mechanic, bricklayer, roofer, electrician, concrete finisher......you name it, he could do it, and he could do it better than average.

I was proud of him for a thousand reasons.

When I reached manhood,
I started hugging him and telling him THE WORDS.
You know "THE WORDS" don't you?
He was uncomfortable saying them, as were all the macho guys of his generation.
And because he was uncomfortable, I was too... at first.

But over the years, the hugs and the words came more easily, 'til finally he was the hugger, and I was the huggee...
and he freely said THE WORDS...
"I love you."
I was glad I had made him uncomfortable for a little while.

So now you know, for our family this day is important for more than bombs and battleships,
although we had family directly under the bombs on the West Virginia at Pearl, too.

I'd like you to share the importance of this day and honor my Dad by being the hugger.
Give all those you love a hug for me today, please, and say THE WORDS.

I know my old man would like that.
Happy Birthday Dad.
I love you.

Alamo Town

Made it!

We got in just before dark. Total flight time was 11.3 hours, although we did a little touring along the way. Our average airspeed on the trip was 126.3 knots...
about 145 m.p.h.!

It's late. I'm tired, and I've had a little of "Uncle Al's medicine." I'm gonna hit the sack and save the trip report for when I can do it justice.

The question is........what am I gonna do when I grow up?

See ya tomorrow!

Dateline: Deming, N.M.

We're here safely.

All paperwork signed at the factory, and in the air by 10:30 this morning.
Getting out of the L.A. basin is the hardest part of this flight......
Obviously I'm relatively unfamiliar with the area, and there are several controlled airfields to talk to.

This helicopter is a good cross country machine. We have been averaging over 120 knots so far. The new owner is pleased with his machine.
It's Candy Apple Red with Gold trim and light saddle leather interior.
Beautiful!

Helicopters are expensive to begin with. Avionics can make aircraft unbelievably pricy. He has equipped this machine with a normal VHF transmitter/receiver, a Garmin GPS with another transmitter receiver, and a Garmin 500 GPS with a collision avoidance system and XM receiver capability that can give you inflight weather reports!

I have to admit......I'm lost with this stuff. We both will have our face in the handbook trying to figure it all out tonight.

To follow along with us, we have been following Interstate 10 East. We landed at Blythe California for fuel, then went up to check out the Blythe Intaglios. (Google it.......pretty interesting stuff!)

Next landing was at Marana, AZ. just North of Tucson.
We then flew over the aircraft boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB.
Shortly after that, it got dark.
I gotta tell ya, I don't like flying a brand new helicopter after the sun disappears. We stayed right over the highway, and the helicopter buzzed along like a sewing machine, thank God.

Deming is cold tonight. 40 degrees when we landed, and they're predicting a low of 16.........let me say that again.........16 degrees tonight!
I had thought we might get an early start tomorrow morning, but with it being that cold, I don't want to start the helicopter unless we can get the engine warmed up some. We'll have to talk with the airport guys to see if they can pre-heat the thing.

Again, thanks to all for your supportive comments. All is well. This is such fun!
How do I do this full time?

With God's blessings, San Antonio tomorrow.
Watch this space!

Time To Spare? Go By Air!

That's misleading.

Things went without a hitch this morning.

First thing to report: Today was my first experience with the "Electronic ticket self service machine." Wow!

Long lines at all the stations of the ticket counter. No line at the E-Ticket dispenser. I walked up and pushed a button to start the process, it asked me to swipe a credit card, (for identification purposes only.....no charge).
A screen came up saying "Hello Greybeard! What is your flight number?" I entered my flight number and my intinerary came up on the screen with the question, "is this your itinerary?" I pushed yes, and my ticket dropped into the dispenser.

Done. The whole dog-gone process took all of 20 seconds!

Going through security was another surprise. I had planned for 90 minutes. It took all of 15.
I found myself at my gate almost two hours prior to my flight!
The flight to LAX was uneventful.........no food though.....beverages only.

The gentleman buying the helicopter arrived LAX 90 minutes after I did. We hired a cab to bring us to the motel. The driver was, as always, either Pakistani or Indian.
Nothing in the upcoming flight will have my attention like the taxi ride from LAX to our motel! The cab was an old Chevy. The brakes, (all four), were grinding like sharpening a machete on an old grinding wheel. Of course he had to prove how brave he was......driving 20 miles over the speed limit with brakes that should have been fixed in 1999. At one point the light surprised him, and we came to a sideways stop.......front wheels howling and tire smoke billowing.
(I don't think there was any extra charge for the display of driving skill.)

But we are safely checked in, fed, and ready to get started in the morning.
Thanks for your kind words, especially yours, Kit.
There is a power outlet in the helicopter, and while flying over a Starbucks or Panera Bread Company, I might very well have tried to see if I could get a decent wifi connection!

Keep me in your thoughts.
Tomorrow night......Deming, New Mexico, Lord willin'.

Cross Country

Freight Dogs like my friend John have a right to smirk a little about what I'm gonna post today.....

I've left myself in the position this morning of chasing my tail the way I wanted to avoid doing when I wrote "Rest!"
I'm off work at 6:30 A.M., leaving for my airline hub, and will be in L.A. this afternoon. Tomorrow I will go through the surprisingly easy process of signing for a $400,000 helicopter, and with the owner under my wing, will start beating the air into submission Eastbound along I-10 through El Paso.
The owner lives in San Antonio, so our plan is to spend Monday evening at the Grand Hotel in lovely Deming, N.M., then on to San Antone on Tuesday.
There, I will be forced to suffer the atmosphere around the riverwalk, no doubt consuming a Tecate or two and some sort of combination Mexican dinner Tuesday night, then Huevos Rancheros Wednesday morning.

I hope to be back home Wednesday evening.

I'm taking the laptop with me this trip, and, Wifi hotspots permitting, will blog along the way. Some of you have taken this trip virtually with me before......this will be my 16th trip back East from L.A. with a helicopter.......so you have an idea how wonderful this trip is for someone that is normally limited by the economics of rotary-wing flight to distances of less than 300 miles.
This flight will be approx. 1200 miles.........10 hours flying at 500' above the ground, low enough to read the exit signs on the interstate highway.

So stay tuned. I'll be back in touch as circumstances permit!

The Haunted Bridge

I'm responding to a request from two family members with this post.
This is another of those stories that goes back to my High School Days.

The bridge in the picture is located in Avon, Indiana.

I'll not go into detail why the bridge was supposedly haunted......you can get a much better explanation of that story, along with more pictures

here.

The bridge was a place of legend in the area.
With friends, I would frequently drive there late at night, park the car, and crawl up into the bridge to explore.

As you can see in the picture, the bridge had three major arches, and each of the major arches had 8 minor arches. What you cannot see in the picture is that there was a walkway running lengthwise, up and down the three major arches, through the concrete walls of the 24 minor arches and the two concrete support piers. You could walk the length of the bridge, up and down each of the major arches. It was apparent that hoboes had at times crawled in there to get out of the weather or sleep while awaiting their next ride.

Obviously, it was more than a little spooky at night...
a great place for a High School prank!

Ron, Tom and I were on the Varsity football team. We knew that three underclassmen, all on the Junior Varsity football team, were camping out at one of the kid's homes. We thought the bridge would be a great place to give them something to remember!

Here was our plan:
Tom and I took an old T-shirt and poured used motor oil on it. On top of that, we strategically squirted a little ketchup. We then fashioned a wire coat-hanger in such a way as to hold the T-shirt so that it was completely unfurled.
Tommy and I grabbed a flashlight and took off for the bridge, while Ron made his way to visit our campers with an offer of adventure.

Tom and I drove under the bridge and continued far enough that our car was out of sight. We climbed up into the bridge and made our way up and down the arches to the far end, then quietly waited for Ron to show up with our victims.

Of course, Ron had played up the "haunted" story for all it was worth. When he and our victims arrived on-scene, we could tell from the tempo of the chatter that the boys were pretty anxious and agitated about exploring the bridge.
It was easy to hear their progress as they made their way toward us........up and down two of the arches.

We waited until they were at the apex of the third arch, then turned the flashlight on through a filter of our fingers, so as not to make it obvious the T-shirt was empty..........

The reaction was predictable and instantaneous! After initial screams, we heard what sounded like a scuffle as the victims bumped into one another trying to make their way back to their entry point. The sound was very similar to Moe, Curly, and Larry trying to make their way through a doorway at the same time!

One of the underclassmen got confused in the rush to escape and made a 90 degree turn toward an opening in the bridge..........if Ron hadn't stopped him, he might very well have jumped/fallen 35 feet to the creek below!

Tom and I waited until we heard the others start their car and drive off, then made our way to our car and took the direct route to our local drive-in restaurant.
Ron, as planned, took the longer way there.

So Tom and I were quietly sipping our Cherry Cokes when Ron and the three J.V. players showed up, excitedly relating an unbelievable story about their "near death experience"....... at Avon's Haunted Bridge!

UPDATE:

This site

has more pictures and an interesting narrative.

Birds Do It!

I love........LOVE, to get a new student that is an experienced starch-wing aviator!

