2005.06.27
 | --Paint.exe doodle during a slow stretch of training last week, click for full size. Maybe there's something nicer about sketching with a mouse that uses a rollerball. |
Thought of the Moment
On the flight back from Chicago the Pilot mentioned that one of the channels of inflight audio entertainment was a feed of the Air Traffic Control chatter. Fascinatin' stuff for the geekly type--you really have admire the cordial efficiency of it, the clipped call and response, sometimes the whitewashed irritation when a flight is forced to be delayed. For some reason I liked the kind semi-formality of the "Good Day" or "Good Night" that would often indicate the end of a flight's passage through a certain airspace.
How Stuff Works has a description of the air traffic control system, and here's an interview with an air traffic controller about "Pushing Tin", an ok (if way overdone, acording to the controller) film about the people at the radar screens.
Of course it's not always perfect...there was that near miss at Logan on June 9...