Happy Independence Day!

Half Fast

Half Fast

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Half Fast
These may be trying times, but today is a good day to remember how the US began and all the good things about her. So to you Pilots of America, happy hotdogs and fireworks! Enjoy the day.

And for our British forum members, a true tale from Lexington and Concord......

Whittemore, now 80 years old, grabbed all his weapons – dueling pistols, an old captured French cutlass, powder horn, musketballs, and rifle – in a Rambo-like Revolutionary War montage of potential destruction. He then marched out to a position overlooking the road from Lexington.

He stared down the 47th Regiment of Foot as other minutemen started to open up on the British troops. Whittemore waited until the Brits were directly in front of him, then took on the entire regiment, all by himself.

The patriot capped three Redcoats with his firearms at point blank range, but not having time to reload he drew his sword and started slashing at the oncoming bayonets instead. One soldier shot Whittemore in the face, finally bringing the old man down... and yet he still tried to get back up.

Redcoats swarmed the minuteman. A swift buttstroke and multiple bayonet stabs convinced them the old man was dead and the British continued on, leaving Whittemore bleeding in the road. Their fight through Menotomy cost them 40 dead and 80 wounded. When the smoke cleared, the townspeople went to collect Whittemore's body.

What they found was the old veteran reloading his musket, getting ready to go again. They carried him to a local tavern where doctors were tending to the wounded. Believing the old dragoon captain suffered mortal wounds, doctors didn't tend them, they had him sent home to die with his family.

Except he didn't die then, either. Death was afraid to come for Samuel Whittemore for another 18 years. He died at age 98 in February 1793, the oldest colonial Revolutionary War combatant and recipient of the best memorial marker of all time.​
https://www.wearethemighty.com/arti...took-on-a-column-of-british-troops-by-himself
 
Our country was formed by flawed men.

Flawed as they were, the founders created a framework--our Constitution and Bill of Rights--which allowed us to prosper, to provide unprecedented opportunity to citizens and immigrants of all races and creeds, and to systematically overcome flaw after flaw as we move ever closer to the more perfect union that they envisioned nearly two and a half centuries ago.

Today we celebrate the result of the work of those flawed men. A country that has, does, and will continue to rise above the flaws of individuals in the never-ending pursuit of perfection.
 
It's a little hard to get in to it when you look around you, and realize that you are living in a police state.
 
Sac Arrow said:
It's a little hard to get in to it when you look around you, and realize that you are living in a police state.
Click to expand...
I respectfully disagree. When you need to be careful what you say to your friends on social media due to a real risk of arrest and jail for them, that's when you know you are in a police state (or your friends are).

Anyway, happy July 4.

Boom.jpg
 
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Sac Arrow said:
It's a little hard to get in to it when you look around you, and realize that you are living in a police state.
Click to expand...

You're in California. That's not a "police state". Quite the contrary.

(Time to report my own post as political)
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I respectfully disagree. When you need to be careful what you say to your friends on social media due to a real risk of arrest and jail for them, that's when you know you are in a police state (or your friends are).
Click to expand...
Just saw these two videos yesterday from YouTubers who fled China a few days ago after having lived in China for over a decade. This is what fascism looks like today.


 
I thought I'd share a thought about how flying makes me appreciate the freedom we have in the United States (while trying my best to avoid the political potholes).

I bought my Piper over the Fourth of July weekend five years ago from a great guy in Kansas City. I was living in Mississippi at the time so I had a pretty big first cross country trip in the new-to-me airplane. Due to a stationary front spanning from Arkansas to the Carolinas that was expected to last for days, I decided to zig-zag from Missouri to Texas, then track east to Mississippi to avoid the weather. On the first day, I made it as far as a small airport in rural Texas before late afternoon T-storms kept me on the ground for the night. The airport was one of those that had a city-owned, unattended FBO with the code to the door being the UNICOM frequency. Inside was a pilot lounge, an office, and a kitchen. On the wall was a lock box with a sign stating if you wanted to borrow the courtesy car, call the local police department and they'll give you the code to the lock box for the key to their retired Crown Victoria police car. All for only the cost of roughly $3-4/gal self-service gas and the cost to top off the courtesy car, I was able to fly in to an airport, park, get a car to get food in town, and spend the night on the pilot lounge couch (after watching fireworks from the FBO's porch) without prior-permission or fees. On my way back to Mississippi, I landed at several more airports for gas and had fantastic and fairly inexpensive service at every FBO along the way.

