What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Exactly how dumb is this woman?

My dad sent me that link yesterday. Funny stuff.
We had a guy here in Indy show up at the airport with body armor and a pellet gun (?) stuck in his belt : news story

T.
 
How stupid was this dame?! I mean, a crowded plane is the absolute best place to cut the cheese. You just look around innocently and say "do you smell that?" Or so I've heard. :cool:
 
Anyone see the irony that you can bring 4 books of matches on an airliner but not a bottle of shampoo? :rolleyes:
 
Can't quite see that ...

I can definitely see lunacy ... but still hunting for the irony in that. :confused:
 
Jamie said:
Anyone see the irony that you can bring 4 books of matches on an airliner but not a bottle of shampoo? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Jamie,
My thought exactly. I know the security folks at the airports have a tough time :eek: , but my admiration of them was taken down a few notches when they discovered a pair of toe nail scissors in my carry-on luggage. There must have been 5 people attacking my shaving kit. Then they confiscated the scissors. You'd have thought I had a Luger in my bag by the way they acted. My ball point pen could do more damage in the hands of a trained killer than my toe nail scissors!!!
It's been 3 years and obviously I haven't forgotten it. :rolleyes:
Don
 
Ron: Perhaps lunacy was the better word. :cool:

I too try to be patient with the baggage screener folks. They're just trying to do their jobs. I guess I don't understand policy more than anything. It just seems completely reactionary and overbearing (i.e. "nude" x-ray machines) while other major terror targets go almost unchecked. The last three major terror attacks (outside of Iraq) were on commuter trains (Spain, London and India). What do we do about that?
 
There is security, and then there is the "illusion" of security.


The chain-link fence around the GA airport? That's the illusion of security.

That "Emergency Broadcast System" , umm, test once a week on yourlocal radio station -- pure illusion of security.

It's not necessarily as important to BE safe, as it is to FEEL safe. Not "feeling" safe is what almost put the airlines out of business.

I feel particularly ashamed of our national paranoia when I see elderly -- often confused -- people getting a good going over at the security checklists, and people kicked off flights someone thought they were "actiing suspicious" by praying.

Unrelated, mostly: in a school district around here they cancelled school for an entire school SYSTEM from yesterday until MOnday because someone broke a barometer with mercury in it in a classroom. An entire SYSTEM?

At some point, we just have to get a grip.
 
I'm with other Steve on this. Like we learned in 4th grade, "he who smelt it, dealt it". Or, wherever you be, let your winds blow free.

Buddy, ya gotta light?
Steve
 
and people kicked off flights someone thought they were "actiing suspicious" by praying.
Click to expand...
In general I'd agree, but as more details emerge from the six imam incident, it appears that there was a lot more going on there than simple praying. I would not have stayed on that airplane either.
 
Well, I dunno, Dave. But I'm pretty sure the next terrorist attack in the U.S. isn't going to be preceded by the would-be evildoers calling a bunch of attention to themselves in the terminal ("hey, over here! We're terrorists!")

I'll bet right now there's someone...somewhere....wondering whether it'd be possible to blow up a plane with flatulence. Pretty soon we'll add "people who recently ate chili" to the list of things that aren't allowed on an airplane. :D

BTW, and off-topic, I LOVED your video with your helmet cam.
 
Last edited:
Cheese

We used to have contests in the cockpit. It was easier to get away with it with a 3 man crew, once we went to 2 man it was harder to get away with. But then I got senior enough to fly International with a relief officer and again the fox may not be the finder. Roger Moore
 
Arsenal Tech??!!

TShort said:
My dad sent me that link yesterday. Funny stuff.
We had a guy here in Indy show up at the airport with body armor and a pellet gun (?) stuck in his belt : news story

T.
Click to expand...


Maybe no one read the article closely, but did anyone catch that the guy arrested for wearing armor and carrying a pellet gun was a senior at "Arsenal Tech"? (http://www.s716.ips.k12.in.us/)

It just struck me as a bit odd - perhaps ironic :)

I don't think the name needs to be changed, but it amazes me that someone hasn't thrown a fit about a school with Arsenal in the name...
 
N520TX said:
Can you imagine a day when this will be used as a tool to spot the potential "people who recently ate chilli" type of terrorist ?

http://www.break.com/index/fart_caught_on_infrared_camera.html

Guys will find this funny - and mildy hypnotic.
Click to expand...

BS - you'll notice if you look carefully the expelled "gas" was colder than room temperature (black on IR, not white), meaning it was most likely CO2, butane, or some other compressed gas. Expelled methane would be at body temperature and would appear hot (white like his arm) on the video, not cold (black).
 
Gases have poor heat capacity

airguy said:
BS - you'll notice if you look carefully the expelled "gas" was colder than room temperature (black on IR, not white), meaning it was most likely CO2, butane, or some other compressed gas. Expelled methane would be at body temperature and would appear hot (white like his arm) on the video, not cold (black).
Click to expand...

