The acid ate holes in my shirt. Just small holes created by the splatter. Neat little holes, except for the one where it spilled. It burned, some places more than others. Did she know the words would burn me so?
An Old Plains Cowboy
With the icy breath of the wind sweep plains stinging his face, the cowboy prodded his weary horse onward toward the seeming shelter, an outgrowth of rock offering a refuge from the wind.
He dropped wearily from his saddle, sand and dust swirling as his boots hit the rocky and uneven ground.
Not a soul heard the thud, the labored breathing of his horse, his own shallow breath’s, or the low moan of the constant wind.
The cowboy unsaddled his mount, gave it a rough but fond rub along its neck and ears, then let him free.
Slowly he moved his gear and made his bed by the rocks shelter. A simple saddle pillow, ratted blanket, and poncho cover. He laid down, watched the stars and while the full moon looked on, silently he died.
Silence
I was a soldier then, young of years, now old of mind. Beyond my years judgments I have made, those of life and death, judgements which now taint those I have left. So many years gone by it has been.
Sitting alone, long after the family’s asleep, after the shadows of the day have past, when all is quiet and the solitude of silence envelopes me.
Names forgotten, hills and valleys no longer barren, buddies long forgotten, all in the stillness of the night silence returns. The quiet before hell itself unleashed, silence when it’s taken its leave and just before the moaning begins.
In the quite of the night, blanketed in darkness, when its silent, that is when I remember, what real silence is.
RA10XXXXXX
To Fly or Not to Fly That is the question!
Yesterday I was planning on taking off just a little while before sun set to get in a few take offs and landing, then as it got darker and darker to end up doing a few nights take offs and landings.
What this was going to involve was taking off and landing during the daylight hours then continue flying thru “civil twilight”, where it’s the light we see after the sun is below the horizon and can last anywhere between last 20-35 minutes after sunset. Nigh flying is defined as that performed between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight.
With that said, only take offs and landing’s an hour after sunset or before sunrise count toward maintaining nighttime currency. And if you intended to take a passenger with you to view the sunset from above it’s important to note that to be current for night landings with passengers, a pilot must have done at least 3 full stop landings between the times of one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise within the last 90 days. Whew!
A least that was my intent, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
Fog – Fog is a natural weather conditions that can cause visibility to become zero. First it is important to understand that fog is basically a cloud on the ground.
Did you know that there are 8 types of fog?
Mist and Fog are the terms used to describe low visibility caused by water droplets suspended in the air. Fog is effectively surface cloud and has a significant impact on the conduct of flying operations, particularly landing and take-off. Different types of fog are defined according to how they are formed.
(BTW: The only difference between mist and fog is visibility. It is called fog when visibility is .6 mile or less and called mist when visibility remains above 0.6 mile. In driving term’s, it tends to be referred to as fog when visibility is about 330 feet or less.)
Steam Fog: This type of fog is commonly seen in the Great Lakes but can be seen on any lake. This forms during the fall season. As summer ends, water temperatures don’t cool right away but air temperature does. As a mass of dry, cold air moves over a warmer lake the warm lake conducts warm, moist air into the air mass above. This transport between the lake and air evens out. This corresponds to the second law of thermodynamics and this law state “any two bodies that come into contact, the system will become equilibrium state.” Steam fog does not become very deep but enough to block some of the sunlight.
Radiation Fog: This fog forms when all solar energy exits the earth and allows the temperature to meet up with the dew point. The best condition to have radiation fog is when it had rained the previous night. This makes it easier for the air to become saturated and form fog. However, the winds must be light less than 15 mph to prevent moist and dry from mixing.
Precipitation Fog: This is fog that forms when rain is falling through cold air. This is common with a warm front, but it can occur with cold fronts as well only if it’s not moving too fast. Cold air, dry at the surface while rain is falling through it evaporates and causes the dew point to rise. This saturation forms fog.
Advection Fog: This type of fog forms from surface contact of horizontal winds. This fog can occur with windy conditions. Warm air, moist air blows in from the south and if there is snow or cool moisture on the ground it will meet the warm, moist winds. This contact between the air and ground will cause the air blowing in to become cool. Then dew point rises and creates high humidity and forms fog.
Upslope Fog: This fog forms adiabatically. Adiabatically is the process that causes sinking air to warm and rising air to cool. As moist winds blow toward a mountain, it up glides and this causes the air to rise and cool. The cooling of the air from rising causes to meet up with the dew point temperature. Fog forms on top of the mountains.
