The Bad Angel

Tucson, Arizona - September 2013

There are some fascinating aircraft in the Pima Air Museum. Their collection is approaching 500 types. The Bad Angel is a P-51 that was piloted by Lt. Louis Curdes. He shot down nine German 109s and an Italian fighter before being shot down himself. He escaped an Italian POW camp and was reassigned to the Pacific where he also got one Japanese kill. One day he saw a wayward C-47 approaching Japanese held Bataan and tried to warn them off. Failing this he shot out both engines of the C-47 and the nurses aboard were rescued after the plane ditched in the ocean. He is the only pilot with German, Italian, Japanese and American kills to his credit...

The Airplane below is my old C-124. I flew 2,800 hours in them crisscrossing the Pacific. One day we took off from Guam heading 1800 miles west to Clark Air Force base in the Philippines. We were doing 200 nautical miles an hour (a nautical mile is about 1.15 real miles). It was another nice day to cross the Philippines Sea. I hum and update my fuel consumption chart. I'm dead reckoning but I can get a sun line every 45 minutes. As the day passes the sun line changes from a speed line to a course line. There is a wall of black clouds ahead. I turn the weather radar up to its maximum range of 100 miles. I see a solid wall 75 miles ahead. The pilot asks if we have enough gas to go back. I tell him no. He wants to know if we can divert North to Taipei. I tell him no way we have enough gas. We are at 8,000 feet. Nobody predicted a typhoon. We press ahead. The night is falling.

As we enter the typhoon wall we hit a severe updraft. The altimeter looks like a clock gone crazy. We are climbing thousands of feet a minute. We pass 16,000 feet and put on our oxygen masks. It's really turbulent. The pilot noses us over into a dive. The airspeed goes from 200 to 450 and hangs there. We're diving and still going up. Blood boils at altitude without a pressure suit...we hit 22,000 feet, still diving, still going up. It's pitch black except for red instrument lights.

The pilots talk to each other. "Holy shit these controls are stiff", one says. Then comes the first downdraft. The combined effects of the downdraft and dive are spectacular. The pilots stop worrying about boiling blood and start to worry about hitting the ocean. They put the plane into a climb. The flight engineer kicks in the superchargers. We go to MAX power. The engines start to overheat and are approaching red lines for heat and RPM. The airspeed drops to 130 and the stall warning klaxon sounds continuously. Still we plummet. We pass 3,000 feet.


This aircraft was old. The wings fell off sometimes in just moderate turbulence. The airplane is climbing and falling and bouncing and shuddering on the thin edge of stalling. The stall warning horn keeps droning. The pilots talk again on the intercom. One says, "Don't lose it.". The other grunts. Oh. Here's another updraft in the nick of time. The cycle repeats again and again.

The B-29 below was the technological wonder of its time, it cost $600,000 a copy, it made for a $3 billion wartime Cadillac investment. The 250 mph jet stream over Japan fouled up plans for the high-altitude bombing. Navigator genius Curtis Lemay stood methods on their head by stripping armament and machine guns and sending in waves of these giants and their children crews with 10-pound incendiaries at night, at 500 feet, to set fire to hundreds of thousands of women, children and old men.

The names of these lovely shining birds included:
• Sentimental Journey
• Laden Maiden
• Liberty Belle
• Uninvited Guest
• American Beauty
• Lethal Lady
• Lucky Strike
• Arson, Inc
• Bad Penny
• Blind Date
• Enola Gay

 A silhouette of "Fat Man" and "Little Boy". Fat Man was designed with a 64-inch diameter girth to fit into the B-29's bomb bay.

Only three of these Columbia X5Cs were built in 1947 due to structural problems. We are leaving the RV in Benson for a week for structural repairs and taking a road trip to southern California.

36 of these Martin PMB-5As were built in 1940.

Three F-107s were built in 1956. They lost out to the F105 which had an internal bomb bay for nuclear missions.

The SR-71 Blackbird could do 2200 MPH at 85,000 feet. I saw one land at dawn in Okinawa in 1966.  Actually, it was the single-seat early model A-12...but the same deal basically...Mach 3 at 80,000 feet...

The Douglas B-18 Bolo came out in 1936. It was obsolete by WWII and was used to detect submarines.

The A-10 Warthog is built around a 30-millimeter cannon that spews 4,200 rounds a minute. It's heavily armored and has a top speed of 380 MPH...

The Grumman F-18 came out in 1974. It has a speed of 1544MPH and a range of 2,400 miles.

F-18 front view.

F4C

B-24

Douglas A-26

B-25

Spitfire

German V-1

F4C

F105 "thud"

C-141

B-52

B-47

B-50

C-124

C-133

C-130

B-25

Mig 15

Allison engine used on the P-38, P-39 and P-40.

