Not a mooney story, but cool night in aviation.

[aviatoreb]

3 hours ago, Hank said:

Whoa! That's a new one! I thought all of the -stans were in SW Asia. Hello, google maps . . . . Nope, no luck there . . . .

Its a government conspiracy between the powers that be in govt and the powers that be in Silicon Valley to block important information like preventing good upstanding citizens like you an me from having access to the location and nature of the edge of Earth running through the middle of Uedgistan.  In fact there are properties and even homes in Uedgistan where the edge runs right through the middle and half of the house is on Earth and half of the house is hanging off the edge.  I think I saw a house like that listed on AirBnB where you could stay off the edge - the view is great and very interesting.

[aviatoreb]

20 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

OK, that's one... only two more to go.   Also remember, this was a question proposed to 19 year old kids before the internet was a thing.  Maybe I'm not the brightest, but it really challenged me to come up with three different methods on my own, which made it quite fun.

One of my three answers was basically the same as yours, but I'd never heard of Eratosthenes.  I said you could use a stick or a pole and measure the angle at two different locations on the same date and time.

I forgot but just remembered - 2 more that are more of an indirect inference of the rotation of a globe and very hard to explain if we are on a flat disc or some such flat topology:

These two depend on coriolis.  

4. The greeks could easily have built a Foucault pendulum clock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum is they had the theoretical technology to have the idea.  Or said another way, a "Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court" who could go back in time could easily build one with BC technology at hand.

5. The coriolis effect of water spinning down a drain is tricky (but not impossible) to explain without coriolis.  This is then evidence of a globe earth but not definitive.

[skydvrboy]

1 hour ago, aviatoreb said:

I forgot but just remembered - 2 more that are more of an indirect inference of the rotation of a globe and very hard to explain if we are on a flat disc or some such flat topology:

These two depend on coriolis.  

4. The greeks could easily have built a Foucault pendulum clock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum is they had the theoretical technology to have the idea.  Or said another way, a "Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court" who could go back in time could easily build one with BC technology at hand.

5. The coriolis effect of water spinning down a drain is tricky (but not impossible) to explain without coriolis.  This is then evidence of a globe earth but not definitive.

The first three that you came up with were the ones that a classmate and I each came up with.  He also gave credit to the kids who said to simply observe a lunar eclipse and look at the curved surface of the earth's shadow as it passes across the moon.  This is especially damaging to the flat earth theory if the eclipse happens near sunrise or sunset.

BTW, thanks for humoring me and playing along. 

[cujet]

On 2/20/2020 at 8:55 AM, aviatoreb said:

Question - I once heard that in some operations (airlines?) that when flying that high there is a sop that one of the pilots is wearing a mask at all times to mitigate a possibility of a rapid decompression and difficulty of a quick mask donning.  Is that true?

Yes, one crewmember is on 100% O2 at FL410 and above. 

Many years ago, on the GIII, the outflow valve would motor open all by itself. Took many seconds. The pressure loss was not instant and for the most part we could catch it quickly enough and use manual mode to start the valve closing , but it was wildly uncomfortable. When it happens, you cant hear anything, don't see the warning lights, even at night. The DOM refused to change the part and we the crew had to deal with it. I got good at donning the mask, and yes, it's easy if you are fast (today, my reaction time is slow and I'd probably pass out before I got it on)  The crew made many mistakes due to hypoxia. One pilot was still dopey when it was time to land and had lined up at the wrong airport. He made a slew of mistakes. Even though the pressure loss was temporary, we had one older pilot who was simply "gone" instantly. I guess because I was young at the time, and very fit, I had enough time to get the mask on and close the valve. 

[carusoam]

Thanks for sharing those interesting details CUJ!

Not hearing the alarms because there is no air?  Or the pressure loss causing pain with your ears?

Or both?

 

Best regards,

-a-