Thank you so much, MasterGreen! One of the things I like most about this site is that it is often informative *and* entertaining! (Someone better not tell Howard Stern about decompression chambers and wind, or we're in for something *far* beyond the broccoli and cauliflower fueled serenades we've been hearing up until now!)
A little knowledge *can* be dangerous - but I'm a firm believer in "better the devil you know". Throughout my life (and to the despair of my teachers), I've always been one to read up and investigate things that interest me. (nb - This did not always coincide with what the teachers were trying to teach me!)
*Never* trust the IFE. Learned this the hard way on long haul HNL-ORD. The tape loop (they were probably using 8 tracks back then!) featured as its last "track" a *minute* (I guess they ran out of space) of what was then one of my favorite songs - Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues". No such things as Walkmans (or were they outrageously expensive?) back then . . . and eight bl@@dy hours of the song fading out *just as it got to the chorus*!
So I learned early, bring your own IFE! Usually a book, or some old fashioned, no batteries required, entertainment - these days often a puzzle manufactured by Binary Arts, or my portable "tangoes" set. (On one recent flight the lady sitting next to me expressed an interest in the tango/tangram I was trying to solve. I gave her the second set, we set about solving some of the puzzles together, and the time, um, *flew* by!)
Of course, it *was* Transatlantic IFE that introduced me to Wallace and Grommit!
Your mention of the Nimrod - as pictured on page 125 of Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide, so it must be okay to mention it now!
- reminded me of a story my father (retired US Army Signal Corps) just told me about the U-2s based at Hickham AFB in Hawaii in the late 1970s. They only ever took off and landed at night . . . and even then they went right in to the hangar and the doors were closed. He also mentioned something about J-8 fuel, which was so thick it was like jelly . . . but he was a ground type, so what does he know!
(He says he knows nothing about Military aircraft, but he seems to be able to point out in a heartbeat the ones he has flown in. "But didn't you at least have to know the difference between your stuff and the other side's stuff?" Apparently not! Well, when I mentioned Boeing RC-135 at least he knew enough to say "spook plane".)
I never was quite sure what the Hawaii job (CINCPAC J6-2) entailed, except that sometimes the hours were strange, sometimes he had to go out on a sort of spook ship which had a lot of strange antennae on it, possibly he knew something about bits of hardware hovering very high above the earth looking at things the "other side" was doing, and he got to go to Australia once. Maybe that should be he *had* to go to Australia once . . . it was *July* and he had to spend time in the mountains. He said "I froze my @ss off!" That, and we could always tell when he went to the USMC (Marine) barbershop at Camp Smith, because he returned with a very short neo-jarhead haircut.
But I digress! I'll just add my thanks to that above. Thanks for your visit to the "bargain basement", it is much appreciated!
[This message has been edited by pax domina (edited 17 October 2000).]