Post-Thanksgiving After Action Report

 Well...Campers, a pretty darn good week this past.  The trip to College Station was mostly successful.  Avoided Austin (also known as Moscow on the Colorado) traffic, although my great plan to take State Highways and County Roads to avoid holiday traffic elsewhere in the State came to a screeching halt (quite literally) in Georgetown.  Seriously TXDOT, three cycles of a traffic light to get through a 100 yard long block?  Does the acronym YGBSM mean anything to you?

Stay on Target, juvat!

On Target, Aye, Sarge!

Arrival at MBD, SIL and MG's* house was otherwise quite pleasant.  Mrs. J reported the sotto voce comments to my fellow wayfarers was significantly less voluminous than usual.  The turkey (and the ham) did not give their lives in vain.  My Butternut Squash with Gorgonzola and my Baked Brussel Sprouts w/Bacon were well received and quickly devoured.  Although, adding Bacon to any recipe pretty much guarantees that result.  Even SIL's 87 yo Grandmother liked the Brussel Sprouts.

This is only one side of the serving line.

 

That evening I got a special "Welcome to College Station, juvat"  Brought tears to my eyes, yes it did!  Seems that A&M was playing LSU for one of the Thanksgiving Weekend "fight off the tryptophan" football games at home++.  The Flyby was conducted by a 4 ship of Aggie piloted Eagles!  Wednesday was their practice flight to get all the timing points figured out.  

Believe it or not, while it looks easy, arriving at the 50 yard line at the exact specified time is fairly difficult. Yet it is viewed by several million people, critiqued by most (who've never done it), explained (while standing at attention) to the CO and deeply appreciated by one Ancient fighter pilot. Unfortunately, the game was Friday, Mrs. J and I had other duties and RTB'd that morning, so all we got to see was the practice.

But...

Taken from the back yard of MBD/SIL's home.

 Yes, the Jet Noise was quite cathartic!

On a separate note, LJD**  is continuing to improve.  Thanksgiving in the NICU on a holiday apparently has similar characteristics to sitting Air Defense Alert.  You make the best of it, praying for the best, prepared for the worst.  Providing your own entertainment is the task of the day, and your heart stops just as fast there when the alarms go off as it does when the scramble klaxon sounds.

Fortunately, this year's Thanksgiving was uneventful.  Which was conducive to an impromptu fashion show organized by the staff.

You want me to do...WHAT?

MG has Trade Marked those facial expressions and apparently has several comedians paying large licensing fees to use them.  Who knew?

All good things must end and this day ended with the usual event.  A long walk.

I'm not ready yet, Mom, help me put your shoes on me, please!

And, of course, a juvat family Thanksgiving tradition.

The Thanksgiving Nap! Yep, MG is a fully trained juvat family member.

Finally, we got a bit of a gully washer Friday night.  Can't remember if I emptied the rain gauge after last week's contribution, but waking up Saturday, this was its level.

A little over 4"?  That would be wonderful, but going to have to wait on my Good Friend Cletus for confirmation.  If I didn't empty it, we would have received only an additional 2" (Only?, YGBSM juvat! You're right about that, Sarge, at this point we'll take all we can get.) There was a bit more supportive data for 4" however.

We don't usually get that much puddling unless it's rained quite a bit.  

 So, based on this, I went and looked at our "up stream" stock pond.  Lo and behold...

Haven't had water in either stock pond in well over a year! The point where I'm standing is the downstream side and is about 12' above the bottom. That puddling is probably 3 to 4' deep.

So, who knows?

Cletus?

As mentioned last week, the "Gathering of the Clan" will start this Thursday, the same gang as Thanksgiving will gather here at Rancho Juvat.  Highlight will be the Annual Parade of Lights Christmas Parade.  Chili, Corn Bread and Tortillas (and, almost certainly, Adult Recreational Beverages) will be served from my Pickup's bed.  Wx forecast is currently showing a low of 60 for the parade, so fingers are definitely crossed.

We'll see.

Peace out, y'all!

Per request from Suz.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts.

Serves 4 as written. 

1 bag whole raw Brussel Sprouts

4-6 strips of nicely smoked Bacon

Salt and pepper to taste.

