POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Canadian CF-18 pilot joins the Martin-Baker fan club

When he has to step over the side while the aircraft was flying low and goin' slow; too slow in fact.  This unfortunate accident occurred in Alberta Canada, while a demonstration pilot was practicing for this weekend's airshow.  The Canadian government is withholding any official comment until the Department of Transportation and Department of National Defence's Flight Safety Team complete their investigations.

Based on eyewitness descriptions of the incident, and the dramatic photographs of the plane's impact, it sounds to me  like the aircraft lost it's starboard engine:

Private pilot Nathaniel Lockheart was watching the practice runs when he noticed something was wrong.

 "He came in right over us, probably only 100 to 200 feet high," he said. "It looked like he lost power out of his right engine. Only one afterburner was on and it was burning red hot.

 "He looked very close to stalling..."

Which is part of what happened, as can be seen in the film footage of the accident.  An aerodynamic stall occurs when an aircraft is either moving too slow, or pitched up at too large an angle of attack, or a combination of both, and as a result the wing can suddenly no longer provide the amount of lift necessary to keep the ship airborne.  A stall can develop into a spin if one wing drops lower than the other.  Typically both stalls and spins can be recovered from given enough altitude to regain the necessary velocity to generate an amount of  lift equal to, or greater than, the weight of the aircraft.  But unfortunately Captain Bews was only around 100 feet above ground level!

He simply didn't have enough altitude to recover.  And even though his remaining engine was firewalled, with the afterburner lit, on a single engine the CF-18 couldn't generate enough raw thrust for him to "power" his way out of it.  In fact, the remaining engine probably contributed to his low-speed loss of control.

Full discosure; I've never flown an F-18 Hornet.  But the principles of flying  high performance twin engined fighter aircraft are similar, especially when it comes to the in-flight engine failure procedures.  Perhaps the most important principle is to keep your airspeed comfortably above the stall speed, especially when flying low; except, of course, when you are preparing to land.  Another very important principle is to never roll the aircraft in the direction of the failed engine.  The reason is, because of the natural offset of the engines from centerline of the ship that is inherent in twin engine fighters, any engine out situation will result in a tendency for the aircraft to yaw in the direction of the failed engine.  So a banked turn in the direction of the failed engine will result in the nose of the plane being yawed toward the ground.  Which, you know, is especially bad if you're at low altitude; or near stall speed as it will probably develop into a spin.

Which, based on my viewing of the video, is what must have happened in this instance.  Captain Bews is a highly trained and skilled professional aviator, as evidenced by his selection for the demonstration team, so I have to believe that what caused his starboard wing to dip was the buffeting that occurs when an aircraft stalls; because with the starboard engine out, travelling at low altitude and speed, I can't belive that he would have intentionally rolled his jet to that side for any reason.

It's a good thing that his CF-18 was equipped with a Martin-Baker ejection seat certified for "zero/zero" operation; you can get a good look at it in this set of pictures.   I'm sure Captain Bews is a big fan of that seat tonight, because it sure pulled his chestnuts out of the fire.  Thank God he only sustained minor injuries, and is reported to be in good spirits and resting at the hospital.

Here are some stills from the film:

Click to enlarge

Here Captain Bews is coming in at very slow speed at what looks like a very high angle of attack.  At this point the aircraft may have already begun to stall; but it's hard to tell from this perspective.

Click to enlarge

And in this one the starboard wing is beginning to dip; the aircraft rolling to the side with the failed engine-not good.

Click to enlarge

Here the adverse yaw effect is beginning to direct the nose towards terra firma; a most undesireable effect when you're only 100 feet above ground level.

Click to enlarge

Realizing he's lost it, and probably entering a spin at low altitude, low speed, and with a failed engine, Captain Bews makes the only reasonable decision and punches out.

