Hercs are remarkable birds. That said, the aircraft's utilization is interesting. This 52 year old plane only has 27000 hours. For commercial aircraft that would just be a pup. I guess it is not the years, but how rough the road...

Ah, man. A PT-22. Those are neat old planes. A basic trainer from pre-WWII. Nice little radial engine and an open cockpit.

I think the real game changer is if they can get "on demand" driverless cars to work. Then you have the sea change that goes along with individually owned driverless cars as described above, but you also run the risk of less individuals owning a car, or as many cars, as they do now. Less product to insure means less…

Buddy of mine has a time share on the other side of the island. We spent a week there with and a day at the beach. It was good fun. Really enjoyed hitting the farmers markets and the beach.

that is the best time share in the history of ever. We need to be friends.

I'm not sure if you would categorize Jim as sane in the common sense of the word. Building multimillion dollar bespoke race cars that can be run on the street for kicks and giggles is amazing art and passion, but probably not the most sensible thing one can do with their money.

Hmmm, just did some reading. I never made the connection. Interesting.

going to be cold for NASCAR at AMS. Since QT is sponsoring the Cup race here is a pic of their donuts, which are pretty good. Their maple bar is, sadly, the best you can get in Atlanta, but it is still pretty tasty.

You apparently haven't seen me at a LeMons race as I am fairly certain that was a regular occurrence at CMP.

A number of ways, I would suppose. I'm not sure how SWA tracks things like that. Typically you have a computer system that keeps track of time controls and helps ensure they are scheduled. Like anything though, those systems are only as good as the data that goes in. Perhaps the wrong limits were set (should have…

We really need to have a beer some day.

A fair chance that SWA presented a Safety Risk Assessment to the FAA and it was found to be acceptable to operate the aircraft for that period of time. Safety Risk Management has been supported by the FAA, and other industries and regulatory authorities, as a means to systematically look at situations like this…

NACA engineers FTW!

splitting hairs a bit there, but fine. Yes aramid.

They have fiberglass skins and either honeycomb or foam cores. When you have a rapid failure like that you don't get much in the way of fibers.

I'm passing through Tokyo on our way to Phuket on the 25th as well!, but we are stopping over for a couple of days on the way back over the first week of May. We typically stay at the Shinjuku Hilton, but I think I may need to try a new hotel!

A-10 is more the modern P-47, which it was named after, but yeah, I get what you mean.

Works equally well for 3 year olds and NASCAR drivers.

As is true in many things in life, Sponge Bob says it best.