A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months…
Reading “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes” in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers inspired me to write an article about foreign airline safety.
Corrections/comments would be appreciated.
Full post, including commentsToday’s Zen Koan: If a man yells “YOU LIE” in a room full of politicians, how do you know to whom he’s talking?
Full post, including commentsIn my days of flying regional jets, if we pulled up to a terminal with a jet bridge (saving customers a trip down the airstair door of our CRJ), one of the more colorful captains would always say “Just like a real airline”. I’m wondering if when we hear about the way that the U.S. government does things, we should say “Just like a rich country.”
I had this reaction when I learned that we spend about $1 billion per year on occasional helicopter service for the President. Then I had it again tonight reading a New York Times article mentioning the cost of running the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay: $150 million per year. The BBC says that there are 215 inmates in the camp, so that works out to $700,000 per detainee per year. We’re spending approximately $2000 per person per day. Just like a rich country…
Full post, including commentsOur suburban driveway is about a quarter mile long and features a steep short hill. We currently have a plowing service that does an excellent job, but the plow leaves behind compacted flat sections of snow in various places. After a day or two, especially if it gets above freezing during the day, these compacted sections turn into solid ice. So then I ask the folks who plow to come back and spread out a salt/sand mixture. This melts the snow/ice during the day and then it refreezes at night into more ice.
Would a snowblower do a better job? Suppose that it were possible to remove all of the snow from the driveway. Then there would be nothing to melt and refreeze.
A friend suggested that we get a Bobcat and a wide snowblower attachment. This would cost $12,000, would leave us with a Bobcat to store, and the driveway would be done in 15 minutes. Honda makes some pretty serious walk-behind snowblowers, e.g., this 32-inch wide model. A neighbor has a 28-inch wide Honda that we could borrow, but somehow I think it would be too painful to use on a driveway as long as ours and his has wheels rather than tracks.
From looking at the Ariens Web site, I see that they also make “snow brushes” (example). I’m not sure where the snow would go after being brushed. Wouldn’t it fall right back down on the driveway? Anyway, if the brush idea worked we could use it to clean up after the plow and skip the snowblowing step.
Any words of advice from fellow denizens of the frozen north?
Full post, including commentsDespite the fact that President Obama did not accept my offer to pay for his Aunt Zeituni‘s transportation out of crummy Massachusetts taxpayer-funded housing to a beautiful spacious vacant and already-secured Obama family house in Chicago, I would like to make an offer of a Christmas present: unlimited helicopter transportation for him and his family, at no cost to him or the U.S. taxpayer, through the end of his reign.
Background: the U.S. military has spent the last 10 years or so trying to buy some replacement helicopters for presidential transport. They settled on a huge $30 million Eurocopter with three screaming jet engines that put out a big welcome mat for a cheap heat-seeking missile, such as the Stingers that U.S. tax dollars purchased for the Taliban during the 1980s. By the time our military and Lockheed Martin added some anti-missile defenses and some U.S. manufacturing, the cost of each 14-passenger helicopter went up to about $400 million, far in excess of what airlines pay for the 853-passenger Airbus A-380. The program was shut down, in theory, but recently Congress authorized a $100 million gift to Lockheed Martin to keep the program alive (source). Does the U.S. really need to spend $15 billion on a handful of helicopters that will be used mostly for 10-minute hops? And should we buy helicopters that are so heavy that it will require several C-5 cargo planes to get them to foreign destinations (the president of the U.S. always travels with his own helicopters rather than borrowing local ones)?
Running the existing helicopter fleet is not cheap. There are literally 800 pilots, mechanics, and administrators, all paid federal salaries and pensions that are more than double their private-sector counterparts (source). Jet fuel is purchased in prodigious quantities.
I happen to own two nearly brand-new four-seat Robinson R44 helicopters. Powered by efficient Lycoming piston engines, these burn less fuel in a 130 mph cruise than each Eurocopter engine would burn at idle. Currently we use these for flight training at East Coast Aero Club, but in the interest of sparing the taxpayer from further ruin, I would be willing to move them down to Washington, D.C. I will also move myself down and one or two additional instructor-pilots from East Coast Aero Club. All of us have more than 1000 hours of helicopter experience. All are U.S. citizens and one of us is an Army veteran (given the recent tragedy in Texas involving a continuously promoted and decorated Army officer, it may be necessary to clarify that, to the best of our knowledge, he was not simultaneously serving in the U.S. Army and waging jihad on behalf of Al-Qaeda).