All I have to do is teach them to fly the helicopter.......
they already know how to read a map, how to use the radios, how to stay out of airspace they shouldn't be entering.
They understand Mr. Bernoulli's principle.

What still surprises me is the attitude some of them bring to the table.
I always tell new students not to expect to hover until they have about 5 hours of helicopter time in their logbook.

Many airplane pilots hear the words, but you can tell from their attitude they don't believe me.......they think they will be different. They'll be the guy that gets into the helicopter and amazes me with their virtuosity!

NEVER HAPPENS!

The first hour is a frustrating, humbling experience for anyone.....agreed,

Rubberducky?

Something else that surprises me.
I ask ALL my students this simple question, and I almost always get an incorrect answer,
(Even from the experienced fixed-wingers) :
Why do we land into the wind?

The most frequent incorrect answer?
"Because landing into the wind produces more lift."

Think you know the correct answer? Leave it in the comments.......no charge for entering my contest!
I'll give you what I consider the correct answer in an update, here, later.

UPDATE:Well, that didn't take long........
Jason's answer is the answer I give to my students. In any aircraft, the difference in ground speed landing into the wind vs. downwind is twice the wind speed. For instance, if you land into the wind at 60 knots in a Cessna 150, and your wind speed is 10 knots comin' straight at ya, your ground speed will be 50 knots.
But land downwind and you have to ADD the wind speed to your airspeed to get groundspeed, so it will be 70 knots.......
a difference of 20 knots. On an airplane, the wear and tear on tires is reason enough to land into the wind.

Of course the critical thing is safety. In airplanes, helicopters, automobiles, etc., as speed doubles, crash forces are squared. It just makes sense to be going as slow as you possibly can if there is a chance of a sudden stoppage in your future!

Purple Tabby.......I don't know if I can make this really clear here, but I'll try.........For me, having learned to fly helicopters first, and then airplanes......crosswind landings were extremely difficult to learn. In the helicopter you do nothing different during a crosswind landing.......in order to maintain your course on final approach, you naturally tilt the rotor into the wind, and the machine takes care of the crosswind problem for you.
You don't even think about the crosswind.

In most airplanes, (not all), you bank into the wind to correct for it trying to blow you off your course, and use rudder to keep the nose headed the direction you want the airplane to go.
For me, it was a VERY unnatural thing to have to do!
I still hate crosswind landings in airplanes!

The rotor is also the braking system on the helicopter. Similar to reversing thrust upon landing in an airplane, you just vector the rotor's thrust in the opposite direction of travel, and it provides an effective braking force, (just like birds do when they land!) And similarly to airplanes, if you apply it when you have no forward movement, you can actually go backwards, (except when you do it in the helicopter you are actually flying, not taxiing!)

Fixed-wingers........is there a way to make this more clear?

I Guess I'm Ignorant......

Sitting here now, watching Senator Kerry from Massachusetts responding to the President's speech at the Naval Academy......

Why is it whenever I watch either of the Senators from MA. give a speech, I feel as if I need a disinfecting bath?

If Ms. Sheehan has absolute authority to question our presence in Iraq because of the loss of her son, does my year in Viet Nam give me carte blanche to ask questions about that war?

If so, here are my questions:

A tour of duty in Viet Nam was a year, minimum.
Why did Albert Gore spend only 6 months there?
Did he receive special treatment because someone in his family was a U.S. Senator from Tennessee?

Why did John Kerry spend only 4 months in Viet Nam?
(I know, this has been flogged to death already,
but my real question is why he didn't want to go back to his unit after recuperating from his flesh wound?) Could his lack of loyalty to his troops be an indication of his character?

And why has he STILL not signed his SF180 so the general public can find the truth about his Viet Nam service and the status of his discharge?
What is he hiding there?

Inquiring minds want,
NO.......
need to know!

Living With The Train, and Amtrak Economics

We live half a mile from a major rail line.
We have a love/hate relationship with the tracks.......
I love watching the big machinery, love hearing the whistle blow late at night as it crosses the intersection West of us.

Big Bubba works a stone's throw on the other side of the tracks, and has been late for work more than once because of the intersection being covered.

I waited 45 minutes in the wee hours one night for the crossing to clear so I could make my way to my bed. (I was too stubborn to drive a mile south to an overpass.)
The law is that a train cannot cover a crossing for more than 15 minutes. This does not include time in switching.......so if a train is back-and-forthing, the 15 minute rule is inapplicable.
On more than one occasion I have made a cell phone call about being delayed by the train, resulting in traffic citations being given to the railroad. The railroad is getting better about not covering the intersection.

But the topic I really wanted to discuss here is Amtrak. When Big Bubba was 4 years old, he went through a phase, probably common to all kids, where he was fascinated with trains.
He would ask us to slow down and intentionally be stopped by a train in order to be able to watch it pass.

I had to make a trip to California to attend a course to renew my Flight Instructor Certificate. I decided this would be a good time to take the family along for a little vacation. I thought Big Bubba would be thrilled to ride the train, so I decided I would check on Amtrak to compare their rates with the airlines.

The trip to L.A. would take 3 days........two nights on the train. Included in the cost of our 1st class tickets was a bedroom and three meals a day. Considering room/board/entertainment were included in the fare, we decided to take the train. We have very fond memories of this trip, but two things surprised me:
I was surprised at how poorly we slept. The train is the main transport link to a lot of towns out West, and it stops every 45 minutes or so in towns like Hutchinson, Kansas.
I was also surprised at the food.
Wow!
They have REAL chefs on those trains, and they know how to make great food and present it well!
We got off that train feeling we shouldn't eat for days.

Amtrak uses the tracks near us. The train passes twice a day in each direction, and with the exception of holidays when students are using it to return home, it is always empty. Not surprisingly, Amtrak is losing money by the trainload. We can drive our car to a major city serviced by the line for half the price of a single-fare ticket.........why would the three of us ever take Amtrak?

My question then, is this: Would it not be better to have a standby rate for the train? If you allowed people to get on the train for almost nothing, space available, you'd certainly have more riders, and seeing the train with actual people occupying the seats might make others think taking the train wouldn't be such a downer.

My idea is they could start the fare ridiculously low, then increase the price until they started seeing resistance. They'd establish ridership, and in the process get some cars off our highways.

Some that started using the train under these circumstances might very well realize the value of the service, and continue using it even with a higher fare.

The present situation is quickly leading to bankruptcy.
Amtrak is under the microscope, and federal funding is shaky.
Would it not be a good idea to try something dramatically different?
I'd hate to see the service go away.

No Shift is Typical

One of the great things about coming to work at our Helicopter Ambulance Service is that no two shifts are alike. The night before Thanksgiving was a good example.........

Our shift change happens at 1845 hrs., (6:45 P.M. to those not familiar with the 24 hour clock.)
I meet with the day shift pilot and debrief him on his day.......clues about incoming weather, aircraft status, any other details of interest.
I meet with my medical crew to see if they have further details on possible problems with the aircraft from the medical viewpoint.

Hearing no problems, I do a weather check. I check current and forecast weather at several stations around our location to see what is out there, and what we will have to deal with later. I call our dispatchers and insure they have the names of the crew that will be manning the helicopter for the next 12 hours, and report the weather to them so they know if I will need to do another weather check prior to accepting any flight. Pilots are the final authority on weather decisions........If for any reason I'm not comfortable with the weather, no one questions my decision.
I have turned flights down because the temperature and dewpoint were too close together, indicating the possibility of fog formation. My med crews know I am cautious, and they appreciate it.

I then grab my helmet and go out to check the helicopter. I plug in and hang my helmet, adjust the seat and anti-torque pedals to my settings, and check the logbook to insure no pending inspection or maintenance will be due during our shift. If I find an item that may conflict with our ability to fly, I notify dispatch of that fact so that they can make plans to tag another aircraft with a flight later, if necessary.

After checking the log, I do my preflight. I fly the BK117, a medium sized, twin engine helicopter built by American Eurocopter. It is a German machine, with American (Lycoming) engines. There's a lot to look at on this bird. A really thorough preflight on a machine I was not familiar with could easily take 45 minutes. Even under normal conditions, it takes half an hour.

If a flight comes in during this process, we accept it. I'll do a VERY abbreviated preflight.......
Main rotor, check. Tail rotor, check. Fluid in all reservoirs, check. All cowlings secure, check. General overall appearance of the machine.......check. Sufficient fuel for the flight, check. Startup with normal procedures, and go.
Our goal is to be airborne within 8 minutes of getting notification of a flight.
I can normally do it in 6.

Wednesday night the phone rang at 2045 hrs.. A prisoner with a bowel obstruction needed to be transported to the State Capital for surgery. After coordinating with representatives of the prison and insuring they knew our rules for this flight, we were airborne at 2059 hrs, and landed at the sending hospital at 2123 hrs..

My crew packaged the prisoner and I briefed the guard on what I expected of him. While my crew loaded the prisoner aboard the aircraft, I showed the guard how to operate the door, how to jettison it in case of emergency, the location of fire extinguishers, how to fasten and unbuckle the seat belts. I grabbed a headset, plugged it in for him, and showed him how to adjust the volume control.

