--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EFW00010 Date: 11/26/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 05:42am \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-871 This is about all of the aviation news that has come into my basket (?) over the past 24 hours. Jim Planes drop emergency food to flooded Somalis ------------------------------------------------------------------- NAIROBI - November 25, 1997 11:53 a.m. EST - A light aircraft dropped food to marooned Somalis on Tuesday for the first time, U.N. World Food Program spokeswoman Michele Quintaglie reported. She said the Twin Otter flew low over Afmadou, in the south, to drop 600 kilograms of high-protein biscuits nearby. Another 750 kilograms were being dropped later at nearby Hagar. "It was an experiment -- it was successful," Quintaglie said, adding that American Refugee Committee (ARC) workers were on the ground to distribute the rations. Andrew Rosauer of the ARC said Afmadou was under 6 feet of water, with some people on roofs but the rest of the population of 8,000 on nearby high ground, along with 4,000 people from nearby villages. Forty-four people had died there, from drowning, malaria, and dysentry, he said. The confirmed death toll in Somalia since the Juba River burst its banks on Oct. 18 rose to 1,386 on Tuesday, an inter-agency com- mittee reported. More than 230,000 Somalis have fled their submerged villages in the worst floods in living memory. The torrential rains up and down East Africa are taking a brief swing to the south, which will provide short-lived relief for Ethiopia and Somalia but further batter Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the Kenya-based Drought Monitoring Service reported. ---------------------------------------------------- And these people continue to murder their own people at Mogadushu? Jim --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EFW00011 Date: 11/26/97 From: KARL SCHNEIDER Time: 09:58am \/To: JIM SANDERS (Read 0 times) Subj: news-860 On (24 Nov 97) Jim Sanders wrote to Jay Hanig... JS> > Denver was an experienced pilot. JS> If he was so experienced, why was he flying with a suspended JS> medical. That makes him a "scoff-Law" in my opinion. I don't know the details of that incident, but the status of a medical has absolutely nothing to do with experience. ... Nine in Ten doctors believe Epoxy can be cured. --- PPoint 2.05 * Origin: Green Country (1:170/170.6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EFW00012 Date: 11/26/97 From: BILL WUNSCH Time: 09:16am \/To: JIM SANDERS (Read 0 times) Subj: canada and nukes Greetings, Jim! On 25 Oct 97, Jim Sanders entered the following ASCII codes for the express viewing pleasure of Bill Wunsch: >> The year was 1950 and the weapons were atomic bombs with the plutonium >> core removed. I understand it was standard procedure, with the intent >> being to safeguard nuclear-bomb design secrets, to jetison and explode >> the device if the aircraft developed problems. The blast would disperse >> about 45 kilograms of uranium into the atmosphere. JS> JS> This is mostly in error... The U2 would not be in the older JS> bombs until armed. Those were a pain to arm that is all I can JS> say... Only the HE would explode. JS> JS> I understand the bombs were complete, except for the core. All the explosives used to detonate the weapon were in place. These were used to destroy it. The casing of uranium, designed to boost the force of the nuclear explosion, accounts for the 45 kilograms of uranium dispersed in the atmosphere. The one from the B-36 was released and denonated over the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver Island. There is no comment on whether anyone on the ground noticed. The B-50, however, ran into trouble over the St. Lawrence River. I will quote a few paragraphs from the article. Quote The bomb, also lacking its essential plutonium core, was detonated near Riviere-du-Loup, Que., at about 760 metres. "I have the confirmation from the crew on board," Clearwater said. The blast of 2.2 tonnes of high explosives shook the ground and scattered 45 kilograms of uranium. Residents in the area were terrified, fearful that the hostilities of the Korean War had somehow crept into their backyard. The U.S. Air Force covered up the incident by saying a load of 500-pound conventional practice bombs had been jettisoned. The B-50 bomber later landed safely at a Maine air base. Unquote -==- --- GoldED/386 2.42.G0615+ * Origin: Bill's Point -=- Regina, Sask, Canada (1:140/23.464) In a message to someone <11-23-97 09:24> Murray Wallace wrote: MW> Sorry, but "experienced" pilots don't go flying with empty tanks. MW> One of the first fundamentals pilots are taught is to check and MW> recheck the fuel, and don't just rely on the guages - dip the tanks! Thanks Murray. It's refreshing to hear a pilot talk about pilot responsibility. -- Bob Linenweber -- . ... There is safety in numbers - Participate in the "Wings" Program! --- QuickBBS 2.81 Ovr * Origin: FAA ASO-FSDO-15 BBS / Orlando, Florida (1:363/275) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EFW00013 Date: 11/26/97 From: ROBERT LINENWEBER Time: 04:51pm \/To: MURRAY WALLACE (Read 0 times) Subj: Thanks In a message to someone <11-23-97 09:24> Murray Wallace wrote: MW> Sorry, but "experienced" pilots don't go flying with empty tanks. MW> One of the first fundamentals pilots are taught is to check and MW> recheck the fuel, and don't just rely on the guages - dip the tanks! Thanks Murray. It's refreshing to hear a pilot talk about pilot responsibility. -- Bob Linenweber -- . ... There is safety in numbers - Participate in the "Wings" Program! --- QuickBBS 2.81 Ovr * Origin: FAA ASO-FSDO-15 BBS / Orlando, Florida (1:363/275) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EFX00000 Date: 11/26/97 From: HAL HANIG Time: 02:37pm \/To: JIM SANDERS (Read 0 times) Subj: news-860 26 Nov 97 09:39, Jay Hanig wrote to Jim Sanders: JH> *** Answering a msg posted in area ECHO_PM0 (GEcho PM for Jay Hanig). JS>> If he was so experienced, why was he flying with a suspended JS>> medical. That makes him a "scoff-Law" in my opinion. JS>> I can't support him either. Just thankful he killed no one JS>> but himself... If I may add my two cents worth to your discussion with Jay, it strikes me that you may have gotten caught up with a bunch of mixed metaphors in asking your question. In my view, what made him an experienced pilot was the number of cycles he went through successfully, as well as the time it took for him to go through those cycles. However, being experienced neither made him good, nor safe, nor legal. AAMOF, in this unfortunate case, it didn't even make him long-lived. But he WAS experienced and, IMHO, any other failures he may have had ought not detract from that particular accomplishment. Hal --- GoldED/386 2.50+ * Origin: ** The Wind Tunnel * Topsail Beach, NC ** (1:379/41.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EFX00001 Date: 11/26/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 10:19pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-872 Nine reportedly dead in Panama helicopter crash PANAMA CITY, Panama --- November 26, 1997 07:47 a.m. EST -- A government helicopter believed to be carrying police and Colombian refugees has crashed in the remote southern province of Darien. Local media reported nine people dead and two injured. An official of the National Air Service, which operated the craft, confirmed that the crash occurred but refused to specify the number of victims. News reports said the crash occurred Tuesday in Meteti, a village near the provincial capital of La Palma. The dead were four policemen and five people believed to be Colombian refugees. The area where the accident was reported is densely forested and has few communications links with the capital. Panama has stepped up policing of the southern province after thousands of refugees and some armed groups streamed over the border from neighboring Colombia in the last two years. ------------------------------------------------ LANGLEY, Samuel P. (1834-1906). On May 6, 1896, a strange machine flew one half mile (800 meters) over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. The odd craft was about 16 feet (4.8 meters) long and weighed some 26 pounds (12 kilograms). It flew about a minute and a half. This was the first time a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine stayed in the air for more than just a few seconds. (A picture of this model in flight, taken by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell was published in National Geographic Magazine, page 236, Aug. 1927 issue. Jim) The builder of this airplane model was Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. After many laboratory ex- periments, he had finally shown that extended mechanical flight was possible. Later he built a 56-foot (17-meter) machine for the War Department. Two attempts to launch it in 1903 failed. The Wright brothers, however, proved the worth of Langley's ideas in their successful man-carrying airplane. Langley's interest in aeronautics began in Roxbury, Mass., where he was born on Aug. 22, 1834. He watched gulls wheel and soar, using their wings only to meet new wind currents. His father's telescope gave him knowledge of astronomy. He attended Boston Latin School but did not go to college. Langley was appointed secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1887. He made the exhibits interesting for people of ordinary education and ordered the institution's books to be written in simple language. He established the Children's Room. Langley put into it things that children like--stuffed birds with their nests and eggs, odd sea animals, bright shells, and coral formations. He collected animals for a zoo, and from this collection grew the National Zoological Park. Langley died on Feb. 27, 1906, in Aiken, S.C. ---------------------------------------------- == --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1)