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sherpa

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Posts posted by sherpa

  1. My last Blue Angels/football related post, then I'm out.

     

    After my second cruise on Kitty Hawk, I joined the Pacific  Fleet Adversaries.

    That is a squadron where you fight others. It's tough to get in, you kind of have to be invited, and you have to kind of prove your mettle when you get in.

     

    First week, the squadron is going to play in the annual Fog Bowl, a football game with the A7 replacement training squadron on the same base.

     Anyone who has lived in the Central Valley of California knows how bad the fog is in the winter.

    The Adversaries have about 12 pilots. The Fog Bowl is against the A7 replacement squadron, which has about five times more guys.

     

    Anyway, I agree to play and attend my first practice. 

     

    First play, I'm lined up as a corner. I'm pretty sure I can compete, so my plan is to expect an out pattern, (the usual first practice route). My plan is to back pedal enough to bait the throw, then close on it and pick it.

     

    Out comes the wide out, one Curt Watson, call sign Griz, short for grizzly bear, because that's what he looked like. About 5'10" and 190.  No worries.

     

    Play snaps. Griz runs a 7 and then cuts to the sideline. I take one more back pedal, baiting the throw, and I think I got this made.

    QB, who is another story, and very good, pumps and I jump the route.

    Griz turns it up and I'm thinking, no problem, I can cover the double move. He can't be that fast.

    The problem is he is gaining on me. I can't cover the guy.

    Fortunately the pass is a bit overthrown and hits the dirt, but I was had.

     

    At the end of this, I am quite impressed with Griz, being the new guy to the squadron and not knowing anyone, if he has played ball.

    He says yes, and I ask him where, and he says Green Bay.

    Turns out he was the leading rusher for Tennessee, and played two years for the Packers.

    We became fast friends and rented a ski place together in the Sierras before he applied and was accepted in the Blues.

     

    By the way, he was the guy that flew Tom Cruise  when Cruise decided to do TopGun.

    Cruise wasn't decided until then, and Griz took him up and that was that.

    • Like (+1) 1
  2. 12 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

    ........ at NAS Fallon Nevada bombing range and watch the fighter attack jets come in and drop what we called “shake and bake” loads, one thousand pounders and napalm, damn impressive, from four miles away we could feel the concussion from the detonations, those were the days, 👍

     

    Many, many weeks at Fallon as an aggressor, after having dropped tons of bombs and strafing their targets.

    I was about 40 miles from there on 9-11 as an airline guy when we got the message of the issue.

    My plan was to land there if we had an attempt, but made it back to San Francisco.

    • Like (+1) 1
  3. 31 minutes ago, The Wiz said:

    I'm curious if mcd passed out on that last maneuver where he said almost 7gs.

     

    Just the fact the pilot is talking while they are doing 4gs and mcd had that grimace on his face is crazy to think about the training they must go through. 

     

    They talked about it, but I'm certain he was joking.

    One would never do a 7g pull with a novice in the back, and possibly break his neck.

    Neither were wearing g suits, as the Blues never do, but 7 would black out anybody not trained and ready for it.

    It is simply not possible to not black out at 7, actually 5 for most people.

    The most they do is 4 on these VIP rides.

    27 minutes ago, TroutDog said:


    We’re you a pointy nosed guy? RIO or pilot?

     

    Pilot.

     

    • Like (+1) 1
  4. 51 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

    Love that he did that and the respect he clearly shared with the BA team. 
     

    I tried desperately to get a shoot and recovery off of my carrier…alas, never got it. Glad McD got the chance to have this experience: he’ll never forget it. 

     

    I did it 312 times.

    These VIP things they do with Blue Angel 7 are pretty calm events, but still a nice way to spend an hour on a beautiful afternoon.

    You can clearly see his anxiety at the beginning, and his pleasure having done so at the end.

     

    • Like (+1) 2
  5. 15 hours ago, uticaclub said:

    I get your point and wouldn't want to lose a home game for it but they have to travel to Seattle or Western Europe, it's that much of a difference, they arent flying Spirit.

     

    I am actually in favor of the 17th game being played at netural international site followed by a bye in addition to another bye week in schedule

     

    It's 3750 miles by air to Madrid with a six hour time difference.

    It's 2125 to Seattle with a three hour time difference.

    Additionally, because of the rules of the North Atlantic Track System, there are time restrictions to be followed when going east and when coming back. If not in those time slots, a longer route must be flown, or non optimum altitudes used, require more time.

     

    Of course they fly charters, but Madrid is more of an issue than London.

  6. On 6/3/2021 at 3:03 PM, DrDawkinstein said:

     

    Word is it tanked because AMC announced it was selling off 10M shares first thing this morning. But imo, that shouldnt cause the price to drop since it means (just like GameStop did), they now get a big injection of cash to pay off debts and stay afloat. 

     

    Because stock is ownership.

    If you issue more stock, you dilute the value of existing shares, thus reducing their value.

    Stock issuance dilutes value, stock buybacks enhance it.

    • Like (+1) 1
  7. 33 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

    The wing appears to have stood up pretty well.  

     

    It's not really designed to be strong along the axis of contact.

     

    Tough to say.  The slat damage can be repaired, but the wing spars, the spanwise structural components that run perpendicular to the fuselage will be X-rayed to assess non visible damage.

    If you hit something and you're not on the yellow line you're screwed.

    If you hit something and you're on the yellow line, you're screwed.

    But if you hit something, get on the yellow line.

    They were on the yellow line.

    Can't see the wing tip from the cockpit.

     

    The 777, a much bigger airplane, has  cameras mounted on the horizontal stabilizer that you could display and see the nose and main landing gear because of the difficulty of taxiing. We weren't supposed to view it in flight, but I always did. It showed the immediate contrail formation behind the engines at cruise.

    • Like (+1) 1
  8. Knock off the wacky huge loss sacks and fumbles.

    Put the ball in the receivers hands where they don't have to break stride, reach too far, and otherwise disrupt their ability to run after catch.

    Thankfully, he seems to know that, as has mentioned it as an offseason goal, but it is an accuracy thing.

    That's one of the things about Brady.

    He puts it right on the numbers in the receiver's stride.

    Josh doesn't, but he usually gets it there.

     

    Weird thing, he usually nails the sideline routes like nobody I've seen.

  9. 13 hours ago, CowgirlsFan said:

    "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head "

    Thank you for your contribution to the music industry.

     

    I heard an interview with Thomas last year or so about that song.

    He said that in order to get the nod to do it, Bacharach and David told him to sing it without any "styling" input.

    Just do the song, or we'll get somebody else.

  10. 2 hours ago, ALF said:

    Astrophysicist explains why UFO videos fail to impress him

     

    Frank said that he will read any government reports with interest, but said there may "be more prosaic explanations" like the possibility Russia and China are using drones to lure "our pilots into turning on their radar and other detectors, thus revealing our electronic intelligence capacities."

     

    https://www.foxnews.com/science/astrophysicist-explains-why-reported-ufos-fail-to-impress-him

     

    Not to weaken the astrophysicist's argument, but the Russians and Chinese already know a great deal about our F-18's radar and FLIR systems. They shadow aircraft carriers and have been for decades.

     

    It would far more valuable an intel "get" to find out they were operating drones off the SOCAL coast. 

    • Thank you (+1) 1
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