Random anecdote.
Back when Mike was flying the F22, when it was very new, he had an incident with the mask when a caustic chemical shot up and blinded him for several seconds (very critical seconds as it was on takeoff). He felt around for the button to eject the canopy but couldn’t find it, so he put his hand on the ejection handle and was just about to pull when his vision cleared a little (enough to land). He told the maintainers and pilots about the problem and it was investigated for months. They couldn’t find anything wrong and had no explanation. After many years went by, he got a call from a pilot who had heard from the rumor mill it had happened to Mike. It (finally) happened again to someone else. They never figured it out.
Most crashes are the result of very unusual (even freakishly unusual) circumstances that defy easy explanation. That’s why Mike never analyzes a crash until he has most of the information (and often not even then).
ChickenHead
16 hours ago
Not me!
Even though I’ve never flown anything with more than a single prop, two, if you count the tail, I can sit in my armchair and pretty much explain anything about any airplane.
In this case, he was blinded for several critical seconds on takeoff but his vision cleared enough to land.
This is a common side effect of time travel and is to be expected.
For less plausable explanations, let’s look more closely.
“Caustic” chemical but no trace found – this likely means it was something that could evaporate completely without a trace as opposed to something that would leave a residu (presuming a competent investigation)
What chemicals fit this?
– alcohol, MEK, acetone, toluine left over from cleaning
What was the maintenance history before that flight?
These all have a distinct smell recognizable to most people.
– refrigerant from the ECS
This might smell a bit sweet. Huff some and see if it brings back the memories.
– OBOGS zeolite off-gassing (ammonia and many other possibilities with thermal decomposition of nitrogen organics)
This is an entire conversation and certainly worth discussing depending on the definition of “caustic”
This is a very solvable problem and it starts with finding what class of chemicals was involved.
Then we determine how that class of chemical was introduced or generated.
Tell us more about smell and effect on ENT.
Liz
15 hours ago
“Caustic” would be my phraseology, CH.
He didn’t use that term, I only stated it because it seemed to fit the description.
He said something came up out of his mask that stung his eyes so badly it blinded him. After a (disturbing number of) few seconds his eyes watered so much he could use the blurry vision to see (a bit).
Liz
15 hours ago
He did not mention a smell.
FWIW, I only became aware of this a couple of days ago…we were eating at a restaurant and my second son said something about him being blinded on takeoff.
Mike never told me these anecdotes back then, but apparently he told our boys.
Korean Man
6 hours ago
Is this ChickenHead talking?
A MAGA political commentator calls for the ending of all “third world immigration.”
If immigrants are to blame for all America’s problems, why are all the homeless people on the streets shooting up drugs, seem to be pure and innocent homegrown “Americans”? Who steals more from America, immigrants, or the pure American people controlling the Wall Street and the White House?
ChickenHead
5 hours ago
Ending third world immigration sounds like a great plan.
Better just to let them stay in their dysfunctional societies instead of importing the dysfunction.
Thanks for pointing that out, Korea Thing.
Good to see some people still have sensible thinking.
Liz
4 hours ago
Since Biden opened the borders (there really is no debate in this matter, even the liberals have admitted it now, they just blame Biden’s dementia) and we had masses of unscreened people spilling over our borders and signed up for government assistance in addition to bringing crime (human trafficking, drug smuggling, violence et al) we have had an especially terrible problem with illegal immigration (it was not a non-problem before Biden, but it was a lesser problem).
That doesn’t mean liberal policies to allow the homeless to camp en masse anywhere and everywhere is not also a problem.
these are both two of our largest problems, both the result of lunatic left policy decisions.
Liz
4 hours ago
I’m really getting a good look at the effect of those policy decisions from my vantage point, as I live close (enough) to Denver.
I’m told it has been getting better since January (gee wonder what happened then?). Businesses have been leaving due to high levels of crime and homelessness.
Think I mentioned it before, but the airport is so bad now cars are vandalized with impunity. They tap and drain out the gas from the bottom, cut the tops of convertibles to get a look inside, or just drive away with the car. The police do nothing. But they will give you a 100 dollar ticket if you didn’t put that new sticker on your license plate. That’s what you get for 30 dollar a day parking at the Denver airport.
Liz, it’s the pure Americans who are doing that, not the immigrants. Then why bring in South Africans? Oh right the color doesn’t matter. Once again answer my question who steals more from America? Your politicians and Wall Street tycoons or the third world immigrants?
Liz
2 hours ago
Politicians are bought and paid for (that’s how people like Pelosi, the Clintons, et al are worth hundreds of millions on the wee salary of a “public servant”) by wealthy people who back them in a number of ways.
If there weren’t an advantage to subjecting the public to homelessness and crime (especially by doing the type of race peddling you are doing right now), there would be far less of it.
For a while the mechanism was not so easily identified but we now know that people like Soros have figured out how to leverage a small amount of money to create a non-profit then lobby politicians to send a ton of money to that non profit so you can take what might be a $10M donation and leverage it into a $1B NGO. (h/t DOGE)
Then they back “protestors” and so forth. Since have private estates to hide in they are not so directly concerned as the masses who are subjected to the results of their politically backed policy decisions.
Here is a picture of one such couple, very high up on the food chain of this dynamic:
Korean Man
1 hour ago
Musk? Trump? How much grift did they do? The entire US system is corrupted to the bone!
Random anecdote.
