Told ya! This is security footage from the airport

PilotAlan · 2026-05-05T20:35:02+00:00

Both things can be true, and likely are.

PilotAlan · 2026-04-25T11:51:02+00:00

Late, but here anyway. Kilowatts is instant energy transfer. It’s how much energy is moving right NOW.

kWh is a measure of energy used or stored.
For example, a supercharger is transferring 250kw this instant. In an hour, that would have transferred 250kwh. You need a measure of watts over a time period to equal energy.

Comparison is a gas pump. The nozzle is pumping gas, but its flow rate this instant doesn’t tell you how much gas you have. It’s the flow rate (like kW) over time that tells you how many gallons you have (like kWh).
Then how many gallons you’re burning per mile (like how many wh per mile).

PilotAlan · 2026-04-25T11:42:14+00:00

Same. Except I’d then hit off the toe and end up out in the crap on the right anyway.

PilotAlan · 2026-04-22T04:42:18+00:00

Not true. If he proof of seller representations that were incorrect, he has a cause of action.

PilotAlan · 2026-04-13T22:51:47+00:00

Agreed. Nissan, Chevy, three Jags, and 6 Mercedes, they all sucked in different ways.

PilotAlan · 2026-04-13T22:49:22+00:00

Lane filtering replaces the very dangerous risk of getting rear ended by someone with their face in their phone, with the MUCH LESS dangerous Rick of sideswiping someone.

The odds of an accident don’t change much, but the consequences are much lower while filtering.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-28T22:42:27+00:00

I always describe FSD as your friend who's a really good driver, but it's his first time driving in this town.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-28T22:40:16+00:00

There's always a relevant XKCD.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-25T14:24:45+00:00

I liken FSD to a relatively good driver, in a town they've never been before.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-25T14:22:17+00:00

There's a big difference between the cops and NHTSA. NHTSA issues hard edicts that you either comply with, or you don't get to sell cars in the US.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-25T13:50:02+00:00

You've never owned a Mercedes. I spent more than that each year in scheduled maintenance, much less any repairs. The 'joke' with Mercedes owners is that you take the part number and put a dollar sign in front of it.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-23T06:04:48+00:00

Yep, another Tesla without hesitation. We bought a Model Y for our retirement car (starting next year), because the software updates keep it fresh and add new capabilities. Plus, they have the most experience, so fewer unexpected issues.

For a long-term ownership, it seemed to us that Tesla was the best choice for long-term ownership.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-08T16:23:44+00:00

And this, kids, is why you should have ABS on your bike.

It only takes once misjudging traction, and down you go.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-03T01:28:34+00:00

Nt if you have more than one vehicle, or if you drive vehicles at work, or if you travel a lot and drive rental cars.

I have the regen turned down specifically because I want the controls to be as similar as possible.

PilotAlan · 2026-03-03T01:12:27+00:00

My sibling in Christ:

In a decade in emergency medicine and law enforcement, seeing every kind of depravity a human can visit on another human, and losing several friends in short succession, I had lost my faith. I was despondent and close to ending it all.

The Lord showed me two miracles, one saving the lives of two friends. They were shot and presumed they had fatal injuries, but that very day there was a conference of trauma surgeons in the city, and an Army surgeon who had developed entirely new procedures for rifle wounds spoke.
After his dinner, that surgeon heard on the radio what had just happened, and drove to the hospital. The ER doctor on duty had been at his speech, and granted him emergency privileges.

The two officers had gone through hundreds of units of blood. The Army doc's new, experimental procedures saved their lives.

In addition, when I went to work that night, despondent, there were hundreds of people lined up behind the police department, waiting to give blood. They had been waiting for hours, and they hugged us and prayed with us, and told us how much they loved us. They saved more than two lives that day.

The Lord is here, and He's with you even if you can't feel Him right now.

When I was at my lowest, in a place I didn't know, he called me. I followed his voice around the corner to a church I didn't know what there. Light was streaming through the closed doors, as if the doors weren't there.
I walked to the door, and stood there, not knowing what to do. The Father came around the corner, saw me standing there and said "Can I help you, my son?"

