FastCargo

Stupid article title...the US has had the food stamp program for a long time. When I was a young kid, we were on food stamps for a while after my father retired from the USAF. However, we didn't stay on it very long after he got work and my mom finished school and got a good job. We used the program for it's primary intent...a hand up, not a hand out. FC

I don't know...I've been hearing about this movie from the rocketry side where I hang out...not good. It's kind of hard to make a Saturn V launch secret... FC

Alright, knock it off. Anymore more personal sniping and I'll shut this thread down. FC

Yes, if anyone wants to see how I did it, check out the Super Hornet download and look at the data ini for the AI refueler aircraft. The animation is set for speed so the aircraft is completely clean by the time the drogue extends. FC

My assumption is that it is all corrupt. I'd chuck all of it. FC

Sigh.... While I admire her dedication to flying...what she did was irresponsible. Until someone gets eyes on the target, NOBODY knows who or what the target is. I've been in busy ass airspace with a TFR in place when some yahoo who isn't talking to ANYONE, wanders into it and ends up causing a massive jam on the radios while ATC tries to get them to A) leave and B) talk to someone! In this day and age, there is no way that should happen...pilots have resources available everywhere. At the FBO, a toll free phone number, the internet and a radio (which she didn't turn on...WTF). Like the man said...if 2 F-16s are parked within 500 feet off your wing...they ain't there to admire your paint job. These kind of incidents, especially those showing blatent disregard of knowing what the hell is going on, can result in permanent removal of your license to fly. I'm sorry, but I love flying enough to not give the FAA additional opportunities to ground me. FC

Yep, some of the old stuff never goes out of style...I have a WinXP partition just so I can play BattleZone and Jane's F-15. Everything else I've been able to get to work in Win7 x64 with DOSBox/Glidewrapper/GOG games. Love GOG games by the way...awesome company! FC

An aircraft incident due to pilot error doesn't necessarily end a pilot's career...depending on the circumstance. Typically, a career will end due to willful negligence. An example would be the moron who led the way too low flyby of a football game back in November of last year. However, for something where the pilot was attempting to comply with all the rules and accidently put himself in a bad situation, the outcome can be different. An example was a few years ago, during an IFF sortie at the 435th, the T-38C pilot was attempting to check his six by turning himself around in the seat, using his hand to brace on the canopy rail...a good technique normally. The problem was his hand slipped mometarily, and it hit the flap lever without his knowledge. The flaps deployed at 400+ knots, and one 'slipstreamed' almost immediately, causing a vicious, out of control condition. The pilot, not knowing what had happened, ejected and the aircraft was lost. Post incident, the investigation revealed what happened. A pilot error, but certainly not an intentional or forseen one. The commander of AETC basically said: "Cost of doing business, press on." and the pilot went back to work (after being medically cleared of course). We all got the brief, but it was one of those things...it had never happened before in the 50+ years the aircraft has been around, and probably won't happen again before the aircraft retires. It wasn't his day...but he lived to tell about it. Looking at the pictures of the F-16 incident, it looks like a wheel brake failure. The reason I think that is that the aircraft is not nose down prior to leaving the runway. If he landed long, and was hot coming to the end of the runway, he'd be stomping on the brakes. The anti-skid would be working hard, and you'd probably see dust coming up from the rear wheels. The main thing is that the nose gear strut would be compressed, with the aircraft in a nose down cant. You don't see any of that. The aircraft looks like it's just coasting...no cant at all until it hits the grass. I'd be curious to hear what happened...but I'm leaning toward hydraulic/brake failure. FC

Dude! I first read about this guy in Cracked: http://www.cracked.com/article_18429_6-soldiers-who-survived-s**t-that-would-kill-terminator_p2.html Some of these quotes are awesome: FC

Jedi, You and I need to do some Portal 2 co-op my friend! Just got done playing single player Portal 2 and loved it...Valve has done it again! For those who get tired of the same ol' same ol' FPS genre, give Portal 2 a try. “I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!” FC

Love it! Or, how about a scene from going through training...a story from "Phantom Over Vietnam" by John Trotti. Or this one... FC

I love this line: Yea buddy!