We took off at 2155 hours for the receiving hospital. It was a little bumpy, but a gorgeous night to fly..........50 miles visiblity. The guard loved it......our prisoner, in great discomfort, thought the bumpiness was the work of the devil.

We landed at the receiving hospital at 2253 hrs.. Their rules require a cold offload, so I shut down the engines and used the rotor brake to stop the rotor. We offloaded the prisoner, and while the crew and guard took the prisoner downstairs, I started the helicopter and flew to the airport to refuel for the flight home.

This flight took 3 minutes. At almost 11 P.M., the non-federal control tower was closed, so I made advisory radio calls of my position and landed on the ramp, where the fuel guy was waiting with flashlight/wands to guide me to my refueling pad. I shut down and showed him where the fuel tank was located, and he told me there was "Moose Tracks" ice cream waiting inside for me if I was interested.
I left him to refuel the machine and quickly moved to the refrigerator!

After a nice bowl of ice cream and a hot cuppa coffee, dispatch called and said my crew was ready to be picked up. I took off at 2341 hrs. and landed at the hospital at 2344. Again, I had to shut the engines down to load crew and stretcher. We left the capital at 2353 hrs. and landed at our company headquarters, (not our base), for fuel 44 minutes later.

Here, I hot refueled the aircraft while my crew went for their cuppa. I was nearly finished with refueling when my paramedic came out and told me we were on standby for an accident scene 20 minutes south of us. Fueling complete and fuel cap secured, instead of going to the accident scene, we took off for a local hospital 15 minutes south, where the victim had been transported.
Our patient was a 42 year old mother, whose two kids had been killed in the head on collision. Both her legs were broken, as was one of her arms. She had a suspected abdominal bleed.

We completed this flight at 0240 hrs..
Back at our home base, my crew finished paperwork on our flights while I shut down and refueled the aircraft. Having those tasks completed, I came in and closed out yesterdays flights in the aircraft log and brought forward the total airframe and component times for the following day, then logged the flight we had just completed.

The phone rang again at 3:15. My crew groaned......they were on the last hours of their 24 hour shift, and had been awake all but three hours of 24. We were dispatched to another small town hospital to pick up an 83 year old man that had no pulse in his right leg. When we arrived, we found that he had lost his left leg the previous year to a circulation problem. In flight, over the intercom, I heard my nurse and paramedic discussing the fact that this poor man was now going to lose this leg also.

We completed this flight at 0455 hours, and once again gathered in our base to tidy up the paperwork. By the time we were all done, it was 5:30, and we had the decision to make.......
Do we bother to lie down and sleep for less than an hour, or do we brew fresh coffee and just wait for the morning crew to arrive?
I sat down in front of Fox News on the TV and was asleep in short order, reclined in the chair.

Our relief started filtering in at 6:15. Fresh cup in hand, I briefed my relief on the previous nights activities and wished him a "good day".

In the 12 hour shift, I had been airborne four hours. I had transported three patients and one guard for the prisoner. I had shot 15 night landings to various rooftop/ground level pads. I had burned approximately 320 gallons of modified kerosene.

I was tired. I drove 45 minutes to my home, kissed my beautiful Sara Jean, and was snoring in very short order, knowing the whole process would start again in less than 12 hours.

But I don't get tired of this life, because it is never "routine". Our patients find ever more interesting ways to hurt themselves. I may or may not go back to these three hospitals over the next weeks or months.
Although we didn't land "on-scene" Wednesday night, we frequently do, and "night, scene landings" are as close to combat flying as anything I have done as a civilian.

I'm glad to have a job that I enjoy, where I can help people in serious trouble.
I'll have a difficult adjustment when I can no longer pass a flight physical.

Giving Thanks

Got a full belly?
Did you get to spend time with your family today?
I hope so.
I did, although it was much, much too short.

I'm back at work as I type, waiting for the phone to ring, and the chance to go help someone in desperate need.

I was up all night long last night, spreading three flights over twelve hours. I think I'll write about last night later, to give you a taste of what my life CAN be like.

As I get older, I continually think about how blessed we are. We take so much of our lives for granted.......as if much of it couldn't disappear in a fraction of a second.
My job continually reminds me of it, and for that I am thankful.
We need reminders of other things too:

I remember one Winter night long ago, waking in the wee hours to the sound of our oil-fired furnace making a funny noise. It was a metal-on-metal sound. Not loud, but loud enough that it woke me.
Then the noise stopped. It was mighty cold outside, and the temperature in the house began to drop. I pulled the covers up snug under my neck........warm as toast.

The next sound I heard was my Dad quietly making his way to the utility room. For several minutes I heard the tinkling of tools and other sounds indicating that the Old Man was "on the case".
And sure enough, the furnace started making normal noises, and the chill in the house went away.
I didn't say anything to Dad for getting out of his warm bed to take care of us.........I took it for granted..........it was his job.
How easy it would have been to say, "Thanks Dad. It was wonderful staying in my warm bed while you lost sleep and took care of the problem."
I wish I had.

One of our flights last night was to transport a prisoner from one of the State Penitentiaries to a hospital in the State Capital. When we pick up a prisoner, they send a guard with us to insure a safe transport. The guy they sent along last night had the job description of "Jailer".

Would you want to be a "Jailer"?
I had a helicopter student that worked full time as a Nurse in a jail, and he told horror stories about the treatment he received from the inmates, all for much too little pay.
It's a job I wouldn't take for ANY wages.
I thanked this man for doing a job I wouldn't want to do.
He was pleased to hear my thanks.

It's easy to think of those that are overseas, doing a nasty job that needs to be done, protecting us, and be thankful for them.
We all do, and that is only proper.

But there are others too.........
Last year we had an ice storm come through late one night and our power went out. We were mighty glad for the heat of our water bed!

With the power being off in the entire neighborhood at 3 A.M. or so, it got mighty quiet.
Sure enough, in very little time you could hear the trucks moving down the road crunching on the ice, and you could see the searchlights checking the lines to see where the problem was that needed fixing.
We went back to sleep, knowing experts were awake, "on the case".

When the power came back on, the refrigerator, furnace, and ceiling fans all came on and woke us up. I checked my watch.......the power was off for three hours.
The Power guys spent three miserable hours outside in the freezing rain, while we were in a heated bed, able to take others for granted.
(Remember that my Old Man worked for a power company, so I especially take note of them.)

So please, in your prayers of thanks for our servicemen and women, remember that there are so many others that serve in ways we easily forget.
Include them in those prayers.
And if you get a chance to personally thank them, as I did with the jailer, they'll just give the stock, "just doing my job" answer.
Doesn't cost a cent to thank them, anyway.
And you know what?
It'll make you feel better too!

Bambi........mmmm, mmmm good!

Deer Hunting season opened here last week.
Dawn is punctuated with intermittent shots.......boom, boom.........boom.
We've gotten accustomed to them and go right back to sleep.

We live on 2 1/2 acres, adjoining a 5 acre pond on the outskirts of a small town, in a rural area.
In our back yard I regularly see opposum, raccoons,
coyotes, turkeys, squirrels (red and gray), red-tail hawks,
Great Blue Herons, kingfishers.
Now and then we see red foxes.
Once we had a Bald Eagle perched in a tree overlooking the pond.

We are overrun by white-tail deer.

Big Bubba took Tae Kwan Do lessons at a business that devoted the second half of the building to an archery range. While he was going through his martial arts workout, I would go to the archery side and watch archers shoot.
On the wall in that shop was a state map, showing the white-tail deer population of the approximately 100 counties.
Two of the counties were red. One of the red counties was the county where we live. On the map's legend, I found that red indicated a deer population of more than 25 per square mile.
My first thought was, "that's impossible!"
25 deer per square mile is obviously a lot of deer.

But we see graphic indications of the number of deer here. It's not out of the ordinary for me to pass two or three deer dead alongside the road on my 32 mile drive to work.
I frequently have to use my "Mario Andretti" driving skills to avoid hitting a doe or two skittering across the road, generally followed by an amorous young buck at this time of year.

Some time back I was called to an accident site where a car on one side of the road hit a deer and threw it into an approaching car, where it went through the windshield and seriously injured the driver.
Blood everywhere, we couldn't tell if the blood was deer, or human.

I was listening last month, late night, to a 50,000 watt blowtorch Midwest AM radio station. A representative of the Department of Natural Resources of that state was talking about the problem they were having with deer getting accustomed to living in upscale subdivisions, if there were trees to hide in during the day. She reported that in some of these areas, they had as many as 85 deer per square mile!
(Made my surprise at 25-per seem pretty silly.)

It isn't out of the ordinary to look beneath our apple tree in the back yard and see 5 or 6 deer munching on apples that have fallen. A pasture across the road frequently has 20 or so standing and watching us as we drive past.
We put tulips out in our front yard, and when the plants got to be 3 inches tall they were irresistible to the deer.........munch, munch.
We can't put out a garden.........deer don't share well.

