Overnight Open Thread – 11/04/2023 [Roger Ball]

[Misanthropic Humanitarian is off somewhere in the Wisconsin woods engaging in one of his off-the-grid hobbies (possibly noodling for muskies) so our ol’ pilot friend, Roger Ball, was kind enough to crash land here at the ONT tonight. Stay to the bottom if you’d like to geek out on stealth fighters. – Buck]

I watched the first episode of HBO's "Chernobyl" again for no particular reason other than I think it is well done. But this time, the opening monologue by the main character, Valery Legasov (brilliantly played by Jared Harris) hit me in the chops.

"What is the cost of lies?"

"It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth, and content ourselves instead... with stories...In these stories, it doesn't matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is: who is to blame?"

And I thought...here we are. We are the Soviet Union. Who's to blame? Donald J Trump of course, for everything bad. In the meantime, the "good" is made up and attributed to a drooling, senile pedophile traitor who can't read a teleprompter. 81 million votes?

Van Jones said it: "top down, bottom up, and inside out."

"What if you were seeking to subvert or deconstruct the current laws of the United States, our constitution, our way of life? Our way of life in total, even down to the most fundamental of all of our human governmental hierarchies, the family. How would you do it?"

It's far from over: ”…‘White supremacy’ in math classes"

"The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board has voted to hire a consulting group that educates teachers on how to replace "White supremacy culture practices" in math instruction with methods that center on the "wellness of students of color."

Any guesses how the 2024 general election vote will go in Allegheny County?

Via [a moron pilot friend], a Tik Tok video from “13ladyinred.” I don't know if the vid is a real person. She's an attractive brunette but her lips look a little weird. Is she AI? But then again, the words are pretty good. Maybe the author used an AI character to hide his/her/zer/its identity. You know, you can't be too careful with today's gum't agents lurking about looking for “legacy Americans.” (I thought I came up with that term but, dang, they beat me to it.) Any way, watch this vid, 2:51: “I never thought… Even if she is an AI creation, it's hard to argue the points.

We are so fortunate to have the greatest leadership in human history, yeah? ”Kamala Harris to call for urgent action on AI threat to [our precious] democracy and privacy”

"Inside the US administration, the Biden team is setting governance boards to track the progress of AI, advise agency leadership on AI, and to coordinate and track agencies’ AI activities."

"On 30 October, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order (“Executive Order” or EO) on artificial intelligence (AI) with the goal of promoting the “safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence.”

"Sweeping executive order." Hey, Joe, why so dictator? You know we still have a legislative branch, right?

Diversionary post: That Time 25 F-117s Flew Over Holloman AFB In The Largest Nighthawk Formation Ever

10/31/23 My Encounter with the F-117 by Scott Hunter

”It was a clear fall full moon night in November of 1988 and I was flying my Cessna 206 with the my tv camera crew (was sportscaster at the time with Mobile, AL CBS affiliate) back from covering an Alabama game in Birmingham. About 50 miles from BFM (Mobile Downtown Airport) level at 8K feet was cleared by Mobile Approach to start my descent. Before starting my descent at night I always rolled the plane up on its side to look below for any traffic…an wise old Air Force B-52 instructor pilot had drilled me to do it first to my right and then to my left…so as not to descend into them. As I rolled to the right looking down I caught a ‘Bat shaped black figure’ below me outlined by the moonlight off the Tombigbee River flying northwest to southeast…and with no anti-collision lights on or flashing! Quickly rolled to my left facing east and saw that same shape outlined by the moonlight off the Alabama River passed under me and then went into the darkness. Started to report the sighting to Mobile Approach but quickly decided it was probably ours and if it was flying with no lights it didn’t want to be seen and reported.

Years later met an F-117 pilot at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery and related that encounter with him. He confirmed it was an F-117 and that they routinely flew from their Tonopah, Nevada secret base to Eglin AFB for cross country training and did not use a/c lights and descended to lower altitudes as they got closer to Eglin to avoid being seen or detected. He told me there was no danger as the F-117 pilot could easily detect the contact on radar and avoid me. I responded…”well that’s good to know…but that night…he sure didn’t avoid being seen!”

To which I replied:

”Great story, Doc! Thanks for forwarding. One of my co-instructors in VFA-125 at Lemoore got sent to Nevada shortly after he checked it. He had been one of the Pax River test pilots for the Hornet. He flew the 117 during the eval phase. I saw him at a tail hook reunion a couple of years later. He said he had ejected out of one. The AF wanted it to go supersonic but it was very much not a supersonic design. As the airplane approached the number, it would go divergent and, of course, then come apart. Or at least that was how the story went.
And, of course, they wanted it to go to the boat. Another dumb DoD idea...

Here's the Fakebook post. Air Force Flight Test Museum Acquires 'Scorpion 4'

"In October 1984, Navy pilots Lt. Cmdr. Kenny Linn and Lt. Cmdr. Ken Grubbs conducted a performance review to evaluate the F-117A for aircraft carrier suitability. Three of eight flights were made in Ship 783, with the remainder made in Article 782. The naval aviators found landing speeds were too high and sink rate limits too low for carrier operations."

Duh.

Finally,
The F-117 is the stealthy fighter you can now see for yourself.

"Hill Aerospace Museum near Ogden, Utah, received its F-117 in August 2020, and the aircraft is nearing completion of an extensive restoration."

Enough. Happy Weekend.

[Roger Ball]

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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