Wash Brussel Sprouts in bag and let dry.

Trim the stalk end as close to the leaves as you can.  (The stalk gets kinda growdy where it was cut from the plant, however, you want the leaves to remain attached.

Slice the bulb vertically 2-4 times (you'd like the slice to be about 1/4" -1/2" thick)

Spread in a pyrex baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Preheat oven to 425^o

^{While oven is heating, cook bacon in separate pan until starting to brown but most of the fat is rendered. (You don't want it crispy at this point)} 

^{Cut into square pieces and add to Brussel Sprouts.  Spoon a couple of spoonfuls of Bacon Drippings (doesn't that sound better than the "G" word?) over the Sprouts and stir in a bit.  Try not to separate leaves in the slices.}

^{Cook until Bacon is cooked and Sprouts are browned (15-20) minutes. Season with Salt and Pepper.  It doesn't usually take much, the Bacon handles most of the saltiness.  But tastes differ...}

^{Dish is easily up-scaled to fit larger groups.  Plan on 1 bag per 4 people and a similar multiplicative increase on the Bacon...Minimum.  More Bacon is better.  But you knew that.}

*My Beautiful Daughter, Son-in-Law and My Granddaughter respectively.  (Need a better Nom d'Plume for SIL though. Suggestions encouraged.).

**Little Juvat's Daughter.

++For those that don't know. Aggies won 38-23!  Whoop!

I Was Gonna Do Airplanes...

It's been an odd week. Though last weekend was a four day weekend, I only slept well Friday night, and for some reason, short work weeks always feel longer than normal ones. That plus the multiple meetings on Thursday really wore my a$$ out. Spent most of Friday trying desperately to focus on the work at hand.

Wasn't easy.

Had a bizarre dream Thursday night. I was sitting in some sort of vehicle, in the back seat, when another guy opens the door opposite me and gets in. Dear Lord if it ain't Bernie Sanders and he's mad as Hell. Then he starts shaking his finger at me and bitching about not running for President. All I could say was, "Wasn't my fault dude, you quit. Not that I would have voted for you, but..."

Still trying to remember what triggered that!

We've had a lot of cloud and bleh this week, The Missus Herself and I were trying to figure out whether or not we had had a sunny day all week. Neither of us was sure, the days are starting to all run together. I have two days on the calendar now, shave day, no shave day. The only way I can tell what day it is is to rub my face when I get up. Really scruffy, shave day, semi-scruffy, no shave day. Bleh.

Had Mississippi pot roast for dinner Friday night (love that stuff, The Missus Herself likes it too). Just as we were sitting down for dinner, The Nuke called. Friday was the day the roofers were coming to replace the roof on her house in Alexandria. She and the next door neighbor went in together as they got a pretty good deal.

She's renting that place out to an Air Force captain and her husband, so she's not there usually. She got a phone call from the roofing crew supervisor saying that they were going to have to replace most of the plywood underneath the shingles, so it was going to cost extra. At some point the roofing guy had a revelation. They were at the wrong address. Same house number, but a different street, not far from The Nuke's house, but different. (It's mostly town houses in that area of Alexandria. Easy to get confused.)

Bottom line is that two families in Alexandria got free new roofs on Friday. As they also had the wrong color shingles, the unsuspecting homeowners were hopping mad as their houses now had gray shingles, every other house had brown, so they wound up shingling those two roofs twice. They also pretty much completely replaced the plywood on both houses. One of the places the rainwater was actually leaking into the guy's attic.

No, the roofing company owners were not real happy with that supervisor. They'll be at The Nuke's place on Monday to "try, try again."

Anyhoo, after spending time "at work" researching stuff for my current task, I didn't feel much like researching stuff for a Friday Flyby nor give you an historical post. Slacking, that's what I did Friday night.

I'm a slacker.

Now I think I'll go walk in the garden, the fog is already rolling in from the sea, looks pretty cool. (And feels pretty cool as well.) That too has been going on all week.

Off to walk, come along if you will, the first few pictures are the sea fog. (Maybe it's bay fog, I dunno.)

I tried to get a picture of the fish for Virgil, but they've heard of him. So they retreated back to the deep end.