They are lovely to look at, and when the does are escorting their fawns you cannot help but smile. But they are quickly approaching "nuisance" levels, and I think the DNR people are gonna have to take some drastic action to control them.
I'm glad the hunters are taking them, rather than automobile drivers.

A mostly unrelated question to wrap this up:
At the end of the Disney movie, Bambi became a Prince.
Ever meet a guy named Bambi?
I didn't think so!

A Commie Behind Every Bush

So, what were you doing 42 years ago today?

I'm a little surprised at the way this day has passed. Very little has been mentioned about what did happen 42 years ago.

I had intended to post about the history of the date, and noticed I had been beaten to the punch at

THIRDWAVEDAVE

with a thoughtful and thought provoking post.

I was a High School Junior. My recollection is that it was a gray, chilly, uncomfortable day in Central Indiana. Over the intercom system, Mr. Vandermeer broke into our class with the news:
The President had been assassinated.

How strange to look back on it now.
Just a year before, I had gotten quite upset over the tension caused by the Cuban Missile Crisis.......I'm talkin' about upset enough to lose sleep.
So looking back now, I'm surprised at my reaction to the news.
I knew it was a big deal. I was upset that anyone would want to kill the President. But I had no concerns about the succession.....I was confident that our political system was efficient and would survive this tragedy without destroying the country.

And of course, that's exactly what happened, thank God.

But in hindsight, it's obvious how naive I was.......we all were.
Historical scholars now say President Kennedy was unhappy with the way things were going in Viet Nam, and had planned on beginning a gradual troop withdrawal from there over the rest of his term. President Johnson did exactly the opposite, and forever changed my life.
What course would my life, and that of the other millions, have taken if President Kennedy had survived?
I can't imagine any scenario where I would be making a living flying helicopters today.

And then there are the conspiracy theories.
Don't believe in them?
If you are ever in Dallas, go to Dealey plaza.
What with the Zapruder film, and all the documentaries and news stories about it, you'll feel, as I did, that you've been there before.....discomforting.
There are folks there at all times selling tabloids and magazines about different conspiracies......
"a commie behind every bush!"

But THIRDWAVEDAVE poses a valid question....
why are all the records sealed until 2038?
If I ever knew that to be the case, I had forgotten it. Who, besides someone with something to hide, benefits from that edict?

And the question that has always amazed me:
President Kennedy's brain was removed from his body, and transparencies were photographed as they sliced his brain into paper-thin slices to show how the bullet traveled through it.
His brain, AND the transparencies, have disappeared!
How?
Why?
Where?
(Play Twilight Zone music here.)

The history of this date deserves more attention than it is getting today.
Thanks to THIRDWAVEDAVE for helping to make sure it gets more attention than you'll find on the major news media.

P.S.......And GG, you almost certainly were in that same class.
Your recollections would be interesting.

Blogroll Editing

Just as you can tell the political leanings of News sources by what they present, the emphasis they put on what they present, and sometimes what they DON'T present, your blogroll says something about Weblogs you read and would like others to review. It's a view into your character and personality.

I think it would take an astute observer of this Blog to notice the changes I have made in my Blogroll over the last few weeks. I've added a couple Blogs and removed a couple I used to really like.

One of the ones I removed was

Powerline

I loved Powerline. I still run by there now and then to check on goings-on, but I de-listed them from my blogroll for good reason.......

There was a great deal of chatter after Hurricane Katrina about how much "Pork" Congress was gonna be spending. One of the most contentious projects was the "Bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.

Story Here

When pressure began to mount on Senators to review spending in light of all the hurricane damage, Senator Stevens from Alaska said, (and I'm paraphrasing here), "If Alaska is the ONLY State money is cut from, I will resign from this body."

John Hinderaker from Powerline quoted Senator Stevens as saying, "If they cut money from Alaska, I will resign", and challenged him to put up or shut up.

Hinderaker is a Lawyer in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and lists his office phone number, so I called and left a message on his answering machine, informing him of the misquote.

One of the things I love about Blogs is that if someone posts BS,
BS detectors go off everywhere, and mistakes, particularly at the major Blogs, and Powerline is certainly one of those, are corrected VERY rapidly.

I expected John to correct the quote, or post an update to correct the post, within 24 hours.
He didn't.
I was disappointed.

This whole "Blog" thing is changing rapidly, but I truly believe in the not-too-distant future more people will be relying on Blogs and the internet for their news than TV or Radio.
Do you check Drudgereport often, as I do?
Google news? MSN's Slate.com?

I hope my Blogroll indicates how important facts are.

Accuracy is important.
Ask Dan Rather.

What......It's not perfect?

Johnny Depp is disappointed in

France!

I'm shocked! Shocked, to find things are not perfect for him there!

Hat tip:

Ann Althouse

Super Glue?

Amazing stuff, super glue!
The package says it will glue glass, plastics, metal, ceramics........blah, blah, blah.

A piece of trim on our car was loose. It's one of those "tab in slot" things that irreversibly locks in place when connected. The tab had somehow broken off, and the trim, visible from the driver's seat, vibrated in the slipstream.
Absent replacing the whole piece, bonding it was the only solution.

We keep our super glue in the 'fridge.....I don't know if that preserves it........ but it seems everyone does it, and we don't wanta be different, ya know?
Of course it had been months since we bought it, so it was no longer in liquid form, requiring the purchase of a new tube.

Yesterday, I applied glue to the trim, put a weight on it to hold the two pieces together firmly, and left it six hours to set up.
On the next trip in the car, it vibrated loose and "waved" at me in scorn.

With several years of intermittent research to fall back on, I have come to what I think is an indisputable conclusion:
Super glue is wonderful..........IF you want to glue your
thumb to your index finger.
For other applications, it's pretty much crap!

UPDATE:
Immediately after publishing this post,
I was reminded by a nurse (who might know),
about another good use that I've heard of, but thankfully have no personal experience with.........
It involves a peeved wife and a sleeping husband.
I hear if used this way, it is VERY effective!

With Friends Like These......

Why did France vehemently oppose our actions in Iraq?

Perhaps

corruption

could be a factor?

Ahh, that "Oil for Food" program!
It may have even put escargot on the table!

Hat tip: Instapundit

How to Fail

Quit.

That's the easiest way I know to fail.......quit!

There are lots of other ways, of course, but they're more complicated.

Lately I've heard the analogy comparing Americans to runners:
Many say we're sprinters, not marathoners.
Our enemies have learned this and know that to defeat us, all they have to do is be patient.
In our present, video game, "immediate gratification" society, we don't have the stomach to wait very long for success.

When I came home from my year in lovely Southeast Asia,
one of my heroes was a runner from Oregon
named Steve Prefontaine.
"Pre" was a long distance runner.
He was a short man for his chosen sport......had to take several steps while the tall guys took one.
But he was extraordinary.
He knew that if he could suffer more short term pain
than his opponents, he could outlast and defeat them.
He ended up with records that still stand in NCAA history, and ran in the Olympics in 1972.

Two very similar movies were made of his life, and I recommend them both:

Prefontaine

and

Without Limits

Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, a Democrat,
and, I'm sorry to say, a fellow Viet Nam veteran,
has started us down the "Iraq = Viet Nam" road.

By reading books written by North Vietnamese authors like General Giap, we now know we had the Viet Nam conflict won, until the John Kerry types aided and abetted the enemy there.
We believed their negativity. We allowed them to convince us the short term pain was not worth the long term success.

We quit.
And the failure, particularly knowing with hindsight that we were winning, makes Viet Nam veterans furious.

Will we make the same mistake today?
In the face of so much success.....Lebanon, Libya, trends in Egypt and Iran, successful elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, can we be convinced we are suffering too much pain and losing the upper hand?

I hope not. Look at France today and think of the long term complications.

Then think of "Pre's" recipe for success: keep the goal in sight and be ready to suffer more short term pain than your opponent.

Any other plan is a recipe for long term decline.

UPDATE:

Someone agrees with me

Bird Flu Hysteria

Chuck Simmins

gives a sane answer to the question I've been asking.

Frightened by media reports?
Go have a look.

527 !

I couldn't remember what the GWB margin of victory over Gore was in Florida 2000, so I looked it up and was surprised...........527 votes!
Millions of folks in Florida, and 527 votes separated the two candidates.
We all know that is WELL within the margin of error of our voting systems, and that is why the election result was so hotly contested.

As a conservative, it's chilling for me to think of those 527 votes.
Let me tell you another story, and why you should be amazed at "527" too.

Sara Jean had a brother, (Sam), who died within the last year.
Sam had Down's Syndrome, and although he outlived all predictions and died in his late 40's, he had the mental abilities of a 4 year old.

When Sara Jean's Mother was incapacitated by a stroke, Sara Jean became his Guardian. She/we controlled virtually every aspect of his life..........we were included in all decisions about him......
Social life, health care, work related decisions......(yes, even with a mental age of 4 yrs., Sam had a job).

When the 2000 election approached and was obviously going to be close,
I got to thinking about Sam, and the 15 other mentally challenged inhabitants of his facility.

I called and asked, "do they vote, and if so, how?"

