A new game... Post pics from your cel phone V.1.0

[BruceK]

I've always been a fan of the various space programs so my wife and I traveled five hours to South Padre Island to see the next launch (and booster catch!) of the huge SpaceX Starship rocket.

Blastoff was scheduled for 5:30 PM Friday (Feb 28) afternoon, but unfortunately it was postponed until at least Monday (Mar 3) afternoon.  Our schedules and hotel reservations would not allow us to stay that long so we're going to miss this one and we'll have to try to see it again some other time. 

With no launch happening on Friday, we decided to drive to the Starbase and see what we could see of the launchpad and rocket hardware. It's incredible how close you can get to everything right on the public road to the beach. The rocket was not fully assembled. The upper stage, the Starship, sat separately from the Heavy Booster which was already sitting on the launchpad from the last launch when it was successfully caught by the "chopsticks" after the flight in January.

I'm looking forward to trying again sometime to watch the launch and especially the booster recovery. 

Pretty cool. My daughter is an engineer at a company in Wilmington, Ma. that does work for Space X, she worked on the fixturing for thruster nozzles on the Dragon capsule.
This past summer during sailboat racing season I needed extra crew one night to sail with my sister and me, an unassuming woman volunteered, ends up she had returned from the ISS in April aboard Soyuz. Look her up Loral O'Hara. She was on Expedition 68 to the ISS. She was visiting Woods Hole for part of the summer as she had worked at The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on the Alvin sub, Alvin was the sub that found the Titanic. For a kid who grew up with Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, sailing with a real astronaut was the highlight of my summer.

That is so cool!  I would love to meet an actual astronaut. 

[bikewiz]

That is so cool!  I would love to meet an actual astronaut. 

She thought it was funny that I was so excited about sailing with her. I had to explain I was the kid that saw the moon landing live on a black and white TV with my dad, built the model of the Saturn 5 rocket, and knew that Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan.(what a geek!)
The sub guys from the Alvin project sail too and made it known that there are far less humans to dive deeper than 20,000 feet than have flown to space, I guess it's an interesting statistic.
This is a picture of the retired Alvin titanium sphere that's on display in Woods Hole, it's a whole lot of titanium!

[94touring]

Another pilot at work was over the Atlantic and got to see space X doing it's thing.

[MiniDave]

Why the swirl effect?

What's in the upper left in the first pic? Just a reflection from the dash or something else?

[94touring]

I have no idea why the swirl. I haven't had time to research it. 

Yeah just a reflection on the windscreen from the various cockpit lighting.

[BruceK]

According to the magic of AI on the Internet:

"The swirling effect observed in the sky over the UK in the last couple of days was caused by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. On March 24, 2025, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying a payload of Starlink satellites into orbit. After the launch, the rocket's upper stage performed a deorbit burn to dispose of itself responsibly over the ocean. During this maneuver, the exhaust from the rocket's engine interacted with the upper atmosphere, creating a spiral pattern illuminated by sunlight against the night sky. This phenomenon, often referred to as a "space jellyfish" or "twilight effect," occurs when the rocket's exhaust plume is lit up at high altitudes during twilight hours, making it visible from vast distances, including parts of the UK. The timing and trajectory aligned with reports of the swirling lights seen across northern Europe, including the UK, on that date."

(I had asked about the effect being seen over the UK because I saw that's where it was being widely reported by observers on the ground)

[94touring]

Very cool.  I missed it by 1 night.  I flew the red eye over the night prior.  The northern lights were a good show at least. 

[Jims5543]

That reminded me of something.

[Jims5543]

I had to survey a house this week for a couple who lost it in the tornadoes spawned off Milton last year.

It was insane to see up close.






This wall leaning back that was between the garage and the kitchen the wall between the garage and living room was gone.


I do not know if they rode this out, I would imagine this was the interiorish, bathoom they would have hid in. It didn't do well.



Front door ripped right off, I was amazed by the wiring being ripped through the drywall. We recently replaced our front door with a beast of a impact door, its like a safe door, it has pegs that run into the surrounding door jamb which was fortified as well to the new codes.

[MiniDave]

Wow! sobering pics......but nothing we're not used to seeing here in tornado alley.....mother nature can be a bitch!

