Survived the Latest "Snowmageddon," Such as it Was

Sunday
OAFS Photo

It's hard to tell from the official weather guesser websites but all told it looks like the Annapolis area received anywhere from 7 to 10 inches of snow on Sunday. Using the MK I Mod 0 eyeball, my estimate is 9 inches at my location, before the sleet and freezing rain began. Fortunately that latter event started later than predicted and also ended earlier than predicted.

So we had that going for us.

As you can see, both above and below, the street across the way did NOT get plowed, Sunday OR Monday. The main street through the neighborhood probably had at least five plows and/or sand/salt trucks go up and down on Sunday. That street is pretty clear, the side streets?

Not so much.

Monday
OAFS Photo

Another key thing is that we didn't lose power during the storm. However, we did lose it for an hour or so BEFORE the storm.

The Nuke was preparing Tuttle's birthday supper when everything shut down. Took a while to get the generator up and running, the CO detector kept shutting it down. Apparently that enclosure needs a bit more work. But we did stay powered up, as the stove takes a lot of power, we opted to order pizza.

Apparently the pizza place was running low on tomato sauce so they skimped on that rather than tell anyone. As a result, the pizzas semi-sucked. First world problem, neh?

As to the loss of power, seems a squirrel had crossed two wires or something, toasting itself and blowing the power. Bummer, I've seen that happen.

We stayed warm and cozy on Sunday, watched a lot of football, and woke up to a sunny cold day on Monday. Everyone worked from home (except Your Humble Scribe of course) and the kids had no school.

So Monday was also calm and cozy.

We're just waiting for the sun to melt the ice on top of the remaining snow in the driveway to clear that up.

I'm not sure how Little Rhody fared, they got a lot more snow than Maryland though, of that I'm certain.

The long range forecast is looking at more snow, next weekend.

Sigh, we might be here longer than planned.

Ah well, someone has to spoil the kids.

How to get High...Fast! Redux

 

Given the weather forecast for this past weekend, Electrical Power was kinda "iffy".  No power, no posting. So...You get a repeat from a few years ago.  

 No, Beans, this post has nothing to do with crack pipes. The idea came to me while reading a link I found on Instapundit a while back.  The post was fairly interesting as it discussed a proposal to modify F-15E's to carry a 45' long missile and launch it at altitude and speed.  Currently, most of a missile's fuel is used getting it off the ground and up to an altitude.  Launching it from altitude and speed would alleviate that problem.  

What caught my eye were a couple of things.  First, this.

The F-15D, at the top, ~35 years ago had my name painted on the canopy rail.  Glad to see she's still around and kicking.

The second thing that caught my eye was the launch profile they proposed to use.

I recognized it immediately.  It's called the Rutowski Climb profile.  For those of you who are engineering oriented, here's a detailed description. For those of you German Engineers, try this one out. And for those of you with a Naval background, here's one for you.

Basically, the objective is to get as much altitude and speed as possible in the least amount of time.  It was theorized and developed in the 70's as a means to defend against the MiG-25 Foxbat, a very fast, high flying fighter.  (That was proven to be somewhat overrated when Viktor Belenko defected in one in '76).  

In any case, the F-15 was used to test the theory and did so by busting several time to climb records in the Streak Eagle program.  Most of those records still stand.

I recognized it, because while stationed at Kadena, we practiced it because the Russian's had the MiG 25 in the area and it was rumored that the North Koreans had some also.

So, we would practice the maneuver pretty regularly.  We referred to them as the "High Fast Profile".  Our target referred to that portion of their mission as the "Low, Slow Profile".

Our Target
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We would intercept them as they returned to Kadena from "parts unknown".  We'd orbit in the mid 30's saving gas and GCI would commit us to the intercept at about 200 miles. Suffice it to say, they were WELL above us.

We'd turn hot, light the burners and begin the climb profile.  We'd push over to 0 g.  (Basically, Beans, my 200 Lb (then...now +) body would be weightless.) The engines were at max and we'd continue that descent until we were well above the Mach.  

Then we'd pull it into a climb to gain as much altitude as possible when we reached weapons range.  Timing of this maneuver was absolutely crucial.  Closure rates of 2000NM/hour were regular. To put that in layman's terms, that's 33.3 Nautical miles/minute or ~1 mile every 2 seconds.  So the intercept is either made or missed in less than 400 seconds.  

