Thursday, January 24, 2013

Thursday's Thoughts

So ugly it is beautiful

The 30 mm cannon fires about 4000 rounds a minute. When you hear it at night in your tent you feel warm all over.

Desert Storm kill markings

With a 1000 pound titanium bathtub and controls routed and armored for protection against ground fire it is unbelievably tough. This aircraft flew back to base after getting chewed up over Baghdad in 2003.




  • Flying Arrow Cam
  • Aquarium owner pro tip: If you stop feeding your fish occasionally for 12 or even 24 hours they'll be healthier (beware though- smaller fish may, umm, disappear). The same goes for keeping the water temp. at the lowest your most cold tolerant species is supposed to tolerate. It will increase the life spans of all your fish.
  • Coffee breath is nauseating to me.
  • When we think about interpersonal relationships with people I believe there are 4 things always true about the others past and/or character. I call these the Four Theres: There are things we should know. There are things we don't want to know. There are things that are none of our business. There are things we think that matter but really they don't. I'm sure friend-girl is a virgin and I'm not really sure where that information falls within the preceding 4 truths.
  • We're going to see Jim Gaffigan at The Majestic in San Antonio. Tickets alone will be nearly 300 bucks. Good grief.
  • When I have a house with an over toilet cabinet I always stash a couple of rolls of toilet paper in there.
  • I think a rotisserie is a really morbid Ferris Wheel for chickens- Mitch Hedberg
  • I still love the A10 Warthog. It has been around since 1976 and at 1994 costs of about 12 million a unit is an absolute bargain. It was basically mothballed until we engaged in The Long War. Interestingly, it was assumed it would suffer a 7-10% loss rate against Soviet forces in the conventional  anti armor role on a European battlefield it was built for. Some folks think that number was way optimistic and I tend to agree.  The Air Force basically said, We can't afford those losses and anyway, the Soviet Union fell apart so we're parking these bad boys. The Army said,"Uh, can we have them? The Air Force said, And give up our monopoly on fixed wing attack aircraft and take the chance of looking lame compared to a bunch of Army pukes when a cool shooting war breaks out? I don't think so dude.Thankfully they kept a few flying. With the air supremacy it enjoys now it is an awesome close air support aircraft. I used to work with a lady whose son when the Air Force was phasing the 10s out left the Air Force, joined the Army and learned Apaches. How can that be? How can anybody be that cool while I'm so lame?
  • Another interesting thing about the A10- there is no 2 seat trainer aircraft for them. As a pilot friend said, If you can fly a Cessna 172 you can fly an 10. The Air Force hires guys with lots of hours in civilian aircraft puts them in a sim for a bunch of hours then they put them in an A10 and they take off.
  • 36- the number of hours Billy Idol's Cradle Of Love has been playing in a loop in my brain.

2 comments:

RPM said...

$300 for Jim Gaffigan? Nooooooo. I had primo Ron White seats for less than $90 and Gaffigan ain't worth driving to Ess Eh.

I think you're probably looking at #2 & #3 on the "There's".

The Thunderbolt is a piece of artwork. It's the most fearsome purpose built, air to ground attack plane ever flown.

There have been larger air-to-ground attack platforms, but they were adapted airframes like the C-47, B-26 and C-130.

With the A-10 they took an anti-tank gun and built an aircraft around it. That aircraft just happened to be able to carry 16,000 pounds of ord, absorb considerable battle damage and dance like Black Swan.

an Donalbane said...

Way QL - I can fly a 172. Where can I get a check ride in a Warthog?

Of course, for air-to-ground, the AC 130 is no slouch either.