Anyway, kind reader, that's enough "shop talk" for this installment.   Take a moment, watch the film, and see how despite our best intentions unexpected circumstances can turn a routine exercise into a life threatening situation.  And next time you get in your car to run around the corner, buckle up, and strap in your children; because just like Captain Bews saftey equipment saved him,  yours will likely save you also.

And really, we can't afford to lose any of you!

May God bless you, keep you, guide your steps always.

Rocketman

North Koreans selling “wolf tickets”

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Regarding this weekends joint US/South Korean wargames.

North Korea has promised a "physical response" to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend.

He said the exercises went beyond defensive training and would involve "sophisticated weapon equipment".

"It is a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole. And the DPRK's position is clear: there will be a physical response to the threat imposed by the United States militarily."

The military drills are to run Sunday through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, about 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft, including the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and the U.S. Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter.
[emphasis-ed.]

Yeah...I, perhaps even more so than most, would prefer that our brave warriors stay out of harms way whenever possible, and most certainly would not wish to see anyone, especially civilians on either side of the DMZ, suffer because of the Nork's usual and customary dime-store braggadocio.  But my instinctive response to this threat would be come on and bring it !  I believe that the Washington, the task force surrounding her, and the other associated assets could open up a can of whup-ass on the North Koreans that they don't even want to contemplate.

They're selling wolf tickets; and their battleship mouths could easily get them into a situation their rowboat asses couldnt handle.

Let's hope and pray that cooler heads prevail.

Rocketman

L.A. Times writer celebrates 60′s “more natural” women’s bodies

]

Hawt Coture. Click to enlarge-you'll want to.

And, she says it pretty well too.  There's not too much I can add, you know, besides a healthy huzzah! 

Watch some of the commentary features on the DVD editions and you'll hear the show's creator, Matt Weiner, refer to "period bodies." What he means is that just as the show applies painstaking care to finding sofas and kitchen appliances exactly like those you would have seen in that era, it also seeks bodies — particularly female ones — quintessentially of the time. That means no ripped abs or fake breasts, no preternaturally white teeth. (A lot of people wear eyeglasses too — the horror!) 

To put it mildly, Madison Avenue's mid-'60s dress code is quite a bit more formal than most of what we see on the street today. With the sort of snug tailoring that demands industrial-strength undergarments, the clothes seem at first glance like a direct reflection of the punctiliousness, even the oppressiveness, of the era. We may appreciate those cinched waists and gloved arms aesthetically — and it's fun to incorporate a little old-school glitz into wardrobes that increasingly suggest the whole world has become a yoga class — but the average 21st century woman isn't about to wear a girdle and stockings to the office every day. 

Maybe that's why we harbor just a tiny bit of envy toward the women of "Mad Men." Deprived of "advantages" like Pilates classes and fat burners and ever-more common surgical procedures, estranged from the feelings of inadequacy that come from "failing" to achieve physical perfection despite the vast array of tools at hand, their "period bodies" amount to something that, especially when it comes to our idols, is rare today if not downright taboo: normal, regular proportions. 

Well said Ms. Daum, well said.  Full disclosure; I've yet to see one episode of the TV show "Mad Men", not being a big TV guy myself anyway, but, you know, actually lived during, and vividly remember, the 1960's.  And I think there's a lot of unnecessary anxiety, especially among women but increasingly with men as well, that is caused by people obsessing over their bodies and phsyiques, for more asthetic than health oriented reasons, in our modern image conscious society.  And that's not to say that in the 60's there weren't the same kind of attitudes, but, at least I'd like to think that it was a less shallow and "me" oriented time; one where substance trumped style among serious people. 

Anyway, enough of that.  Read the whole piece, it's really good.  And, as a parting shot, feast your eyes once again on Ms. Hendricks 

"

Click to enlarge, you won't be sorry

Golden Globes?  I'll say...

Rocketman

Fan Mail from Some Flounder

Thor writes the following, in comments, below:

All I needed was a lecture from a “values” pimp brimming with humility, that’s it! Oh I see everything so clearly now. Ancient values and platitudes from tribal flat-earthers, thanks for the goggles!
You don’t know anything about Black history in America, else you wouldn’t yip about and insult the NAACP.
Know-it-alls possess the least humility of all, surprised you haven’t recognized that. Keep your keys to universal understanding, I’m really not in want of them.

