Milestone on this journey

It's official.
I am a Tool Room Attendant.
No more flight line or jets for me.
The foot issues enabled me to obtain a reasonable accomodation to get off the line.
For the record:
ACC on 83-1120, 80-3666, 80-0584 and 88-0445. DCC for a time on 88-0456.
It was a good run. Father Time finally let me know that it was time to do something else not as strenuous, as well did my doctor..
The main bragging point: Oldest Crew Chief on the Line at Red Flag 12-2 at the age of 57!

Plane Pr0n: These may be the best Mig-21, Mig-29 and Su-25 air-to-air images you’ve ever seen.

Stumbling through the favorites list and look at this!

Last week, aviation photographer Anton Balakchiev was among a group of reporters who were given the really unique chance to take air-to-air photographs of the last operational Bulgarian Air Force MiG-21 Fishbed jets.

The type should be retired at the end of this year after 52 years of active service in BuAF.

There is a plethora of outstanding air to air shots in the post! 

Closest northern views of Saturn's moon Enceladus

How about a cool space exploration post?

Found this in the Saturday afternoon while wandering through the interwebs....
Interesting piece.



Sometimes a break is needed from the usual politcial crap is needed.
Closest northern views of Saturn's moon Enceladus

Autumn Thunderstorm In The Southeast Kern County Desert and the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains

A rather substantial storm front came through the So Cal Mountains into the Desert this afternoon/evening. It was short and very intense!
At the CA 58-California City Boulevard Intersection is a pull off area that I use from time to time. I got done taking pictures with my trusty Samsung Galaxy Note 3..........just as the rain arrived over me.

At one of our two traffic lights in town.

We need the rain for sure. I hope some is ending up falling in the San Joaquin Valley.
Tomorrow, it's off to the VA ACC in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley. I have the initial consult for Sleep Apnea.

Seeing stars, again: Naval Academy reinstates celestial navigation

Classic one sentence paragraph.................................After all, you can't hack a sextant.
The article is from the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland.

Lt. Christine Hirsch, who teaches navigation at the Naval Academy, explains methods of celestial navigation taught to midshipmen this year. The threat of cyber warfare has led academy officials to reinstate instruction in celestial navigation, the ancient methods of steering a ship by the stars. (By Tim Prudente / Capital Gazette)

I think the Navy should have always kept celestial navigation as part of the core curriculum at the Trade School on The Severn River.................................

6 years

As a little note.......................
Old Retired Petty Officer is now 6 years of age...............................
Dang, still at it....................................
Thanks to Joy, Christopher, Jeff and to the two no longer with us, Buck Pennington and Carroll Lefon..............................................

North American A-36 Apache: The Plane That Saved the Mustang

Article by Scott Schwartz at The Aviation History Online Museum

Powered by an Allison V-12 engine equipped with a single stage supercharger, the A-36 Apache was essentially an early model P-51 Mustang fitted with two dive brakes on each wing. Other modifications to the airframe included strengthening of the wings, movement of the bomb racks closer to the main landing gear for less wing “flexing” while the plane was taxiing, and the installation of small vent windows in the windscreen side panels. In addition, two Browning M2 .50 caliber machine guns were mounted in each wing, and two more .50 cal. guns were mounted in the lower nose to fire through the propeller. Naturally, the A-36 inherited the Mustang’s clean aerodynamics; but why did North American turn the P-51 into a dive-bomber? To answer this question, we must look at the Mustang’s origins. 

The rest is at the link below but first a gratuitous picture.......................................

The A-36 Apache dove at speeds approaching 500 mph, and
during one test, an airplane lost its wings during a dive.

http://www.aviation-history.com/north-american/a36.html

RailPictures.Net Photo: NS 911 Norfolk Southern EMD SD60E at Tipton, Pennsylvania by CR6377

Gratuitous Train Pr0n on a Friday Evening....

Got the Kings v Coyotes game on with some OK Malt Beverages.....Miller Genuine Draft........Yeah, I know.............................

 EMD SD60E in the 9-1-1 commemorative paint scheme.

More info at the link below:

RailPictures.Net Photo: NS 911 Norfolk Southern EMD SD60E at Tipton, Pennsylvania by CR6377

Lonesomeness.........................Out there

The signal gantry at the East Crossover Cadiz on the BNSF Needles Subdivision. Yes, that Needles, about 10 miles into California from the Colorado River. The Needles Subdivision is one of the busiest rail lines in the world. Stack trains and grain trains going East and West....................
The last stretch I did was on the Needles from Danby to almost the Colorado River in about six trips to the load out at Newberry Springs. or maybe it was seven...................................
This was at RailPictures.Net which is a great site if you like trains. The Old Retired Petty Officer Loves Trains, perhaps more than Airplanes.......................
I think this guy David Carballido-Jeans did a bang up job on it!

EBCS East Cadiz looking West toward Amboy, Siberia, Bagdad, Ash Hill and Ludlow..........

The Mother Road, Old Route 66 parallels this rail line all the way from Needles to Barstow.

Chinese firm plans L.A.-to-Vegas train | CalWatchdog.com

Found while checking my news list......................................

"For bemused Californians, there’s another bullet train in town, thanks to the Chinese government.

More specifically, credit — $100 million worth — goes to China Railway International USA, a venture spearheaded by Beijing’s national railroad, China Railway. The consortium has ponied up funds for XpressWest, “the transportation arm of Marnell Companies, a gaming resort development firm,” as the Sacramento Business Journal noted.

Formerly known as DesertXpress, the company has labored to send a high-speed track toward Las Vegas since “at least 2007,” reported the Los Angeles Times.

According to Chinese officials cited by the Times, passengers would travel “a 230-mile route with an additional stop in Palmdale and eventual service throughout the Los Angeles area using some of the same track that would be used by the publicly backed California high-speed rail project.” Past plans envisioned a run of 185 miles alongside I-15.

The logic behind the idea drew from some straightforward numbers. “About one-quarter of Las Vegas’s 41 million visitors in 2014 came from Southern California, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, many via a several hour highway drive,” Quartz noted. Vegas has been without a passenger train since Amtrak shut down its Desert Wind line in 1997."

27 Sep, 2015-James Poulos

Those big numbers tossed around like it's no big deal. If this system in both California and Nevada are built, I still have a minimum one hour drive to use it from where I live.
I'm thinking that Moonbeam is going after other sources of funding for the High Speed Train(Moonbeam's Crazy Train).
Just a thought.

The entire article is at the link below..............................

Chinese firm plans L.A.-to-Vegas train | CalWatchdog.com