[Jims5543]

I saw this last year and again today as I did a final as-built across the street from it. the WAR on the tailgate got my attention thinking it may be something more than just a 4x4.

I was intrigued as to what the base vehicle was. A little search found it.

https://www.soflocustom.com/inventory/ram-1500-26/

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TRIM: T- Rex 4×4
LIFT: Custom TRX Lift
TIRES: 40 x 15
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HOOD: Vented
GRILL: War Grill with Rigid Spot-Lights and Bomber Steel Bumper
SIDESTEPS: Powersteps
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It looks mean and from what I am reading, it is.

[Red Riley]

Just returned from two weeks wandering around Paris, Ghent and Amsterdam. Didn't see any classic Minis, just lots of new ones, and I didn't bother taking pictures of those.























I was really fascinated by the little snub nosed cars. There were several brands making them and they were all very similar. Renault, Opel, Fiat, and Citroen all had them, probably others. They appear to be exactly symmetrical. It seems like the front and rear panels and quarters are interchangeable. It would make them pretty simple to repair damages. I assume they are all plastic, although I didn't tap on them to check. They looked they were a blast to drive.

[MiniDave]

Fun up to 25 mph! 

[94touring]

I'm all over Europe and rarely see classic minis. Like never.  I will see them in Japan though.  Looks like a fun trip RedRiley.

[94touring]

I got home from a 26 day trip. Some vacation some work.  Went around the planet twice.  Thailand, Philippines, Hawaii, Bulgaria, Ireland, and Kuwait. Some of the highlight pics.  I also got hit by a car crossing a street in Thailand when a lady ran the light. Luckily ended up on the car and not under it.

[MiniDave]

Is that the main plane you fly or are there several different ones? It would be fun to follow that tail number on flight Aware to see where all you go!

[94touring]

Is that the main plane you fly or are there several different ones? It would be fun to follow that tail number on flight Aware to see where all you go!

1 of the 3.   Looks like the only one in the air right now is 846 thats in the middle east.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ab9639

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[94touring]

Hvac job in the 2 condos I own downtown are finally "completed".  It's been a couple months of them hacking out the 50 year old units and then putting in a new one that actually works.  And it does work!  I came home to this, asked when they finish the drywall and trim....nope that's on me.  I have 2 of these F'n things to do now. 

Get to the shop and hear a dripping coming from the hot water heater closet. The blow off valve thingy seal has a drip. Never ending.   

[MiniDave]

I hate doing drywall work.....I don't mind nailing/screwing it up on the walls, but mud and tape will always fall to someone else! 

[94touring]

Quotes to pay someone from what all the other owners are saying, is roughly $1300 per unit.  I want to do something a little  different in my studio, so I'll probably just do it myself whenever I feel motivated. 

[MiniDave]

Is that a/c only? or heat too? There was a door there, right? So you need to frame in a door with vents for the air return which would give me all sorts of ideas on some interesting ways to do it..

Nice job they did on the cutout at the top of the plenum.....is that the only outlet? Does it connect to vents in other parts of the unit?

That's a cold water unit right? Connected to a chiller on the roof? No freon? Electric heat?

[Jims5543]

A nice louvered door would be perfect there. Easy access to the unit.

Take a pic from further away. 

[Jims5543]

My favorite of the bunch, looks like an old French or Russian car.

Cool pics looks lovely there.  Did you partake in Amsterdam? A friend of ours was there and got wrecked off an edible, had to go sleep it off.  Edibles are tricky, you never know how hard they are going to hit.

[94touring]

Is that a/c only? or heat too? There was a door there, right? So you need to frame in a door with vents for the air return which would give me all sorts of ideas on some interesting ways to do it..

Nice job they did on the cutout at the top of the plenum.....is that the only outlet? Does it connect to vents in other parts of the unit?

That's a cold water unit right? Connected to a chiller on the roof? No freon? Electric heat?

Heat and Air.  Runs off dedicated chilled and steamed water in these massive units they installed on top of the parking garage to bypass the cities very failed steam system that's about 100 years old.

No other vents in this unit. It's a small studio that's only 500sq ft. My 1 bedroom condo they do it different because there are a series of ducts and vents.

[MiniDave]

I think that's a Fiat 126 (could be the Polski version) 2 cyl air cooled motor in the rear