Let's consider this.

I want the US to go to Mars. Obama wants Muslims to feel good about themselves.

$13 million redistributed to a USDA employee that could have gone to minority business start-ups is progress, to progressives.

You can have your nuclear plants, because that would be a reasonable way to reduce the US's dependence on foreign oil, but we're not going to open up Yucca Mountain or make the permitting process any less onerous. After all, there are deals to be made! Just ask Richard Daley!

Oh, did I say foreclosures had peaked? I meant, they're peaking. Again.

Everythings URGENT! Unless it needs to wait for the lame duck session. Also, don't let those Republicans frighten you with their fear-mongering rhetoric.

We're going to pass this pile of crap by majority vote, then let agencies write in the details, but you'll have to rescind it by super-majority. Quitsies.

Al Franken.

You can't drill off the US coast because of environmental considerations. I'm giving a couple of billion to a Soros-backed, Brazilian owned company so they can drill off the coast of the Amazon River Basin.

Anthropogenic global warming has been proved by a complete preponderance of the evidence, even though the numbers were cooked. So, shut up. Science has been restored to its rightful state.

Cap on Al Gore's second chakra still leaking. Science!

It's okay to let would-be Supreme Court Justices rewrite medical findings if it serves ideology. See? Science restored to its rightful state: handmaiden to bankrupt ideology.

Half of black children conceived in the US are aborted, and you're a big, bad racist to abjure this.

Catholicism is bad and discriminates against women and gay people. Islam is proof of cultural tolerance.

Yes, many Islamic nations are totalitarian. It's because their culture is totalitarian. Respect their culture.

Also, it's because of the Jooooos! who gathered up Africans with their raiding parties off their fierce corsairs, and sold them into slavery. Right, Reverend Al?

Opposition to any part of a half-black president's agenda is prima facie evidence of racism. You racist.

The New Black Panther Party is the creation of FOX News employee, Michael McGee. Yesterday, its membership was 12, maybe 13 people. Today, its membership is, maybe 20. Spread out really thinly from Milwaukee to Philadelphia. And, no, I'm not going to denounce them, because they're tiny. Also, Reverend Wright is perfectly mainstream.

Andrew Breitbart sent Christianist relief supplies to Haiti!

We have to pass the legislation so you can find out what's in it. That's transparency.

Charlie Rangel's a good man who's dedicated his life to his constituency. That's why they're in such good shape.

Taxes are purely voluntary. Wesley Snipes should have volunteered.

Nationalized health care is not a tax, unless we have to argue that it is, in court.

Chicago Aldermen are police deputies by definition, which is why they get to carry heat and you don't. Because Chicago Aldermen are the trustworthiest and most civic-minded people evah.

******

I could go on and on, really, but what's the point? When I say humility, I mean that people get to make decisions for themselves. The genius of the market is that it is massively parallel processing, to use a (valid, I think) cyber-analogy that wasn't available to Adam Smith. Obama and company think that they're such universal geniuses, they can replace the function of enterpreneurs. They're idiots.

Bite me.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Post-Racial: In DC, Teh Gay Trumps Teh Minority

I haven't had time to vent fully over the not guilty verdicts in the Robert Wone murder, though it doesn't surprise me. Teh District has teh Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit to make sure that the sizable population of gays and lesbians in Washington, DC, aren't discriminated against, and in case they do commit crimes that they aren't convicted, because that would make the community look bad. Robert Wone, as you may recall, was murdered while he slept at the home of a gay friend from college, who had an extended family of other gay men living at his place, which was equipped with (among other toys) an electroshock device that would cause a guy to spurt, even if unconscious. The victim was found dead in a bed in the guest room with stab wounds, but appeared to first responders to have been showered before his "discovery."

