stevez wrote:
Nice cockpit video of a Lufthansa A380 on the visual approach to 28R at SFO.

http://www.wimp.com/approachlanding/

Nice video Steve.
Looks like it was the inaugural A380 from FRA to SFO given the water cannon salute.

We survived just fine in western Mass. Measured 30" in the back yard, very little drifting and no power loss. Dug out myself and my neighbor early this morning but had to wait for the town to plow out my road before heading out to work. Left a mild batch of chili at the house for my wife and son. The "firehouse special" is simmering away in a crock pot here at the station. Passed by my FiL's house on the way to work...he was clearing snow with his Cat D4...gotta love an old operating engineer.

Rodolfo Paiz wrote:
cbrandt wrote:
Now I'm in MD on natural gas with a 8K emergency generator hooked to Natural Gas sitting outside ready to pop off in 15 seconds - and we haven't lost electricity all year ..... lol

Count thy blessings. Our local utility (FPL) had some terrible wiring done right outside our house, and in the 30 or so months we've lived here, we've probably spent a full five to six weeks running only on generator power. Hopefully they've fixed it all by now... and I definitely know the thing works.

Sorry, no TOPP from me tonight... already in bed, swyping on my phone with only one eye open. Today has ended for me already. I'll be back tomorrow.


That is a LONG TIME Rodolfo !! Fortunately I shouldn't wouldn't notice being on emergency pwr and I just expect it to work flawlessly that long continously .. the generator self tests every Sunday at 12.25 for 10 minutes and runs so quietly I have to make an effort if I'm home to see if it's running. I also had it connected to the cities natural gas line so I wouldn't have to deal with more aesthetics of the propane tank, renting / filling / burying line for a propane tank, so barring something catastrophic - loss of just city power wouldn't cause me any hardship I'm aware of. The entire house less the living room lights where we don't spend any time anyway is wired to the generator - even all of the flatscreens and the computer network are working.

it's good to have priorities...lol. Kidding.

In all honesty, I make a lot of winter jokes given the Canadian part of me, but this looks to be quite the storm. Our city here is really well equipped to handle something like this, hope you folks out east have the same. I know in Vancouver if they get 2 inches of snow they shut the city down.

I've also never lost power from a snow storm, but 90% of our power lines are buried under ground.

That is a pretty cool video stevez - those are some skilled auto pilot programmers. I bet they are great Cirrus pilots too!

Anybody know the origin of the water cannon salute?

Glenn

cbrandt wrote:
KZinnack wrote:
cbrandt wrote:
Winter .. I'm originally from ND ..

After the death of my father when I was 13, my uncle ( bachelor at the time ) moved my mom and us kids to The Farm as we weren't gonna run the streets of Rugby, ND ( population 2800 Anyway as we grew up, we had yearlings in the barn and a milk cow so we had our chores morning and night .. and when it was cold ...... like 20 below he'd stand at the kitchen window with a cup of coffee watching us walk down and back to the house from the barn - down the hill / city block.

Good ole days for sure !! We never thought a thing of it .. we had coveralls, snow mobile boots, leather mittens and hats with ear muffs !! Just another day and we'd shed our boots / outter clothes in the entry way and put on our school jackets and watch out another kitchen window thru the leafless shelterbelt so we could see that big yellow bus 3/4 of a mile away coming down the main county road towards our place.

We had a coal fired furnace .. I can't remember a time that we ever lost electricity though. Now I'm in MD on natural gas with a 8K emergency generator hooked to Natural Gas sitting outside ready to pop off in 15 seconds - and we haven't lost electricity all year ..... lol


edit .. we weren't allowed on the bus unless we were dressed for winter weather .. ( it's amazing how FAST and COLD a school bus gets when the heat goes off .. and I seem to remember each family had to have a sleeping bag in a bag that we kept behind the back seats ...

Nothing insures uninterrupted power from your utility like installation of an expensive standby generator! I was fortunate enough to spend 3 winters on the flightline at Grand Forks AFB. I got a whole new perspective on wind, cold, and wind chill. While I was there they passed a state law that required you to stop and assist a stranded motorist in the winter. During winter months we weren't allowed off base without your parka and a survival kit in your POV. The thing that surprised me the most was how fast we all adapted to the cold weather. When temps hit the 30's we'd be stripped down to t-shirts.....except the one guy from Guam. He wore his parka all the time except for the last week of July & the first week of August...