Back when Mike was flying the F22, when it was very new, he had an incident with the mask when a caustic chemical shot up and blinded him for several seconds (very critical seconds as it was on takeoff). He felt around for the button to eject the canopy but couldn’t find it, so he put his hand on the ejection handle and was just about to pull when his vision cleared a little (enough to land). He told the maintainers and pilots about the problem and it was investigated for months. They couldn’t find anything wrong and had no explanation. After many years went by, he got a call from a pilot who had heard from the rumor mill it had happened to Mike. It (finally) happened again to someone else. They never figured it out.
Most crashes are the result of very unusual (even freakishly unusual) circumstances that defy easy explanation. That’s why Mike never analyzes a crash until he has most of the information (and often not even then).
Not me!
Even though I’ve never flown anything with more than a single prop, two, if you count the tail, I can sit in my armchair and pretty much explain anything about any airplane.
In this case, he was blinded for several critical seconds on takeoff but his vision cleared enough to land.
This is a common side effect of time travel and is to be expected.
For less plausable explanations, let’s look more closely.
“Caustic” chemical but no trace found – this likely means it was something that could evaporate completely without a trace as opposed to something that would leave a residu (presuming a competent investigation)
What chemicals fit this?
– alcohol, MEK, acetone, toluine left over from cleaning
What was the maintenance history before that flight?
These all have a distinct smell recognizable to most people.
– refrigerant from the ECS
This might smell a bit sweet. Huff some and see if it brings back the memories.
– OBOGS zeolite off-gassing (ammonia and many other possibilities with thermal decomposition of nitrogen organics)
This is an entire conversation and certainly worth discussing depending on the definition of “caustic”
This is a very solvable problem and it starts with finding what class of chemicals was involved.
Then we determine how that class of chemical was introduced or generated.
Tell us more about smell and effect on ENT.
“Caustic” would be my phraseology, CH.
He didn’t use that term, I only stated it because it seemed to fit the description.
He said something came up out of his mask that stung his eyes so badly it blinded him. After a (disturbing number of) few seconds his eyes watered so much he could use the blurry vision to see (a bit).
He did not mention a smell.
FWIW, I only became aware of this a couple of days ago…we were eating at a restaurant and my second son said something about him being blinded on takeoff.
Mike never told me these anecdotes back then, but apparently he told our boys.
Is this ChickenHead talking?
A MAGA political commentator calls for the ending of all “third world immigration.”
https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/daily-wires-matt-walsh-president-should-use-his-authority-immediately-terminate-all
Joshua Lee, they don’t want you. But they used you. They’re not even hiding it anymore.
Growing calls from Republican MAGA influencers to end all immigration, legal and illegal, from “third world countries”.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/entertainment/oscars/ban-all-third-world-immigration-maga-calls-for-blanket-embargo-on-immigration-amid-la-riots/ar-AA1GobjM?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1
If immigrants are to blame for all America’s problems, why are all the homeless people on the streets shooting up drugs, seem to be pure and innocent homegrown “Americans”? Who steals more from America, immigrants, or the pure American people controlling the Wall Street and the White House?
Ending third world immigration sounds like a great plan.
Better just to let them stay in their dysfunctional societies instead of importing the dysfunction.
Thanks for pointing that out, Korea Thing.
Good to see some people still have sensible thinking.
Since Biden opened the borders (there really is no debate in this matter, even the liberals have admitted it now, they just blame Biden’s dementia) and we had masses of unscreened people spilling over our borders and signed up for government assistance in addition to bringing crime (human trafficking, drug smuggling, violence et al) we have had an especially terrible problem with illegal immigration (it was not a non-problem before Biden, but it was a lesser problem).
That doesn’t mean liberal policies to allow the homeless to camp en masse anywhere and everywhere is not also a problem.
these are both two of our largest problems, both the result of lunatic left policy decisions.
I’m really getting a good look at the effect of those policy decisions from my vantage point, as I live close (enough) to Denver.
I’m told it has been getting better since January (gee wonder what happened then?). Businesses have been leaving due to high levels of crime and homelessness.
Think I mentioned it before, but the airport is so bad now cars are vandalized with impunity. They tap and drain out the gas from the bottom, cut the tops of convertibles to get a look inside, or just drive away with the car. The police do nothing. But they will give you a 100 dollar ticket if you didn’t put that new sticker on your license plate. That’s what you get for 30 dollar a day parking at the Denver airport.
Timeline cleanse to brighten your day.
https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1933688335337140575
Liz, it’s the pure Americans who are doing that, not the immigrants. Then why bring in South Africans? Oh right the color doesn’t matter. Once again answer my question who steals more from America? Your politicians and Wall Street tycoons or the third world immigrants?
Politicians are bought and paid for (that’s how people like Pelosi, the Clintons, et al are worth hundreds of millions on the wee salary of a “public servant”) by wealthy people who back them in a number of ways.
If there weren’t an advantage to subjecting the public to homelessness and crime (especially by doing the type of race peddling you are doing right now), there would be far less of it.
For a while the mechanism was not so easily identified but we now know that people like Soros have figured out how to leverage a small amount of money to create a non-profit then lobby politicians to send a ton of money to that non profit so you can take what might be a $10M donation and leverage it into a $1B NGO. (h/t DOGE)
Then they back “protestors” and so forth. Since have private estates to hide in they are not so directly concerned as the masses who are subjected to the results of their politically backed policy decisions.
Here is a picture of one such couple, very high up on the food chain of this dynamic:
Musk? Trump? How much grift did they do? The entire US system is corrupted to the bone!