As I've outlined elsewhere (look it up) Dean Johnson, the good friend of a friend from Protein Wisdom, also died under strange circumstances at a gay man's residence, less than a week after a young man had died there under similarly mysterious circumstances. The GLLU had a major hand in ensuring that the evidence was muddled before it could be assessed in that case, as well.

And I hate gay guys, so much that one of them, who is not Catholic, is godfather to one of my sons. Do you know why? Because however he may feel maligned by Catholic doctrine about teh gays, I trust him to bring my son up in the principles of the Church, no matter what.

The other shoe has dropped, and three people associated with the prosecution have decided that their talents lie elsewhere. Way to go, fellas. You got your special treatment. Hope you're not murdered.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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James Scott Shore – Before the Sweat

Met up with a long-lost friend last week. He was in town to assist his folks in selling their home (the home he grew up in). We had lunch together. It was a very good time. He was also friends with James growing up.

He sent me these photos.

They look to be from 1986 or 87, when James was a Junior in High School.

The future was wide open then.

I hope Ray doesn't think I've forgotten

James A Ray. Repent. No man knows the hour.

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Day three’s installment of “as the narrative turns”

Palin sining with US troops in Kuwait

Or maybe I should call it the truth about Sarah and the Press.

It's been pretty satisfying watching the initial revalations of the shadowy cabal of propagandists who belonged to Ezra Klein's left-wing glee club, journolist.  At long last there is proof of what many have suspected all along; that some members of the press chose to completely throw away any pretense of journalistsic ethics and instead undertake the shaping of slanted public meta-narative that they hoped would benefit their preferred politcal candidates and further their liberal ideology.  And, while some of published correspondance has been marginally amusing, especially Spence Ackerman talking tough about roughing up political opponents, or the cabal simultaneously hand-wringing about fascistic bullying Rethugs! while wondering if the FCC could shut down Fox news by simply not renewing their license, on the whole it has been disturbing to see the documentation of a group actively trying to subvert the institution of the fourth estate for political purposes.  As Andrew Breitbart remarked, the reporters at Pravda weren't such insufferable assholes as the journolist crew.

And, as Cap'n Ed muses, journolist is the gift that keeps on giving; kind of like the twelve days of Christmas:

On the first day of JournoList, Daily Caller gave to me … a plot to spike the Wright stuff.  On the second day of JournoList, Daily Caller gave to me … demands for government intervention with Fox News, and a plateful of irony from accusations of fascism.  On the third day, however, Daily Caller catches mainly opinion journalists offering and soliciting opinions about John McCain’s choice of running mate, Sarah Palin, in exactly the terms that people discussed in public as well

That's a pretty good point, and one that inderectly refutes Matt Welch's critique:

The real spade-work on the JournoList trove is not just fishing for a single chunk of Drudge-bait, but tying an off-the-record listserv conversation with a coordinated flurry of on-the-record commentary.

Well, I think that Jonathan Strong has accomplished that with today's installment, where he explored jounolist's reaction to Palin being chosen as his running mate.

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.

The conversation began with a debate over how best to attack Sarah Palin. “Honestly, this pick reeks of desperation,” wrote Michael Cohen of the New America Foundation in the minutes after the news became public. “How can anyone logically argue that Sarah Pallin [sic], a one-term governor of Alaska, is qualified to be President of the United States? Train wreck, thy name is Sarah Pallin.”

Not a wise argument, responded Jonathan Stein, a reporter for Mother Jones. If McCain were asked about Palin’s inexperience, he could simply point to then candidate Barack Obama’s similarly thin resume. “Q: Sen. McCain, given Gov. Palin’s paltry experience, how is she qualified to be commander in chief?,” Stein asked hypothetically. “A: Well, she has much experience as the Democratic nominee.”

