Washington DC SFRA Instructional Videos

Check these out:

http://aviationsafetyvideos.com/dcsfravideos.html

Air France 447 Crash Update

Now that the black boxes have finally been recovered and analyzed, we're getting a picture of what happened before Air France 447 disappeared:

Crash Report Shows Confused Cockpit

Stall recovery technique seems to be a problem. It doesn't sound that different from the Buffalo crash, aside from the icing :(

Primary students know that the reason an airplane stalls is that the critical angle of attack has been exceeded, and that the first step in stall recovery, therefore, is to simply reduce the angle of attack! I can certainly understand how airspeed indicator malfunctions can make it difficult for the pilot to recognize what condition the airplane is in- but stall recognition is taught so that pilots can recognize stalls using a variety of cues, of which airspeed is only one...

Storms hit Lakeland, FL

Many friends and coworkers have been affected by some nasty weather across central Florida today, just in time for a big airshow called Sun 'n Fun:

http://www.aopa.org/sunnfun/2011/110331sun-n-fun_closed_violent_storm_destroys_many_aircraft.html

http://www.avweb.com/news/snf/SunNFun2011_SunnFunHitByViciousWindsRainExtensiveDamage_204378-1.html

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=523260b7-5ff3-43ca-b09e-7741674f202f&

New Job

I have a new job, and the image below speaks for itself I think....

If you are an AOPA member, you can see what we're all about here:

http://www.aopa.org/members/pic/index.html

Kodak digital camera, circa 1975

Pretty cool design- it recorded on analog tape:

http://nerdology.tumblr.com/post/998388796

... which really isn't that different, or much faster, than how my first digital camera stored photos. It was a Sony Mavica FD-7. With a max res of 640x480, the results were mediocre at best- but by God, I was finally untethered from 35mm film. It had a 10x optical zoom lens, which was a big deal since its little brother, the FD-5, had no zoom but cost a good bit less:

http://www.rfwilmut.clara.net/about/mavica.html

Google TV

Mashups. They are all the rage lately. I don't mean audio mashups (although DC101's Flounder's Mashups is a favorite of mine) or social networking mashups (every site seems to have 20 cross-post buttons now). Here's what I'm talking about: DVD players have network connections now, to stream Netflix for example, and hopefully firmware updates too. Laptops have bluetooth now (I still haven't come up with a use for it on my Macbook Pro- isn't a bluetooth mouse overkill?).

Here's my question though- they are starting to put intelligence into TV sets- does anyone own a TV that's more than just a TV? You know, it has a brain that can do more than take in HDMI and display 1080p? For example, the TVs that will play Google TV? If so- I want to hear all about it. Educate me- and feel free to review your setup with pro-your-model and anti-everyone-else's-model zeal as you explain it to me.

And yes, I know that when the day of reckoning comes, I will be punished for my overuse of parentheses. I just like micro-digression, I suppose. At least it will be offset by my desire to always spell correctly and use the apostrophe properly.

The State of the Web, Winter 2010

Read all about it at The Oatmeal (= funny stuff) :

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/state_web_winter