Other hobbies

[Highlander]

my Dad was in the Air Force during the early 60's, he was stationed at Kadena, Okinawa, where the CIA kept their A-12 before the Air Force had ownership and it became the SR-71. He mainly gassed KC-135's, F-4's, and the odd B-52, but his stories about the flight line shutting down whenever they brought out the Blackbird are too cool.

I love the Concorde, too. Have you seen the documentary on its last flight?

BTW, saw another Redtailed Hawk today on the way to my ballroom dance class (don't ask.)

Now the bottom line first... you don't get off that lightly... "Strictly Bassroom" ...? I am brave enough to say that I did ballroom dancing as a kid (great way to meet girls), and it has achieved new levels of popularity... and it is a hobby, so explain or forever henceforth be known as "Ballroom Dance Guy"  

I was at the end of runway "Nine-Right" ("Two-Seven-Right" for the 2nd last) with my wife and daughter for both the last night flights, the last of which was the subject of that documentary - the main road was blocked (a four lane road) with people and vehicles - hundreds of us waiting for that last chance to see those four Olympus engines in the dark, and that glorious kerosine smell (cue "Apocalypse Now" scene here). The whole day was broadcast on the BBC for the return flight, which I videoed, of course... the sight of the last three Concordes coming into land, one after the other, caused the odd moist eye amongst a few out there, although a few residents of Rockaway Beach raised a glass or two at her demise...

A guy called Jeremy Clarkson (a guest on the last flight) summed it up beautifully, "for the first time in human history we are taking a step backwards, no-one will be able to cross the Atlantic so fast again..." (quote is approximately what he said...) - Concorde's fastest Atlantic flight was an accident - favourably winds ended up with her coming in far too early, which is now the record - never got repeated...

You mentioned KC135's - I was on 707 Major Overhauls... one time we were stripping down a "Dan-Dare" 707, and were suprised when this old guy in green overalls popped his head out of the electronics bay into the cockpit (green was the colour of the overalls the apprentices used to wear) and after noticing he had Boeing overalls on I joked, "Have you been stuck down there since she was built...?" to which he replied with a grin, "Jeez, only Boeing would put toilets directly above an electronics bay...!" (to get to the far end of the bay you had to crawl  under the cockpit, up to the radome, and back round the wheel well to get under the front toilets to some of the electronics compartments...!)

Turntables - mine is a direct drive Technics with (i think) a Shure cartridge - in the loft with the rest of the LPs

This thread is driving me nuts...all my relevant hobby photos are on film I haven't digitized yet (vinyl, vintage 1/24th scale slot cars, high speed open track driving, etc).  Guess slide conversion is going to be my hobby this year.

I have an Epson Perfection 1200 Photo scanner, which although old still is useful for odd sized negatives but I bought a budget (would be <$100) 35mm scanner called a Plustek OpticFilm 7200, which is great at budget level, which came with a useful software bundle (which contains all the drivers, so if you tried to find this it would have to be with discs) - I'd love to have some decent kit to do all mine but the budget just ain't there, and I have hundreds of thousands of pics to scan... btw came with carriers for negs and slides...

[Highlander]

These are probably the best 2 Concorde DVD's...


this one has the complete flight crew footage of all but them sitting about waiting to get there, both to and from NY-LON, very techie though...Engine start to shutdown...  +


this one is ridiculous - about five hours of stuff, from training touch-and-goes at Shannon to the "Concorde Round The World" trip documentary for a private charter to do just that...

[Highlander]

Imagine 3-5000 screaming parrakeets, all coming into roost...


One of our garden visitors in the snow earlier this week... most we've had in the garden is about 20 - this week it was about 12...

... and our robin posing for next years cards...


the regular pair usually invade the house during the "open-doors" season...

[Denis]

Seeing a parakeet in the snow is about as weird as seeing a duck in a tree or watching a chicken swim. Crazy!

[Highlander]

Err... I hate to tell you this, Denis, but it is quite common for Mallards to nest in holes in trees, and on top of buildings...

[OldManC]

My Dad was a bit of a Dr. Doolittle type. He made friends with birds at home and at his business (a catering company with a huge loading dock area that was open all day. Birds would fly to him (even inside) and sit on his shoulder, trying to steal the peanuts he kept in his shirt pocket for them. At home is was mostly Blue Jays. Drove our cat nuts... We had at least one for a couple years that would light on his hand and grab the peanuts out of his palm. Another would fly up and take one hanging from him lips. I used to laugh when they'd fly into the house or into the loading dock at work and scream for my Dad (which I knew they were doing because they'd stop when they saw him and wait for the peanut). I got a few to take nuts from my hand, but nowhere near as successfully as my Dad was. I miss those days...

