Ice Pilots NWT

I don't know why I haven't posted about this earlier, considering it's been on the channels since 2009... ICE PILOTS!

Following the day-to-day business of Buffalo Airways, an airline running cargo and passenger ops in the Canadian north, The show takes you into gritty, down and dirty details of life in the airline business, and you get to see a TON of WWII-era aircraft flying, being serviced, etc. The members of Buffalo give you, the viewer (and possibly future career pilot?), a hell of a lot of good advice, based on experience in the field.

One of my current favorite TV shows out there!

Be advised, there is a bit of mild language, but it's censored out. You can catch the show on History, National Geographic or Discovery.

Iceman out.

Rant time?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's time for me to ramble on about something that's been poking at me like a thorn in my side for a while now.

Dreams.

I find it a weird combination of hilarious and pathetic at the same time, when people dream about doing one thing, but are too lazy and unmotivated to put themselves of the path to get there.

Take for example, the aviator.

I once heard that the vast majority of pilots today dreamed of flying when they were younger. True enough, right? Flying isn't exactly something that pops into your head all of a sudden. It isn't the kind of thought that gives you that spur-of-the-moment motivation, cementing itself firmly in your mind. Well, these pilots dreamed. And they DID.
What do I mean by that? I mean, they put their heart and soul into becoming pilot material. They put their nose in the books, figured out that awful flight computer (for some reason, I still have trouble with that stupid piece of plastic to this day, though I've had 4 years worth of practice. I guess I'm a slow learner in that respect haha), and disciplined themselves. These kind of men (and women) are DOERS.

They set their mind to something, then go about getting it done.

Then, you have the other extreme. The DREAMERS.

Don't get me wrong, dreaming is never a bad thing, just as long as you have your feet set firmly on the ground. Be realistic. Fantasies never got anyone far in life. The problem occurs when you just keep dreaming and you don't start doing.

Yeah, I know this all sounds like one of those self-help speeches that those motivational speakers give, but hell, I'm no Tony Robbins. I'm just speaking from logic and from the heart.

Dream. Dream about flying fighter jets for the military, while you slack off in school, don't maintain your grades, aren't physically fit, and consistently make excuses to "allow" you to continue in you patterns of laziness, negligence and indiscipline.

Do. Do the work, get active, stay at the top of your class, build a discipline that'll last you a lifetime, turn yourself into the ideal candidate.

Dreamers or Doers. Which one are you?

Iceman out.

MAA

Every so often, you stumble upon some really awesome stuff on the internet. I found Military Aviation Archives through a friend, earlier this month.

MAA is built to share the vast (and by vast, I mean... HUUUUUUUUUUUGE) collection of photographs taken by it's founders. This stuff is invaluable to aviation/military aviation enthusiasts and researchers from all over. 

So, from now on, Zero Dark Thirty will be featuring aviation photographs from MAA (with their permission, of course!), and we'll be introducing you to some of the finest, most revered aircraft to ever grace the skies, in the process.

I hope you guys enjoy their work as much as I do! Go check them out on their Facebook page, or their website (both links are listed below).

Check these out:

FACEBOOK PAGE

Military Aviation Archives 

Iceman out.

The Missile with a Man In It.

Took a brief hiatus, but now I'm back.

Let's talk older fighter jets. Specifically, the F-104 Starfighter.

To anyone taking their first look at it, they'd probably think it's some weird invention out of Star Wars. Sleek, lengthy design, short and stubby wings... But, still something very curiously interesting. 46 years after the USAF brought it into service, the last Starfighter was retired in 2004 from the Italian Air Force. That's one hell of a long life.

The history behind the jet is chock-full of ups and downs. It was the brainchild of renowned Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, who designed it as a jet tailored to pilots. He visited and interviewed a number of fighter pilots about what they'd prefer in their aircraft and found that they were of the opinion that the Air Force's mainstay at the time, the F-86, was outclassed by the Soviet MiG-15s flown by the North Koreans. They just wanted a smaller, nimbler and speedier airframe. Johnson immediately got to work.

