Garand

No extra commentary required........

The Crew Chief

I did six years as an F-16 Crew Chief here at Edwards AFB.
At Red Flag 12-2, I was the oldest Crew Chief on the flight line at the age of 57.
Some of these I can neither confirm nor deny.......

Making ‘The Blue Max’

I came across this on the Facebook. I saw it in 1967 at a drive-in theatre in Billings, Montana.
It is still one of my favorite movies. It has airplanes in it. Little did I know they were basically hand built for the production.

"Filmed 50 years ago, long before the advent of CGI, the World War I aviation epic required two air forces built from scratch and stunt pilots willing to risk it all.

Arriving at Ardmore Studios, Dublin, Ireland, in 1965 to begin work on a new 20th Century Fox World War I dogfight movie, stunt pilot Derek Piggott learned he was in for more than just zooming around the skies, popping off smoke bombs and fake bullets while cameras rolled. The script called for a biplane to fly under a bridge, and producer Christian Ferry did not intend to use remote-control models. He meant to make the greatest WWI air combat film of all time: The Blue Max."

I may have to get a copy on DVD.

A Bitz Flugzeugbau-built Fokker Dr.I heads a lineup of "D.VII-65s" warming up for takeoff in a "Blue Max" production scene.

Stolen from Iconic Cool at Facebook

Helen Mirren and Judi Dench by Annie Leibovitz. Hit it.

Cool..................Classy
No further commentary is required.

I'm just going to leave this one here

BTW, Snide Comments are appreciated...............

My Eldest Granddaughter's first prom

I guess it was bound to happen.
It's another one of those moments that tell me I'm getting old........
I have to admit that Bailee looks great.

BNSF 5402 East on a rainy day

I was in the right turn lane for California City Boulevard when I saw this train's headlight coming around the curve from Sanderson and Mojave Junction.
I pulled into the area that big rigs use to spend the night and broke out the Nikon.
Some are good and some are not that good. It was raining and the camera would focus on the traffic on CA 58 and screw me up a bit.

 It turned out to be an empty grain train. A loaded one this length would need at least two or three more locomotives.

 I would guess that he was moving at track speed which is 65 mph on the BNSF Mojave Sub.

I still love trains. One of these days, I am going to go to Barstow and shoot pictures of trains on the Needles Sub to the east of Barstow and the Cajon Sub west of Barstow going to San Bernardino.

Beer Blogging from Upstate NY

We sneaked Missus ORPO into Syracuse NY so she could surprise our eldest son on his 40th birthday. My daugher in law did a bang up job on it as well!

Missus ORPO sampling something a bit lighter than what my son, daugher in law and I like.

Mrs. ORPO having poutine, eh!

His Mom said he did a double take!