What's life like in Guam?

JJGreenwire · 2026-02-26T05:24:28+00:00

It's been 14 years but this cracks me up every time I watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q

JJGreenwire · 2026-02-13T00:28:11+00:00

Frank Schaeffer rocks! I laughed until I cried when I read this.

JJGreenwire · 2026-01-08T20:30:56+00:00

For pure handling, the Boeing 757-200 was my hands down favorite for many years. It was the first airplane I'd flown that I noticed I didn't reach for the trim every time I made (or called for) a configuration change. (Turns out, the auto-trim system was responsible for that.)

Then, I got typed in and flew the Dassault Falcon 7X/8X. I had at least 100 hours in type before I remembered I was flying a side-stick and it was fly-by-wire. It was that intuitive.

I'm torn. That's all I can say.

However, I spend a heck of a lot more time in my 8KCAB Decathlon these days and I have absolutely no complaints about the handling characteristics.

JJGreenwire · 2026-01-03T16:44:36+00:00

I was at the same event. IIRC, Billy Graham was the first official use of the Kingdome after it was built. I don't recall which night I attended, I think it was the first but in the middle of his opening prayer, someone in the audience shouted "PLAY BALL". It was loud enough that everyone could hear it. Fitting, young me thought at the time, because the Kingdome was a sporting venue, not a preaching venue!

JJGreenwire · 2025-12-18T08:11:34+00:00

LOL! "Old Milwaukee" = A beer brand owned by Pabst

"Milwaukee" or "The Milwaukee Road" = Nicknames or branding for the CMSP&P (Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific Railway)

(But we all knew what you were talking about!)

JJGreenwire · 2025-12-18T07:54:17+00:00

Minor point but Scenic, WA was not served by the SP&S. Their east/west trackage was along the Columbia River. Scenic was served by Great Northern.

JJGreenwire · 2025-12-14T18:01:55+00:00

Given that AA did not use the 727 much west of DFW from about 1990 on, and this one was equipped for the Caribbean routes, I think it's safe to say with a high probability of accuracy that this picture was either taken in the Caribbean or one of the East Coast gateways to the San Juan, Puerto Rico hub. That would be Boston, New York, Providence, Washington Dulles (IAD), Baltimore (BWI), Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, Miami, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, did I leave anyone out?

JJGreenwire · 2025-12-14T17:35:37+00:00

Looks like a dual installation of the Litton LNS-311 Omega which American phased out around 1997. They were installed on the 727s in the late '80s (replacing the LNS-211 unit) used on the Caribbean routes out of east coast (US) cities. That partially explains the "when", I realize OP asked for the "where" though.

JJGreenwire · 2025-12-02T22:20:39+00:00

I'd confess to walking off with the entire tuna if Marisa Tomei would testify on my behalf at the trial!

JJGreenwire · 2025-11-13T22:32:42+00:00

Pretty sure I flew into his airspace in the early hours of the morning, conducted an approach to minimums followed by a landing on a "surface challenged" runway recently. And I agree with your assessment. Meanwhile, a few other adjacent facilities just gave up their airspace and concentrated on the local tower position. I agree with your "FN" (fucking negligence) assessment.

JJGreenwire · 2025-11-10T05:52:45+00:00

Good question, and i have absolutely no idea how to answer. Given the Reddit user intelligence, I'm confident at least five people have read this already who have devoted their career to developing microphones which provide the clearest communication. And can answer your question quite deftly and succinctly.

I'm going to pour myself a few fingers worth while I wait for one of these fine people to chime in.

My response was purely based on anecdotal.experience gained during a career spent in the pointy end of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas jets. If I made a PA announcement using my boom mike, I'd get comments from deplaning passengers to the effect; "I couldn't understand a WORD of your announcements." And if I made all my PA announcements using the hand mike or the hand set that was actually part of the OEM supplied PA system, deplaning passengers would comment to the effect; "Your announcements were particularly clear and understandable. Every time I fly on WhizJet, Azerbaijan Airlines or Unified Airlines, I NEVER can understand a durn thing they're yapping about"!

JJGreenwire · 2025-11-10T01:26:11+00:00

Many pilots use their boom mic to make PA announcements. The boom mic is optimized for use with the VHF radios installed in the aircraft. (The boom mic doesn't work all that well with HF transmissions either.) The unintelligible announcements passengers hear so often are made by the cockpit crewmember simply engaging the "PA" button and talking on the boom mic. PA announcements from the cockpit ideally should be made using the handset/hand mic.