Initially, the XF-104 (experimental prototype) was shrouded in secrecy. The new aircraft was supposedly revolutionary, with an all new, much more powerful engine. It lacked something that was thought of as the convention for supersonic-capable jets: swept wings. Instead, it used a trapezoidal shape, determined by engineers at Lockheed to be ultra-efficient for high-speed fight. The wings were shortened, and extremely thin. In fact, the leading edges were razor-sharp. Ground crews had to install protective coverings over the wings before they went to work on the aircraft, lest they injure themselves by accident! The J79 engine was built to push the jet past Mach 2, which, at the time, made the Starfighter one of the fastest service aircraft in the world. Earlier models had a downward firing ejection seat. As some of you might've concluded, that wasn't a good decision at all, and sadly it resulted in the deaths of 21 pilots, before it was replaced with a more conventional seat.

The F-104, for all its hype, had a large number of dark moments in its history. Of all the Century Series fighters in USAF service, it had the highest accident rate. In fact, the Canadian air forces lost over 50% of their Starfighter fleet and the Germans lost 30%. Oddly enough, the Spanish air force didn't lose a single one!  Pilots soon bestowed newer nicknames on it, like "Lawn Dart" or "Flying Coffin".

Still, the F-104 proved itself time and time again, by breaking and setting multiple records and holding open the door for newer, better fighters to take the skies.

Iceman out.

Happy Birthday America!

Something interesting and poignant I found: 


To our Founding Fathers who stood tall and answered the call, against all odds, 236 years ago today, thank you. 

"Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

For the record, here's a portrait of the men who pledged "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" for liberty many years ago.

Fifty-six men from each of the original 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Nine of the signers were immigrants, two were brothers and two were cousins. One was an orphan. The average age of a signer was 45. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate at 70. The youngest was Thomas Lynch Jr. of South Carolina at 27.

Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers, and four were doctors. Twenty-two were lawyers - although William Hooper of North Carolina was "disbarred" when he spoke out against the king - and nine were judges. Stephen Hopkins had been governor of Rhode Island. Forty-two signers had served in their colonial legislatures.

John Witherspoon of New Jersey was the only active clergyman to attend. (Indeed, he wore his pontificals to the sessions.) Almost all were Protestants. Charles Carroll of Maryland was the lone Roman Catholic.

Seven of the signers were educated at Harvard, four at Yale, four at William & Mary, and three at Princeton. Witherspoon was the president of Princeton, and George Wythe was a professor at William & Mary. His students included Declaration scribe Thomas Jefferson.

Seventeen signers fought in the American Revolution. Thomas Nelson was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and then commanded Virginia military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William Whipple served with the New Hampshire militia and was a commanding officer in the decisive Saratoga campaign. Oliver Wolcott led the Connecticut regiments sent for the defense of New York and commanded a brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of General Burgoyne. Caesar Rodney was a major general in the Delaware militia; John Hancock held the same rank in the Massachusetts militia.

The British captured five signers during the war. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton were captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780. George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. Richard Stockton of New Jersey never recovered from his incarceration at the hands of British Loyalists. He died in 1781.

Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was "hunted like a fox by the enemy - compelled to remove my family five times in a few months." Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by the British during the war.

Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis's New York home was razed and his wife taken prisoner. John Hart's farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey, and he died while fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Nelson, both of Virginia, lent large sums of their personal fortunes to support the war effort but were never repaid.

Fifteen of the signers participated in their states' constitutional conventions, and six - Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Franklin, George Clymer, James Wilson, and George Reed - signed the U.S. Constitution.

After the Revolution, 13 signers went on to become governors. Eighteen served in their state legislatures. Sixteen became state and federal judges. Seven became members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Six became U.S. senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became Supreme Court justices. Jefferson, Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each became vice president. Adams and Jefferson later became president.

Five signers played major roles in the establishment of colleges and universities: Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania; Jefferson and the University of Virginia; Benjamin Rush and Dickinson College; Lewis Morris and New York University; and George Walton and the University of Georgia.

Adams, Jefferson, and Carroll were the longest surviving signers. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll was the last signer to die in 1832 at the age of 95."

Sources: Robert Lincoln, Lives of the Presidents of the United States, with Biographical Notices of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (Brattleboro Typographical Company, 1839); John and Katherine Bakeless, Signers of the Declaration (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969); Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).