So, yeah, we practiced the Rutowski Climb profile....a lot.  In fact the highest I've ever been was the result of one.  GCI turned me hot at about 190NM.  (They needed training also, newish guy on the scope, didn't realize that 10 NM is critical.) Typically, the climb angle was about 45^o and the target indicator would be steady in the HUD.  That was not the case on this intercept, it was moving towards the top of the HUD.  

So, me being me, I kept pulling, making my climb angle steeper and steeper.  I pass through 50k' as he passes above me (Well Above) and I'm nearly vertical.  About this time, I learn an important lesson. Jet engines need air to run.  In addition, the flight controls need air to function.  There is very little air above 50K'.  

In short I'm riding a bullet with nothing to do until gravity takes pity on me and begins pulling me back to Earth.  That happened at 78,123' on my altimeter.  The sky was very dark and the SR-71 was a reddish-white.

The GCI guy and I reviewed my video tape in private.  No sense in causing consternation in our higher ups.

And THAT is why I recognized the Rutowski Climb Profile immediately.

Obsess About Weather? Moi?

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Little Rhody is probably going to get a metric butt ton of snow. Here in Annapolis, less than originally forecast but we might have the extraordinary pain-in-the-ass ice storm, as in freezing rain. Much more to be feared as trees collapse, power lines come down, and cats and dogs start living together! (Shades of the apocalypse!)

The weather guessers are, of course, freaking out, at least trying to get us to freak out.

Back in the day it was about giving us information, these days? Who knows what their game is.

Hates them we does.

Just report the data you a-holes.

Well, enough of that.

Eyes are tired from the drive on Friday, with my eyes I need to keep them lubricated. The drops for my glaucoma dry them up something fierce. And guess what I forgot to do on Friday?

Yup. Forgot to douse the Mk I Mod 0 Eyeball system with Refresh Tears when stopping for fuel/pee/food/stretch-our-legs breaks during the drive. So I'm paying the price on Saturday. Perhaps I need a version of "Bitching Betty" for my car which will periodically announce, "Eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs."

Yeah, I need that now. Perhaps Google could add it to their map software. Yeah, that would be great.

I've been awfully lax in the blogging arena lately. Bear with me, inspiration is bound to return at some point. I think the Muse decided to flee the country until this winter storm passes.

That's my story ...

And I'm sticking to it.

Der Adler ist Gelandet¹

OAFS Photo

We arrived safe and sound at our destination, fast by the shore of the South River in Annapolis.

Traffic wasn't bad, just the normal collection of yahoos weaving in and out of traffic, making you feel like a bomber pilot when the Luftwaffe is up in full strength, people who have no clue about merging or yielding to traffic on the interstate.

Ya know, driving in the US of A.

But we're here, there's a fire in the fireplace, the grandkids are happy, and life is good.

Now to sleep, perchance to dream ...

¹ The Eagle Has Landed - With apologies to Jack Higgins (who wrote the book) and the cast and crew of the 1976 film of that name.

On the Road, No, Jack Kerouac Wasn't Involved ...

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Yup, on the road again.

Heading down to might be more snow than here, but hey, what are ya gonna do? 

Birthdays to celebrate, grandkids to spoil, being a grandparent is a tough job, am I right?

Nah, it's a great job with awesome benefits.

Read those folks on the sidebar, I'll be back Saturday ...

Maybe¹.

¹ If Roberto and Finnegan don't beat the crap out of me. Hey, it's how we play!

Potential Snow Days

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Over the past cuppla days it's been a wee bit chilly out of doors here in Little Rhody. It was down to 12° last night and not much warmer the night before. Highs during the day top out in the high 20s, if we're lucky. If the wind's not blowing and the sun is shining it's tolerable.

As long as ye ain't in the shade!

The snow we had last weekend is still around, haven't noticed much in the way of melting except up on the roof where I've heard it sliding off the solar panels. So yes, it's a might bit nippy out there.

We're off to Maryland this weekend for Finnigan's 3rd birthday party. (And Tuttle's 50th, but I didn't tell you that, okay?)

Good thing too, here's the forecast for my wee town this coming weekend, note the bit in the red box ...

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Looks like a grand total of close to a foot over Sunday through Monday. Grand, innit? And I won't be seeing that.

Or will I?

Here's the forecast for Annapolis, again note the bit in the red box ...

