Wherever you are, whatever you are doing -Season’s Greetings to ya.
ClusterMap  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |
Archive for 2009Merry ChristmasPVG – Shanghai Pudong accident.This has gone largely unnoticed as it failed to make the news around the world. The hull burnt out completely.
tbone – a gem from Denmark
Before setting out on a review I think it’s important to define what I would consider to be the ‘Holy Grail’ qualities for a headset used within long haul operations. It is within this arena that any quirk, discomfort or flaw will be magnified by extended wear. Whilst they have improved slowly over time (like the comfort of the seats be place our butt against for hours on end) the ubiquitous headset’s pace of development just hasn’t matched other areas where operator benefits are felt. Having had our heads squeezed and a groove progressively worn behind each ear by sunglasses has become irritatingly normal, so when I saw the tbone you can understand why I became a little excited. I want a headset that is going to leave my head free to move unencumbered by cables that catch and tug on any obstruction in my vicinity. Bang & Olufsen sound quality would be great, the partial suppression of flight deck environmental noises would be another plus. The tones pushed out across the airwaves from my jet should be sent sharp and clear through my microphone so that every read-back digit is clearly understood by our friends on the ground. With that quality will come pleasing conversational exchanges in the cockpit as we while away the hours leaping continents and the odd ocean in a single bound.
Cactus 1549 – The Hudson, another look.A better look at a great job! Information Design and the aviator
At last I have found someone who believes in the value of information design to humanity. For as long as I can remember I have been rattling on about it, sometimes in the face of bafflement from those you would think would know better. It has always seemed to me that many of our technical resources within aviation take a roundabout and wasteful route in their attempts to enlighten us. Perhaps it is just the way I look at the world and everything in it, but don’t you get frustrated when pages and pages of badly constructed text are used to illustrate a concept or sequence of instructions designed to help you understand, work with or operate something? Why use words when carefully considered graphics supported by a little text could do the task in moments? Not only is this single track response to information transfer wasteful of time and mental effort, it has the potential to be dangerous. Joe is back with ‘Fly with me”I always enjoyed Joe’s ‘Fly with me’ podcasts, they have a resonance that reflects the day to day workings of the industry at our level. He seems to have had a lengthy break from podcasting, I thought at one stage he’d decided to leave it behind.. but here he is again. Blogging and podcasting are absorbing and time consuming and if his life reflects mine there are not enough hours in the day. It is all about where you focus your efforts for the best return (in the Buddhist sense not the financial).
A sad tail…
So, since I’m of a playful disposition on impulse I told her, ‘no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again’. I added that I probably shouldn’t because I ended up in hospital last time, but that I’d lost 2 stone before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in queue was now enthralled with my story).
Horrified, she asked me if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter’s arse and a car hit us both.
I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.
I’m now banned from Tesco.
(With apologies to the original author for butchering his joke – arf, arf)
New Aviation Headset – tboneJust a passing note, I hope to be able to review soon the new tbone noise canceling headset from Denmark. It has high tech additions that might just answer a few of the clarity and comfort issues that we face on todays long haul flight deck. Have a look for yourself and wait for the review later.
My, how things changeConsider your thoughts when downloading a ‘gadget’ for use with your computer. I see 200k and think to myself, “Huh! that can’t be capable of doing much.” Henry Allingham gets a farewell flypastNow there is a lovely way to say thank you.
|
