Going Off To War

I was a 21 year-old kid.
I had just finished flight school and had a whopping 210 hours in my logbook, meaning I was just beginning to comprehend what caused helicopters to successfully push the air away from them.
Forty-One years ago tonight I crawled into my bed in my parent's home knowing that when I opened my eyes in the morning I'd be headed where someone would try to shoot me.
"We interrupt our regular programming to bring you this special news announcement..."
President Johnson announced, effective tomorrow, bombing would be halted on enemy supply routes.

Wow.
What had I gotten myself into?

Trick Or Treat!

Halloween, and It's SATURDAY NIGHT!

One of my dispatchers reminded me...
We also have the benefit of an extra hour tonight!
(Thanks for nothin', Christina!)
From a year ago, a review.

Prey Or Predator?

I'm always amazed at the fact that now and then someone can say something that is SO obvious you take it for granted and THINK you understand it, but don't REALLY digest it.
Prodded by a comment at "Althouse", the "light bulb" illuminated.

Are humans predator, or prey?
Of course, the answer is- "yes".
We ARE NOT at the top of the food chain.
Act accordingly. Our world is changing and we always need to be planning to meet those changes.

"Yearning To Breathe Free!"

Are you aware of what the Obama administration is doing
(Update... HAS DONE! ) in Honduras?
I'm truly ashamed of our country.
Research. Be informed.
Let's get back to our Founding Father's ideals before it's too late.

Obama's Misery, 30 October 2009

Alert readers will have noticed I've fallen short on my "Misery Index" posts.
There's a reason...
The "M.I." site hasn't been updating on a timely basis.
When I last blogged on the subject the index stood at 8.16%.
Unemployment figures still have not taken off as I expected (but that's still coming, bet on it), and inflation is still a negative number. (With all the money being printed and "stimulating" the economy, that CANNOT last!)
Nevertheless the number IS up, though only slightly, to 8.51%.
If the site continues to update, I'll continue to link as the numbers rise. Will they reach President Jimmah's levels?
I bet Obama can top them.

Chris Muir's DBD- On The Health Care Bill

"The Story of A Student Helicopter Pilot"

Interested in the costs and difficulties of learning to fly helicopters?
Browsing my sitemeter to see who had stopped by, I found Alan's blog. He's been blogging the experience of becoming a commercial helicopter pilot and Flight Instructor, and he keeps a running tab on his training, to include flight hours and costs.
He also posts with some regularity.
You might want to give him a look!

Learning "The Impossible", Part 1.

Ft. Wolters, TX, FEBRUARY, 1968
You know you're gonna learn to fly one of these things, so you stand and watch them move against the background of blue sky and marvel. There are lots of little buzzing birds up there...
TH-55's, OH-23's, and a few OH-13's, but every once in a great while you hear the rythmic thumping of a Huey or Cobra and your heart quickens as you run outdoors and watch in awe as it flies by at what seems to be twice the speed of the others...
One of these days you may find yourself in THAT cockpit, manipulating those controls.

You're introduced to the machine you'll fly, the Hughes TH-55 "Mattel Messerschmidt".
Man, it's ugly! Kinda looks like half-an-apple with a pencil stuck in the middle of its butt. You learn to preflight the thing and are boggled by the number of little parts you have to check-
because they can, AND DO, break! Are you really sure you want to do this? Remember, it's not just the machine that can kill you...
They're shooting real bullets where you're gonna go.

In the machine for the first time with your instructor...
In the luck of the draw you've drawn a good one...
a Warrant Officer-Viet Nam Veteran, easygoing and friendly. He doesn't scream like some of the other student's instructors. And unlike some of the other instructors he keeps his hands off the controls so you know the crazy attitudes the machine is assuming are caused by you, not him... making the little bird come perilously close to crashing.

Hovering...
I know regulars here have seen this video but it bears review, because when you first get your hands on the controls of the helicopter you think to yourself-
"This is JUST IMPOSSIBLE!"
Yet when he takes the controls to miraculously avoid making contact with Terra Firma the machine stabilizes and remains motionless over one small piece of real estate.
So, he can do it... Will you ever be able to?

A few days later, four hours in your logbook...
He says, "Pick us up and hover over by that brown patch on the ground." You gingerly lift the collective and the nose swings a little more to the right than you would like, but you nudge the cyclic in the direction he indicated and the bird moves (!) at a steady speed and three foot hover to the spot he indicated. You're unhappy 'cause you never quite get the nose pointed in your direction of travel, but he smiles and says "Good for you!", and suddenly you realize...
"I may eventually be able to do this!" Still you know without question... if he was not in the seat next to you and the engine quit, you'd be in a world of hurt.

