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<p>I actually knew someone who lived near the Embry-Riddle location
in 2000/2001 where several of the 9/11 pilots learned to fly well
enough to do what they did. She had friends (go figure) who
worked at a strip-club who claimed these "boys" were regulars
there. It was pretty creepy 2nd order connection. <br>
</p>
<p>My uncles were both pilots in WWII but the older was trained up
on the newfangled idea of a helicopter and proceeded to become a
test pilot for Sykorski. He was forced into retirement (chief
test pilot) to a desk at 65. Nobody wanted to ground him, but
"rules is rules" and in fact his health degraded acutely and
abruptly and he died just a few years later. His family insists
it was from "heartbreak" from being grounded. <br>
</p>
<p>I have a "young" friend (now 40s) who was just finishing up his
commercial certification at Embry-Riddle Prescott on 9/11 and
claims that the bottom not only dropped out for commercial pilots
for the next couple of years, but has "never recovered" and he has
been making a living as a bartender ever since. Perhaps it is
time for him to revisit. <br>
</p>
<p>My ex brother-in-law left his career in the Air Force to become
"a bus driver" and recently was retired (for age) from Delta.
Even 30 years ago things were incredibly automated. I see no
reason that airliners won't be entirely automated and teleoperated
in the next 20 years. The risk-profile of such things is
evolving as self-driving cars (and more aptly? Semi-tractors?)
emerge. <br>
</p>
<p>The hyperloop game is going to change long distance rapid-transit
eventually. I don't believe anyone is planning for underground
"ballistic-trajectory-velocities" quite yet, but mag-lev-centered,
evacuated tube, zero-grade velocities could still be pretty
impressive, and energy consumption as well with magnetic
(regenerative) braking. The earliest days of railroading
involved gravity-trains often with empty return cars being towed
by animal power. Yet others used water from the high-side source
as "ballast" and if the up/down routes were mechanically coupled,
the extra weight of water plus load would allow the empties to be
returned "for free". <br>
</p>
<p>Regarding Dave's friend's drug conviction, Denzel Washington's
(one of a series of flawed) character in the movie Flight is a
drug-addled pilot who, by implication in the story, actually
achieves a heroic manouver *because* he's still jacked on the
cocaine he snorted to lift himself out of his alcohol hangover.
The setup is that a jackscrew controlling horizontal stablizer
breaks, forcing the nose of the plane down with no recourse...
Denzel's character quickly recognizes the futility of the
situation and the *opportunity* of rolling the dive into an
inverted orientation such that the forced "nose down" is now "nose
up".</p>
<p>Popular Mechanics (of all places) had an article on the
plausibility of the Cocaine effects supporting the story (rather
than the mechanics of inverted flying).</p>
<p>I suspect I could get work myself using my 40 year-stale
FortranIV experience on "mission critical" systems already old at
that time, but still in some sort of service. I did a huge senior
project on a FortranIV system for simulating exo-Terran
atmospheres (e.g. Mars) which might well be still be in service?
Fortunately my COBOL/RPG experience is so slim I'd never be
tempted to try that domain.</p>
<p>I'd like to believe that the myriad "stale skill" job
opportunities (demands) we see today are going to be
yet-more-fully deprecated. I still have a coal-fired forge and
an anvil, both probably manufactured 100 years ago, that I can
shape and even temper iron and steel with (and aluminum if I'm
incredibly careful), but I do not and never will have the skills
required to do it well, and certainly not to replace what modern
industrial processes can achieve... barring a full apocalypse, it
is merely a quaint "hobby" that might afford me the opportunity to
turn out some rustic items others would mistake for "art", or
more often, repair the various related tools I might *use*in my
forge... though in most cases a strap and some bolts or rivets
makes more sense than trying to re-weld a broken connecting rod,
or lever.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the discussion of how our "first programming language"
defines us, I believe that my earliest "programming" experience
was more "analysis" of the circuitry of pinball (and vending)
machines in my friend's father's workshop where he repaired them,
and there were always an array of pinball machines in various
states of repair, with all the guts open for inspection while
operating. Very much an analog/digital hybrid system while the
older vending machines were essentially all "rod logic" (albeit
simple). Later, at my first employer (radio station) I learned
the ins and outs of automated infinite loop carousel "programming"
which was a hybrid of relay and mechanical (rod/gear/lever)
logics. The "programming" was really simplistic, involving
inserting "shorting pins" in matrices to define priorities and
timing to get the "right" mix of commercials, PSAs, and a
diversity of music played during any given period (usually a 4
hour shift). I can't say how much it influenced my later
understanding of "computer programming" which I was being
introduced to simultaneously by our Driver's Ed teacher who had
somehow wrangled a PDP-x rack into a small room with a
teletype/paper-tape-punch. He didn't really have a clue, he was
learning BASIC along with us, following a simple set of "sample
programs" listed in what I think was the "owners manual" for the
machine.</p>
<p>Ramble,</p>
<p> - Steve<br>
</p>
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<p dir="auto">Does it include lessons on how to land the
plane?</p>
<p dir="auto">—Barry</p>
<p dir="auto">On 12 Aug 2020, at 21:53, Frank Wimberly wrote:</p>
<blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #777; color:#777;
margin:0 0 5px; padding-left:5px">
<p dir="auto">I just got an email from a flight training
program offering me a nine month<br>
course to get a multi engine commercial license. They
don't read the Friam<br>
listsrv, I hope. I'm too old in any case.<br>
<br>
---<br>
Frank C. Wimberly<br>
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,<br>
Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>
<br>
505 670-9918<br>
Santa Fe, NM<br>
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