Bob La Londe wrote:
"Steve B" wrote in message

Originally misposted to alt.home.repair, but hey, they liked it, too.

Driving northward past Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and coming straight
at
us on final southerly approach, a C-130. Unknown if just a cargo
carrier,
or a Spooky, but one big fat slow beautiful airplane. My wife saw it
first
and quipped, "What the hell is that?" It takes a lot to get her
attention.
I just said it was a weapons platform that you would not want looking for
you.

My Dad was a wingnut (electronic instrument tech) back in the 1960s and
he
was always impressed with the C130. Its ability to take off form a short
jungle field, its ability to fly with engines falling off, its incredible
lifting capacity, and its absolutely incredible reliability. Every time
we
see one he comments on the plane. Since I live about a mile and a half
from a major marine corps air station we get to see them pretty often.

When I was in the USAF as an electronics countermeasures (or electronic
warfare, depending who you ask) tech, I saw a system that was under
development, called (I hope this is declassified by now - it's been
almost 40 years, after all!) a thing called a "spark-plug tracker."
It was a passive phased array antenna that could zero in on the electrical
noise from a "target," coupled to the gun turret.

They wound up not using it, because as soon as it zeroed in and told
the gun to fire, the recoil from the gun changed the trajectory of
the airplane, and the whole system almost guaranteed a miss.

Joke:
A Marine and an Air Force guy were peeing at the airport latrine. They
finished, the Marine headed for the sink, and the Air Force guy headed
for the door. The Marine said, "Hey flyboy! Don't they teach you to
wash your hands after you ****?" The Air Force guy said, "Nah, in the
Air Force they teach us not to **** on our hands."

True Story:
I was at the airport latrine, and my Dad (RIP), who was seeing me off with
the family, and I were peeing. My Dad headed for the door, and I said,
"Didn't Grandma teach you to wash your hands?" And Dear Old Dad said, "What
I was just holding on to wasn't dirty."

Cheers!
Rich