"Yes, they all vote. They are all registered voters."

So I asked, "how do they know the issues? How do they know who to vote for?"

"Well, we leave the TV on for them and they watch the news." (!!!!!!!!!!!)
"So we ask them how they want to vote, and we assist them in the booth."

(I just bet you do!)


I don't know how you feel, but I am not comfortable with the idea of a "4 year old" voting.
I'm even less comfortable with the idea of a 4 year old voting with the assistance of a person whose paycheck depends entirely on government programs and support.
I'm pretty sure the person assisting Sam would not want to vote for a fiscal conservative, under any circumstance.

Do you really believe this assistant asked Sam how he wanted to vote?
If you had a 4 year old child, and that child could vote legally, would you bother to ask how they wanted to vote while you were "assisting" them?

And here's the "elephant in the room".........how many mentally disabled people are there in Florida, that were "assisted" by a government supported social worker when they pulled the voting lever..............hundreds? Thousands?
I'm guessing the number of people similar to Sam in facilities down there would be in the 10's of thousands.

It was certainly more than 527.

So you think it's not important for you to make your way to the polls?

If you voted for GWB in Florida in '00, you can count yourself among an important roster of 527............a small number that should look even smaller now!

Falling From The Sky

WARNING:

This is disturbing stuff to think about!

In previous posts, I mentioned that the main reason I continue teaching people to fly helicopters is because of the folks I meet along the way.
(Believe me, there's NO money in it!)

One of the first students I taught as a civilian,
I'll call him Gary,
got his private helicopter pilot's license in 1983.
We've been friends since.

In November of '86,
Sara Jean and I were invited to his birthday party.
I was standing near the refreshments when his Mother approached with a smile so strange, I immediately asked "what're you up to?"

She answered, "I just thought one pilot would enjoy talking to another........come along, I have someone I want you to meet!"

Curious,
I followed like a puppy.

Nice lookin' man.......One of Gary's in-laws.
I shook his hand and introduced myself, then said,
"She's up to something. What kind of craft do you pilot?"

"A Mini-Sub."

His company was based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
When the Shuttle Challenger exploded,
the U.S. Navy initially tried to handle the recovery themselves,
but quickly found their machines were not
the most efficient for the task.
They hired Gary's in-law to come pick up all the pieces.

Did you anticipate my first question?
"Were they alive?"

"Six of the seven had deployed and were wearing their emergency oxygen packs."

As I recall, after the explosion, it took about 15 minutes
for the first pieces of the spacecraft to start splashing in the water.


Three years earlier........in 1983.
Korean Air Flight 007, flying at 35,000 feet,
is shot down by a Russian Fighter aircraft.
It took 12 minutes for the Boeing 747 to crash into the sea.
Did the passengers don their oxygen masks?
Were they functional?
If so, like the Challenger Astronauts, they had a long,
terrifying time to think about their lives, and the reality of dying.

It is macabre,
thinking about how people would behave under such circumstances.
Obviously, some would be hysterical.
The Astronauts, the Pilots,
and some individuals on the airliner
would be methodical , trying to find a solution to the very end.
But 12-15 minutes surely would seem
like an eternity under such circumstances.

It's difficult to imagine.

The Challenger tapes are available,
but to avoid distressing families
NASA won't release them.
Do you think they should be made public?
If they were, would you want to hear them?

How Much Risk is Too Much?

What would it take to get you to do

THIS?

I'm regularly accused of being crazy for flying under a flinging wing, but this is really "pushing the envelope!"

Monsoon Season in Viet Nam

Imagine it raining as hard as you have ever seen it rain.
Then think of rain that hard for over a month, non-stop.

I was based 40 miles South of Da Nang. I could see the highest mountains in South Viet Nam from the front door of my hooch, and the South China Sea from the back door......
Except in late January-Early February, when the rain came down in bucketloads, limiting visibility, and negating any chance to aviate.

Since we couldn't fly, I had been up the hill to visit with a flight school buddy, Deane, who was attached as an OH-6 scout/forward observer Pilot with our Division Artillery, (DivArty).

We always dreamed about what we were going to do when we made it back to "the world" at the end of our tour.
During this visit we made plans to go to the Base Exchange the next day to get information on buying a new car through the PX system, so we could have new wheels waiting on us when we returned home.

I was on "Standby" the next day. It was still raining cats and dogs, so there was little chance of flying at all, but I had to remain in the company area just in case the weather cleared and someone needed gunship support.

And then the call came in......."could we go fly?"
Absolutely not!
The ceiling was about 400 feet, and visibility was less than two miles......
Impossible weather in any case, much less near the most rugged terrain in the country!

But 30 minutes later the phone rang again........
"how 'bout now?"
Then we made the mistake of asking.........
"What's goin' on?"

"Some scout ship is down along highway one, and they want us to go have a look."

So the team got together for a conference........
"if we hover down the highway we can at least check a mile or so on either side of the road, and surely no bad guys would be out in this weather to take a shot at two
UH1-C's hovering at 100 feet, right?"

So out we went.......cranked, lifted, and started slowly down the main highway going North/South the length of the country, in weather that kept sea gulls on the ground!

Fifteen minutes into the flight we got the call from Operations: "Mission canceled, the aircraft has been found. Return to base."

Relief.
We hovered slowly back home, shut down and I made my way back to my hooch to get ready to go meet Deane to go to the PX.

On the way to operations I overheard a conversation between two pilots in front of their hooches.........and I thought I heard Deane's last name mentioned.
I stopped and asked, "What did you say?"

"******..........The guy you were searching for.......his last name was ******"
"And how is he?"
"He's dead."

It was like a sucker punch in the forehead.
"No, that's not possible.
I was just going up to meet him!"
But it was possible.

A DivArty forward observer and his radio man were stranded at Duc Pho, 40 miles South of us on Hwy 1. Deane was asked to fly down and return them to our base. He agreed to do the same thing we had decided.....follow the highway low and slow, pick them up, and return.

Deane made it to Duc Pho, and started hovering back North.
But the visibility got too bad to follow the highway. Deane had two choices.....go East to the coast and follow it North, or go West until the weather improved and then cut back East......back to the highway.

Going West also put him near the hills, and into "Charlie Country".
I don't know what his reasoning was, but he went West.

They found the aircraft upright, intact, but on fire.
All three men were out of the aircraft, stripped to the waist, in the kneeling position, shot, execution style, in the back of the head.
Deane's OH-6 had either been shot down, or forced down by weather in exactly the wrong place.

Do you ever recover from something like this?
I think of Deane and his young widow more than you can imagine.
I was 21.
He was 22 or 23.

Now there are other youngsters facing these kinds of perils.
I thank God for them and pray for them every day.
I hope you do also.

Are We Paying Attention?

There are terrible riots going on in Paris.
There are reports of similar rioting in Denmark.

Experts I am reading are frightened by these events, because,
in the case of France, they don't have the money,
or the attitude, to fix the problem.
So it may get worse......much worse.

We need to keep an eye on this situation.

If you have been ignoring the news, or if you haven't been paying attention to the Muslimization of Europe, do yourself a favor:

Go to Google.
In the search block, type: Malmo Sweden Muslims

Read the results.
Then you'll be paying closer attention.

And I'll reiterate........if you're not reading the blogs, you're not getting the real news!


Update 4Nov:
Need more proof?
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17152392-421,00.html

Hat tip.....Little Green Footballs!

Rest!

"Company, Atten............shun!

Right Face!

Forward..........March!"

We all know one of the things you learn to do in Basic Training is how to March....."Drill and Ceremonies".
At Officer Candidate School, they tortured us by making us learn FM22-5, the Army Field Manual devoted to the subject.

In FM22-5 they describe in detail how, for instance, to do "Right Face."
I was surprised at how hard it is to put the mechanics into words........trying to teach someone to do something that seems so basic is not really easy at all!.... ("From the position of Attention, quickly pivot 90 degrees simultaneously on the ball of your left foot and the heel of your right foot.....etc.")

What I really want to discuss in this post is rest.
In descending order from most restrictive to least, the person in charge can command his formation to stand at Attention, Parade Rest, At Ease, or Rest.
When given the command, "Rest", a soldier can move about pretty freely, so long as he stays close to the real estate he occupied when the command was given.

Please, someone give me the command, "Rest!"

We are all suffering from too much stress.......life has become too complicated. During the last two months of my life, obligations in my professional and personal life came together in a "Perfect Storm".

Have you ever gotten to the point where you wondered if you could maintain your sanity if just one more thing complicated your life........the "straw" that breaks the camel's back?
I was literally to the point where one day, I put a sock on inside out. The thought of taking it off, reversing it and putting it back on was a stress factor that made me sigh!
Take the time to sit down to write checks for Bills?..........okay, but give me a chance to adjust to the idea...it's more than I want to handle right now!
It's times like these that fray or destroy relationships: Marriages, partnerships, friendships.

We do this to ourselves.
I accepted a leadership position in an organization that took more of my time than I planned. Coupled with that obligation, I had my annual checkride, my annual groundschool, quarterly company computer prompted training, and my Biennial Flight Instructor renewal come due during the same month.
My sleep has been less than satisfactory, and there has been too little of it.
I look, and FEEL ten years older than the birthdate on my driver's license.