No, those are not opium poppies.

Looks like it's time to paint the fence again.

"See" you Sunday.

I'll be right here, slacking...

Gotta Love Those Bavarians

Schloss Neuschwanstein
(Source)

Once upon a time der Truppe des Alte Luftwaffe Feldwebels had the opportunity, as part of my duties with the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Decontamination Team (Mannschaft für nukleare, biologische und chemische Dekontamination, if you will, and I do) I, and the family, got to spend a week in Bavaria. Oberammergau (yes, the one where they perform the Passion Play every ten years, which the villagers vowed to do if God would spare them from the Plague... Hhmm, I have an idea...) was the place where the school was (and still is as I am reliably informed), the NATO School Oberammergau -

The school is that cluster of aligned buildings on the edge of the forest.
Google Maps

Our quarters, a lovely apartment, or flat for you English-types, is in the building circled on the right,
the school itself is in the circle to the left. Yes, a little over a hundred feet to get to work.
Google Maps

It was a very non-stressful time in the beauty of a small Bavarian town. I really, really, really enjoyed it. Did I mention that I enjoyed it? Well, I did.

Learned about decontaminating stuff and why (I knew both already but hey, NATO paid for the trip), and The Missus Herself and the progeny got to take a day trip to Austria, and we all got to visit that place in the opening photo.

The last night there the school threw a party, where I learned about this -

Mass Bier
(Source)

Liter mugs of excellent Bavarian beer. (No, I didn't drink that much.) I almost hated to leave.

But yeah, Bavaria, I like the place, I like the people.

Take for instance, this band, not exactly traditional Bavarian music, but rock and roll with a Bavarian kick.

No, I do not own a pair of Lederhosen. Not that I wasn't tempted...

Ja, mein Musikgeschmack ist ziemlich eklektisch.


Hit tip to Doctor Grumpy!



No Friday Flyby today, maybe Saturday, I dunno. Thursday was jam-packed with meetings, two short, one long, which is the Morse Code for "U." Long day, short night... (Morse Code for "N." Okay, I'll stop now.)

The Friday Flyby - Wings of Weirdness II

The Convair XFY Pogo in flight.

(Source)

And what she looked like on the ground...

Now that's a boarding ladder!

What's more. she could actually fly!

But ya know, every time I see one of these weird looking flying machines, my reaction is something like this -

~ SALTY LANGUAGE ALERT ~

Yeah Gunny, what is that?!?!

And yes, there is another aircraft at the tail end of that video of the Pogo in flight, it's a Ryan X-13 Vertijet... (Thought you were going to catch me ignoring an aircraft in a video again, dintcha?)

She's actually flying in this photo, about to land, er I mean, moor herself to the dual-role flatbed transport/launch trailer.

A weird looking bird to see in the air, though kinda cool at the same time.

I swear, watching the first few seconds of that video freaked me out. I mean, if I saw an aircraft doing that, I'd lose it. Well, truth be told, the first time I ever saw a V/STOL¹ aircraft in flight, it did freak me out!

Back in the day, shortly after the Pleistocene Epoch had ended, shortly after juvat and Old NFO had slain the last woolly mammoth (hey, their families were hungry!), I was a young airman stationed upon the island of Okinawa. (No, we hadn't just taken it from the Japanese, in fact it wasn't long after we'd given the island back to Japan. (1972 the island "reverted" back to Japanese control, no, the Okinawans were not real happy about that. I call that one, Nixon's Second Mistake. Nixon's First Mistake was visiting Communist China earlier in that same year, setting the stage for the Peanut Farmer to formally recognize the Commie bastards control of the mainland in 1979. Cue Red Foreman!)

Anyhoo, I was walking down to the MAC² Terminal where I had been told they served a very tasty burger.

Truth be told, I don't remember anything at all about that burger as, whilst on my kleine spaziergang down to said MAC Terminal (for to partake of said burger) I first heard an odd-sounding jet engine. It wasn't an F-4 Phantom, it wasn't a T-39 (an Air Force version of the North American Sabreliner, much preferred by general officers for winging from base to base), no, it wasn't anything like those at all. (Didn't even think for a second that it was a C-141 or an SR-71 either, when you know a jet engine, you know it.)

