BillstronBlog

That is a picture of Poppa House in front of the EAA Airventure 2005 entrance gate. He and I attended on July 26 to 28. EAA stands for Experimental Aircraft Association. Every airplane model made in the modern era was experimental at some time during its development cycle. Anyone can build an experimental airplane, and many people (like my pops) build them for their own private use. An experimental airplane is simply an airplane that has not been certified by the FAA. You may think that sounds unsafe, but how careful would YOU be if you built an airplane for YOU to fly? Anyway… every year the EAA puts on the best pilot convention in the world in Oshkosh Wisconsin. It’s like Burning Man for pilots (but without all the Burning Man’ness). It is a week long and draws a huge crowd from the 4 corners of the globe, as the map below illustrates.

All the little dots are pins placed at peoples home towns. This picture was taken on the third day of an eight day event. So you can only imagine that the world fills up.

A large portion of the event is people showing off their own personal experimental airplanes. We saw many Vans RV-6’s, which is the type of plane my dad is building, along with many other types of kit plane. A bunch of warbirds (old military planes) always make a showing, too. Burt Rutan even brought his hottest planes to the show.

This is an upclose picture of the White Knight and Space Ship One. Space Ship One recently won the X prize. It is the first civilian space craft. Pretty cool, huh!?!

My favorite part of the event is the daily aerobatic shows. Unlike most airshows that normal people have been to, this one is not dominated by military planes. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE jets, but they are not nearly as agile as civilian propeller driven planes. These planes can literally tumble through the air seemingly defying all aeronautic rules and maybe even the laws of physics. Their maximum speed is only about 250 knots, but they can pull 10G’s and roll faster than 360 deg per second. I can’t roll that fast on land! My favorite in the show was Mike Goulian flying the plane below.

He was talking to the crowd while flying, and there was no denying his love for his job. He even stated that he has the best job in the world, and I fully believe him. To get a taste of civilian aerobatics, check out the video on Mike Goulian’s website.

In all, EAA Airventrue 2005 was an absolute blast. If you are a pilot or just into airplanes, the EAA airshow is a great time that I highly recommend.

The world is a dangerous place, especially for children. Their physical immaturity causes too much energy, and their mental immaturity gives them a lust for life that is not yet fully restrained by caution. Couple these issues with heads that are proportionally larger than adults, and you have a recipe for disaster. Parents are the main problem though. They allow their children to go outside and play in this dangerous place. More than 1 child in 10000000 dies this way. This is similar to putting them in a cage with lions.

To combat this problem, I propose a national helmet law for all people under the age of 15. The helmet would be required at all times between the hours of 6:00am and 11:00pm. Only this law will put a stop to this national pandemic.

At the forefront of this movement is Michael P. Flemming. He is a lawyer by training and an inventor by divine proclamation. His stroke of genius is a helmet for child automobile passengers. The helmet is electronically coupled an entertainment system that only turns on when being worn. Children will love the helmet because of the reward of electronic entertainment. View the article here on gizmag. At the bottom of the article is a link to use to email Mr. Flemming. I encourage everyone to send him a message explaining what you think about this wonderful invention.

Corbin Kentucky is one strange place. Formerly home to more racists than anywhere else in the country. Now it is home to a GIANORMOUS baby. The baby weighted about 14 pounds when born this past Tuesday. Astonishingly, it was delivered by c-section:) Check out the Herald-Leader’s article below…

Lexington Herald-Leader | 07/17/2005 | AROUND KENTUCKY

Note: The picture is not of the big baby in question, just some other big baby floating around on the internets.

Google Earth came out a few days ago, and it allows you to view the Earth from above via satellite images. It is a very cool program and completely free. When using it for the first time, I noticed myself being slack-jawed for minutes on end. Check it out here.

I wanted to find an image of Area 51. Every budding conspiracy theorist, and most normal Americans, know that Area 51 is the nexus of alien and what-not based conspiracies. For the not initiated, Area 51 is where the US government has a secret airforce base that housed all sorts of things that THEY don’t want US to know about (at least that is what the X-Files would have us believe). Well… here is a picture of it. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a picture of an airfield. Those two huge strips of concrete that begin in the bottom of the picture are (from left to right) 5.5 and 2.5 miles long. The only strait lines on the earth that larger are airports. If you don’t believe me, check out any airport in any city in America. They look the same. To find this on Google Earth for yourself use latitude and longitude to find 37.15.35N, 115.47.15W. Pretty cool, huh?

About thirty minutes ago, I left my house with Daisy, my black hound-x, for our morning walk, dispite the time indicating that it was decidedly not morning. We were just around the corner from our appartment when I saw the hunched figure of an old man shuffeling down the side-walk toward us. He was taking up most of the path, with his head down and white fadora hiding his face. I thought to myself, “That is cool, an old man taking a walk.” I almost veered into the street to pass him, but decided that there was enough room for the three of us on side walk. I passed him quickly without a word. When I was about ten feet past, I heard a murmer, and said, “Hello!” I heard another murmer, and this time it sounded like a question. So, I steered the hound back to him and questioned him. Again, I couldn’t understand what came out of his mouth, and slightly more irritated, I asked again. With a febal English accent, he was asking if he was close to an address on a street that was unfamiliar to me. My mind told me, “Tell him you don’t know what he is talking about and get on with you walk. He is wasting your time.” Then, something else spoke to me. I asked him if he was really looking for this other street that he had apparently just passed. He was, so I pointed it out. He shuffeled around, and my brain again told me to get on with my walk. That other thing inside me asked him if he wanted me to walk with him. The feble yet kind voice responded affermatively. Seeing that he was having trouble, that thing again asked if he needed help walking, and before I knew it I had my arms around a smelly, grubbly looking, elderly English man named John helping him walk. Slowly we got to the front steps of the rest home, and I sat him down on the bottom step because he was so weak. I quickly hopped to the top of the stairs to get assistance from inside. A middle aged Asian couple suntered to the door. I asked them if John lived there. He did. I asked them to help him. They said okay, but showed not an ounce of hurry. I said, “He needs help, now!” Reluctanly they went down the stairs and helped him. My work was complete. I told John that I hoped he would be feeling better soon, and went on with my walk.

As the hound and I walked down the street, I felt pretty good about myself. Even though he was less than seventy five yards away from his destination, he could not have made it without my assistance. I thought about what would have happend to him if I had not have helped. “You did a good thing. You’re a good man,” I said to myself.

A few minutes later, I was sick with myself because I realized I didn’t even want to say “Hello” to him. I wasn’t going to acknowlede a person that I was passing less than one foot from. Why? I blame it on liveing in a densly populated civilization and an attitude of every-person-for-themselves. But… Those are just pittiful excuses. Civilizations exhist so that everyone can work together for the common goal of living. You can’t work together if you don’t acknowledge the other members of your civilization. My attitude and millions more like it are the reason cities often feel cold. The reason, you can feel lonely even though you are surrounded by millions of people.

I was not raised in with this attitude. This attitude is something I had embraced on my own. My brain liked the attitude, but thankfully something else inside me (my soul?) did not. Beginning on my walk home, my brain will be learning from my soul.