For sure .. wasn't a passing thought to spend the cash on this .. but I am happy I have it whether I use it or not ! A friend / Master Electrician at work sells - installs them so the price was pretty good and a another factor was they were offering 5 year warranties versus 3 years when I bought it. Now they give 5 yr with 20Kw and I'm betting in a year that will be standard starting at the 8Kw I have. I remember a year ago in a rain storm power went out for 2 hours and I dipped and hauled 5 gallon pails of water from the sump pump hole under a crawl space, dragged it to the basement so I could stand up and carry it out for an hour till pwr was restored - I knew that wasn't going to happen again !! ..... we normally never had water but settling of the ground around the house opened up some trails for the water to follow ... past summer had back patio steps rebuilt with that plastic lookin' wood .. well there was my hole under those steps so I hauled in 2 pickup loads of dirt and filled / tamped all of that in plus around the back wall ..... that has ended the seepage so far ... but we've got the pump and it was the first of 7 circuits to go on the generator --

but talking about spending money and then the purchase doesn't get used ........ 2 years ago I damn near killed myself shoveling snow .. so I bought a snow blower ...... well it sat all last year ready to go so I had to run it on weekends all summer to use up the gas so I could put fresh gas in it when I use it next. And ... thankfully I haven't used the snowblower either and am happy .. there's a knack to using one so your not going into the wind or sideways so all that stuff blows back in your face ..... lol

I spent my 3 years on NAF AAFB on the Flight Line .. Transient Line myself .... handled every jet Navy had from '71 to Feb 13th '74 including the BA F-4's and before I made Petty Officer where I ended up supervising fire watches at night when it was my turn, I spent a lot of cold nights walking up and down the flight lines in a Navy Peacoat and White Hat in the rain and in the Winter that was dangggggggg cold even in Maryland !! We don't give it any thought when we go to bed, but our military are standing firewatches every hour of the night in barracks, hangars, flight lines, on board AC Carriers, Destroyers, everywhere someone is stationed rain or shine, cold or heat watching out for their buddies ... ! My oldest is in Kandahar, thankfully not pounding sand but his Monday thru Thursday and Saturday is 12 hours and on Friday and Sundays half days - 7 hours plus NCO duty at night, mail handling and escorting in addition to teaching classes. Wears me out thinking about it !!


Never hurts to remind us of their continuing sacrifices Curtis. God bless and keep every one of them around the world.

Spent a month in Calgary one day in February. It was minus something degrees. I figure once it is below 20° it doesn't matter how low it goes or whether it is C of F! That is too cold. There was only about 2 inches of ice on the ground, it looked like snow, but it was frozen solid.

Spend a month in Duluth MN one week. Never got above 17° F. There was 4 feet of snow on the ground. That town doesn't slow down in the winter. I could drive that little Dodge K car down and up the hill to the base (opposite side of the Duluth Airport) in the morning and evening with no fear. The only thing was, the restaurants were very hot, at least 80°. I would wear a T shirt with my down coat in, then take off the jacket and eat my T-shirt, nearly sweating. My hotel room was linked to a hallway that was so warm, I ran my A/C to get the temp to 70°. Every day the cleaning crew would come in and turn the heat up to 80°. And those guys complained about the heat when they came to Houston!

In other news:
We found a migrant at the farm Thursday. He has been trying to acclimate to our GSD. So far, the GSD is top dog. He is a beautiful 1 year old Chocolate Lab. He is too good of a dog to take to the shelter, so we are looking for a new home.

We visited the city of Prague a few years ago, in February. It was very cold and snowy the Czech people do the same thing, they wear huge jackets and coats with t-shirts underneath, and all the bars and restaurants are super-warm. It was pretty nice to be honest.

Great video Steven, thanks for posting.

Thought I was meeting some wildlife photogs today -- but I was a day early
so I went by the local airports and found these two units ..

Mitsubishi

Tinkering with some new filters

Happy Birthday Jay

It's Jay's birthday? And he didn't even invite us over for cake! What's up with that?

Hippo Birdies, Jay...

Glenn Watson wrote:
That is a pretty cool video stevez - those are some skilled auto pilot programmers. I bet they are great Cirrus pilots too!

Glenn

Those are professional autopilot programmers.

Hippy birthday, Jay.

Something in the air around here tonight to go along with some neat skies...

astrobrian wrote:
Tinkering with some new filters

Very nice work

Happy Birthday to Jay, and kudos to Jan-Arie for remembering! I don't even notice my own birthday, and would love to remember others' dates more easily, so I'm grateful for the reminder.

May your hands be as steady and your eyes as sharp for many decades to come, my friend.

Glenn Watson wrote:
Thanks Lynn. Where are you based?



KLNC, Lancaster Airport, home of the great fly-by's on video...

Happy Bday Jay...

Happy Birthday Jay as well.