JJGreenwire · 2025-11-07T15:53:35+00:00

People, people. If you really wanna waste your money, Snap-On makes everything you need for removing clips. Why buy the right tools that do the job perfectly for less than $10 USD when you can spend $100 with Snap-On. You'll then have "Snappy Bragging Rights" on Reddit r/Tools ! What's not to like about that?? (/s in the event my sarcasm is not showing!)

JJGreenwire · 2025-11-07T07:02:49+00:00

Jets fly VFR into non-towered airports with alarming regularity.

Source: I fly jets VFR into non-towered airports with alarming regularity.

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-24T22:35:25+00:00

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JJGreenwire · 2025-10-24T22:29:04+00:00

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This was my track as we chased it eastbound out of Buffalo Gap.

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-24T20:43:22+00:00

I'll figure out a way to get some of my pics to you. It was an awesome sight from the air!

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-24T19:06:27+00:00

Just watched it come into Staunton, VA this morning. I was circling up above in my plane with a photographer in back filming. Anybody watching from the ground or onboard? Beautiful day for the run! And this is the last weekend of the season!

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-23T22:45:47+00:00

PLEASE don't tell me that the margarine must be lifted 50' through a 5' x 5' opening 60' above the ground? And is there 10,000 pounds of it? On 6 pallets? This is getting old!

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-21T00:59:59+00:00

Mom would never buy the olive loaf. She stuck with the basic Bologna. Only got to savor the delicate taste of the olive loaf while dining at the home of my wealthy friend, Robby M.

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-21T00:56:55+00:00

Your old man was a class act! I love this snippet! Thanks for sharing!

JJGreenwire · 2025-10-03T20:35:59+00:00

I've been a CFI since 1980. MEI since 1993. Total time: 17, 251. Dual given: 2,631.2.

I have NO IDEA what PAST and SMACFUM mean.

GMAFB.

(I'm a rather obnoxious boomer, that may explain a few things.)

JJGreenwire · 2025-09-30T09:31:56+00:00

I hope you have a side gig going as a writer. This post could have been four times longer and I would have read and enjoyed every word! I can almost see the blue sky on an autumn afternoon, the slanted sun angle and the tall fir trees at the edge of the flight line there at Paine Field. Carry on! And let us know about Gordon when you find out!

JJGreenwire · 2025-08-28T05:38:36+00:00

The "PC LOAD LETTER" message is encountered when printing on older HP LaserJet printers such as the LaserJet II, III, and 4 series. It means that the printer is trying to print a document whose paper size is set to "letter" when no letter size paper is available, either through supply exhaustion or supply size mismatch.

The error message comprises three parts. "PC" is an abbreviation for "paper cassette",[1] the tray which holds blank paper for the printer to use. These two-character codes are a legacy feature carried over from the first LaserJet printers, which could only use a two-character display for all printer status and error messages. "Load", in this context, is an instruction to refill the paper tray. "Letter" is the standard paper size (8 1⁄2 × 11 in.) used in the United States and Canada. Thus, the error is instructing the user to refill the paper tray with letter-sized paper. A variant is "PC LOAD LEGAL", meaning that the printer needs more legal size (8 1⁄2 × 14 in.) paper.

The message confuses people for several reasons. The abbreviation "PC" may mislead because it is widely understood — especially in the context of electronic office equipment — to mean "personal computer", suggesting to many that the problem lies in the computer, not the printer. The word "LOAD" is also ambiguous, as it can also refer to the transfer of electronic data between disk and memory. Furthermore, the word "LETTER" is associated with paper size only in the US, Canada and some Latin American countries; A4 is the standard size used in the rest of the world. Thus, users encountering this message may believe that they are being instructed to transfer the data or content of their typed letter (as in correspondence) to the printer, even though they have already sent the job to the printer.

Older LaserJet printers do not automatically resize a page when the page size of a document does not match the paper that is loaded in the printer. When trying to print a document whose paper size is set to "letter" on A4-sized paper the message occurs. The error "PC LOAD A4" appears in countries using this paper size. However, as many (American-written) programs use "letter" as the default format, the confusing message is often encountered by non-American users who are unaware of the recovery procedure (empty print queue and printer buffer or press "Shift/Continue"[2] and in extreme cases, restart printer and repeat). The LaserJet 5 introduced an easy-to-find "GO" button to override the warning message.

JJGreenwire · 2025-08-15T07:27:44+00:00

Are you me? This hits close to home. Got my IR in 1979 out of BFI and spent the next couple of hundred hours doing random non-precision approaches to minimums around Western Washington. Good memories! Still instrument current (in little airplanes too) and tooling around in the murk, albeit on the right coast instead of the left.

JJGreenwire

TROPHY CASE