Random photos, comics, etc.

[Marcel Birgelen]

He must be negotiating with Comac then.

[Leo Enticknap]

Ryanair recently announced that talks with Boeing to place a large order for 737 Maxes had broken down, because they couldn't agree on price. Michael O'Leary is now negotiating with another airplane manufacturer:

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[Randy Stankey]

I use that phrase all the time!

Any time you find a locked door or a gate when you don’t have a the key but you know where it is.

If you try to get into your car but you left the keys inside…

”Somebody’s gotta’ go back and get a shitload of dimes!”

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Nothing need be said here...

[Van Dalton]

Echostar Satellite Communications uplink/teleport campus, Cheyenne, WY. (41.13296N -104.73629W/WGS84)

If you receive television or Muzak through Dish Network DVB-S, this is where your signal originates. Basically it's like a roided-out cable headend.

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North is up. The massive rectangular dish at the top is a multi-LNB downlink. This is where all the cable networks (HBO, Weather, Nickelodeon, etc.) are received from their various C- and Ku-band satellites. The large round dishes are the uplinks that send their main national services to Echostar's fleet. The arrays of smaller dishes south of them, above the "Echostar" marker are (so I'm told) uplinks for their local and regional spot-beam services (local TV channels). The clusters of small 3- and 6-foot dishes around the base of the large uplink antennae are mostly downlinks for quality-of-service monitoring within the headend; most of the locals are sent to Echostar via fibre but a few are also received via C-band off these clusters. Supposedly one of the medium dishes (not sure which) in the southwest array is where the Muzak and Sirius audio simulcasts are uplinked to Echostar 7 (119 W).

Alternate view. North is right.

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Down I-25 a ways, outside Fort Collins, CO are the shortwave/longwave time standard stations WWV and WWVB.

[Van Dalton]

Deleted...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

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"Stop! Wait! That's an unprotected left!"

Either that, or this could be an ad for the braking performance of Toyota trucks.

That actually happened at Burbank Airport in the late 70's. Look at those gas prices..... Holy Cow!



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[Randy Stankey]

The "kick the bucket" gag has to be one of my two favorite movie jokes of all time!

That and "I'm a locksmith... and I'm a locksmith."

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

They must be mad! Mad, mad, mad, I say!

I blame that on Ethel Merman!

[Randy Stankey]

It's buried under the big doubleyou I tell ya.... a big doubleyou... 50 G's... Now go get it...! (Kicks bucket)

@ Stadium 8, St George, UT

They must be mad! Mad, mad, mad, I say!

[Frank Cox]

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[Mark Gulbrandsen]

It's buried under the big doubleyou I tell ya.... a big doubleyou... 50 G's... Now go get it...! (Kicks bucket)

@ Stadium 8, St George, UT

[Leo Enticknap]

The time I got caught unable to get anything to eat was during a 2.5-hour layover followed by a one-hour flight back to Ontario, and about an hour from there to walking in the front door. This time I was flying Ontario > Oakland > Honolulu, and Southwest don't serve anything except little bags of pretzels actually on the plane. Actually, I needn't have bothered with the sandwiches this time, because there were plenty of places open and with reasonable lines. I think the entire aviation industry was taken by surprise by a sudden surge in passenger numbers last fall: as the more serious covid restrictions started to be lifted, a lot of delayed business and leisure flights took place, hence staff shortages in airports. Interestingly, the flight to Hawaii yesterday was barely a third full - I had a row to myself. All the others I've taken (which were nearly all around the same time on a Monday) have been completely full, or not far off it.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Speaking of how one gets to the next service call, this was one of my routes. Can only be taken in the summer though.... This is the Chief Joseph Highway, or Wyoming 296... It connects to Highway 212, The Beartooth Highway. I used to go from servicing the theaters in Cody, WY over to service the theater in Red Lodge, Montana the next morning.. It actually took considerably longer to go the normal route when this one was snowed shut. Highway 212 goes up to about 13,000 feet give or take a few inches....

The deepest gorge in Wyoming runs across the middle of the picture. You can see the bridge at the left, Sun Light Basin Road diagonals up at the left side Then the switch backs... couldn't take those too fast in my Expedition.... At the right is Table Rock. BTW, I never did find the end of Sunlight Basin Road. And I went over 60 miles down it one Sunday morning...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The last time I did an out-of-town work trip, I ended up very hungry on the return journey, because there was only one restaurant open at Oakland Airport when I was changing planes there, and it had an horrific line to get in, which I didn't have enough time for.

So for this trip, also involving a connection at Oakland, I made myself some smoked salmon sandwiches to eat during the layover, because I don't fancy the idea of a six-hour flight subsisting on nothing but one or two tiny bags of Southwest Airlines peanuts. After packing them into my carry-on, they attracted quite a bit of interest!

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Meanwhile, at Ontario (California) airport:

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With reference to Frank's piece about the music criticism note ("Neighbor finally loses patience..."), there was an April fool story in one of the British newspapers many years ago, reporting that a noise abatement order had been served on a pianist who was keeping his neighbors up by repeatedly practicing John Cage's 4'33".

I think you could have driven back from Oakland in less time than the plane took!! I've done it many times! If traffic is normal, then it's about 4 hours.