nrferguson wrote:
Wow that is impressive I bought a Saitek S52 stick and throttle about 18 months ago, but have been completely unable to make them work under Windows 10 When I try to load the latest Drivers from Saitek Windows 10 refuses to load them, sating they haven't been verified!!! On the few occasions I felt strongly enough about it to phone Saitek I just end up in a queue and give up!!!
If your feeling brave / lucky / whatever, AND AFTER TAKING A FULL SYSTEM BACKUP you might like to try this.
Is that the FlyElite IFR training software? I used that to practice when I was going for my helicopter instrument rating, even though back then they didn't have any rotary modules. It was a huge help.
ELinder wrote:
Is that the FlyElite IFR training software? I used that to practice when I was going for my helicopter instrument rating, even though back then they didn't have any rotary modules. It was a huge help.
Erich
No, it's the on-line version of a Sci-Fi game I've played since I bought for my Comodore 64 decades ago. There is a whole galaxy to fly around now One starts off with a basic craft and then trades at space stations to buy better equipment and spacecraft You also have to decide whether to trade, or to mine asteroids, or to trade illegal stuff (weapons/narcotics/slaves/endangered species etc etc) or to bounty hunt, or to assassinate etc etc. I love it in short bursts
So I planned on heading to the museum today when I got off work, to see and shoot the Giant Scale RC planes. Guess what's in the neighborhood? Gray skies, currently ~15 MPH winds, and rain in the forecast for today and parts of Saturday, and I work Saturday and Sunday Guess I'm not going to see that RC Valkyrie flying
Man Nick, I need one of those for an air to air ship! I need Jeff Welker to get me a deal on one of those pristinely restored ones from the fire fighting folks.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Man Nick, I need one of those for an air to air ship! I need Jeff Welker to get me a deal on one of those pristinely restored ones from the fire fighting folks.
Ha, as I remember it, we've been around that block before. I think max cruse on those is about 200 kns. Not fast enough to be much of an improvement on a Bonanza? How fast do you need to be in order for your jet subjects to be clean and comfortable? 300 kns? I guess there just is nothing practical that fits the bill.
200 knots is the bottom of the envelope for the T-38. I spent most of last night (in my dreams) designing the paint scheme and figuring out the camera pods and fuselage mounts on our Lear Jet platform, only to discover upon waking ........we don't presently have a Lear Jet platform. Been helicoptering all morning, back at HQ tweaking what I shot and zipping it off to the clients.
Bits and bytes, ugh! I spent four of this week's five days messing with that iMac, finally dropped it at Apple last night. We'll see what they are going to do but given the time I've spent on it during this go around, I could have tossed it, shot a project for one day, bought a new one and been ahead of the game.
I'd like to whine, but everytime I hear another snip it from Houston I remind myself that I have no problems at all. We packed an 18 wheeler with water, cleaning supplies and other necessities yesterday, it left this morning. BTW, how about Princess Diana's boys peeling off a hundred million for Houston? Wow! Most kind! I told Sheila yesterday I was going to go buy a three place SeaDoo, or a shallow draft Bass boat, and just head down and start rescuing people. There are folks still stuck in their homes who have run out of food and drinkable water, just unimaginable. The mind reels, where do you bury the debris from 50,000+ demolished homes? How do you make your mortgage payment when you can't go to work? What do you do if you don't have flood insurance and your biggest asset is now worth the value of the ground..........and you have a mortgage balance? The fallout from this mess will go on and on. Just seems like anything you do for them is a drop in the bucket compared to the need.
You can tell that this happened in Texas though, no one has their hand out, everybody is just pitching in to fix what can be fixed and take care of whoever they can. God Bless the Texas Spirit.
Went down to Houston Thursday to deliver supplies and retrieve some treasures they wanted saved, plus loads of clothes for washing (those are being washed with a two cycle process that includes vinegar in the wash).
1. You could not believe the humanity of selfless people helping people. The neighborhood was filled with parked cars on both sides of the street bumper to bumper. We parked the truck and trailer and while we were unloading I saw a girl from a neighbors house walking down the sidewalk with an armload of something. She came up to us to ask if we would like a Subway sandwich still in the plastic wrapper bag...she didn't know us or who we were helping! People were working furiously at one house, then when they finished they moved to another. There were at least 15 people helping the people we were there to aid. Everyone was soaked with sweat from the Houston heat and humidity. The parked cars were so densely parked, it took us 15 minutes to navigate the truck and trailer about 1/3rd mile when we left.
2. Most of the roadways (freeways/interstates and toll roads) were passible. The water was down quite a bit, but we did see neighborhoods on the west side of town where the roads still had water. Most of the drainage ditches were half empty or less.
3. Everyone's front yard in that neighborhood had ruined carpets, wood flooring, furniture and of course, sheetrock. They were full. Someone better begin digging new trash pits.
4. Mortgage payments: When we were impacted by Alicia, our mortgage company and credit union sent us notice they understood how difficult the times could be, and if we needed relief, they would put the payments on hold. Some for as long as a year. You still had to pay the interest for that year, but it could be negotiated with a new payment plan. They were very accommodating.
5. I fear the government has done a poor job explaining Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and their programs. People have the perception FEMA is going to come in and give them money. NO! FEMA DOES NOT GIVE ANYBODY MONEY! They give loans based on your damage AND your ability to repay! That is, if they think your financial capability is limited to a $70,000 loan, that is the most you will get, even if your damage exceeds $200,000. They will tell you they will reimburse you for rent while you live somewhere else during your home repairs...when their money runs out, you will not be reimbursed. The media and many people do not know the truth of FEMA and it raises expectations. (Personal experience with a family member.)
Bottom line, we in Texas are very proud of the Texans who have dropped everything to help their fellow Texans. We are also very thankful for the Americans (such as but not limited to: Cajun Navy, first responders from places like Utah, New York, Massachusetts and California). Special thanks to the Army and Air National Guard members who have been called up from all over our state. They left their jobs and family to help.
Speaking of Guardsmen, we stopped to eat on our way home and there were two Guardsmen in line in front of us. I was going to pay their bill, but I saw a woman at the register who told the cashier she was waiting to pay for their meal. Gotta love people being so respectful for our service members.
Regarding the bits and bytes. A long time ago I got told off for spending several days rebuilding a server that was well passed it's best. The client company had been run right down and then taken over. New boss just wanted to buy all new and start again. "Just restore onto new from the backup tapes" he said. I explained that during the time I spent on the old junk his staff has searched high and low for said backup tapes without success. "So how many working data disks do we have?" "Just the ones in the server I rebuilt" said I. He went a bit pale!
It's so easy to get pulled into chasing an IT problem and spending labour hours out of all proportion to the replacement cost. Heaven knows I've done that too. There are times when one has to be profligate and just forget fixing the darn thing.
The flooding in TX and other parts is just too horrible to get my head around. I truly do live in a very fortunate place. Just imagine being on the Indian sub-continent where flooding happens more or less every year to a greater or lesser extent. How on earth do the people of Jordan cope with the influx of Syrian refugees increasing their population by over 20%? In comparison my life is as smooth as a mill pond.
Then you would have to worry about an oats shortage Eddie Ray, although the pollution factor is shovel able (if that's a word). Thanks for your post and for your efforts to help our brothers and sisters in the Houston area. You Sir, are a quality guy, as if that isn't already widely known.
Guess I'm not going to see that RC Valkyrie flying 