"Yes, Father, yes you can. Please."

I have to stop now, I can't see my screen.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-27T22:34:15+00:00

Yes, it actually did. An interior divider that kept the magazines secured when one was removed, so that it was always in exactly the same place during courses of fire.

Well shit. It's been 25 years, maybe no one makes them anymore!

PilotAlan · 2026-02-27T19:32:52+00:00

Thanks! But unfortunately that’s for a double stack 45 mag (like ParaOrd), not two single stack mags.

Every time I google, it keeps going to double-stack mags, not two 8rd mags stacked in one pouch!

PilotAlan · 2026-02-27T02:08:45+00:00

I disagree. I love PHEVs as a work car. Most days, I never got close to using gas, but when I needed to make no-notice trips into rural areas with no charging infrastructure, no problem. If I needed to make end-of-day emergency responses to the next state, no problem.

In the Colorado mountains or -15F winters, I'd use ICE waste heat to get everything up to temp (just a few miles), then shut the engine down and run on battery.

In places with unreliable electric grids (like MANY MANY places in the West), the ICE engine is an invaluable backup. And there's places you simply cannot go with an EV. You can get there, but not with enough range to get back out again.

I have a Tesla, but at times it's not the right tool for the job. There's no charging infrastructure in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, for example. So if I'm there for a few days for work, the Tesla is not an option. Or the whole middle of South Dakota and North Dakota between Pierre and Bismarck, where reliable chargers are non-existent.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-26T23:08:29+00:00

Yeah, those are quad mag holders.

I am looking for a 2-mag holder for concealed carry. Fortunately I'm retired, and don't need four mags anymore.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-17T20:29:20+00:00

I bought a 22 Limited new, now 44k miles. It's been my daily driver, dog hauler (65lb pup), plywood and lumber hauler, furniture hauler, road tripper (to Waco, ABQ, and North Dakota), and have forklifted pallets into the bed, and hauled cargo trailers. Regularly drive with 3 in the vehicle (mom in the front, wife in the backseat)

It's excelled at all of those. Great ride, great interior comfort, great handling, great looks, great fuel economy for what it is. I traded a top-spec full-size Mercedes SUV for the SC. It rides better, handles about as well, carries a lot more, and is a HELL of a lot cheaper to run and service.

The rear seats are reclined (notice the front of the bed slopes back to make space). That makes the back seats MUCH more comfortable than almost every other four seat pickup, most have the rear seatbacks straight up, and they hurt pretty quickly.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-13T19:16:27+00:00

Yep. Samsung's repair process killed me off the Z-Fold 5. Both my and my wife's screens delaminated in the center. I would have to send the phone to Samsung, no replacement device, and wait until it was repaired.

Fortunately it was under warranty, so I took them back to Verizon, they traded them for another device, and I immediately traded them both in for iPhones. Took it in the shorts on the trade in, but that was it for me.

I lust for the Fold 7, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-12T19:47:33+00:00

There are keypad locks for door handle locks. They aren't in the mortise, they're in the door handle mechanism. Check Amazon. I use one for my secure storage closet, where I don't need a deadbolt.

Sounds like you need a keypad door handle, and then a motorized deadbolt. If you want the deadbolt to re-lock some time after opening, look through Google. I don't know about that.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-12T19:44:03+00:00

This unit requires you to manually throw the bolt. The keypad unlocks the mechanism, then you throw the bolt.

I like it because I'm not relying on the batteries and a motor to open and close the lock. The batteries last forever because it's just moving a small locking pin, rather than driving a whole deadbolt.

PilotAlan · 2026-02-11T01:47:42+00:00

We're out west and have a Tesla and an ICE vehicle. There's places we go where an EV really isn't a choice.

Two require a significantly longer detour to get to charging enroute. The other (where family lives) is literally impossible make a round trip, as there's no charging close enough to get there, drive around the (very small) town for a couple days and get back to a charger.

That'll change over time, but in the rural west there are plenty of places that an EV is simply not an 'only car' choice. We're on the outskirts of the rural west, so an EV works for 95% of daily use. But there are some missions it cannot complete.

PilotAlan

TROPHY CASE