But from that point on the dual instruction is magic. You get to the point you can hover and keep the machine in one county and initially you wonder, "is this better than sex?" The machine becomes an extension of your body. You lift, turn, move laterally across the ground, and land... all completely under control. Amazing!
You take off with no difficulty. The approach and landing to a spot is more difficult, but eventually you learn the secret... get your ground speed and vertical speed under control early in the approach, and you'll have better control at your intended landing spot.
Your instructor notices.
He points and says "hover and land over there".
He turns to you, smiles and says "Give me three trips around the pattern... normal takeoffs, normal approaches. If things don't look right, go-around and do it again. Radio calls the way we've been doin' 'em. After your third landing, hover over here and pick me up and we'll talk about it. You'll do fine!"
He unplugs his helmet, opens the door, steps out, gives you a "thumbs-up", latches the door, and leaves you feeling as alone as you've felt in your life....

OH. MY. LORD!

More later.

UPDATED-
The instructor I refer to in the post was a guy named James Gilbreath. He was a good guy and a damned good instructor.
I've intended for years to contact him.
Now, poking around, I find it's too late.
Prepare the way, Jim. I'll express my thanks to ya later.

Out Of Tanks, Into Helicopters

Why it was one of the best decisions I ever made:

Madness

Here.

No "Shouting At The Screen" Here!

I've looked forever to share this with you. A friend finally sent it via email and I was able to identify the source...



How'd she get that thing to fire on automatic?
The Question? "Why do you want a gun?"
Answer- "'Cause a cop is too heavy to carry."

Stored Food

More handguns than anyone needs... Check.
Short-range rifle... Check.
Home defense shotgun... Check.
Reach out and touch someone rifle (with Leupold scope)... Check.
Abundant ammo for all the above... Check.
Emergency "crank-up" radio... Check.
Bug out bag... Check. (Thanks Terry!)
A respectable amount of "real money"... Check.
One year of stored food... Gettin' there.

We have four months of "Nutrisystem" food in the closet.
"Dinty Moore" beef stew, "Sweet Sue" chicken and dumplings, canned tuna and chicken, and lots of large cans of soup are in the larder, along with a box of powdered milk.

Just to share with those of you as worried about the future as me, my Britisher Chief Pilot, who saw firsthand what happens when a country's economy falls apart, said "Rice!"
A fifty pound bag of rice at Sam's or Costco is cheap...
Will fill your belly with energy-producing carbs...
And will keep forever in a cool, dry storage place.

Thanks Phil. Anyone have further suggestions?

Insanity

Rush Limbaugh nails it.

Thomas Sowell, one of the few sane voices from the Black community, thinks we are on a path to self-inflicted destruction.

A Good Description of Translating Tendency-

...And other helicopter stuff that doesn't concern Fixed Wingers and normal folks here, because airplanes are relatively simple machines and ordinary people have no need to know this junk.

BOHIC!

"Mainly, the young will pay. They tend to use less care. Obamacare depends on this: Young workers' premiums are needed to fill the pool as aging workers drain it. That's how insurance works, they say. They mistake insurance, which pools similar risks, with the pooling of known dissimilar costs, which is called a raw deal."

Obamacare. Is this REALLY what you want?

Let's Pretend!

Let's play a game, okay?!!
Let's pretend Banks across the country are in real trouble.

Let's pretend commercial real estate values are plummeting, causing mortgage holders to walk away, which in turn is causing many banks to fail, while we are being told by some media sources, "Don't worry folks, everything is just fine!"

Let's pretend banks, in spite of huge transfusions of tarp money are in more trouble than ever because of commercial real estate problems and mergers with other marginal banks.

Let's pretend further, that insurance provided by the government to cover depositor's assets provided by the FDIC is in BIG trouble.

Then let's try to imagine what would happen if we had a really, really HUGE bank failure.
What do you think would happen?



Do you have large sums in non inflation-proof accounts?
Might be a good time to reconsider those accounts.

Top 40, News, Weather, 'n Sports!

A long time ago in a land far away I listened constantly to the radio and loved Gene Pitney. The DJ would cue up this tune, and after the first few bars...