B-58

Mig-29 "Fulcrum"

Improbable cross examinations

 East Texas State Park -April 4, 2011

We moved 200 miles west into east Texas. It started to rain so we pulled in early, but the forecast tornadoes and severe thunderstorms have turned to afternoon sunshine.


ATTORNEY:  What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS:     He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY:  And why did that upset you?
WITNESS:     My name is Susan!
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS:     Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
_____

It's probably still 600 or 700 miles to the Big Bend National Park in West Texas. I'm thinking that the cactus should be in bloom.

_______________________________________

  ___________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Are you sexually active?
WITNESS:     No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS:     Yes.
ATTORNEY:  And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS:     I forget.
ATTORNEY:  You forget?  Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS:     We both do.
ATTORNEY:  Voodoo?
WITNESS:     We do.
ATTORNEY:  You do?
WITNESS:     Yes, voodoo.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS:  Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY:  The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS:      He's 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS:     Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS:     Yes.
ATTORNEY:  And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS:     Getting laid
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  She had three children, right?
WITNESS:     Yes.
ATTORNEY:  How many were boys?
WITNESS:    None.
ATTORNEY:   Were there any girls?
WITNESS:      Your Honour, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS:     By death.
ATTORNEY:  And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS:     Take a guess.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS:     He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY:  Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS:     Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS:  No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS:     All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS:     Oral...
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS:     The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY:  And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS:     If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY:  Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS:     Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________


ATTORNEY:  Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS:     Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY:  I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS:     Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Social Hour at Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana.

Running Around With Her Hair on Fire

On the Mekong River -12/23/11

The boat cabin came with an adapter that seemed to work OK with the laptop, which needs 12.5 volts of direct current. I plugged in Carol's hair curler and she mentioned that it got hot really fast. Then her hair started to smoke.

So I plugged in the transformer we carry that steps down 250 volts alternating current to 110 volts.

One thing is still the same as it was in the 1960s. It's the depressing poverty that you see everywhere. One difference is that the thatched huts and sheet metal dwellings usually have a TV antenna or even a satellite dish.

This morning we trudged up a hill to visit a temple/monastery. I forgot my camera sim card. Some kids took me to the school where the monks were learning math. There was a sign that said, "THE TIME IS MONEY". I thought that was very zen.

The Mekong means "the mother of all rivers" so when you say Mekong River, you are saying "Mother River River".

We visit more  Cambodian hilltop temples in the morning and afternoon.

Finally, we visit the Amica village. they are harvesting rice and carrying it to store on carts, in baskets on poles, and carrying baskets of rice on their heads.

Before going to the village we stop to buy toys, pencils, and notebooks for the village children.

TV antenna on the upper right.

We transfer to a bus today for a four-hour drive to Siem Reap. Angkor Wat is nearby, which should be a high point of the tour.

This is the first place we go with no children asking politely for money. Here they know that the tourists will give small gifts as they leave. They sing for us and we sing for them (If you're happy clap your hands).

It takes a million bamboo poles to build this bridge. They put it up every year and take it down before the rainy season. It can handle a car.

San Juan River Raft Trip

Bluff, Utah to Mexican Hat, Utah -July 2008

At 4:32 AM this morning the International Space Station became visible in Bluff, Utah. It wasn't as bright as I expected it would be. You would think anything with a $190 million dollar toilet would be dazzling.

The raft trip departs near Bluff at 8 am and ends up in Mexican Hat, 26 miles downstream, around 5 pm. Our guide, for some reason, wears a striped necktie with his straw hat and tennis shoes.

The first stop is a sandstone wall with 150 yards of petroglyphs. The earliest of these may date back 10,000 years to Clovis Man. More elaborate designs are about 1,000 years old by the basketweaver culture. I suspect that the ones that say "BLM Sucks" are fairly recent additions. One recurring enigmatic design appears to be Kenny from South Park.



We see more Indian ruins, after a 1/2 mile hike, a little later in the morning. These were the Anasazi, ancestors to the local Zuni, Hopi and Ute tribes. The cliff shelter forms a natural amphitheater. I can clearly hear the group conversations from 100 yards away. You can imagine voices from the inhabitants on a warm summer day.



We run into some mountain goats about halfway through the float.



It's interesting to watch the layers of sandstone along the river. One yellow layer traps petroleum. Sometimes it dives into the earth, sometimes it reappears...Mrs. Phred claims she can smell the oil. The red layer is Navajo sandstone, petrified ancient sand dunes. There is one very old layer called Paradox. It is believed to have originated near the equator, in a shallow sea, back before the continents drifted apart.

The thing about the yellow layer of rock is that it's fairly impermeable. If you can find a place where it folds up into an anticline, the low-density oil and gas bubbles up and accumulates at the top of the dome or fold. It's the kind of structure that gets oil geologists really hot.



I like this picture of a desert bee chowing down on a prickly pear flower.