As I wondered what that noise could be, I saw ahead of me, some dozens of yards in the distance, an apparition rising from the trees near the MAC Terminal. For a moment I had the same reaction to this flying machine as Gunny Hartman had to the discovery of Pyle's jelly donut.

"WHAT THE FIRE TRUCK IS THAT?!?!?!"

Well, it was a Marine AV-8 Harrier, an aircraft capable of vertical take off and landing. It was the first one I had ever seen and it was both weird and marvelous at the same time. But yeah, initially I was freaked out. (Kinda like those terrorists in True Lies, said clip I would have included but it was just too long... Okay, I'll include it...)

Yeah, it was just like that, only without the terrorists, the tall building, and all the other unrealistic, though enjoyable, stuff in that clip.

Anyhoo, I digress. We're here to talk about weird-looking aircraft, not movies. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm the one who included three movie clips in a Friday Flyby, only one of which was aircraft related. My bad.)

Another odd looking bird in the V/STOL category is the Lockheed XFV "Salmon" -

Vertical display of the XFV-1 Prototype at the Florida Air Museum
(Source)

The XFV-1 prototype at the Florida Air Museum.
(Source)

Note that the aircraft could also take-off and land normally, those landing gear in that second photo don't look like they'd last through a rough landing. Truth be told, those don't appear to be the original horizontal-landing gear, which you can see in this photo -

Still rather spindly-looking, aren't they?

All this V/STOL stuff is interesting and actually serves a real purpose. When you need an aircraft and don't have room to take-off and land, well, V/STOL solves the problem. Though of course, most aircraft which have this capability are real dog shite when matched up against a "real" fighter plane. The jury is still out on the F-35, though I have heard good reports about it. (None of which involved lowering the bloody price tag on the thing.) But hey, if you're on convoy duty and are worried about submarines, one of those V/STOL jobs might be just the ticket. Load a few V/STOL birds on a couple of freighters and bang, better than no aircraft at all. I mean aircraft carriers are awfully pricey, ain't they Precious?

Anyhoo...

Remember the Sparrowhawk from the other day? Well, that bird had a hook on the wing, for swinging from a dirigible's "trapeze" (seriously, that's what it was called) and a tail hook. This next bird has what I call a nose hook. It also has folding wings, just like a Navy jet, not so that it will fit onto a carrier, but so it will fit in the bomb bay of a B-36 bomber.

Say what?

That's right, fit into a bomber...

During World War II, American bombers such as the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, and Boeing B-29 Superfortress were protected by long-range escort fighters such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and North American P-51 Mustang. These fighters could not match the range of the Northrop B-35 or Convair B-36, the next generation of bombers developed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). The development cost for longer-ranged fighters was high, while aerial refueling was still considered risky and technologically difficult. Pilot fatigue had also been a problem during long fighter escort missions in Europe and the Pacific, giving further impetus to innovative approaches. (Source) 

So they came up with this little beast, the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin. Aptly named if you ask me...

Weird looking, innit?

Here's a short film on the beast, no sound, doesn't really need it.

(Turn the sound off as a matter of fact, there's an awfully annoying buzz near the end of the clip.)

As technology improved and air-to-air refueling became routine, the need for a parasite fighter to protect bombers went away. Among the problems the Goblin had were a limited flight time, something like 30 minutes, imagine being dropped from your mother ship to fight incoming bandits knowing you only had 30 minutes to do so, then re-dock with the mother ship. Which wasn't very easy, the skill it took for a pilot to do that was rather taxing, imagine doing that while running low on fuel and your bomber is being attacked! No thank you.

This next aircraft is almost normal looking, it was the sound of the thing which was weird, one source said it could make ground crews physically ill!

The Republic XF-84H "Thunderscreech"
(Notice that it's RAT³ is extended.)

Looks rather normal doesn't it, other than that whole "cross between a jet and a propeller aircraft" thing.

