So, it’s been a busy day today, and so it has. What with yesterday passing in a bit of a blur due to some unwelcome, but not entirely unanticipated news from Balboa Naval Hospital. A very high success rate, I’m told. In and out on the same day. Never to fret.
Still, even a minor note version of The Big C is an unwelcome signpost on the road of mortality. This won’t get me, probably, but something will. Things tick down, and you’re left to wonder what any of it will mean.
But enough of that, and anyway, tomorrow’s never promised.
Ended up flying the club Cardinal from Montgomery over to Miramar for the air show this weekend. To serve as a static display, like. As though anyone can spare a moment’s attention for a 36 -year old “complex” retractable general aviation single, what with MV-22s, and HALE UAVs and Predators on the line. Not to mention Harriers and Super Hornets. The Snow Birds are down as well from the Great White Up, and what their T-33s CT-114s (Oops) lack in organic performance their pilots more than make up for in tautly choreographed complexity, all ten of them shifting formations and coming at you from every which a way.
The Cardinal has been down for weeks for to replace a blown prop seal. Which is a bad thing, since the constant speed prop is actuated by engine oil. Mine was the first flight since the machine had gone down for maintenance, which resulted in a some ground run-ups, prop cycles, a shut down and re-examination. Since no trace of oil could be found other that where it belonged, I took the runway, climbed to 2000 feet over the field and circled until I was more or less certain that no untoward thing might arise. Loped over to the Torrey Pines Golf Course before turning back towards Miramar. The landing and taxi back to transient parking was unremarkable. The base itself a hive of activity. The Marines do so like a chance to paint and polish.
Also in the general aviation line-up was this rather interesting and experimental 2/3 scale Storch replica. The wide span flaps are raised and lowered by a crank connecting to gear sprockets with a bicycle chain.
A bicycle chain, for heaven’s sake.
If you want STOL, I bet she’s got it in spades. And I’ve got no issues with the Iron Cross on the fuselage. Could do without the swastika on the tail, though. Historical authenticity or no.
I hate Nazis.
Weird weather today, something hot and moist pushing up from Mexico, bringing with it heat lightning, thunder and soft showers. Which of course made it a perfect day for the Fleet Week golf tournament in Chula Vista. Which, when you’re coming from North County Coastal, might as well be out in Phoenix.
I used to think that a night catapult shot on the carrier was like an IQ test: Turn your lights on and you fail. The same may be said, by extension, to playing golf with thunderstorms clashing and banging in every quadrant. The sensible thing to do would have been to cancel the tournament and pursue such indoor endeavors as beer drinking and lie swapping.
So of course we played, making jokes about only hitting one irons.
Started late, finished in the dark, with 10 under after 12 scrambling holes that somehow never got any better during the last six. Made it home at nearly 8PM, had dinner with the Hobbit, the other members of the All Girl Spending Team finding other venues more worthy of their temporal investment.
Winding down now with a glass of Cabernet, much to be grateful for. Much to think on.
The Snowbirds have swapped their CT-114s for CT-133s? Saw them a couple years ago at the Salinas, CA airshow. Lovely display, although at one point they disappeared off to the south-ish into the haze, and until their landing lights burned through, it looked like they’d gone off for dinner.
Bicycle chains? Sounds like the F4F (and F3F) landing gear mechanism. Losing your grip on the crank while bringing the gear up had immediate consequences, according to a friend who flew the Wildcat; a Learning Experience.
Oh, DAMN on the news. Wishing here for smooth sailing on taking care of it, Captain. Geez, who would have thought you and Dooce ever had anything in common?
Wishing for the same. Hope it is taken care of, sent on its way and doesn’t return.
P.S. I could not help but snort, laugh, etc.at the Heather reference. And if you know her it’s even funnier.
But are they Illinois Nazis?
The bird’s not STOVL enough.
On the plus side, you can walk away from the landing and the runway’s still usable.
Remain vigilant Lex, and you will keep Mr. C at bay. SPF 45 or higher when you hit the links, and a broad-brimmed hat that protects the ears and back of the neck.
Will be sending some traffic to Sky 6 on your behalf…
Amen.
Well, you know, you have all us Badgers here in the Badger State rooting for you, and thinking of your rapid recovery.
Cap -
Brings to mind the line from The Two Towers, when the Fellowship of the Ring was awaiting the start of the Battle of Helms Deep:
Gimli: Lad, Whatever luck you lives by, lets hope it lasts the night
Legolas: Your friends are with you Aragorn.
Gimli: Let’s hope they last the night.
(Yeah, I’m a Geek, what can I say?)
