Day Three

By lex, on August 21st, 2011

Training was scheduled to begin at 1030, one of the aircraft needing a functional check flight at 0800, and our instructor one of the few qualified to conduct that operation. I arrived half an hour early to see the machine getting airborne in full grunt, the very modest flight path angle testifying to the delta wing’s desire for more airspeed in flight than the tires could sustain on deck.

A carrier strike group is at sea, and the company is supporting their operations. We were a little disappointed, but not surprised, when the balance of our training for Saturday was disrupted by customer-driven changes to the flight schedule and – from the standpoint of new knowledge gained – the day was pretty much a bust, apart from picking through the various engine related emergency procedures, notes and cautions as contained in the pocket checklist.

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex