Recent content by rob23

The Harrier was one of the loudest things I've ever heard. The APU on a Fokker 100 comes close second.

I had one of the most terrifying moments of my entire life on that kayaking trip. Worse than the few times my parachute malfunctioned, worse than near death on the highway, worse than the time a waterfall entered the cockpit of a T-34B I was in during a thunderstorm or anything else. I had to...

It is a rather huge reticulated water snake. The head is hard to see, and the eyes are opaque indicating it's shedding some old skin.

There's a lot of confirmation bias in many of those conspiracies.

I believe the AD Skyraider was available at the time. The bomb load, the 20mm, the loiter time, and fairly decent regarding ruggedness.

What's scary to me is those people who believe this woo vote. I don't like what this says about the state of the state.

Since we all have other interests, with aviation of course being the number one interest, I really love taking my kayak to the Okefenokee Swamp in S. Georgia. It's really beautiful with lots of wildlife to see. I've woken up in the morning and peeped out of my tent to see dozens of deer grazing...

Fantastic set - Thanks so much for posting!

When I was skydiving we played Buffett tunes on the drop zone almost nonstop. Great tunes, great vibe. He also owned a HU-16 Albatross that now sits at one of his restaurants.

These are a rock called chert, which is in the agate family. One picture is in natural light, the second is in 365nm UV light. To me it's like looking into a whole new world.

Okay, I think this is the proper way to introduce the rockhound thing. The picture is of chert, the uglier cousin of agate and jasper. Chert is used for knapping, as in making arrowheads and such. This hunk of chert has a huge depression that has small stalactite structures that have...

When I was in high school in the 70's I wrote to the various manufacturers like Boeing, MD, Martin, etc and got a bunch of swag. I also got posters of Soviet block aircraft from a 'KNOW YOUR ENEMY' series but I do not remember how I obtained them. I donated all of it to my NJROTC company and...

Yup. It was 0300, I had a few ACE pineapple hard ciders, and I'm old.

I'm a rockhound in addition to the airplane obsession. Not long ago I went to Girard, GA, about an hour from where I live and looked for 'Savannah River Agate' which is not agate at all but chert. Same family so to speak, but chert is the ugly cousin to agate. I found one piece that has a fossil...

Was it the PT-22 with the radial? Always thought it was a very nice looking airplane, too.