I currently live in Germany and belong to a local flying club. It's a great opportunity to live in Europe and experience GA here. I would tell you for sure that our European counterparts do not enjoy the same level of freedom we have in the U.S. aviation system. For example, every airport has a landing fee that can be as little as $10/landing or approach to $100+. Parking at an airport can be expensive as well. At some places, it can cost several hundred dollars per day. There are also IFR user fees as well for both approach and en-route services. Avgas is also substantially more expensive in Europe than in the U.S.

European pilots that haven't experienced flying in the U.S. are blown away at the fact you can technically fly from one end of the U.S. to the other without a flight plan and you don't need permission to take off from an uncontrolled field among other things.

I don't mean to give the impression that the rules for GA in Europe are completely draconian or that European pilots are "un-free", but their freedom to fly is a lot more restricted than ours due to steep costs and comparatively Byzantine regulations. Living here has made me appreciate that fact and I'm grateful for what we Americans have despite all of our challenges back home.

Happy 4th, All.
 
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Cap'n Jack said:
I respectfully disagree. When you need to be careful what you say to your friends on social media due to a real risk of arrest and jail for them, that's when you know you are in a police state (or your friends are).
Click to expand...

Might not wind up in jail, but can easily lose your job these days.

Still have to appreciate what freedoms we do have. Happy 4th!
 
MD2105 said:
I thought I'd share a thought about how flying makes me appreciate the freedom we have in the United States (while trying my best to avoid the political potholes).

I bought my Piper over the Fourth of July weekend five years ago from a great guy in Kansas City. I was living in Mississippi at the time so I had a pretty big first cross country trip in the new-to-me airplane. Due to a stationary front spanning from Arkansas to the Carolinas that was expected to last for days, I decided to zig-zag from Missouri to Texas, then track east to Mississippi to avoid the weather. On the first day, I made it as far as a small airport in rural Texas before late afternoon T-storms kept me on the ground for the night. The airport was one of those that had a city-owned, unattended FBO with the code to the door being the UNICOM frequency. Inside was a pilot lounge, an office, and a kitchen. On the wall was a lock box with a sign stating if you wanted to borrow the courtesy car, call the local police department and they'll give you the code to the lock box for the key to their retired Crown Victoria police car. All for only the cost of roughly $3-4/gal self-service gas and the cost to top off the courtesy car, I was able to fly in to an airport, park, get a car to get food in town, and spend the night on the pilot lounge couch (after watching fireworks from the FBO's porch) without prior-permission or fees. On my way back to Mississippi, I landed at several more airports for gas and had fantastic and fairly inexpensive service at every FBO along the way.

I currently live in Germany and belong to a local flying club. It's a great opportunity to live in Europe and experience GA here. I would tell you for sure that our European counterparts do not enjoy the same level of freedom we have in the U.S. aviation system. For example, every airport has a landing fee that can be as little as $10/landing or approach to $100+. Parking at an airport can be expensive as well. At some places, it can cost several hundred dollars per day. There are also IFR user fees as well for both approach and en-route services. Avgas is also substantially more expensive in Europe than in the U.S.

European pilots that haven't experienced flying in the U.S. are blown away at the fact you can technically fly from one end of the U.S. to the other without a flight plan and you don't need permission to take off from an uncontrolled field among other things.

I don't mean to give the impression that the rules for GA in Europe are completely draconian or that European pilots are "un-free", but their freedom to fly is a lot more restricted than ours due to steep costs and comparatively Byzantine regulations. Living here has made me appreciate that fact and I'm grateful for what we Americans have despite all of our challenges back home.

Happy 4th, All.
Click to expand...
What part are you living in? We just moved back from Heidelberg.
 
Larry in TN said:
Just saw these two videos yesterday from YouTubers who fled China a few days ago after having lived in China for over a decade. This is what fascism looks like today.


Click to expand...
midwestpa24 said:
Might not wind up in jail, but can easily lose your job these days.

Still have to appreciate what freedoms we do have. Happy 4th!
Click to expand...
Good point. I think I know of what you speak about, but it isn't the government doing it.

Hope you have a nice holiday!
 
I've flown little airplanes in the US, Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Without question, we have enormous freedoms to fly here in the US. I am certainly grateful for that.
 
My son and daughter are both here for the next couple of days, which is very nice. We watched patriotic movies this afternoon, then tossed some burgers and brats on the grill. (Naturally, that's when the thunderstorms and rain torrents moved in...) Now the small towns around us are setting off fireworks displays, and things are popping on all sides. Most years we'll sit out in the yard and watch, but this year it's too cloudy to see them.

At least it's a little bit of normal during a really weird year.

Hope everyone has had a good 4th.
 
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