Break Time

Proving the Earth Is Flat… With Steam Rockets (MAD Mike Hughes)

Published by Papa Giorgio

UPDATE – R.I.P. Mad Mike

This is an unfortunate, waay behind the 8-Ball post about “Mad Mike”. A N D, keep in mind the original video below by ZakDTV, he notes the parachute choices.

  • Video posted online shows the exact moment “Mad” Mike Hughes’ homemade rocket came crashing down to earth after a failed launch attempt, killing the self-styled daredevil.

Wonderhussy had a chance encounter with Mad Mike and probably the last “interview” with him, 11-days before he died..

ORIGINAL POST –  Nov 23, 2017

ZakDTV was prophetic!

This was a very funny post by HOT AIR:

Before you rush off to your family dinners and celebrations, we should take a moment today and give a tip of the hat to a man with a vision. I’m not sure if this is one of those visions which result from too many doses of hallucinogenic drugs or something, but it’s clearly a vision of some sort. A California man by the name of Mike Hughes is going to finish his turkey dinner, take a couple of days to make some final preparations and then launch himself into the sky in a rocket of his own design on Saturday. But this is no challenger to Elon Musk we’re talking about here. Mike is using steam power for his spacecraft and the reason for the flight is even more spectacular. He’s going to prove that the Earth is flat (Washington Post)…

…He’s known by the moniker “Mad Mike” but is he really crazy? More to the point, I have to wonder if he even believes in this Flat Earth stuff or if that’s just a hook to draw more of an audience. I mean, how does anyone buy into that idea if they have enough of an IQ to tie their own shoes? (With apologies to a couple of NBA players.) Come on, man. Even I laugh at the Flat Earth people and I pay for a yearly Plus membership at Mysterious Universe.

All joking aside, my first impression when I heard about this story was to assume that on Saturday, Hughs is going to die. Or at least be horribly maimed. But now that I’ve seen some of his exploits on film, he does indeed seem to have learned enough of the basic mechanics involved to build a functional rocket powered by steam. But now he’s shooting for a one-mile flight at speeds in excess of 500 mph. How far can this guy push his luck before a mistake becomes terminal?

And even worse, what if he reaches the desired altitude and takes a picture, only to find out that the world is round after all? I hate to burst the guy’s bubble but I’ve actually traveled the entire way around the globe, leaving from California heading west and coming back home from the east. Trust me, Mike… there’s no edge.

But we’ll end with the same question I was circling around above. