Automatic Rough

[BorealOne]

Nice piece by Aviatrix on her blog today:

 

http://airplanepilot.blogspot.ca/2013/09/automatic-rough-running.html

 

 

Automatic Rough Running

 

I'm re-reading Vol de nuit by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. It's available here for free. I know it has been translated into English, but perhaps the copyright hasn't expired on the translations yet, because I didn't find it online in translation. It's one of those novel like Fate is the Hunter that pilots like to read because the author identifies situations and feelings we didn't even know were there to express. Non-pilots can read them and get a glimpse what a pilot thinks and feels. Both are about what now is history, so they allow me to look into the past and imagine life without SIGMETs, without reliable weather forecasting or reporting at all.

The passage that made me want to share was this. It's a conversation between a pilot and a manager, about the pilot's experience when his instrument lights failed. He has already admitted to being afraid.

 

Je me sentais au fond d'un grand trou dont il était difficile de remonter. Alors mon moteur s'est mis à vibrer...

— Non.
— Non ?
— Non. Nous l'avons examiné depuis. Il est parfait. Mais on croit toujours qu'un moteur vibre quand on a peur.

 

My translation: (if someone has a copy in English, a professional translation is probably better).

 

 

 

"I felt like I was at the bottom of a big hole that was difficult to get out of. Then my engine started vibrating..."

"No."

"No?"

"No. We examined it afterwards. It was perfect. But one always believes that an engine is vibrating when one is afraid."

 

It's so true. The name in English for the phenomenon is "automatic rough". You get automatic rough running as you get overhead a large body of water, impenetrable mountains, or simply go further from your home airport than you've ever been.

 

 

[Jamie]

Neat blog. Added to rotation.

[Jeff_S]

Je vous direrai que la traduction etait parfaite. 

 

(And my last sentence would have been, too, except I'm typing this on a stupid Windows machine and can't figure out how to get the correct accent over the "e" in "etait".)

[Ned Gravel]

Je vous direrai que la traduction etait parfaite. 

 

(And my last sentence would have been, too, except I'm typing this on a stupid Windows machine and can't figure out how to get the correct accent over the "e" in "etait".)

 

Put the accent in as a symbol in Word and copy it over to the post.  Like this: était.

 

Otherwise, you sentiment is entirely understandable.  We use Macs too.

[Cruiser]

Je vous direrai que la traduction etait parfaite. 

 

(And my last sentence would have been, too, except I'm typing this on a stupid Windows machine and can't figure out how to get the correct accent over the "e" in "etait".)

just hold down the Alt key and type 0233 on the number pad .......... "Alt" +0233 = é

[Jeff_S]

just hold down the Alt key and type 0233 on the number pad .......... "Alt" +0233 = é

 

Yeah, now THAT'S intuitive!

 

[Jamie]

It's at least as intuitive as anything else about French.

[Marauder]

It's at least as intuitive as anything else about French.

Oui!

[Jeff_S]

A chacun ses goûts, messieurs!

 

(To each his own.)

[jlunseth]

I have been down to the Bahamas three times.  The plane got the auto roughs the first time across, but the next two times it was looking forward to a drink with an umbrella in it on landing so it was much smoother. 

[Joe Zuffoletto]

The Acclaim runs rough from 50NM south of Ciudad Juarez all the way to Cabo. Lots of empty desert, rugged mountains, a 110NM Sea of Cortez crossing... during which you overfly exactly three airports.