Done it the other way around as well...running Win7/WinXP/OSX 10.5.6 on a Dell m1530. SF2 runs just fine... FC

JM, I saw the same analysis...it's basically about 70% of the debt is to ourselves. Still trying to figure out that one...if that's true, I'll put in a bid for one of the Space Shuttles please... FC

Note...don't EVER stand in between 2 of them at full grunt during takeoff. I made this mistake during a Red Flag 15 years ago. I think that's the only time I ever got physically ill from pure jet noise... FC

Lexx, The only problem I've had with your analysis (and similar analysis by others of the same track), is the reliance of investment in precious metals (gold of course being the big one). The thing is, even gold has no intrinsic value...only a value that we as people assign it. If the big collapse happens, I'm not concerned about having enough gold. I'm concerned about having enough food, water, shelter, medicine and ammo. I guarantee if the collapse comes, I'm not wasting my time taking shiny metal in exchange for services or goods. If a service that exists will take gold, that's fine...I have my 'clinky' reserve. But that's not what I'm relying on to get by through the dark days of the collapse of fiat money. FC

I'll repeat what Jedi and I said eariler: The Saturn 5 blueprints still exist and are stored away. It's the tooling and manufacturing jigs that are all gone. FC

Not quite that impressive...they had a full crew. This was done by one person for the most part: FC

AGM-69A SRAM - C6-3 - Not changed from last time, but because the winds were so much less, the rocket flew much nicer, with only a slight spin: Mini Saturn V - 1/2A3-4T - Couldn't get a good pic of the rocket on the pad because the camera kept focusing on the grass: But the flight was stable, smooth with a good recovery. Will be a favorite of smaller fields in the future... Estes SR-71 - C6-3 - Nice, straight flight up to the ejection charge, where the shock cord broke. But the rocket was recovered fine because the nose didn't weigh enough to open the chute fully, and the body tumble recovered. No damage: N-1 - D12-3 - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves: The third picture is a composite of the flight showing the flight path. Luckily, the rocket fell flat, with little damage. Will need minor repair. But will probably not fly again. We think it's a 'drag stable' rocket like a saucer, but doesn't have enough flat surface. The other option is adding significantly more weight to the nose...but the rocket is already pretty heavy as it is. Cosmic Cobra - C6-5 - Nice flight...good airborne video: Patriot Pro - 4xD12-5 - Awesome flight! Of course, it decides to parachute down on the only gravel road near the field. Minor damage to one fin: Satellite Interceptor and Interceptor - C6-5 for both - Straight, nice, textbook flights with no damage...even caught the Interceptor while it parachuted down: Overall, a good day. 10 rockets launched, all recovered (plus one...Art brought my Patriot that I left on the field from the last club launch). 6 rockets had no damage, 4 with trivial to little damage. Only 2 rockets didn't fly as expected...though I was surprised by both as they had passed the swing test. Plus, I'm figuring out those keychain cams.... Time for repairs, building more rockets, and getting those boost gliders airborne... FC

Our club had a launch on Saturday morning...but we moved the hours to 0730-1130 because it's so friggin hot by mid day. I basically jumpseated in that morning at 0530, prepped rockets, packed the car, and made it out about 0800 ourselves. On to pics and video! First, pictures of the day's fleet (upright Saturn V is a plastic model, not miine, but same scale as N-1): Alpha III 2 stager - C6-0/C6-7 - Flew this combination in the same configuration as the last club launch. But this time, it was viciously unstable: I think the reason it was unstable this time was due to me rotating the lower stage 60 degrees to the upper stage. I'll have to do another swing test...

I'll send you the S-60. It's a bit of high poly and it's not mapped. But you can probably shave it down quite a bit. Check your PMs. FC

There is radiation as well...radiation that can't be stopped unless you have shielding...and a LOT of it. That's why all astronauts had a time clock, and when that limit was reached, you were done going into space. Also, building a spinning station is conceptually very easy, but practically is very difficult, especially if you trying to get to a full G. FC

Real Trekker's work out at the He's Dead Gym... FC

Jedi is correct...the plans for the Saturn 5 all exist. But tooling is EXPENSIVE... FC

Folks, uncleal has no one to blame but himself. No one here precipitated his departure...he did it to himself and it was a long time coming. FC