For several years now I have been trying to simplify my life. So far, I've failed.
I've taken on obligations, voluntarily and otherwise, that use up most of my waking hours, and sometimes the hours I should be at rest or recreation.
Retirement is around the corner. Is that what it will take to get me to slow down and enjoy my family and friends as I should?

Reading other blogs indicates I'm not alone.
Are we all that stupid?
It appears so.
In some cases, it's the pursuit of material things that motivates us to this self abuse, but for me, money is no longer the driving force.......why am I doing this to myself?

The times we slow down and visit with friends and loved ones are the memories we reflect on when we need a break from the treadmill.
Why don't we force ourselves to spend more time in this manner, rather than the pursuit of things that, in the end, just bring us more stress?

I think we need to seek out those we love.......those with whom we can comfortably discuss absolutely ANY subject.........the people that help you relax because with them you can truly be yourself.
Do we need to be ordered to spend a certain minimum amount of time with them daily.......weekly.......monthly?

I'm not yet "King of the World",
but I'm still askin' for your vote.
If elected, I will give the command to us all:
REST!

January 1964

You may remember I once took a crack at being an auto mechanic.
I'm glad I did.
From that experience, I have a good basic knowledge of how cars work,
and I have an idea when a mechanic
is trying to sell me "headlight oil".

My interest was sparked by Willy.
Willy was a born mechanic.
Two years my senior, he had worked at the Service Station where I worked until he graduated from High School. He then went to work as a mechanic for a trucking company.

Willy and I hung out together a lot.
We called ourselves "The Old Dads".......don't ask me why.
We both loved drag racing.
We decided we would buy an old V8 powered car,
remove and rebuild the engine, and take it racing.

After a little searching, we found a 1955 Ford 2-door sedan
within our price range.
It was rusted out and at least three colors....an ugly car,
but appearances didn't matter to us.
This would be an ongoing project.

That Fall and Winter, as our budget allowed, we took the engine apart,
had it cleaned up, and put it back together.
I say we.......but Willy directed all the work.
He knew exactly what he wanted to do.
We bored the cylinders, then picked the lightest pistons we could afford
and sent them and their matching connecting rods and fasteners to be balanced.

We wanted to race the car in it's "stock" class, so we installed a stock camshaft.
We re-jetted the carburetor and put on bigger exhaust manifolds to make the engine breathe more air.

The car had an automatic transmission.
We removed that and put a standard tranny in it's place.

By Spring, the car was back together, running like a Swiss watch.

When this car left the Ford factory in 1955
the red-line on the engine was 4,500 R.P.M..
We bought and installed a new "Sun" tachometer, and it indicated our balancing worked wonders.......
our engine would spin to 7,000 R.P.M., pulling hard all the way!

We replaced the original 15-inch tires with a huge set of 14-inchers
to lower the final gear ratio for drag racing and put as much rubber on the road as possible.

If you've seen the movie, "American Graffiti", you've gotten a sense of what life was like for kids of my generation. We had a 1/4 mile drag strip marked off on one of the country roads, and we used it frequently.

We would cruise the local drive-in restaurants to see if anyone wanted to try their luck against this old, beat up Ford.

One night, "Bob", a guy from a neighboring town driving a '59 Ford
decided he wanted a piece of The Old Dads and their patchwork Ford.
Bob's nice '59 Ford had a much larger engine in it.........352 cubic inches,
compared to our little bored-out 272.
But the '59 was a bigger, heavier car, so it wasn't too far out of our class.

Mind you, these races were for bragging rights only........no pink slips involved.
Few would have been interested in it, but no one wanted to be beaten by this ugly old junker!

At the end of the race we were a couple car lengths ahead of Bob.....
We had beaten him badly enough that he didn't return to cruise around the restaurant that evening.

I'll never forget that night, because of Bob!
Who was Bob, and why is the memory of outrunning him such a big deal all these years later?

"Bob" was Bob Glidden.
In a few years, he was seldom beaten.......
NHRA National Pro Stock Champion in 1973,
'74, '78, '79, '85, '86, '87, and '88!

But that night in the Winter of '64,
Willy's fabulous, junky old '55 Ford
and "The Old Dads"
sent Bob home licking his wounds!

Investing Inertia

In a previous post, I tried to motivate some of you to move "off the dime" and get started in an investing program.
Einstein is said to have called compound interest the "8th wonder of the world". Time is critical to successful investing.

One of my readers,

Infinitegtr

took me to task. He is an Attorney, obviously bright, and in that capacity has seen some shenanigans that scare him about allowing shysters to manipulate his money. He certainly knows more about that side of the investing equation than I do.

But my post was as simple as I could make it.......too simplistic for my virtual friend. He's right when he posts at his blog that to really be successful investing, you should first get your debts under control. If you have family, it can also be argued that you should have an adequate term life insurance policy in place before dedicating any money to an investment. (I recommend shopping online for the best deal here too. I sold insurance for a while, and may blog on this later.)

But Infgtr misses the thrust of my post. In fact, with his arguments, he makes my point. Inertia is the reason many of my contemporaries reach the point in their lives where they can see retirement around the corner, yet they cannot contemplate retiring because for one reason or another they didn't pull the trigger.

(I need to repeat the joke.......)
An old, devout Jewish man, Abe, prays to the Lord......"Lord, I have been a faithful servant. Now in my old age, please help me win the lottery."
The numbers appear, and Abe doesn't win.
The next week, he prays again, "Lord, I've been a devout Jew all my life. Let me be a lottery winner, so I can be comfortable in my last years."
And again he doesn't win.
The next week he prays again, and doesn't win.
Finally he prays, "Lord, what must I do to get your attention and move you to help me?"
And the Lord says, "Abe, you need to help me a little here. BUY A TICKET!"

My challenge to you, in essence, is to buy a ticket!

Excuses: "I have plenty of time to do that later."
"It's too complicated for me."
"There are bad people in that business that want to steal my money."
"Right now I need to buy a 3bedroom, 4bathroom house for me, my wife, and my kid."
And on, and on.

Look. My recommendation was for you to get off your butt, be an adult, do some study, and get started. I still think that's good advice.

Rehashing, if you can find a Mutual Fund with expenses less than 1% per year, that continues to earn 8% per year or more, (and I recommended one), do you care if there are expenses hidden in the fine print?
Aren't results what are important to us?

As I pointed out in comments to my post, experts in the financial industry are fooled every now and then. As a novice in such things, I think the only way to succeed in this game is to educate yourself to the extent you can, and take precautions to protect yourself however you can against being cheated.

But you can always find an excuse to procastrinate, if that is what you want. And remember that "Can't", or "Won't", succeeds only under strange circumstances.

Is the financial industry complex?
Sure.
Can you and I truly know what is going on there?
Probably not.
Can we take precautions and still end up on the winning end of the stick?
If we can't, let's all vote Democrat and hope for true socialism immediately!

Inertia is a killer in many ways.
It stops people from taking care of their own health.
It stops people with great ideas from starting new businesses, or patenting an idea that could make the rest of their lives comfortable.
It stops them from taking steps that would keep them from having to worry about whether Social Security will be solvent when they are 66 1/2 years old.

Educate yourself. Go read Infgtr's posts. But after reading, I would hope you understand that if you're not devoting the kind of time Infgtr is devoting to the subject, you need to protect yourself in some fundamental ways. My argument was, and is, that a solidly performing Mutual Fund with low expenses is best for innocents like you and me.

Because Inertia will destroy whatever dreams you may have about how you want to live when you reach the Autumn of your life.

"Buy a ticket, Abe!"

Oyster Perpetual

Rolex watches are fine timepieces.

I hated mine.

I went to Viet Nam with a Timex self-wind on my wrist.
Younger folk know the name Timex,
but I may need to explain "self-wind".

The watch had a pendular weight in it that would move as you moved.
The weight was attached to the mainspring, so that just by moving your wrist, you wound the watch.
You never had to do it manually......it "self-wound".
Neat.

But there was no prestige in owning a Timex.
One of my pinochle playing buddies came home from his R&R with a new Rolex GMT.
It was fabulous looking, and as he strutted around with it, I began to wonder if it would be nice to have something more "elite" than my little Timex.

When I went on my R&R, I bought myself a Rolex Submariner.
I think I paid $150 for it.

I hated that watch from the outset.
The "Oyster Perpetual" thing is Rolex's trademarked name for the case
in which the watch is built. It makes their watches extremely strong.

But it also makes them very tall from backplate to crystal.
Mine continually caught on jackets and long sleeve shirts.
It had a stainless steel band that was difficult to adjust to my wrist.
It had to be manually wound!
And believe it or not, it didn't keep time as well as my Timex.

Eventually, I took the thing off and threw it in my jewelry box.

10 years later I took a SCUBA diving class.
At the end of the class, we had to do an "open water" dive
to receive our diver's certifications.
I thought of my Rolex......"waterproof to 330 meters." Perfect!

