sixtiesrelic,
do i detect just the faintest whiff of cyicism there?
HD
ps. BTW i heartily concur,
once was i time when you would avoid having to operate the huge blue box in the panel of the scaretourer so that you did not have to listen to the horrendous hash that accompanied the FS operators who seemed to delight in talking too fast for us noephytes. god alone knows how much that skyphone handicapped the climb of a 100hp 'concrete sparrow'.
these days you cannot shut the little b@stards up, they seem to think that an aircarft is powered by circuit speak, stuff the lookout, bugga the accurate height and pattern position, forget about the stabilized speed, attitude and descent on base/final, just jibber relentlessly and tell evryone that you are 'number one' (save looking obviously) and then smash the poor old cherokee onto the middle of the runway, richochet back into the air and set off on the next leg of the GPS guided tour of the state. all this talking is bad enough, but it would work better if it was in EEENNGGlish and if they could actually tell east from west, be actually AT the altitude that they specify or even be at the near position that they specify, inbound or even in the circuit.
aviate navigate communicate worked back then, and it will still work now!!
Phew, I do agree don't I... i even surprised myself a bit there, but the whole airmanship thing seems to rate waaaay down there with round instruments and paying for your own lessons to these guys. skill not important, white shirt, sunnies and a future as a co-pilot beckons.
and another thing....
when i was a young bloke you got a job and saved up to buy a car, usually a holden, and proceeded to hoik the engine out and put new rings and shells in it, a yella terra head, a wade cam, a couple of SU's, some genie extractors and a two inch straight through system, put the widest tyres that would fit on your rims (or dished rims, or even rims of a completely different car - alloy wheels, or Mags were for racing cars) 'lowered' it with an oxy torch, painted the grill black, put some aircraft landing lights on the front bumber, installed a radio aerial, so as to have somewhere to put the fox tail, whacked a stripe up the bonnet and you were off to impress the tarts with your 'hotted up' motor. Not only could you get an evenings entertainment at the drive in, but you learned all about how things work (and why they sometimes don't work)
The kids today get dad to buy them a late model Honda, get the ugliest CNC wheels ever seen put on it, get a 4 inch chrome outlet tip put on the muffler, get the windows tinted and get a blow off valve, and pay someone to install a sound system capable of launching a saturn V rocket in it, turn their designer cap sideways and they are proud owners of a 'custom' car from which they can tour the neighbourhood selling ekkies and getting deaf from the incessant doof doof. the only thing that they learn is how to put stickers on the back window, that the tarts are now called bitches and..... weeeel that's about it really. that and they have some how learned to defy gravity with their trousers, which should really be worn at wiast level (over 50's) or hip level (under 30's), but not actually below the buttocks.
FAAAARCK that was a very big afterthought ps..I really am getting old aren't I!!!!!
HD