Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 (by Sean Stiegemeier)
May 21, 2010, 10:19pm
A Cold War-era SR-71 pilot recounts what it’s like to fly the fastest plane ever built:
One day, high above Arizona , we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. ‘Ninety knots,’ ATC replied. A twin Bonanza soon made the same request. ‘One-twenty on the ground,’ was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was ‘Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,’ ATC responded. The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, ’ Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.’ We did not hear another transmis sion on that frequency all the way to the coast.
April 07, 2010, 5:57pm
update your bookmarks (all 5 of you): yesterday i changed my tumblr url to http://samwithans.tumblr.com (from the venerable 5am5pence.tumblr.com). as always, you can always reach this page at samuelspence.com
February 17, 2010, 10:07am
Followed a couple new Tumblogs today:
Mad Men Footnotes
anyone who knows me, knows i (probably annoyingly) reference this show a lot.
Movies in Frames
movies captured in 4 frames. haven’t found a spoiler yet, but check it out.
Movie Score(s) a Day
not really “in” to movie scores, but there’s no reason not to learn more.
Making of
sorry, another film-related one.
fuck yea carrie fisher
another “fuck yea, x” tumblog.
White House Photostream
pete souza is the fly on the wall.
February 13, 2010, 7:43pm