I retrieved it from my jewelry box and wore it on the dive.
It leaked and quit working.
I was so frustrated with it, I almost threw it away.
But......back in my jewelry box it went.

One late night in 1990 I was listening
to an AM radio station out of Houston, Texas.
A jeweler there was offering to buy old Rolex's in any shape, and broadcast an 800 telephone number you could call to get a quote on what they would pay.

I called.
They offered $250.
I sent the watch, and they sent the check.
I was glad to get rid of the thing!

I just checked to see what a Rolex Submariner is selling for today.
I couldn't believe it!
The lowest price I could find: $1750.00.

What's on my wrist now?
A Timex, of course. (Keeps great time too!)

They're called "Choppers"

I'm pretty sure

this

is a fake.

This is a Robinson R44 helicopter.
The rotor on this machine is almost 11 feet in the air,
and does not droop like the rotor on a Bell JetRanger
does as it slows after shutdown.
The guy would have to be 8 feet tall for this to actually happen.

Nevertheless, the video is pretty effective in making it's point.

Stay Healthy, Avoid Hospitals!

This didn't surprise me, once I had thought about it.

But I bet it's true at home, too!

Thanks to:

You Big Mouth, You

Learning "Blog"

Obviously I'm not talking about "Blog", the language of Neanderthals.
But I have been very tentative about learning how to Blog effectively.

Slowly but surely, I'm exploring and experimenting with options
and functions that are available to me through Blogger.
Pretty exciting stuff, some of it.

Yesterday, in addition to learning how to post photos,
I added a site meter to Pitchpull.
If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can see the icon that shows this blog is being monitored.
Actually, Big Bubba and I had attempted to add the meter several weeks back, but we didn't push the right button at some point in the process, and not only didn't the icon appear, but I started getting activity reports from Site Meter that said I had zero visits, which obviously was mistaken because folks were leaving comments.

But I was careful and pushed all the right buttons this time,
so there it is.
And what interesting info is available there!
By clicking the icon at the bottom of the page, I find that someone from the South of Australia has visited my site!
(I Loved my visit to Australia in '69!)

It tells you who stopped by, when they were here, what browser they used, and how long they stayed. (And yes, ANYONE can click and tell who is checking in on my site.)

As my Birmingham buddy Jim once said, it tells ya "more than you need to know about Penguins!"

Row Vs. Wade:

OOOOhhhhhh.....terrible pun!
Couldn't help myself!

If you haven't seen it, the Political Teen has the

Video

First Photo Post

Experimenting.
I love this picture.
Spectacular, huh?
Took a while to find it so I could show you.

"Time" Foolery

Twice a year, "Sun Glare" becomes a hazard for
those of us that live West of our workplace......
driving into the rising sun in the morning
and again as it slips toward the horizon in the evening.

In my case, working straight nights, it's reversed........
I live East of my workplace.
Thank God for sun visors and sunglasses!

Next weekend, with a few exceptions around the U.S.,
we will go through our strange ritual of changing our clocks to "save daylight".

How do we make more daylight by fiddling with a clock?

I hate this exercise in stupidity.
There are eleventy-two digital and analog clocks in our house that need changing in order to save daylight! The analogs aren't so bad, but the digitals.........
arggggghhhhh!

I always seem to be the one working the night in October when we
"Fall back", and work an hour for which I am not paid.
Oddly enough, I NEVER seem to work the evening shift where we
"Spring Forward" and get paid for 12 hours after only working 11.

When my parents were living on the lake, I could never remember whether they were an hour ahead or an hour behind me.
It always took me a while to figure if it was a good time to telephone.

For years I've been promoting an idea that would surely make the world a simpler place to live:

ZULU time for everyone!
(Zulu time is Greenwich Mean Time. It's based on the 24 hour clock, and is used by the military and most aviators.)

No more re-setting clocks.
No more confusion about calling your loved ones..
Make an appointment for 2300 Zulu,
and everyone knows what time you'll be shaking hands!
"Call me at 2400 hours" indicates the same time,
no matter where you are on the face of the earth!

If your employer wants to"save daylight",
management can just change the time you are to show up at work from say,
1400 Zulu to 1300 Zulu........no changing clocks to keep it straight in everyone's mind!

So far, my idea hasn't taken off.

So it's time for leadership and drastic action........
I hereby announce my candidacy for "King of the World"!

Vote For Greybeard!

If elected, I promise to be a benevolent King.
And the first thing I will do is stop this lunacy of changing clocks twice a year!

Then I promise to do something about

Gilbert Gottfried

Harriet Miers

I've avoided commenting on the Harriet Miers nomination because there is too much screaming going on about it already. The woman hasn't even had a chance to plead her case!

Quite honestly though, I feel pretty much the same way as I did when "Arnold" was running for Governator of Caleeforneeah......

As John Lennon so aptly said, "Can't get much worse!"

The present court is responsible for the Kelo decision.
Can she do much worse than that?

Horses and Motorcycles

I've owned 6 motorcycles in my life.
If you love to ride motorcycles, you just accept the fact that they are dangerous.....
It's part of the mystique......."living on the edge".

The standing joke in the EMS industry is:
"What's another term for a motorcycle rider?"

"Organ Donor".

I've been to some horrible scenes involving motorcycles.
One, a 19 year old that was running from police,
fell at high speed in a curve.
While my crew was tending to him in the ambulance, another ambulance crewmember approached the helicopter and handed me a BIG trash bag. It was VERY heavy.
Over the din of the helicopter he shouted, " IT'S HIS LEG!"
(The kid later died of blood loss.)

I've got some interesting news for you though....
I think horses are more dangerous than motorcycles.

I'm now in my 20th year of flying a helicopter ambulance, and in that time I have carried FAR more people hurt by horses than by bikes.

I once went to pick up a 12 year old boy who while participating in a rodeo, had fallen from his horse but got his foot caught in the stirrup, and the horse ran for several minutes dragging the poor youngster around in front of horrified spectators.
With terrible closed-head injuries, he died before we could load him aboard the helicopter.

Friday night we picked up another one........a 39 year old guy whose horse bucked him off, then rolled over him. His injuries:
Broken pelvis.
Broken leg.
Dissected urethra.
He'll live, but for a while may wish he hadn't.

The horse is okay.
His wife already has a buyer for it.

Bicycle Blogging, Too

Here's

an attitude I'd like to see generally accepted,
for a number of reasons.

Gotta buy myself a basket!

Thanks to

Cold Fury

(where he is also bicycle blogging!)

"Investing 100" and Greybeard University

At the start, let me emphasize........
I'm NO financial planner.
(And no, I don't play one on TV either.)


There are probably several folks reading this post that know a boatload more than I do about investing.
I know just enough, maybe, to be dangerous.
But for some reason, my meager knowledge has sort of made me the "go to" guy
at my company when co-workers have questions about their retirement plans.
I titled this post "Investing 100", because what I'm about to convey is "bonehead" information, intended to incite some of you "foot draggers"
to do some homework yourself, and then ACT on it!


In 1968,
Ole Prairie Dog and I were learning to fly helicopters in Savannah, GA..
(Horrible duty, by the way.)
At the end of each flying day we'd come back to the company area to find a kindly looking retired Lt. Colonel loitering around,
chatting with our classmates.
He sold Mutual Funds from a Fund Family called "Keystone"

We were all facing a year of flying in Viet Nam,
and all I wanted to do with my money was have a good time.
Investing was pretty low on my priority list.

But he tweaked my curiosity.......
what the heck was a Mutual Fund?
How did they work?

I did some research and bought my first shares of a Mutual Fund in 1970.

I was a licensed broker and sold Mutual Funds from 1974 to '76.

When our "Big Bubba" turned 20,
I challenged him to get started investing.
With my guidance, (and his money), he put $2,000 in a
Roth IRA using Vanguard's "S&P 500 Index Fund".
(I like the Vanguard Family because of their low fees.)

He has continued to invest $2,000 per year in that Fund.
If he continues to invest at that rate,
and the stock market continues to perform as it has historically,
he'll be able to retire when he is still a VERY young man.
I'm proud of him for having the
discipline I didn't have at his age.

Let me share two interesting investing stories:

Identical twins, Uno and Dos, celebrate their 20th birthday.

Uno starts a Roth IRA.
He puts $2,000 a year in a Mutual Fund that has historically grown 8% annually.

Brother Dos says, "Nah, I want to buy a new Harley,
and next year I want a new bass boat.
I'm young, and there's plenty of time to invest later."

Uno continues to squirrel away $2,000 per year for 10 years.
At that point, Uno STOPS putting money in his IRA.

Now, at age 30, Brother Dos decides
it's time to get serious about investing.
He opens an IRA account with the same Fund as his twin.
Assuming he continues adding $2,000 per year, and the Fund continues to earn 8% annually,
at what point will his account value exceed that of his brother's?


My second illustration, similar to the first, will help answer that question.......
Find a Fund or other investment that averages 8% per year interest.
Add $50 a month to that Fund for 10 years.
At that point, stop your monthly deposit,
and start withdrawing $50 per month.
At what point will the Fund be totally depleted?