Here are some advantages of the Robinson:
I will pay all costs associated with presidential helicopter transport. I have already bought the helicopters. I will buy the fuel. I will pay the pilots (not being federal employees, they earn $25 per flight hour and receive no benefits or pension). I will pay Adam, Rob, and Sam to perform the 100-hour inspections and other maintenance (about $25 per flight hour). I will pay pilot hotel and meal expenses when President Obama is relaxing on Martha’s Vineyard or Hawaii. That’s my Christmas present to the Obama family and to the U.S. taxpayer.
Should Barack Obama accept this offer, I believe that the savings to the taxpayer will be in excess of $1 billion per year, reflecting cost savings from shutting down the 800-employee Marine One division and from not having to keep shoveling $100 bills into Lockheed Martin’s fireplace.
Full post, including commentsToday’s aero-news.net carries a story about the cost of Obama’s Hawaiian vacation to the aviation industry there. It will not be a merry Christmas for the sightseeing operators, that’s for sure. Between economic losses due to restrictions and delays and the direct cost of naval, air, and land security, Obama’s vacation should cost the U.S. economy at least $100 million.
Now that we’re shutting down our Al-Qaeda Welcome Center in Guantanamo Bay, why not turn that into a fully secured tropical vacation destination for any senior government official who is entitled to Secret Service protection? The savings to taxpayers would probably exceed $1 billion annually (see this posting about what it cost taxpayers for the attorney general to visit Martha’s Vineyard last summer). Miss Universe enjoyed her recent time at the beach there (source). If it is good enough for the most beautiful woman in the world, why isn’t it good enough for our senior bureaucrats?
Full post, including commentsTaking a break from my Tiger Woods vigil, I spent an afternoon taking photos at Epcot (background). These are available three ways:
Upon returning to Massachusetts, I discovered that Al Gore has not been spending enough time in private jets or burning electricity in his mansion. Temperatures are between 10 and 20F and more than a foot of snow has fallen: thumbnails | slide show.
Full post, including commentsThis seems to have been the year for Chinese-manufactured aircraft to reach the world stage. Here are a few news items from just the last couple of days:
This represents a huge change from just a few years ago. An aircraft exported from China prior to 2009 would very likely have been a Chinese-made version of an old Russian design.
Speaking of aerospace and China, I had dinner in Orlando at the house of a friend who works for a jet manufacturer. The other day, his 7-year-old daughter read some boxes and labels then asked him “Daddy, why are all of my toys made in China?”
[Separately, this week’s New Yorker carries a story about the Chinese renewable energy industry.]
Full post, including commentsHere are my best Christmas gift ideas. Most can be ordered from Amazon with one- or two-day shipping, so they are suitable for procrastinators. Nearly everything here is something that I own or have read.
For anyone born in New York City, Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City
For science-oriented middle school kids, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe
For a young kid, Samoyed stuffed toy
Now that global warming has been discredited as a hoax, for anyone living in the northeast… Yaktrax Pro Traction Cleats
For anyone planning to vacation in Florida, any book by Carl Hiaasen, e.g., Skinny Dip
For anyone who hasn’t learned anything new for a while, an introductory flight lesson. Your local airport probably has a flight school that offers gift certificates for $100 or $150 that will cover the first 30-60 minutes of instruction.
A friend asked me about a camera to give to her teenage daughter. She wanted something that the girl could use for creative purposes all the way through college. I like the professional full-frame Canon and Nikon bodies and lenses, but the weight and cost aren’t bearable for a typical consumer. I recommended the Olympus Evolt E620
For a music, photo, or video-lover: load up all of your favorites onto a Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB
If you want that music lover to be able to play his or her collection throughout the house, Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
For a football lover, Panasonic TC-P50G10 50-Inch Plasma HDTV
If you think that giving to charity would be more in keeping with Jesus’s philosophy, let me suggest Partners in Health, whose financials are discussed at the bottom of my posting on Mountains Beyond Mountains. If you’d rather do something more personal and direct, along the lines of the 2006 water buffalo donation (the video is great), let me put in a plug for my cousin Jennifer’s Enriching Education in Rural Ecuador (EERE). Jennifer is an American who grew up in Ecuador and currently lives in the countryside with her family. She sends her son to the local school where she volunteers as an English teacher. She takes no salary from her non-profit and 100 percent of donations are used directly for the benefit of students, e.g., to buy textbooks. Is she going to change the whole country and then the world like Greg Mortenson describes himself doing in Three Cups of Tea? No. And neither are your donations to EERE. But a donation will end up making a concrete difference to an identifiable child.
As Jennifer spends most of the year in Ecuador, the best thing to do is send a check to EERE’s bank:
Alexis Vives, Asst. Branch Manager
SunTrust Bank
11700 North Kendall Drive
Miami, FL 33186
Account # 1000099874991 (Enriching Education in Rural Ecuador, Inc.)
