response 25 of 95:

Jan 26 19:13 UTC 2006

NORAD tracks aircraft entering US and Canadian airspace passes through
whats called the Air Defense Identification Zone. Anything that does so
without permission is intercepted by military aircraft. Since this
flight originated in the US, it is considered a regular flight.

Also, I think what the Alaska State Police meant by a "flight plan" was
a formal flight plan that is filed with the FAA before a flight. It is
optional for most non-instrument flying, but a lot pilots prefere to
file them anyway as an insurance policy. You see, the plan includes a
place to specify an estimated time of arrival, and 30 minutes past that
they begin activating search and rescue.

As for folks being allowed to buy and fly these things, I don't think
its any more of a big deal than being able to buy and fly say, a Learjet.

response 27 of 95:

Jan 26 19:57 UTC 2006

Poker Tracker autorates me as a rock because, after 776 hands, I've only
raised preflop 4.77% of the time and you need to do it 5% of the time or more
to be called tight and aggressive.  :(

POST FLOP< THOUGH< I"M VERY AGGRESSIVE>

response 29 of 95:

Jan 27 05:53 UTC 2006

The head of one of the major auto industries up here bought a russian 
made fighter jet a few years back and flew it for recreation.  Then he 
belly flopped it onto the runway at detroit when he forgot to lower the 
gear.

response 31 of 95:

Jan 27 17:12 UTC 2006

re #29
Yea, I worked at Chrysler when ol Bob was doing his silly aviator mishaps.
He crashed one or two helicopters, too.

response 33 of 95:

Jan 31 08:24 UTC 2006

 Over the last few days we've been getting snow, which does wonders
 for my spirits.  Ketchikan's (extremely) rainy winters have a
 tendency to be somewhat depressing so just getting a change in the
 weather is nice enough.  But on top of the welcome novelty there's
 also the fact that the area looks fantastic in the snow.

 This afternoon there was a moment when, taking a break from work,
 I walked outside for a moment and it was like stepping into a photograph.
 Several inches of delicate feather-fresh snowfall had settled over
 everything, rendering shapes vague and unfamiliar, and in the dim
 late afternoon light the color of the sky was like unpolished silver.
 Across the Narrows the snow-covered trees stood out on the mountain
 on Gravina Island that sun would shortly set behind, but in the dying
 light they looked black, not green.  In fact, between the white snow
 and the black trees and silver sky not a speck of color was to be seen,
 magnifying the surreal photographic quality of the scene and the
 almost-feeling of having stepped briefly into another world..

 Not every snowbound moment in Ketchikan is quite that memorable,
 of course, and as much as I enjoy the aesthetic advantages of fresh
 snowfall every time it snows there are some practical concerns to
 be dealt with as well.  To begin with there are the 40-some stairs
 between the street and my house, an undercount, if anything, because
 after the first snowfall of the season, when I found I could not
 extricate my car from the slanted-downhill space where I'm accustomed
 to parking, I've taken to parking in a more advantageously oriented
 space a block or so further down the hill whenever it looks like
 snow or ice.  Nor is even getting to the vicinity of my house even
 guaranteed, as many of the precipitous uphill streets are closed at
 the first sign of snow and even the ones that remain are remarkably
 treacherous in my car.  Walking is not much better as many sidewalks
 hide icy patches corresponding to places where water is accustomed
 to seep from rock walls and some of the wooden boardwalk streets
 in parts of my neighborhood as as good as frictionless when there's
 even a bit of frost.

 But I have to say that I *really* love sitting in my living room
 on the second floor of the house and watching out the window
 whenever it snows.  I'm not exactly sure why but I find the effect
 mesmerizing beyond any reasonable explanation.  My house is perched
 above a fairly steep drop-off with a relatively clear view down
 to the harbor near the creek mouth.  A slice of downtown is spread
 out beneath my windows and I love to sit and watch the snow swirl
 down and settle over the town below.

 And it was clear this afternoon that I'm not the only one who loves
 the snow..  I drove home briefly at 3:00 PM to meet with the
 carpenter who's doing renovation work for me in the downstairs
 rental and the route I chose going home took me past the tops of
 several of the steep streets in town.  Gathered in crowds at the
 top of each of them I saw dozens of kids from grade-school age to
 what looked like late high school, clutching red plastic sleds and
 waiting their turns to whiz down the snow- covered streets.  Seeing
 the grade-school kids wasn't much of a surprise (except that I
 admired their initiative..) but I was pleased to see the high-schoolers
 taking part as well.  Memories of my own adolescence suggest that
 my friends and I would have been too concerned, at that age, with
 our image (as if anything could have further tarnished the social
 standing of a clutch of misfit bookish computer nerds..)

response 35 of 95:

Jan 31 18:54 UTC 2006

Not all of them. P-3 pilots tend not to develop those types of habits. ;)

response 37 of 95:

Jan 31 18:58 UTC 2006

Pretty sure, since P-3 pilots don't land on aircraft carriers. :)

response 39 of 95:

Jan 31 19:31 UTC 2006

huh?

response 41 of 95:

Jan 31 19:47 UTC 2006

Let's move the aviator discussion to another item.  We're dorking up
Ketchikan.

response 43 of 95:

Jan 31 22:46 UTC 2006

Now that was fracking funny.

response 45 of 95:

Feb 1 05:09 UTC 2006

Just heard mention in some of the post state-of-the-union analysis
of the famous Kitchikan bridge to nowhere (mentioned as an example
of silly things that ought to be removed from the budget).

response 47 of 95:

Feb 1 06:04 UTC 2006

 re #46:
 1)  *Sieg*
 2)  How about taking it to another item?

response 49 of 95:

Feb 1 17:01 UTC 2006

re #47
Das tut mir leid, Grammatik Spindel! ;)