I thought I was gonna hear this one:



Listen to the first 30 seconds or so of each and see if you agree. George Harrison was sued because the first three notes of "My Sweet Lord" sounded like the first three notes of The Chiffon's "He's So Fine". I'm surprised there wasn't a lawsuit over these tunes opening similarities!

Home Is Where Your Heart Is

I'm sitting up in bed, laptop up and running, Lucy between my legs beneath the covers sleeping. Workaholic Sara Jean scheduled three houses to clean today (Sunday, for heaven's sakes!), and was up and out the door before I woke. Before leaving she brewed a pot and filled the thermos for me...
That thermos and my tall coffee mug were bedside when I woke. I poured myself a cup before firing up the computer.
Life is good, thank you Lord.

Do you travel a lot? We're traveling more now than ever. We go South to Destin as often as possible, (not nearly as often as I would like). We make it back to Indy two or three times a year for get-togethers with old High School classmate friends... these relationships now stronger than they were so many years ago thanks to re-connecting via the internet. I frequently have business in California that requires me to fly there. And now we're getting more familiar with the Phoenix area because Big Bubba lives 15 minutes from the airport in Mesa, Arizona.

Like John Mellencamp, "I grew up in a small town", and my small town was not all that far from Mellencamp's small town. But mine was a short drive from a medium-size town... Indianapolis, Indiana. My town was rural, farmland all around. But drive 15 minutes North and most of the benefits and temptations of big towns were available. So I was aware, sort of, but the foundation laid by my parents kept me out of most trouble. Growing up where I did was a great education unto itself. But that was my nest... my comfort zone.
I didn't leave what is identified on a map as "Indiana" until I was 13 or so, and that was just a foray across the State line into exotic Louisville, Ky. A family trip driving Westward across the nation to California when I was 15 opened my eyes to how much country there is in our nation...
Another great bit of education. I was homesick from the time we left until I was once again petting the Labrador we left in our neighbor's care.

I moved to the town where we now reside in 1980 because a Nurse friend and her Doctor husband owned a JetRanger and needed a Chief Pilot, and I needed a job. But a factor in that move was that I was tired of living in a big town...
Traffic, noise, smells, traffic, crime, rush-rush-rush, population density, traffic...
I wanted to take a deep breath and lower my heart rate.
I've now lived here longer than I've lived anywhere else. It's not perfect, but moving here was a good decision... I met Sara Jean here and raised my boy in an area where I had much more control over the things he could be exposed to. (And "the proof is in the pudding!")

Phoenix is exotic and interesting. Tall beautiful cacti, mountains in the distance, and an absolutely clear blue sky most of the time. It's a short drive from Phoenix to lots of wonderful things to see.
But it's a big town with all the problems associated with big towns... and more.
There is a disconcerting attitude there. Lots and lots of folks speaking Spanish around you. And we've had at least two experiences where someone we approached didn't speak English at all, and had "attitude" about the fact we expected them to be able to communicate with us. (These folks were in retail outlets!)
Phoenix is now the #2 kidnap city in the world, following Mexico City. In a previous post I showed you the "Bait car" warning signs that you see frequently in Big Bubba's neighborhood...
A constant reminder to not leave your car unlocked... don't leave valuables in your car, even out-of-sight in the trunk!

So we're back in our little town. My heartrate is back to about a beat a second.
No cactus... The grass is out of control because it's been raining most of the time we've been gone, so skies have been gray.
But we're here 'cause we want to be here. Are we "Hicks" because we're comfortable with this lifestyle? Obviously I can't be objective about that, but probably.
Experiencing Phoenix, and the drive over to L.A. to spend a few days was wonderful.
Being back in "dullsville" is pretty boring...
"Boring" is wonderful too.

PHX, 24 Oct 09

We're at the gate, waiting to board the airplane. There's much to like about this airport...
You can get here from Big Bubba's apartment via Light Rail, although we didn't use that service this time. The terminals are separated so traffic is split and not so heavy dropping passengers off and retrieving them. Security is also easier to clear because they also are split in several areas throughout the airport. So here I am, taking advantage of the FREE WiFi at Gate C-9, and we have an hour 'til the flight takes off. The smell of Cinnabons and Starbucks is in the air.

It's 90 degrees here but we hear it's a comfortable 60 or so at home.
That's bearable, thank goodness.

I'm sure you frequently feel as I do...
I need a vacation to recover from my vacation.