Text 22479, 112 rader
Skriven 2009-03-28 16:23:00 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Michael Loo
Ärende: NEWFANGLED 400 90328
============================
 -=> Quoting Michael Loo to Glen Jamieson <=-

 GJ> "Throwing a rider."  It's something a bicycle never forgets how to do.

 ML> Amazing those machines. On the eve of Y2K, I did stoke a tandem
 ML> 7 miles (11 1/4 km) each way with my b-i-l to the banks of the
 ML> Potomac, where we watched some rather unspectacular fireworks
 ML> and heard, dimly at a distance, some political chatter of no
 ML> probable significance. I am told I nearly body-languaged us
 ML> into a bridge abutment, though.

I've never tried a tandem, although Leonore used to ride one
competitively (with a sighted front pedaller, of course).  Several
years ago, in Manila, after a rather hectic, rum-enhanced New Year
party, at 2 am I tried to do a wheel-stand in the middle of the
street, on a young nephew's bike, and got tossed off the back, landing
rather painfully.  No one sympathised with me.  :(

 GJ> I think United in particular, on Channel 9, as recommended by MLoo.
 ML> United is the only airline that has this.

 ML> It's a major reason why I fly that airline above all others.
 ML> SK, aka SAS, has nosecam, though, which can be quite amusing,
 ML> especially on landing.

That would be fun!  Have you ever sat in the 3rd seat up front in a
commercial jet?  I did that once in a Fokker F28 when it landed at
Goroka in the PNG highlands.  A short strip with a fairly steep
gradient, making it one-way uphill to land and downhill to take off.
Being then used to travelling on slow, single-engined Cessnas and
Pipers, coming in at jet speed to a strip like that was terrifying, as
it looked quite impossible to stop in time.  My admiration for those
Air Niugini pilots was greatly enhanced.
 
 ML> Knots it is.
 GJ> Knots for the wind, and other units for the flying machine.

 ML> Not so, one climbs and maintains flight level two eight zero,
 ML> speed three hundred knots. Channel 9 is my lullaby, and I have
 ML> heard this song hundreds of times. Flight level, by the way, is
 ML> in feet, which sometimes makes an oddity, in some parts of EU
 ML> airspace, along the lines of "maintain flight level three two
 ML> eight" - which is 10.0 km.

The last airspeed indicator I read was calibrated in Miles per Hour.
I don't know what USAn aircraft have, but Singapore Airlines gives the
read-out of speed to customers in both km/h and mph, and the height in
feet and metres.  Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that the
dial in front of the pilot reads in either of those units.
 
 GJ> crash, like the new Airbus which crashed while being demonstrated a
 GJ> few years ago in France.
 ML> Which one? There have been several, some of them apparently
 ML> contributed to by improper behavior of the autopilot.
 GJ> I was thinking of the new model A320 (?) being demonstrated at the
 GJ> Paris air show, when the pilot turned off the automated safety
 GJ> warnings so he could do an impressive low level pass over the show,
 GJ> but miscalculated and made a large ball of fire instead.

 ML> The hated Wikipedia (which is good for this sort of thing,
 ML> because there are both many passionate enthusiasts but relatively
 ML> little controversy) article on the Paris air show lists but two
 ML> accidents, a Tu-144 in 1973 and a MiG-29 in 1988. You may be
 ML> thinking of AF296 back in 1988, where the pilot was convicted of
 ML> manslaughter ... but according to the Internet sources, there is
 ML> some question about the evidence brought to trial: this of course
 ML> can mean that the French judicial system is suspect (surprise,
 ML> surprise) or that the Internet is suspect (surprise, surprise).

The accident that I remember seeing on TV was not survived by either
pilot.  It was definitely in Europe, but may not have been at Paris.
It was a new model Airbus, with the new "fly by wire" system, and a
computer which was supposed to tell the pilot if he was doing
something stupid which could end up in a crash - but only if it was
switched on.  Air shows can be quite dangerous, like the one in
England when a jet fighter wiped out a large section of the crowd.
(Derry, or Denny, was it?  In the 1950s...)  My first wife, who was
at that airshow, told me about it.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 
      Title: MINCE PIES
 Categories: Tarts, Festive, British, Euro-n
      Yield: 12 servings
 
      8 oz FLAN PASTRY
      1 lb Mincemeat
 
  Roll out pastry thinly and cut into 24 rounds using a cutter a little
  larger than the patty tin to be used.
  
  Line tins with half the rounds and place a heaped teaspoon of
  mincemeat in each. Brush round edges of the remaining rounds with
  water. Place over the filled rounds, pressing edges well together.
  Make a hole in the centre of each with a skewer. Bake in hot oven
  (400^F), for about 20 minutes until pastry is a good golden brown.
  
  Sprinkle with castor sugar just before serving.
  
  Preparation time: 40-45 minutes, after mincemeat is made Cooking time:
  15-20 minutes To make: 12 pies
  
  From: TRADITIONAL BRITISH COOKING FOR PLEASURE By: GLADYS MANN
  PUBLISHED 1967 Typed by: KEVIN JCJD SYMONS, 14 OCTOBER 2007 ----
 
MMMMM
 

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--- FLAME v2.0/b
 * Origin: Braintap BBS Adelaide Australia (3:800/449)