Valley Fog: Valley fog forms in the valley when the soil is moist from previous rainfall. As the skies clear solar energy exits earth and allow the temperature to cool near or at the dew point. This form deep fog, so dense it’s sometimes called tule fog.
Freezing Fog: Freezing fog occurs when the temperature falls at 32°F (0°C) or below. This fog produces drizzle, and these tiny droplets freeze when they meet an object. But at the same time there is sublimation going on.
Ice Fog: This type of fog is only seen in the polar and artic regions. Temperatures at 14 F (-10°C) is too cold for the air to contain super-cooled water droplets so it forms small, tiny ice crystals.
Trivia Comment: Did you know that If you were to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool with fog and then somehow condense it, you would be left with around just over 2 pints of water?
So, what does that have to do with my story of not flying last evening?
You’ve heard it again and again… Flying in foggy conditions provides challenges to pilots that are only experienced a few times a year. Flying Visual Flight Rules (VFR) into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), meaning cloud layers below 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL) and/or visibility less than 3 miles, especially if you’re a non-instrument rated pilot and not current. So, this was my reason not to go flying last evening.
JUST AN UPDATE
The fact checkers on FB saw this post as totally incorrect and that the Aztec’s (pictured) never even though about sacrificing their leaders when having epidemics. So now it’s updated. They did agreed that Aztec priests, using razor-sharp obsidian blades, sliced open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their still-beating hearts to the gods. They then tossed the victims’ lifeless bodies down the steps of the towering Templo Mayor. They believed that human sacrifice nourished the gods. Without it, the sun would cease to rise and the world would end. But with that said, this does not mean they didn’t think about what the meme suggested though the fact checkers can not prove that’s incorrect. So it may NOT truly be representative of their culture, but it is possible maybe they may have had similar thoughts concerning their “leaders”. I suppose, especially the severely cognitive deficient ones
I feel this way too!
Could this happen to You?
Food for thought!
True or False: CNN Director
We Worked To Oust Trump, We Create ‘Propaganda,’ Use ‘Fear’ To Pass Climate Agenda
James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released explosive video on Tuesday that showed CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester admitting that the network worked to get President Donald Trump out of office and that the network creates “propaganda” on issues they know little about.
While explosive, the footage likely will not come as a surprise are many; polling has shown that CNN is the least trusted cable news network and is the most divisive media brand in the country.
On CNN and its employees working to oust Trump from office, Chester made the following remarks throughout various encounters that he had with an undercover Project Veritas journalist:
- “Look what we did, we [CNN] got Trump out. I am 100% going to say it, and I, 100% believe, that if it wasn’t for CNN, I don’t know that Trump would have got voted out…I came to CNN because I wanted to be a part of that.”
- “It’s going to be our [CNN’s] focus. Like our focus was to get Trump out of office, right? Without saying it, that’s what it was, right? So, our next thing is going to be climate change awareness.”
On CNN creating “propaganda” to damage Trump, Chester said:
- “[Trump’s] hand was shaking or whatever, I think. We brought in so many medical people to tell a story that was all speculation — that he was neurologically damaged, and he was losing it. He’s unfit to — you know, whatever. We were creating a story there that we didn’t know anything about. That’s what — I think that’s propaganda.”
On having a predetermined agenda to cover climate change and to use “fear” to sell it, Chester said:
- “I think there’s a COVID fatigue. So, like whenever a new story comes up, they’re [CNN’s] going to latch onto it. They’ve already announced in our office that once the public is — will be open to it — we’re going to start focusing mainly on climate.”
- “I have a feeling that it’s going to be like, constantly showing videos of decline in ice, and weather warming up, and like the effects it’s having on the economy–”
- Climate change is the next “pandemic-like story that we’ll beat to death, but that one’s got longevity. You know what I mean? Like there’s a definitive ending to the pandemic. It’ll taper off to a point that it’s not a problem anymore. Climate change can take years, so they’ll [CNN will] probably be able to milk that quite a bit.”
- “Be prepared, it’s coming. Climate change is going to be the next COVID thing for CNN.”
- When asked if CNN was going to use “fear” to push their agenda, Chester said, “Yeah. Fear sells.”
Seems like its this way today….