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Well hell, looks like we might see over a foot in Annapolis over the same time period. With what might be an icy glaze on top of all that if the snow turns to rain late on Sunday, which it's forecast to do.

I'm keeping an eye on that weather forecast as we're driving on Friday, so far everything seems to be slipping to the right and predicted snowfall totals have decreased for Annapolis and increased for Bristol. So we've got that going for us.

This winter has, so far, proven to be somewhat exceptional. The average high for our area is around 37°, the low around 24°. (Here is where I got that data.) So we're running a bit colder than normal and have been for over a month. But we've been down in the snowfall category.

Looks like this weekend might catch us up.

Not that I'm looking forward to that, but the grandsons are gonna love it. They might even get a day off from school on Monday. I remember those when I was a kid.

Good times.

Note: One thing nice about Chez Nuke et Tuttle is that they have a generator. And a fireplace. Neither of which do we have up here in Little Rhody. So that's a good excuse to head down there, even if there weren't two birthdays to celebrate!

Culloden

An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745
David Morier
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Let it be known: Now I may have some of what follows wrong. The story of that time period being very complex to say the least. I mean whole books have been written about it. I'm simply giving you some background before presenting the video I mentioned yesterday.

In human history, the family is led by the father, the tribe by its chief, the nation by its king. Whenever humans have gathered, there seems to be the necessity to have someone in charge. That person is backed by violence, more usually the threat thereof.

The strongest get to be in charge and they will always gather to them those who wish to be near the seat of power. That's how armies began.

Europe in the early 18th Century was a web of kingdoms, principalities, bishoprics, dukedoms, and the like. France was a very big deal, the English were just starting to get their act together as a nation. Spain grew weaker by the decade, Austria stumbled along with its polyglot empire, Prussia was stirring (and would become a very large problem in the century to come), and all the little lands in between just wanted to keep their heads above water and their local rulers in power.

What about Russia, you might ask. Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great sat upon the throne. Peter had dragged the Russians into the modern era and they were a power to be feared in the east, but they were still far away in most European minds.

In the Scottish Highlands, the clan system ruled. Powerful chieftains ruled the land at the king's pleasure, Robert the Bruce had set it up that way. But in 1603 the nations of Scotland and England were joined under one king, James VI of Scotland. He ascended to the throne upon the death of Elizabeth I, becoming James I.

He was succeeded by Charles I (who if you remember died under the headsman's axe as England fell to Cromwell and his ilk). Long story short, Charles II was "restored" to the throne after Cromwell's death and his kid brother, James (James II in England, James VII in Scotland) succeeded him upon Charles II's death.

Now James had been much exposed to the Catholic church while in exile in France during Cromwell's time. He was a Catholic ruling over a Protestant nation. Things came to a head when he was overthrown by a group of Protestant nobles who invited William of Orange (a Dutchman) to take the throne with his wife Mary, daughter of Charles I of England.

Now James and his second wife (Mary of Modena, both the King and Queen were now Catholic) had had a son, James Francis Edward Stuart. James had also decided to ease up on the persecution of Catholics and non-Church of England Protestants within his realm.

The specter of that son restoring Catholic power in England did not sit well with the Church of England nor a number of powerful nobles in the realm. So James was "sent off" and William brought in. When William died he was succeeded by Anne, a daughter of James II and ... ad infinitum it seems.

Dear Lord but the lines of the English monarchy are confused and intertwined.

Anyhoo, Anne was succeeded by George I, who wasn't even English but a German! Who was succeeded by George II, his son.

Now James Francis Edward Stuart was kicking his heels in Italy as Dad was no longer king. Someone had the bright idea to bring him back to Scotland and from there overthrow the British monarchy and restore Catholicism to Great Britain! (And get that German off the throne as well!)

Which led to the Rising of '45 and the defeat of the Highlanders at Culloden in 1746. As I mentioned yesterday, I grew up believing a certain set of "facts" which were really a collection of facts, myths, and family stories. Believe me, the 1745 Rising was not taught in school. (As was a lot of history being glossed over or completely ignored in school!)

All that being said, here's the video, it's over an hour long, made in the '60s, made by the BBC, but for all that, it rings true to me, given all the other things I know. (Or at least think I know.) It also has the benefit, in my mind, of being very good and entertaining, though as always YMMV.

All that being said, I still say ...

Scotland Forever!

It's in the blood dontcha know?