Podcast 394

The EAA Air Show Gets Me. Live at Osh Kosh, and despite the plane crash, this is an event that reaches out and grabs you. Acre after acre of all kinds of planes, many with pilot’s tents beneath their wings, four hangers full of aviation equipment, pilots and aircraft enthusiasts all over the place. Warbirds, jets, brand new airliners, seaplanes, experimental planes, workshops, even massage chair demonstrations! It’s all a little overwhelming for a podcaster who doesn’t fly and doesn’t know anything about aviation, except that it’s pretty cool. Then there was the speech and presentation by Bert and Dick Rutan. One comes away with a message that needs to be heard these days. A message of living your dream, maybe taking the road less traveled to try to accomplish something that changes the world, or maybe an industry. EAA began as a community of homebuilders, and aircraft enthusiasts and there are still workshops and demonstrations for people in this tribe, but the event obviously has grown over the years to become one of the country’s premiere attractions, all in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin. All the big companies are here; GE, Boeing, Airbus, Honda, Bendix King, and Alpha Systems, to name a few. Medium and small vendors of all shapes and sizes are represented too, selling all kinds of tools for pilots, and all kinds of aircraft. If the original intent of designers and kit builders was to democratize flying — because 50 years ago the only way some people could acquire an airplane was to build their own — then they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Let’s hope it continues in this vein. In the end, it’s the people — the flight community — that makes this event so special. If you fly you already know. If you don’t, EAA is something to see. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: I mentioned Bert Rutan’s best friend and pilot of Spaceship 1, Mike Melville and got his name wrong. Mike was part of the presentation that night at EAA, and has his own list of impressive aviation accomplishments.)

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Podcast 330

Kirk, Spock & Puppies. Updates to start the week on the big stories. First, Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Mister Spock on the original “Star Trek” series, died this weekend. We could leave it at that, but apparently the actor who played Captain Kirk on the show, William Shatner is unable to attend Nimoy’s funeral because of other engagements. This has provoked outrage from chi-dults (Editor’s Note: Child-Adults, or Chi-Dults.) infuriated that Captain Kirk would not attend the funeral of his first officer. People! This was a TV show in the mid 1960’s! Captain Kirk and Mister Spock aren’t real. Frank Underwood is not the President of the United States. There really isn’t a beautiful woman, also known as ‘The Mother Of Dragons’ as seen in ‘Game of Thrones’. It’s shocking, but it’s time someone finally told you the truth. These are actually TV shows. Dramatic portrayals of stories, made for distribution over your television! Imagine! Meanwhile, in the real world Christians are being kidnapped by the hundreds for presumed execution by beheading or some other horrible fate, at the hands of terror armies in the Middle East. And the top story? A puppy that, regrettably, was lit on fire and left for dead in a dumpster on the Red Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota. If it bleeds it leads, and the Puppy Dog’s fate leads! The dog is recovering and will require several skin grafts. A five thousand dollar reward is offered for the identity of his tormenter. Perhaps visiting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will be happy to take the back seat to Captain Kirk and Mister Spock, and the puppy dog. Netanyahu will speak to a joint US Congress presumably to urge President Obama not to make nuclear deal with Iran. President Obama is furious at Congress for inviting Netanyahu and the Prime Minister for accepting, and will not be watching. As far the Islamic State is concerned, remember that big Iraq army offensive to retake Mosul from the IS? Postponed again. We’ll tell you why in this podcast. And US Economic Growth in the 4th quarter of 2014 has been revised townward from 2.5 percent to 2.2 percent, suggesting the US economy has a long way to go before the boom the President and some cheerleading financial reporters seem to think is happening, actually happens. By the way, where’s the ‘cheap gas acting like a tax-cut’ effect? Experts say next quarter. Yeah. Sure. Foreign Policy and Economics are sure to be major issues in the 2016 Presidential race. Minnesota is projecting a budget surplus and some podcast subscribers want to know what will happen with the surplus. Let’s put it this way; Don’t expect a rebate. And, if you thought the job of an Air Marshall was boring, listen to this podcast. Sponsored by X Government Cars! 

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