A nice looking, new red Infinity pulled out of the upper parking lot of my office building just as I was leaving the garage, and I followed him into the left turn lane to make a u-turn. The car's plate was 5XP...., making it the first car I've seen that a full number past my Escape, which is 5XF.....
I drove down to Mission Viejo on Sunday for an Accident Scene Management class.
The story of BA flight 009 and the words every passenger dreads ...
by ZOE BRENNAN
With unbelievable restraint, Captain Eric Moody addressed British Airways flight 009 as his Boeing 747 drifted inexorably down towards the Indian Ocean.
Displaying the stiff-upper-lip spirit that built an empire, he uttered the words that are every air passenger's worst nightmare: 'Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get it under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.'
Minutes before, while cruising at ten kilometers above the sea, Captain Moody had instructed his first officer to send a Mayday call to ground control in nearby Indonesia. The date was June 24, 1982, and this extraordinary flight has since gone down in aviation history.
My game today was Pasadena at Arcadia, Boys Varsity. An important league rivalry. The center referee schedule for the game was late, and after fifteen minutes the AD for Arcadia asked us to start the game using a two-man system.
About fifteen minutes in an Arcadia player broke for goal with the Pasadena sideline screaming for an offside call. I let the play continue, because the player wasn't in an offside position when the ball was last player by his teammate, and the attack resulted in a goal. The PHS coach is known to complain, loudly and often, and it seemed prudent to give him a gentle warning.
About 25 minutes into the first half, the center referee arrived and took over the game. He's a great ref - good feeling for the game, superior positioning, excellent fitness, and a lot of experience. He managed the game perfectly - including sending off an Arcadia player for taunting. After a breakaway, the AHS player got to the six-yard box uncontested, stopped the ball on the goal line, got down on his hands and knees and headed the ball into the goal. I explained things to the Arcadia sideline - it's an automatic send-off in NFHS soccer, with almost no discretion allowed. If the center ref had only issued a caution, he would have had control problems the rest of the game. It was just the right call.
All in all, it was a fun game to work. Arcadia held on for a comfortable 4-2 win after conceding some late goals once the result had been determined.
from an article published in Soaring Magazine by Wade H.Nelson
If a Boeing 767 runs out of fuel at 41,000 feet what do you have? Answer: A 132 ton glider with a sink rate of over 2000 feet-per-minute and marginally enough hydraulic pressure to control the ailerons, elevator, and rudder. Put veteran pilots Bob Pearson and cool-as-a-cucumber Maurice Quintal in the in the cockpit and you've got the unbelievable but true story of Air Canada Flight 143, known ever since as the Gimli Glider.
Flight 143's problems began on the ground in Montreal. A computer known as the Fuel Quantity Information System Processor manages the entire 767 fuel loading process. The FQIS controls all of the fuel pumps and drives all the 767's fuel gauges. Little is left for crew and refuelers to do but hook up the hoses and dial in the desired fuel load. But the FQIS was not working properly on Flight 143. The fault was later discovered to be a poorly soldered sensor. A highly improbable, one-in-a-million sequence of mistakes by Air Canada technicians investigating the problem defeated several layers of redundancy built into the system. This left Aircraft #604 without working fuel gauges.
I haven't had a bloody nose since I was a kid, but recently have had a spate of them - including two big ones yesterday and a small one just now.