You will weather this storm & continue to be a force to be reckoned with…no fear as you have the right stuff…
As far as what it all means, that is the grand mystery and something to discuss over some Guinness & a good cigar. next time you come to Boston, let me know as both will be on me.
Lex, your positive attitude in fighting “C” is just as important as any procedure or medication. Recently lost a golfing buddy to liver and colon cancer. When discovered, they gave him six months. He fought it six years. Stubborn old coot he was.
That’s not an Iron Cross, but a Falcon Cross.
The Swatika also has both American Indian as well as East Indian antecedants. I’m not sure why the Nazis adopted it as a symbol, although I know Hitler was enamored with some aspects of Hinduism, although he was more interested in ancient Teutonic religion and pagan practices which, so far as I know, had no connection to the Swastika.
The second floor of the Washington County, Ohio courthouse is tiled with a Swastika pattern in the tile. It was a relatively common “good luck” symbol among American Indians and whose origin is lost in the mists of time.
But the Indian Swastika has the prongs of the cross bent in the opposite direction, QM. FWIW/FYI the U.S. 45th Inf Div (the Thunderbird Div) had, before the Nazis rose to power, a Div. patch consisting of a yellow Indian Swastika on a red background, adopting the yellow T-Bird on red as an alternate exactly because of the Nazi use of the symbol.
The swatikas on the courthouse floor in Ohio have the arms in the same direction as the Nazi version. I’ve seen them both ways.
Really? As Johnny Carson would say: “I didn’t *know* that.” Srsly, I’ve always read/thought that the Indian symbol was always the oppo dir. As they say, you always learn something every day….or maybe the tile setters were drunk and/or exceptionally stupid……or were secretly members of the American Bund.
No idea there. My mother had a set of pilow cases that had been made by American Indians that had Swastikas on them bent in the Nazi style. They had been made prior to 1900. I’ve also seen AmerIndian Swastikas the other way in my time out west. I don’t know if the direction was significant or not.
I can’t speak to the Hindu Swastika as I’ve never seen one that I know of. I’ve been given the impression it was the same as the Nazi Swastika. Given Hitler’s fascination with Hinduism and Buddhism it would make sense. Impressions, however, are often erroneous.
You are likely right about the night cat shots, as you are about golf and impending thunderstorms. Taking a hundred million volts on a par 5 trying to reach the green in two doesn’t exactly put one in MENSA. (It puts one in an ashtray!) Especially if they saw the storm coming. The success rate for recovering from that is somewhat lower.
Get yerself a wide-brimmed hat if you ain’t already, and the Cabernet won’t hurt, neither.
Prayers continue to be sent for you Lex.
Lex, good luck with the skin… my doc told me to be careful of the sun about 7 years ago when removing a couple of spots, going back in for a couple more this afternoon.
Hey, they found “interesting” polyps on my first colonoscopy. Turned out to be benign. Still meant that I got a repeat visit in 2 years rather than the usual 5-10 years.
I have been removing nevis and other moles since I reached my mid-30s, being fair haired and fair skinned and all that. I suppose I will scheduling an annual visit to the dermatologist when I reach my folks age.
You will be in our prayers.
We did the skin damage years ago when we were young and invincible, now to pay the price.
Time indeed winds down, and there is far less in front than in the mirror. I tell myself I am lucky to be here, still relatively intact and upright, and that each good day is a gift.
Boy isn’t that the truth, ASM826. Makes one appreciate the mantra of our grand-parent’s generation “Here today, gone tomorrow” all the more with each passing day–as my wife the RN keeps reminding me–as she’s seen the truth of that old maxim play out in front of her eyes every day of her career..
Best to you, Skipper… Like the Padre, good thoughts to Sky Six.
Kind of interesting context for the health post. I like the way you threw it out there and then started talking airplanes.
Get ‘er taken care of and keep an eye on it and you’ll be fine. We’ll all keep you in our thoughts anyway, thank you very much.
You will be in our thoughts and prayers-
All the best to you.
Best of luck and my best thoughts to you, Lex. The good news is the “very high success rate” bits. The medicos know from whence they speak… and I have NO doubts you’ll be a part of those successes.
Fair Winds sir…
Lex, do NOT underestimate the Canadair Tutor. I got four flights in one as my final exam at Navy Test Pilot School.
It’s a sleeper.
Sustained turn performance tops out at 3.9G. Instantaneous at 7.5G. And at ~3 lbs/G, it’s an airplane you fly with your fingertips. And there is NO freeplay in the flight control system.
2/3 is just not right for the Fieseler Storch, it is a somewhat larger plane than most would imagine and only the full size brings it weird but remarkable prportions fully out.
Did I say “weird but …” It also one of the few designs that (at least to me) look as much weird as practical.