Naaah. Why go to so much trouble when imaging the "real thing" is so easy to do? (implanting a CO2 cartridge, valve, and misc plumbing inside a cleanroom bunny suit vs the "natural way"). Methane has very poor heat capacity - sure it's at body temperature immediately upon expulsion, but cools very rapidly to below body temp in ambient air.
 
FiveNinerTIM said:
Naaah. Why go to so much trouble when imaging the "real thing" is so easy to do? (implanting a CO2 cartridge, valve, and misc plumbing inside a cleanroom bunny suit vs the "natural way"). Methane has very poor heat capacity - sure it's at body temperature immediately upon expulsion, but cools very rapidly to below body temp in ambient air.
Click to expand...

Sorry - try again. I make a good living dealing with compressed gases, with 15 years of engineering behind me. I know better.
 
By golly, you're right.

Bob Collins said:
Well, I dunno, Dave. But I'm pretty sure the next terrorist attack in the U.S. isn't going to be preceded by the would-be evildoers calling a bunch of attention to themselves in the terminal ("hey, over here! We're terrorists!")
Click to expand...

Yep, probably not going to be any warning from terrorists just prior to intentionally targeting and killing the next batch of unarmed civilians.

As an aside, it might be worth noting that the six imams that were removed from the airplane were not six simple farmers who were simply travelling from point A to point B and saying a few simply prayers. These were educated clerics. The six imams clearly had an agenda. Was it making a "statement"? Was it gold-digging for a juicy civil rights violation law suit? Was it a probe to assess how much disruption would be allowed before a security intervention?

Also, the airlines don't just willy-nilly remove passengers from airplanes(I've witnessed several obnoxious, drunken, disorderly people on various commercial flights who should have been removed but were allowed to fly). Passengers get removed from an airliner only after they earn it. And they have to work pretty hard to earn it.

I must say, Bob, that I am disappointed that you would defend the actions of anyone who would intentionally disrupt a commercial flight. Oh, and if I've read too much into your statement, I apologize.
 
I am not one to conclude anything just because I might be predisposed to do so.

Besides, if you read my original point again, you'll see that it was that we have taken away our own freedoms, that we seem to demand a risk free world. We can't have a risk free world.

I also don't believe the terrorist threat is anywhere near our level of angst. Wouldn't a bus, train, or subway have blown up by now? A marketplace. Somewhere? The reason we make a big show of "security" at airports isn't because of the severity of the threat -- or else we'd make a big show of it on subways, trains, and marketplaces -- it's because we need people to think flying is risk-free. It's a big part of the economy.

Now we're afraid of prayers and farts, and men who ask for seat belt extensions. Like I said, we need to get a grip.

Look what happened after the space shuttle break-up. We wanted to end centuries of exploration of the unknown because of an accident. Too much risk got defined as "any risk at all." Ridiculous.

Frankly, I'd wish they'd start wrestling those screaming babies on airplanes to the ground, and hustle them off my flights. :D
 
Last edited:
The pendulum is still swinging

Bob Collins said:
Now we're afraid of prayers and farts, and men who ask for seat belt extensions. Like I said, we need to get a grip.
Click to expand...
There were a lot of criticisms of the adminstration(s) for failing to "connect the dots" prior to 9/11. Pre-attack intelligence briefings were cherry-picked after the fact to find proof that the current administration ignored evidence about the 9/11 attacks that should have been patently obvious to anyone that was looking, completely ignoring that these "dots" were surrounded by millions of others making it difficult to impossible to pick the critical ones out from the rest of them and taking action on them.

Back then, the pendulum had arguably swung too far to the side of laxity and complacency, and no one believed an attack of that magnitude could succeed against us. Post 9/11, the pendulum swung (as it had to) to the side of connecting any and all dots, often to the level of absurdity. To a large degree, that is where we still are. I think that through time we will see the pendulum begin to swing back to a more normal level. Hopefully we will never return to the level of disattention that we had pre 9/11, but we do need to get away from jumping at shadows.

That said, our responses will be tested and probed. There will be attempts to distract us, or to modify our security awareness via feints and lawsuits whenever they can provoke a response. We may have just seen one or both of those, or we may not have. But while life will never be completely risk free, it may be better to err on the side of safety for awhile longer until we can ahieve a better balance between awareness and over-reaction. All of which means, I think, that I agree with you for the most part, but I'm reading a bit more into the recent US Airways incident than you are. My internal pendulum is still kinda hanging over there on the scaredy-cat side.

BTW, thanks for the feedback on the videos. I'm hoping to get a better audio solution than those awful narrations before next year's flying season. I'm hoping to do some RVmentaries on places like Put-in-Bay and the other Erie islands in the spring.
 
Last edited:
I think that's a very astute assessment, Dave.

Think about all the things that have happened as the result of a small group of guys with 99-cent boxcutters.

Lucky shot.
 
Last edited:
Let's hope!

Bob Collins said:
Lucky shot.
Click to expand...
I truly hope so. I'm very afraid of what the reaction would be to another aviation-related success, particularly (and admittedly, a bit selfishly) with regards to the freedoms we still enjoy as private pilots. I'd hazard a guess that we can all agree on that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top