Questions about how to send money: call (305) 274-5722 or email alexis.vives@suntrust.com
Note that this guy doesn’t know anything about EERE or Jennifer’s work; he just works in a bank in Florida. If you have questions about what she is doing in Ecuador, contact her directly at jengittes@aol.com. EERE is an IRS-approved 501c3 organization, which makes your donation tax-deductible and your canceled check should be sufficient to verify your donation (though certainly Jennifer can send you a letter if you need it). Ecuador is a beautiful colorful country with a mild climate. Volunteering there at the school for a few weeks would not be a hardship.
Full post, including commentsMy two-week vigil at the Tiger Woods residence is over and I have returned from Orlando to Boston. I believe that I have provided all of the counseling and assistance that the Woods family might want from a computer programmer. Living so close to Mr. Woods prompted reflection on his achievements. Practicing constantly and becoming #1 in the world at anything is extremely impressive. Even more impressive is someone able to remain the world’s best golfer while simultaneously responding to the demands of a wife and two children. Now it seems that his abilities as a golfer are so far above anyone else’s that he was able to stay at #1 while devoting nearly all of his non-competition time to non-golf activities. Gauss was a great mathematician, but had only one female companion at a time (source). Balzac wrote nearly 100 novels, but as soon as he got married dropped dead (presumably from fatigue; source).
The trip to Orlando was not entirely occupied with the unfolding Tiger Woods story. I photographed an obese man eating a turkey leg at Epcot and came home with a new pilot’s certificate. This one has a CE-510S code on it, enabling me to be the single pilot of a Cessna Mustang business jet (any turbojet-powered aircraft requires a “type rating”, indicating specific training and a proficiency checkride to Airline Transport Pilot standards). Don, Gary, and Steve at FlightSafety never lost faith in or patience with me and for that I am grateful.
The experience at FlightSafety made me realize how important a pilot’s emotional state is to the safety to flight. On the first day of simulator training I was completely relaxed. Despite having had hardly any sleep and not knowing how to manage emergencies in this airplane, I flew reasonably well. A typical challenge is an engine failing and catching on fire as the plane reaches 100 miles per hour rolling down the runway for takeoff. Due to the thrust all coming from one side of the airplane, the plane will start wandering off the runway. The pilot first has to recognize that a problem has occurred and that the tendency of the plane to wander is not due to a gust of wind or sloppy flying. Then there are two choices: (1) pull back the thrust on the good engine and stand on the brakes, stopping before the end of the runway, or (2) wait patiently for the aircraft to reach flying speed and then lift off to climb slowly on the good engine. All of the relevant numbers have been precomputed, so the pilot knows that above “V1” it is better to go and below V1 it is better to stop. The pilot also knows that, at that altitude, temperature, and weight, the plane will actually climb on one engine (assuming good technique, the bad engine windmilling rather than stuck, and a few other optimistic conditions). Figuring all of this on a piece of paper at a desk is a lot easier than doing it with the ground rushing by.
Over a 12-day period, I got more and more practice in the simulator. I should have been flying vastly better than on the first day, but as the expectations on me grew higher and the checkride loomed, my improvement wasn’t as dramatic as I expected. It did not help that I learned that 33 percent of applicants for this rating fail their checkride. The day of the checkride I was so nervous that I woke up at 4:30 am and could not fall back to sleep. I wasn’t tired for the 10 am test, and I felt fairly relaxed despite the presence of an FAA inspector in the back of the sim (the FAA periodically audits checkrides). But the subconcious fear of failing the checkride and having a black mark in my pilot record was apparently affecting my abilities because I flew every maneuver worse than in a practice session the day before. I didn’t crash or do anything remarkably foolish during the 2.5-hour flight, which involves multiple takeoffs, landings, approaches, and systems failures, and therefore walked away with a passing grade.
Being the single pilot is at least 4 times more difficult than being one of a two-pilot crew. An airliner is more complex than a Cessna Mustang, but when something goes wrong one pilot can concentrate on basic flying of the airplane while the other pilot finds the appropriate checklist and begins to follow it. A single pilot must keep the aircraft’s attitude, airspeed, and rudder coordination under control, possibly without any help from the autopilot, while simultaneously finding, reading, and running a checklist.
My friend Suzanne offered to pick me up at Logan Airport at 11:00 pm, despite the fact that she had to drive her daughter to an event at 6 the next morning. She asked if I was satisfied with my life. I responded “Anyone who has a friend to pick him up at the airport and drive him home around midnight should not complain.”
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