[godofthunder]

These are probably the best 2 Concorde DVD's...


this one has the complete flight crew footage of all but them sitting about waiting to get there, both to and from NY-LON, very techie though...Engine start to shutdown...  +


this one is ridiculous - about five hours of stuff, from training touch-and-goes at Shannon to the "Concorde Round The World" trip documentary for a private charter to do just that...

Must have been around 2002 the Concord came to Rochester NY. It was transporting golf pros as I recall. The day it arrived I was on the roof of the Hospital where I worked and watched her fly in. The day she left I called in sick and took my family to the Rochester Inl. Airport and drove the back roads to the end of the runway. The Concord rotated and became air born almost right in front of us..................................... A sight and sound I will never forget.

[Highlander]

Ah yes... the best way to see her... that's a cool memory to have... living under the LHR flightpath for almost all my life (although now more distant and intermittent - only for departures), Concorde was a regular for us; Roshina used to run out into the garden and point up at her from about 2-3 years and shout "Concorde...!"

Even when she had been in service for years, pre the accident in France, people would stop and look at her as she came or went... about the only chance of seeing something similar now is a big airshow and hoping for a display by a B1... four turbofans with re-heat... B... E... A... Utiful...

Numerous geeks could be found sniffing the fumes at the end of the runway, myself included... 

Denis... Jackie wanted to second your comment about the Chicken Olympic's swimming team...

And Dave, she also made some comment about renaming the site the Last Geek Outpost... 

[Denis]

Err... I hate to tell you this, Denis, but it is quite common for Mallards to nest in holes in trees, and on top of buildings...

Yeah, I know and Wood Ducks do the same. The concept is still weird though.

So, where did all those parakeets come from anyway? We had an indigenous parakeet here in the Carolinas but it's been extinct for a long time.

[Barklessdog]

New Zealands snow parrots-

[Barklessdog]

In Chicago and other cities in the US, wild parrots called Monk Parrots have established colonies in snow belt cities. They survive extreme cold by huddling together in large colony nests.

http://www.monkparakeet.com/jmsouth/

Native mostly to Argentina and Brazil, one finds it strange how birds accustomed to a more temperate  environment could survive the harsh, blustery winters of Chicago, especially next to Lake Michigan. According to research done at the University of Chicago parakeets were first spotted in Hyde Park in 1973. Records show that by 1979 they were successfully nesting and breeding in the area (Hyman and Pruett-Jones 1995)

The city was deciding if they should eradicate them, because they are an invasive species.

[eb2]

I have a large window in the back of the house.  When we moved in I found I had to stick up cling decals on it to keep birds from playing Stuka with it.  We would occasionally hear a loud thud the first month or so, and quickly found a couple of smaller birds had killed themselves from the impact.  The clings went up after a mallard duck hit it one afternoon.  The window for some miracle did not break but the sound was incredible, as was the large greasy smear it left on the glass.  I watched the duck fly off like Foster Brooks to the neighbor's roof where he sat and rolled around a bit for the next several hours.  He lived, but I suspect they are not as bright as a parakeet.

[Highlander]

So, where did all those parakeets come from anyway? We had an indigenous parakeet here in the Carolinas but it's been extinct for a long time.

Now there's an interesting tail...  -1950 - the story goes that John Houston needed some birds for the indoor shots that took place in the UK for the "African Queen" (the boat is still in the UK) and a bunch of Indian parrakeets were available; some eventually got loose and settled in the area, and were plentiful... they are now classed as an indigenous species...

EB... a baby 'keet flew into the open doors of our sun-lounge one morning last summer (I opened the doors to cool the place down) and I had to catch it as it got stuck in the blinds, so I took her (the females have no neck ring) down to the bedroom and woke my wife saying lookee what I got... with this very calm bird in my hand... she did take some pics but they are blurry... happily flew off, then started screaming her head off for mum...

[Lightyear]

In Chicago and other cities in the US, wild parrots called Monk Parrots have established colonies in snow belt cities. They survive extreme cold by huddling together in large colony nests.

http://www.monkparakeet.com/jmsouth/
The city was deciding if they should eradicate them, because they are an invasive species.

We have a colony that is very close to my home - we see them all of the time.  It's crazy to see a hundred bright green birds grubing for bugs and seeds on a huge expanse of freeze damaged brown grass in the middle of winter.

[Highlander]

Just goes to show how hardy they can be, let alone longevity...