Brit_Radar_Dude

A bit of Googling found The Economist website which tells me that it's around $35.6K per person in the UK. Nightmare!! Of course another way of looking at it is that this is a figure that our American cousins might envy as US national debt levels are even more - around $37.3K per person. Still at least we're not Norwegian ($54K)... or Irish $55K.... or Japanese ($99K) :(

Someone needs to tell those guys that they only need to say Royal Air Force. No need for "of the United Kingdom", everyone knows where the RAF are from. It's a bit like when jocks say "The U". Everyone knows that they are referring to the University of Miami, even me and I'm 4,000 miles away! :D

Worked on a radar for South Korea a few years ago. They installed it and sent back some recordings for us to check out - 24 hours of it. When we played it back (speeded up), you could see where the border trace was as there was absolutely no activity above a certain line. A ton of stuff South of that line - both civilian and military. But North - absolutely zip apart from a single slow moving aircraft around 2pm that flew parallel to the border one time and then landed. I guess they don't have the fuel to do more than one flight a day. Their military pilots must be just awful, they probably only have a handful of hours a year flight time.

The down side of Kim popping his clogs is that one of my favorite funny websites will soon run out of material. I'm of course talking about the famous Kim Jong Il looking at things website http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/archive I cant explain why it's funny, it just is. Notice how much thinner everyone else looks compared to him. One of my favorites http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/post/6980005138/looking-at-socks I imagine him saying "...and these aren't the only socks we have. North Korea has DOZENS of pairs of socks!"

LOL that's funny. Seeing this reminded me that I've been told that, in some Eastern European countries, if they don't like the look or attitude of a contestant then the audience will deliberately give the wrong answer if the contestant does "Ask The Audience".

Trampoline! Trampoline! Classic....

My avatar is kinda self explanatory. Can't remember where I found it, it was years ago somewhere out there in Internet land. Whereas my Sig is a Lockon version of the famous 1960's Roy Lichtenstein pop art in London's Tate Gallery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaam!

Nice find. If anyone is totally bemused by all this and has any general IFF questions, I'll ty to help.

I like the fact that there is something rather unexpected listed under weapons... http://merc-clan.com/market/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_9

Is this a candidate for a Lockon Mod?

More dancing - real old school stylee... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1311872815475

Best thing I've read this year? "One Day in a Long War" by Jeff Ethell and Alfred Price. Got it used but in almost perfect condition for pretty much nothing from Amazon in the UK. I paid £0.01 plus £2.80 postage. What a freakin' bargain! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/185367074X/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1318176400&sr=8-1&condition=used An excellent book, the best I've read for a while. An interesting and somewhat different perspective in that it covers in detail what happened in the air on a single day (May 10th 1972). This is a refreshing change from books that try to cover a whole conflict and only skim the surface. A good day to choose - it was the day that Cunningham and Driscoll got the 3 MiG's that made them US Navy aces. Also the day that the US Air Force's Ritchie and Debellevue got their first MiG. They also would go on to become 'Nam aces. But this book is of interest to ground pounders too, it covers how strikes are put together and a little about their protection with chaff flights and jamming aircraft. Some nice photos I've not seen published before in there too. It even has stuff about what it was like to be on the ground - from a French journalist in Hanoi plus the British Consul-General.

Some sweet pics there mate. Takes me back to being a kid in Nottinghamshire in the Sixties and Seventies. Would see Vulcans regularly, Vampires too.

Always thought that the shooting of looters was a good idea we should pick up from our cousins across the pond. Fewer repeat offenders that way...

Ah, you beat me to the punch! I spent a considerable part of my career working on military projects - radar, comms, ATC, etc. As EtherealN said - you cannot those types of specialist projects and equipment and compare them with consumer electronics like PC's and iPods.

I prefer the Crack Spider...

Woo Hoo! Have a good one, mate...

For those reading this thread who are bemused by the term 9-line, it is a standardised briefing from an Air Controller (either on the ground or airborne) to an attack aircraft. Contains the following information, 1. Initial point (IP). A known position on the ground. 2. Heading from the IP to the target. 3. Distance from the IP to the target in nautical miles. 4. Target elevation in feet above mean sea level. 5. Target description. 6. Target location coordinates. 7. Type of marker, smoke, laser, etc. 8. Location of friendlies from the target - direction and distance. 9. Egress direction and/or control point after attack. To answer mmusons question:- The altitude in a 9-line is the true altitude of the target. Usually taken off a map. I'm in the middle of re-reading my copy of A-10s over Kosovo and in Chapter 7 it talks about an AFAC using the contour lines on a 1:50,000 map to figure out the targets elevation before he passed the 9-line to the aircraft he was controlling. Why does the attack pilot need the target elevation? One reason is the weapon release height. Cluster weapons for example are affected by release height. Too high and the submunitions spread over too wide an area and the P(k) is reduced and some targets may not be hit. Too low and they don't spead out enough. Some types of cluster submunition may not have time to arm themselves if the release altitude of the cluster bomb is too low. Some types of submunition are prone to failure if the angle of impact is too great.

You don't have to pay big prices ($33) to get it either, check Amazon.Com New stock. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1585661228/sr=8-1/qid=1305481950/ref=olp_tab_new?ie=UTF8&coliid=&me=&qid=1305481950&sr=8-1&seller=&colid=&condition=new or 2nd hand stock even cheaper. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1585661228/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305481950&sr=8-1&condition=used I bought my copy 2nd hand (listed as used-good). Seriously I could hardly tell it wasn't a new book. I paid $0.26 for my copy last year with $12.49 shipping to the UK for a total of $12.75. BARGAIN!

2:49 "I should probably use two hands..." You reckon ???!!!??? :D

A statistic looking for a place to happen... Even worse did you see the link below it to scariest path http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/scariest_path.html Cant believe he did it while filming. Mental.

Looks like nice re-use of the base for a foot powered sewing machine or am I wrong? Is it a Singer?

Capturing him and putting him on trial might have been an even better US propaganda coup than his death. The snatch squad may well have had orders to take him alive if possible. It is credible that they had no choice than to shoot him if he was armed and refusing to surrender. Whichever, he is no loss to the World. Burying him according to the correct Islamic rituals is good PR too. Shows that someone in the US Govt was thinking ahead.

Hey buddy! Good to hear you still enjoying your "new" job out there.