Although the USAF Wright Air Development Center was the key sponsor of the Republic Project 3347 turboprop fighter, the initial inception came from a U.S. Navy requirement for a carrier fighter not requiring catapult assistance. Originally known as XF-106 (a designation later reused for the Convair F-106), the project and its resultant prototype aircraft were redesignated XF-84H, closely identifying the program as an F-84 variant, rather than an entirely new type. With a projected contract for three prototypes, when the US Navy cancelled its order, ultimately, the remaining XF-84H prototypes became pure research aircraft built for the Air Force's Propeller Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB to test supersonic propellers in exploring the combination of propeller responsiveness at jet speeds. (Source)

This clip talks a bit about the aircraft -

So what about the sound it made?

The write-up for that video on YouTube has this to say -

This is a recording of the Republic XF-84H "Thunderscreech, a turboprop plane with a supersonic propeller. This sound (when played at its original volume) caused people to faint, vomit, become slightly deaf , and reputedly soil themselves. Enjoy!!

Lovely, that would be perfect for air shows dontcha think?

Anyhoo, that's enough weirdness for one day. If I haven't shown your favorite yet, be patient (yes, Virgil, I remember your F-107, also the Stiletto will have it's day as well) I have enough Wings of Weirdness to cover a few Fridays. Gotta save something in the tank dontcha know?

P.S.

One last thing, notice the header change from the aircraft carrier to the F-102? Well, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 17, Big Time's boat and the previous occupant of the header) put back to sea after being tied up at Guam for roughly 55 days due to the virus-thingee. She's doing some work-ups and a bit of a shakedown to make sure everything still works and the crew knows how to make them work, good idea after a long stay in port like that. I mentioned that I was keeping the TR up there until she was back where she belonged. At sea. She is, so the header changed. I figured Dave would like the new one, he used to fly those birds you know.




¹ V/STOL = Vertical/Short Take-off and Landing
² MAC = Military Airlift Command. Yes, it has a different name now. No, I don't care what it is, I will always call it MAC. Old school buddy, that's me. (There's an even older name for it, but only guys like Old NFO know what it is...)
³ RAT =Ram Air Turbine, in the event of a loss of electrical power this could be extended into the slipstream and generate enough power to maybe get you on the ground in one piece. The F-4 had one as well.

Yes, I'm Looking Forward to This...

(Source)

So how many of you knew the name of Tom Cruise's character in the first movie? We all remember his callsign, Maverick. Well, until I read the article at the source of the photo above, I had no idea that his character's name was Pete Mitchell. There are folks who my daughter (The WSO) and her husband (Big Time) flew/fly with that I am hard pressed to remember their actual names when I run into them. (Which sadly is far less than I used to...)

Folks like Bubbles, Big Tittie Mike (yes, his mother hates his callsign), Bobo, Lennie, Danica, Gandalf, Frodo, and Korndog (I was cautioned to never use his callsign when his Mom was around). Now I know these folks well enough to say "Hi" to and I'm even koobecaF friends with some of 'em, but ask me their actual names, and I really need to think about it. I dunno, getting older ain't much help in the memory department either!

Anyhoo, the new Top Gun movie (which as we all know should be TOPGUN) has been pushed back to December of this year (damn it) and I grow more impatient by the day for it to come out. Not that I'm in a hurry to have another calendar year fall aft in my wake, the damn things go by far too fast to begin with, but hey, I want to see this movie!

Here's the second trailer and as I have nothing really to write about today, you get videos. The second one is by a guy yclept Mover (okay, his real name is C. W. Lemoine), an Air Force fighter pilot AND a Navy fighter pilot, though not at the same time, he also writes novels, which I keep reminding myself to read. Mover has some good commentary on the Top Gun 2: Maverick trailer. He can't wait to see it either! (Lest you think he's going to be hypercritical about the film, he's not.)

Oh yeah, his YouTube channel, C. W. Lemoine is awesome, you should watch it. (No, no that's a different link, I know it looks the same, but it ain't. The first is to his author website the second is to his YouTube channel. As Mike K. says, "Trust me, I'm an NCO.")

Anyhoo, watch, enjoy, take notes (just kidding)...

And now Mover's take on the trailer...

I'll be back Friday, prolly with another Flyby as I do believe that there are still a number of weird looking aircraft that I am keen to share with you. Yes, yes, I'll probably include the Pogo and the Stiletto, POCIR.

See you then!