The answer to both questions?

NEVER!

In the first example, Uno's investment is earning considerably more than $2,000 per year when Dos begins to add $2,000 per year to his new IRA.
Dos can add 2-Grand a year for infinity, and he will NEVER catch up!

In the second illustration, after 10 years the Fund will be earning,
by my quick calculations, $87.63 per month in interest,
so withdrawing $50 a month will allow the principal in the Fund to continue
to grow at a pretty healthy rate.

Historical returns for the overall Stock Market
are above 8% per year.

Do your homework.
Find an investment you can be comfortable with.
Get started now!

(If you have access to a company 403(b), 401(k), or 457,
it makes NO SENSE to not AT LEAST contribute to those accounts at the minimum contribution necessary to take advantage of company matching funds........a 100% per year return on that money!!!)

And as both my illustrations show, time is critical.......
sooner is MUCH better than later!

If all this is still confusing, let me recommend the book:
"The Wealthy Barber" by David Chilton.
It's a quick, easy, enjoyable read,
and will answer most of your investing questions.

(I wish someone had shared this with me when I was 20!)

Update: 23 October

Wow, this got out of hand in a flash!

Read the comments.
My intent was to provide some VERY basic investing examples and prod some slackers into doing a little study on their own before setting cautiously off on a journey to improve their lives.
I started the post with the "I'm no expert" disclaimer.
Notice also the investment I have started my son in: An S&P 500 Fund that does virtually no stirring, and therefore has extremely low fees.
For that reason, most all of Big Bubba's money stays at work.
That's the path I will continue to take until I see a better way.

Infgtr has extraordinary credentials.
What I glean from his comments is that if you aren't gonna retire shortly,
you'd better be looking for ways to hide your money, and invest it in more complicated vehicles than I recommended.
If that is true, I'm more out of touch than I could have imagined.
I'm fearful of a scenario where you have to be an attorney to be sure you have efficiently hidden your money from Big Brother and other meanies.

Has it really come to that?

Bicycle Blogging

Is my experience normal?

Where I grew up, kids rode bicycles everywhere.
I had one, my sister had one.
When mine was broken, I rode (and broke) hers!

I had a paper route. The route covered about two miles.......four miles round trip.
I rode that route 7 Days a week, then used the bike to ride to play baseball, football, or basketball with friends.

My folks had agreed to buy me a new bike.
Nothing but a "Schwinn" bicycle would do........
the quality of other bikes
had been such a disappointment.

We went to the bike shop and got brochures on
the different models that were available.
A model called the "Phantom" immediately caught my eye!
This bike was called a "middleweight" at the time.
English style commuter bikes with their skinny little tires and three-speed gearshifts were being imported by this time, and the Phantom was a compromise between those and the "Balloon Tire Bombers" that had been produced up to the early 50's.
It had no gearshift........one speed. It had a "knee action" suspension on the front, and a coaster brake, (the kind where you push the pedal backwards for braking action.)
It had a horn in the tank. The horn was a pain in the butt because it needed batteries all the time. The horn got wet when it rained, and quit working in short order.
My Phantom was Candy Apple Red.

When I see pictures of the Phantom now, it reminds me a lot of Pee Wee Herman's bike in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure."

It was cool!
I remember it cost $70, which was a ton of money circa 1957.
My Dad was hesitant to spend that kind of money.
Mom was in my corner........she argued that I used the bike on my paper route, and besides, it was what I wanted and it would be nice to give me something I wanted so badly.

Dad gave in.

Fast Forward to 1981.
When I first met Sara Jean here in our little town, I rode a bike for exercise and errands. I had mapped out an 11 mile course that I rode daily, weather permitting.
By this time I was riding a bike with more speeds than I knew how to use. You shifted gears with two little levers at the center of the handlebars. I never learned to use the shifter well, but I did learn to downshift a couple gears to make it easier going uphill.

I actually got to the point where I had "runner's high" from riding every day!
When I'd miss my ride, my body didn't feel normal.

Then "Big Bubba" was born, and life got complicated with a job or two.
I quit riding.
I hung the bike from hooks in the garage, and watched as, over the years, the tires decayed and the frame rusted.

When he was old enough, I bought Big Bubba a 10-speed bike.
He rode a little, but not like his Old Man when I was his age.
I rode Big Bubba's bike now and then, and liked the feeling.

Forward again to today:
I've been studying bikes for awhile.
They're amazing.
You can easily spend $4,000 for "Lance Armstrong" bikes with frames made of exotic materials that weigh 12 pounds!
$700 buys a recumbent bicycle so you can sleep while you ride.

But something else caught my eye:
Last week, for less than $200, I bought a 21-speed
"Mountain Bike" with a front disc brake, front and rear suspension, quick-release front wheel,
and shifters on each hand grip.
(Is it possible to compare this bike to the $70 Schwinn Phantom my Dad bought in 1959?)

I'm now back to riding my 11 mile course every-other-day.
25 years ago, I could do it in 35 minutes.
Now it takes me an hour.
(Let's see.......11 miles ridden in one hour would be what......
11 m.p.h. average, right?)

I'm gonna work on getting the speed up, but not to the point where I don't enjoy the ride.
The idea is to work off the calories, and get back to the point where chicks whistle at my legs!

Gimme a little while!

Pakistan

Just in case you needed something to fret about today:

The earthquake in Kashmir may be a watershed event.

Half of Pakistan's citizens think Osama Bin Laden is the moral opposite of William Jefferson Clinton.
That half of Pakistan has already made at least three credible attempts to help Musharraf assume ambient temperature.

I've been listening to interviews of Pakistani citizens on the BBC.
The "Beeb" is portraying Musharraf's response to these events as less than satisfactory.

He has a political nightmare on his hands........
he needs to be visible, personally directing the emergency response to this catastrophe.
But he knows he'd likely be a target at every turn.........

The U.S. attacked Iraq because we suspected they MIGHT have Weapons of Mass Destruction at their disposal.
What should be our response if the Nuclear capable Pakistani government falls into the hands of radical Islamists?

We live in "interesting" times!

Where Eagles Fly

Over at

www.formerlyliving.blogspot.com,

Mike left a comment about flying with me over the Illinois River valley,
seeing the remarkable recovery that has been made by our Bald Eagle population.

In January and February,
breeding pairs can be spotted every 50 feet or so in trees alongside the river where there is open water.

In trees with no leaves, a three foot tall bird perched on a limb sticks out like a sore thumb!

Before my Dad passed away, my folks lived on lakefront property in Southern Indiana. High in a tree in the hills above their home, my Dad noticed a breeding pair of Eagles in a big nest, and called the Department of Natural Resources folks to insure they were aware of the birds.
The very next day, and for several days thereafter, a helicopter circled the nest.

When the pair of chicks hatched, the DNR folks came out for a closer look.
Dad accompanied them on the hike up the hill, and took pictures as they scaled the tree and lowered the eaglets to the ground.

I was surprised to learn that Eagle parents put up NO FIGHT AT ALL against this raid on their nest........
they flew off a short distance and watched quietly as the Conservationists weighed, measured, and took blood samples from their offspring!

Also surprising was how docile the hatchlings were while being stuck, poked, and prodded!
My previous perception was that our National symbol would have been pretty aggressive in protecting itself, and more so its' young!

Over the next several years, Dad and Mom took great pleasure in watching this pair of Eagles raise several families in that same nest.

I'm thrilled to watch the birds soaring over the river in January in large numbers...........
acrobatically jousting with one another.......
six foot wingspan and oh-so-obvious white head and tail on the mature birds!

It's also gratifying that some Government programs work.
The protection of our "endangered" Bald Eagle certainly has!

The Chinook Cha-Cha

Different Helicopters
come with different types of Rotor Systems:
Rigid,
Semi-Rigid,
Fully Articulated,
and hybrids of the above.

As you might expect,
each of these systems has advantages and disadvantages.

The U.S. Army's big Chinook
has a fully articulated rotor system.
This rotor can be compared
to the connection of your arm to your shoulder.......
the individual rotors can move fore and aft,
up and down, all at the same time,
similar to your arms moving independently.

The fully articulated system is a complicated one,
with MANY moving parts,
but when properly balanced and tracked,
it provides a "Cadillac on the boulevard" ride.

One of the disadvantages of this system
is that if you shock it with a hard bump on landing or takeoff,
the rotor can get dramatically out of balance,
and that unbalanced condition can amplify and worsen catastrophically.

Videos
http://www.chinook-helicopter.com/video/Ground_Resonance_Rear_View.mpg


and
http://www.chinook-helicopter.com/video/Ground_Resonance_Side_View.mpg

show two views of the same helicopter experiencing
this phenomenon,
called "Ground Resonance".

I assume the fact that the helicopter is restrained on a test bed
with two detailed videos of the incident
is an indication this was an Army test.
Notice the puffs of smoke from the engines,
indicating they have been shut down
as the Ground Resonance begins to destroy the airframe.

I have no information on what this test was analyzing,
or if Ground Resonance was expected.

I'd like to know more.