Worst Weather in the World

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I flew up to Maine to see my sister and cousins for a few days. As part of the trip we went up Mount Washington in NH. We went up on the Cogged Railway. It's A unique old vehicle system that only uses a large cog underneath the engine hooked into a ladder type of rack on the tracks all the way to the top. The modern engine uses a 600HP John Deere driving a hydraulic pump which in turn drives several hydraulic motors turning the large cog. Mt Washington is known for the extreme cold and highest wind in the world. Yes, the world. That was not the case when we went up. The winds were 3 MPH and the temp was 62 degrees. the highest ever temp ever recorded was 72 degrees and a 3 MPH wind is generally unheard of. So, the weather was quite kind for us.
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Pilots Arms

Next time you have the opportunity look at your pilot's arms. The arms are not strong in an obvious sense. You would think that the particular part of the hero-body that with literal single-handedness guides hundreds of tons of metal and humanity would be well-formed, masculine and muscular. In fact, these very arms countering fears of passengers actually appear weak, almost stick-like. The elbow seems to drop from the shoulder unsupported, without the expected thigh-sized bicep. The short sleeve appears large and underfilled. There are tendons strongly connected from the core without strenght, but filled with confidence and grace.

In place of muscle there are highly developed nerves in the elbow and shoulder that firmly connect with the brain and the art of flight.

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grammachickens said…
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8:23 AM
grammachickens said…
It is not the arms but "the brain and the art of flight". Remember you are not just a little bird about to soar but only a heavy, unwinged human with technology.

http://www.sportpilot.org/magazine/feature/2006%20-%2010%20October%20-%20Lessons%20Learned%20-%20A%20Modern%20Icarus.pdf

Is the pilot an artist?

"In the specific domain of technique and invention, the dominating opposition is between the notions of straightness and circularity or sinuosity. Like every good carpenter, Daedalus guides his plane straight. When he begins the first flight, he adheres strictly to the rules of navigation: he flies with his eyes fixed on the constellations -- Bootes, Ursa Major, Orion's Sword -- which are the reference points of the sailor. The essential rule he sets down for Icarus is that of the straight route, halfway between the high and the low, The failure and drowning of Icarus, a bad pilot, comes from ignoring this rule.
But the carpenter-pilot who has mastery over straightness also knows how to weave undulating nets and draw curves.
The last antithesis is already present in Daedalus's genealogy: the one who has manual dexterity is characterized essentially by his intellectual qualities. The narration of the adventures of the artisan puts the accent on the form of mentality that he must prove: an inventive subtlety rich in ruses and stratagems."

http://books.google.com/books?id=ANC8Cwuk46sC&printsec=frontcover
8:54 AM
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