In a struggle to be happy and free

Drystone Wall

Category: transportation Page 2 of 23

That word ‘ever’

I was watching The National last night and one of the stories was about air safety. With the July 24 crash of Air Algerie Flight AH5017, the July 17 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, and the March 8 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, it’s been a bad year for air safety. The story really got my attention when the reporter, Peter Armstrong, said that 2013 had the lowest number of air passenger fatalities ever. Ever! 

Even if you ignore all the years before commercial air travel, what about the early years of passenger service in which the number of fliers were so few as compared to today? He specified no start date, so were there fewer fatalities last year than in 1919 when Aircraft Transport and Travel started flying military biplanes modified to carry two passengers each between London and Paris?

It could be that last year was the safest year on record in terms of the number of fatal commercial airline crashes per people/miles flown. Wikipedia claims that the worst year by that reckoning was 1929. During that year there were 51 fatal commercial airline crashes killing a total of 61 people. Figuring in the distance, it works out to one fatal crash for every 1,000,000 miles flown. With today’s volume of air travel, an equivalent rate would mean 7,000 crashes annually! And do note that the 61 fatalities from 1929 is fewer than the 210 fatalities from 2013.

Maybe this is what Armstrong meant, but it is certainly not what he said. Come on CBC, you’re better than this.

I sent a query to the show about this. If I hear back, so will you.

Road Hazzard

Dude likes his Dukes, it seems.

IMG_0453.jpg: iPhone5s, back camera @ 4.2mm, f/2.2, 32 ISO

IMG_0453.jpg: iPhone5s, back camera @ 4.2mm, f/2.2, 32 ISO

Evening flight

4M6C1944.CR2: 5D Mk.III, EF 400mm 1:5.6L @ 1/320, f/8, 1600 ISO

4M6C1944.CR2: 5D Mk.III, EF 400mm 1:5.6L @ 1/320, f/8, 1600 ISO

Don’t mess with physics!

Hyundai has a television ad running for their 2014 Elantra. In the ad, they say,

At Hyundai, we challenge everything. Even physics.

The question is what they mean by challenge. The logical answer is that they want to get as close to the limits as they possibly can. Like the best possible fuel efficiency, the most aerodynamic car body, and so on. The problem is that when one challenges someone, one means to beat them … and one doesn’t beat physics. The universe is set up so you can’t beat the laws of physics. One either simply fails, or fails in a spectacular fashion. In this case, it’s the ad firm behind the campaign who failed. Spectacularly.

You don’t beat physics … physics beats you!

The California in Prague

So there I was, in a race on the Circuit de Prague. I like the track, except I both don’t care for, nor am I very familiar with, running the circuit in reverse. I was also running a new car, the 2008 Ferrari California, and I hadn’t yet started tweaking the set-up. At one point I came off the long bridge going too fast, and too far to the left, as I approached the sweeping right. The car was extremely prone to oversteer so as I took the turn, the back of the car stepped out, and I rode the outer edge of the turn until I could scrub off enough speed to collect the car.

I knew I was on the edge of the turn because the course designers kindly marked it with pylons … most of which I sent flying, as you see here.

Good times.

Page 2 of 23

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén