Bullet Points:
** (right) How can you take a look at that plane without having your heart swell with love?
** Ukraine’s intermediate- and long-range strike campaign against Russian fuel infrastructure continues to strain gasoline supplies. Russian authorities continue to impose fuel rationing in Russia and occupied southern Ukraine while some authorities deny that Russia is facing fuel supply shortages.
(ISW) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the peace conditions recently proposed by Ukraine and its European partners, demonstrating the Kremlin’s continued disinterest in peace proposals that do not accept Russian demands for Ukraine’s capitulation. The Russian Central Bank reduced its key interest rate to 14.25 percent as the bank’s leadership continues to advocate for a more cautious monetary policy. The reduction of the key interest rate amid the Russian Central Bank’s leadership’s push for a more cautious monetary policy may indicate that the Kremlin is eroding the bank’s independence.
** Is Canada a socialist country or a communist country based on government spending as a function of gross domestic product (GDP)? Here’s another similar perspective from a different commentator.
** War Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at a podium and announced the end of an Obama-Biden-era program that, for nearly a decade, placed Chinese nationals inside the Department of Defense’s most sensitive cloud computing systems. The program was called “Digital Escorts.” Under it, Microsoft used Chinese coders — described as remotely supervised by U.S. contractors — to support classified DoD cloud environments. It was structured to comply with contracting rules on paper while exposing DoD systems to unacceptable risk in practice. There were no depths that the traitors would go to in order to compromise America.
** Navajo Mike’s Frybread Mix – for those Navajo Tacos you always wanted to make.
** (left) Did somebody accuse EdB of being a vampire? Yes, it’s an inside joke, but maybe not as big of a joke as it would seem… No, don’t try pounding a wooden stake through his heart; that’s an old wives’ tale. There are people who have seen the evidence. Red eyes, awake all night, eats his steak medium rare, etc. When he speaks about his success boating, it sounds like ‘blah-blah-blah’. We’ve seen the videos. Does he have a reflection in the mirror? Does he have a sun-cast shadow?
** One more look at Charles (The Hammer) Martel – Battle of Tours.
** The British Government is handing over Gibraltar to Spain. They are tearing down the fences and barriers for a hand-off on July 13 in Brussels. Are they so broke that they can’t afford to keep the base open? This is the first surrender of Gibraltar since 1713. They should have sold it to the USA. I’m sure we’d have paid cash for it. Same with Greenland and Diego Garcia. Just make us an offer – right of first refusal. We’ll even buy Big Ben the way that we bought the London Bridge and shipped it to Arizona. Cheap move to hand it off to the Spanish without an auction.
** As EdB will assure you when you board his barge, the ocean surf is not a barrier. It’s an entrance.
URT!
I’m boosting the signal for URT again with their menswear for America 250. Before “redcoat” became the polite term, American colonists had a better one: Lobsterback. British soldiers earned the nickname from their bright red uniforms, which made them look like boiled crustaceans marching in formation and catching musket smoke for the crown. The Anti Lobsterback Social Club tee is their tribute to that timeless American tradition of seeing tyranny coming, giving it a nickname, and telling it to kick rocks. Clean, patriotic, and just hostile enough to make King George roll in his powdered wig.
The Boston Harbor Yacht Club tee pays tribute to America’s original anti-tax protest, when a group of fed-up colonists decided British tax policy belonged at the bottom of the harbor. This design pays homage to the brave revolutionaries who dressed as Indians, slipped into Boston Harbor, boarded British tea ships, and dumped 342 chests of taxed tea into the Atlantic Ocean.
And because that big earthquake is coming – Welcome to Arizona Bay!
The big one finally hit, California took a dive, and Arizona got the oceanfront upgrade that a few of us asked for.
The White Wolf Mine and Marina will have boat and scuba rentals.
Inspired by the TOOL song Ænema; it’s a sobering reminder to Learn to Swim
Lyrics in part (by Tool):
Of freaks here in this hopeless fucking hole we call L.A.
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away
Any fucking time, any fucking day
Learn to swim, see you down in Arizona Bay
Identify the Aircraft
1
This entry comes over the transom from WSF. I was not aware that this aircraft existed, but it’s in current use.
– 262 built –
2
12 built – still in active use.
3
300 built
Parting Shot
Checking the boxes.
Will he transition to be the Queen? Will he convert to Islam?
End
1 is GippsAero GA8 Airvan.
2 is Gavilan 358 – Columbian.
RCC, I thought the Airvan might be a difficult one for you. Obv. not. Well done!
Identify the Aircraft
1. GippsAero GA8 Airvan
2. Gavilán 358
3. Quest Kodial 100
Typo correction 3. Quest Kodiak 100 – Doing this from a cell phone is not easy for an old man!
Outstanding
Glad to be of service.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. GippsAero GA8 Airvan
2. Gavilán G358
3. Quest Kodiak
Excellent!
Some years ago I knew a gentleman whose career in the air force ran from WWII, where he flew B17s over Germany, to around 1970. In that time he flew a number of planes ranging from the afore mentioned B17 to the F100. One day I asked him what his favorite of the planes he’d flown was. Without hesitation he said the P51.
A P-51 story.
—
https://www.ranchers.net/threads/mystery-p-51-pilot.79987/
Great yarn. Here’s a follow it to that plane.
https://generalaviationnews.com/2023/09/13/jimmy-stewarts-mustang-is-the-best-of-old-and-new/
Jim, your linked story shows that Stewart didn’t have the plane in 1967.
Bummer.
*grins*
They don’t always have time, energy, fuel, or patience… but the pilots who own the warbirds, and no few military birds, know *exactly* what’s going on when the controller “advises.”
G-d bless them when they spare a bit of their reserves and time enroute to comply.
Late 1960’s had a few hours in a Navion which had a lot in common with the P-51. Wonderful airplane. Too bad North American sucked at developing and servicing a dealer network.
Thanks RHT.
I love the T Shirts , I especially like the Boston one 1773 . Cool stuff ! I did buy the HiLux “regime change on a budget” shirt you had on the blog a while back . Love your blog , always neat stuff here .
Frybread; The variety of subjects on the V.M. ” magazine” is refreshing. We enjoy Naan and Pita ( Gyro’s) and have purchased Navajo fry bread when passing through their nation. Mrs W. keeps cranking out a couple loaves of heritage sour dough every week or two. What’s your meats of choice?
Frybread is the best. We used to buy it 20 miles west of Gallop New Mexico at the place on top of the hill on the right. I like mine with just salt. We keep the exit number in my wife’s phone.
One local place offers “Navaho Tacos”, fry bread split open with stuff inside. I go there monthly.
There’s nothing not to love about them – fresh fry bread stuffed with goodies.
I would like to see a tee shirt with “July 4th – Bugger Off King George III Day”.
How can you take a look at that plane without having your heart swell with love?: You can’t, or at least I can’t…my favorite model as a kid). Asking…Isn’t that the same plane in Maverick’s hanger abode that we see flying at the end credits, Cruise’s own P-51 Mustang?
***
SecWar Hegseth: More of this please, rid our stalwart strength functions of this lefty baloney that only hamstrings and hampers effectiveness put into place by a bunch of soy latte drinking cowards whose main strategy was to weaken America.
***
Parting Shot: Could translate two of those characteristics over to the current Ayatollah, who no one has seen but is likely a crippled homosexual, but not Black leader…altho Netflix could take liberty as they like to do in order to rewrite historical figures in their own whacked image.
“Special Relationship”.
It’s like your “friend” gives his Vette to someone else he knows after you’ve helped him fix his roof, worked on his car, backed him in a bar fight.
Thats how it feels.
I maintain that my favorite plane is the one I’m flying.
I always love the one I’m with… but a P-51 can turn heads like a redhead in a slinky dress she’s almost wearing that’s cut to show her legs go up to heaven and past Babylon…
It was Frank Lloyd Wright who said, “form follows function” and the Mustang’s form functions very well indeed.
Maybe not important, but just about every one of your posts reveals an airplane I didn’t know existed.
In the movie “Saving Private Ryan”, the one scene where the P-51’s destroy the tank on the bridge was amazing. I can only imagine the feelings the pilots had when they found their target, and were successful in maybe saving a few of their fellow soldiers.
Charles Mohrle. Tutti Frutti.
—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_irQ9bjzU
I find myself amazed/astounded that Russian industry (and their buddies – Norks and Dorks) is unable to produce drones at a rate far exceeding that of the Ukraine.
My worry is that if Vladimir Vladimirovich finds himself too (repeat too) besieged by NATO forces, he might wish to demonstrate his nuclear capabilities; he is aware of who his enemies are.
The kickback and patronage system is even more profound in Russia than it is in the West – operates on Eastern rather than Western principles that everybody understands. The Russians are very tight when it comes to nuclear weapons. Even when the place fell apart, the Strategic Rocket Forces were paid, fed and catered to.
The Mustang doesn’t do it for me. I like the Hellcat and the Thunderbolt much more. Especially the Thunderbolt.
–
Big, massive, strong, able to fly with cylinders shot out. Later versions were faster than the Mustang, longer ranged than the Mustang. Built Republic Tough.
–
Then again I find transports and bombers more ‘sexy’ than most fighters. Just like I find trucks and vans more appealing than sedans and sports cars. Especially since I’ve been in more ‘high performance’ vans and trucks than in cars. I had a Ford Aerostar with the 2.8L Mustang Engine that I regularly out-sped ‘fast’ cars. Used to do that with my dad’s 73 Olds 98 with that big 455 in it, out-accelerate Porches and Spyders over the short run anyday. And far more comfortable for long-distance driving.
–
You can have comfort, safety and performance in the same vehicle.