EZFlap wrote:

jprax wrote:So single gunman or two on the Kennedy assassination??

I'm guessing more than two. You ever see one bullet do a full Aresti aerobatic routine and hit two people from different directions? You ever see an autopsy and a body just disappear when nobody had anything to hide?

jprax wrote: To modify the engine of a 55 or so 172? Really? Pull the starter? really???

I guess you've never heard some of the guys here or on the Super Cub forum talking about removing weight. Just from what I've read and heard over a few short years, they all scream that real bush pilots are removing every ounce possible all the time. Maybe one of the more highly experienced bush pilot types here in BCP can correct me... has something changed recently where bush pilots and STOL operators are not serious about taking weight out of the airplane any more? I could swear that I've seen a whole lot of discussions on these forums about how the serious pilots are all serious about weight.

If one guy is so serious about weight removal for a STOL contest, that he left three pounds of fabric off of the fuselage of his Cub... in f***ing ice cold Alaska no less, then yes I would have to say that temporarily removing 75 pounds of starter, battery, generator, etc. is not a ridiculous thing for them to consider.

jprax wrote: Ben is a superb guy, .

That makes his performance all the more impressive. A superb pilot and a superb guy. Score one for the old school

jprax wrote:There is a wind sock right behind the photographers,

Precisely. What good does it do there, for the thousands of people who watch the videos?

jprax wrote: We could put one up for this camera angle but generally you don't put them in the apron. At least not at this airport.

If you are having the most bad-ass, most recognized, most hotly contested STOL competition in the whole world, where momentary and/or steady headwinds are a huge factor in the achieved performance of the competitors.... don't you think that it would be useful (for all of the people around the world who see this on the internet) if there was a windsock, or a flag, visible in the camera's field of view? Nobody was smart enough to think about that?

I'm not telling you to re-design the apron, ramp, or runway at Valdez. I'm not remotely telling you how to run your contest, or what types of airplane modifications are legal or approved. I'm not even telling you that Oswald and Jack Ruby had lunch on the Grassy Knoll with Castro and Kruschev on November 21.

I'm telling you that the simple (even temporary) placement of a windsock in the view of the !($*% camera is something that just makes sense and would be important to tens of thousands of people who see these videos. The windsock (even a handkerchief on the end of a fishing pole) can be 100 feet on the other side of the runway, behind the touchdown target, so it doesn't block anyone's view or affect the aircraft.

With sincere respect and no insult intended...please correct me if I'm wrong... is there any reason that something so obvious to an average video spectator hasn't been thought of and put into place?

mtv wrote:
What an asinine diatribe. Joe is the guy who put that program together, and it's incredibly well run and successful.

MTV

EZFlap wrote:So I'll dumb this down a little bit, and pose the question in a way that can be more easily understood.

<snip>

OMFG this is so not the MENSA side of aviation.