Posts by Evan Yates
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I got my first glasses at age 5, which immediately put and end to my career dream of being an airforce fighter pilot. Luckily, Aunty Helen removed any painful reminders of my lost dream some years later.
Mum told me, as I was a pre-schooler, the indicator for her was not the blackboard, but the preferred close viewing position to our (old B&W) TV.
I now find I am constantly giving my children ( 5 and 7 ) surreptitious ad-hoc vision tests. "What does that sign at the end of the street say?", "What type of airplane is that?". So far they show no signs of my defective eyesight gene. Time will tell.
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He should call it the "Jet PAC" where PAC stands for "Personal Air Craft". That way he could keep the whole Jet Pack vibe while more accurately describing it. (Like everyone refers to a JetSki when in fact they are officially referred to in the industry as "Personal Water Craft")
As for licensing, I suspect that it will be light enough to qualify as a microlight helicopter under CAA rules. That means that you won't need a full PPL(H) to fly it. (but maybe a microlight pilot's cert will be needed)
My main worry is that the likely operational envelope for this machine will be a bit on the dangerous side. I'd put money on the fact that this device has no equivalent of a helicopter's auto-rotation mode due to an engine failure.
Further to that I'd also be interested to know the minimum altitude from which a ballistic parachute could be deployed to make a successful save from a mechanical failure.
Without auto-rotate, there would be a "death-zone" between the altitudes "high-enough-that-the-fall-will-kill-you" and "high-enough-that-the-chute-will-save-you".
Good luck, Glenn Martin, but try not to kill anyone (especially yourself) too soon.
P.S. Would I fly one? You bet your sweet ass I would...
However, I suspect that I am well over the weight limit. -
@Josh
"hoist by his/her/their own petard"
I've always assumed it meant blown up by your own bomb. Please tell me I haven't been wrong for all these years...
Is petard actually a French slang word for testicles or something?... Being hoist by those would not be too pleasant.
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Consumer Generated Media are not mere foot soldiers. No! They are the elite ninja commandos that go stealthily ashore into unexplored territory. They take the (old) guard by surprise and garotte the sentries in the watchtowers. They fight the vital battles that spike the guns and win the invasion. They fight for the sheer pleasure of knocking the bastards off.
Paid content is the lowly conscript forced to follow along by order of a corps of grey officers comfortably ensconced in the rear echelon. They disembark from their "taken-up-from-trade" luxury cruise ships, saunter ashore, bayonet the wounded prisoners, steal their wallets and use the pliers from their corporate branded gift-bag multi-tool to pull all the gold teeth from the jaws of the fallen. The are just there for what they can get and would prefer not to get their hands dirty taking any risky initiatives.
Which group would you rather join? Be careful, your choice tells me all I need to know about you...
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Speaking of preserving vinyl treasures, Graham, did you ever get your low-cost-vinyl-to-digital preservation system working?
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But dimmers are toast. The end of civilisation is nigh.
You can get CFLs that work with dimmers (using a special ballast) BUT they will be more expensive.
From the GE Lighting website :
To use a compact fluorescent bulb on a dimmer switch, you must buy a bulb that's specifically made to work with dimmers (check the package). GE makes a dimming compact fluorescent light bulb (called the Energy Smart Dimming Spirals®) that is specially designed for use with dimming switches. We don't recommend using regular compact fluorescent bulbs with dimming switches, since this can shorten bulb life. (Using a regular compact fluorescent bulb with a dimmer will also nullify the bulb's warranty.) -
What is PAS but online talkback?
Kind of...
However, I can look at a list of blog postings and after a few lines of each one can see if they are making a relevant or interesting (to me) point. If not I can decide to skip to the next one.
On radio, the host makes that decision for me. Sometimes they like to let some caller blather on just to stir controversy.
The difference in t/b-radio to blog is the reader of a blog has some control over what gets their attention. Not so much on radio.
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oh yeah and someone put our airport so far away that a cab ride is $70 normally - luckily my boss pays for it
Ummmm... Paul, would you prefer to have the airport so close that you can be there by taxi in $20, but 747s take-off over your house every 20 minutes?
The problem is not remoteness (good for airports) but access. Direct rail and bus links plus motorways that end at the terminals would help.
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there seems to be quite a groundswell for sharia law in New Zealand
Only among the self-selecting sample of psychos who choose to spill their spleens on talk-back.
Middle class white left-ish leaning demi-liberals like myself just sit back and weep at the sad state of some people's lives.Serious criminals are in the minority in this country and so are the serious loonies who want to take a leaf out of Draco's book when it comes to punishing them. (That's not Draco Malfoy either...)
I suggest we say : "Fine. We will lop hands off taggers. But we need volunteers to perform the amputations."
When the volunteers put their intact hands up, we then get a definitive list of people with serious mental problems that need watching ;-) -
Senor Christie, may I ask what sort of dosh you have to hand over for a machine like yours?
Retail prices range from ~$4300 + ORC for the ET2 model up to ~$7700 + ORC for the GT200.
Prices taken from ScooterWorld. No association, just found them via Google.