Rutan builds "flying car", Star Wars fans rejoice.

The only thing car-like about Scaled Composites' flying car is that it has four wheels. The rest, not so much.

Grandma, Noooo!

See Myrtle. See Myrtle fly her J3 Cub. See Myrtle fly her J3 Cub over the President's birthday party. See Myrtle get greeted by F-16s and have a chat with the FAA. See Myrtle pay more attention to NOTAMs in the future.

I have to agree, it is a nice looking Cub.

Chinook Down in Afghanistan

Woke up to some bad news this morning in the form of hearing what apparently was a CH-47 "Chinook" shot down in Afghanistan by a RPG. It seems all crew were lost including many members of a Navy SEAL team. Chinooks have been in service since Vietnam and have a very good safety record.

I recall talking to a CH-47 pilot once and was amused when he told me that just before takeoff, you really had to stand on the wheel brakes otherwise the helicopter would try to scoot down the runway like an airplane.

Red Tails trailer will have you running with your tail between your legs.

Good news is George Lucas's movie about the Tuskegee Airmen is nearly completed and has a flashy new trailer. Bad new is that George Lucas has nearly completed a movie about the Tuskegee Airman. Regardless, it sure looks purdy and more importantly, accurate. I'll admit, I almost fainted at the 2:00 min. mark. We Fight!

Lucky bastage talks of flying rare A6M3 Zero

It’s from an island named after Rocky, so it has to be good! AvWeb brings us a great video of a modern Zero pilot discussing what it is like to fly a rare and amazing bird. I hate him. Some great stuff about the history and handling characteristics of the plane. I hate him. I love the radios wedged in between the machine guns. Did I mention I hate him? Enjoy.

Vote or Die - Literally

I know who I'm voting for this year. The fate of the colonies is at hand.

Road Rage

I never really noticed it, but many people are both impatient and rather rude when they drive.

I've been teaching my wife to drive (a short but uninteresting story)and it has been...an...interesting venture... Since she is just learning, she is very careful and takes her time on turns and changing lanes, etc. So, like a good instructor, I teach her the proper driving etiquettes of using turn signals and adhering to right-of-way of other drivers.

That said, I swear that half of the time, people ignore her signaling - even with a student driver sign in the window! People routinely will not give her space to change lanes when she signals. There was even one time when she had signaled to turn left into our house's driveway, some nimrod actually passed her on the left side! If she had been faster in her turning, the other vehicle would have had crashed into her/us. Then there was the person that beeped her horn at us for daring to make her 2 seconds late in her getting home (wife took a turn slow causing a delay in someone behind us pulling into their driveway).

I really wish I sometimes I was a plain clothes cop. There are a few people I'd pull over to have a chat with.