Daniel Levy of the Century Foundation noted that Obama’s “non-official campaign” would need to work hard to discredit Palin. “This seems to me like an occasion when the non-official campaign has a big role to play in defining Palin, shaping the terms of the conversation and saying things that the official [Obama] campaign shouldn’t say – very hard-hitting stuff, including some of the things that people have been noting here – scare people about having this woefully inexperienced, no foreign policy/national security/right-wing christia wing-nut a heartbeat away …… bang away at McCain’s age making this unusually significant …. I think people should be replicating some of the not-so-pleasant viral email campaigns that were used against [Obama].”

I recall the experience argument being weakly advanced for the first few days following her nomination, and this same discussion being played out amongst the televised punditry; until, that is, they had satisfied themselves that it was indeed a bad tack to take.  Then, of course, they decided to make the attacks more personal:

Ryan Donmoyer, a reporter for Bloomberg News who was covering the campaign, sent a quick thought that Palin’s choice not to have an abortion when she unexpectedly became pregnant at age 44 would likely boost her image because it was a heartwarming story.

“Her decision to keep the Down’s baby is going to be a hugely emotional story that appeals to a vast swath of America, I think,” Donmoyer wrote.

Politico reporter Ben Adler, now an editor at Newsweek, replied, “but doesn’t leaving sad baby without its mother while she campaigns weaken that family values argument? Or will everyone be too afraid to make that point?”

No Ben, as it turns out nobody was afraid to make any points that they thought might successfully diminish Palin in the eyes of the public; especially Andrew Sullivan, with a deranged obsession regarding his own fatuous theory that Palin merely pretended, publicly, that Trig was her child in order to cover up her daughter Bristol pregnancy outside of marriage.

At any rate, the piece goes on to document the crew feverishly working on coordinating their attacks.  They speak about framing the nomination as a cynical, sexist, act by McCain meant to steal the feminist constituency, already upset over Obama's shabby treatment of Hillary, away from the Democrats; another of the "Hardball" meme's that were repeated during campaign 2008.  And, perhaps more disturbing, they would contact list memebers to get the "latest talking points" prior to TV appearances.  You know, to make sure that they had the latest iteration of the narrative.  But as Cap'n Ed observes,  considering that many of the more active participants were known to have a left-wing bent, this all comes as no real surprise.

Perhaps the most embarassing revelation in today's installment is about Joe Klein, a self righteous uber-liberal shill who writes for Time magazine.

Klein, who displayed an independent streak in other circumstances (“anybody who knows me knows I do my own thinking,” he said in a Wednesday interview), seemed to exude more partisanship that day than usual.

Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged came from strategy sessions on Journolist. “Here’s my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community,” he wrote. And indeed Klein’s article contained arguments developed by his fellow Journolisters. Klein praised Palin personally, calling her “fresh” and “delightful,” but questioned her “militant” ideology. He noted Palin had endorsed parts of Obama’s energy proposal.

Seems like Joe has some explainin' to do, eh?  I wonder how many other essays of his have been influenced by the journolist talking points?  I wonder if Richard Stengal is even concerned about this, or, does he already know.  One things is probably certain, Time can't afford to lose any circulation over a scandal like this.

And, rightly speaking, this is truly a scandal.  Surely, some want to dismiss it our of hand, and never let it see the light of day.  Indeed, the only MFM coverage I've seen of it so far has been dismissive.  So it will be important for us to communicate this to our peers who might not be aware of, or keeping up with, all the developments.  We all will have to go above the heads of the recalcitrant media, and use every opportunity to push the corruption of the MFM out there; be it at the water cooler, casual gathering, or family function.  I suggest that every time you hear some discussion of Obama H8ting Reich-Wingerz exposed by the media, that you casually ask if the story is by, "One of the journolist writers  that were colluding in order to portray their desired opinion as thoughtful and factual ?"

So, read the whole piece, and stay tuned to the Daily Caller for each new installment.  According to the author, during a radio interview with Lou Dobbs, there is a lot more to come.  So keep abreast of developments, and have plenty of popcorn on hand.  My intuition is that it will only get better.

Rocketman