The Flight Deck

Two angles – same 2 jets. Argentinian apparently. Mind defying stupidity.

Fire on the flight deck. So proud of how it was handled by the flight deck crew.

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 113 experienced an engine fire following a touch-and-go landing aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) April 11. The pilot was able to execute a single-engine approach and land on board. Upon landing, the aircraft fuselage became engulfed in flames. Carl Vinson’s Crash and Salvage team, assigned to Air Department’s V-1 Division, responded immediately with the P-25 mobile fire fighting vehicle along with the flight deck emergency hose team. The aircraft fire was extinguished using aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), and the pilot exited the plane uninjured. No flight deck personnel were injured in the mishap.

It’s hard to imagine anyone not having heard about Kinect, but I forget a lot of people don’t live in my geek world. So for those of you that might have missed it, Kinect is a device Microsoft developed to be used with their XBox video game system. It is a system that allows a person to move about in front of it and interact with the system by their own movements.

People quickly began hacking away at the thing and finding ways to do thing it was never built to do. MS fought at first but quickly gave in and I’m guessing now that they are loving all the great press. From helping the blind to see, to less savory pursuits the thing has just been amazing.

Here is just one example. MIT students have used Kinect mounted on a multicopter to build a system that can create a 3D map of it’s surroundings real time. This makes navigation of a space possible without GPS available. The video is amazing. Talk about off the shelf components. This stuff is happening with video game console hardware.

(I’m sure this has already made the rounds, but, enjoy if you haven’t seen it …)

So, how’s it go? “He fell out of the sky like a turd falling off a tall moose”?

And, what’s the grade?

Our benevolent host is a proud Mac user, but many of us unwashed types have endured DOS and Windows for decades.

Here is the upgrade path from Windows 1 through Windows 7 (neglecting Windows ME), and all the joys of two decades of glorious screen shots.

Nerd history!

AeroVironment video of flight tests of its Nano Hummingbird flapping-wing nano air vehicle, developed for DARPA. Battery-powered and remote-controlled, the hummingbird-like prototype uses flapping wings for propulsion and control. Carring a video camera and downlink, the prototype has a wingspan of 16cm (9.5in) and weighs just 19 grams (0.66oz). It can hover for 8 minutes, remaining stable in gusts up to 5mph, and reach up to 11mph in forward flight.

I think you can see most of it o.k. here, but due to the width of the column, some of the video is clipped but you should be able to jump over to youtube if you want to see it all the way across.

I like this bird. She has Leroy Grumman written all over her.
May possibly get to do a trap before the Lockmart Charlie.

Possible photo of J-20 from Chinese Milblog

Via Dangerroom – The Chinese milblogs are a passing around fence snaps purported to be the stealthy J-20 5th generation fighter.  Looks a bit like the MiG 1.42/1.44 to me.   And oddly, it actually looks a lot like the fictional Chinese MiG from Command & Conquer Generals:

If any DC area Flight-Deckers are out an about on Saturday the 4th of December, I wanted to pass this along to you.

The Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Fairfax, VA (12193 Fair Lakes Promenade Drive) is having a sale, but that’s not the reason I’m mentioning it.

From 3-5 PM, LtCol Seth Folsom will sign his two memoirs — “In the Gray Area: A Marine Advisor Team at War”, and his award-winning “The Highway War: A Marine Company Commander in Iraq.”  Both of LtCol Folsom’s books are excellent, and I can’t recommend them enough.

He also happens to be an old friend of yours truly.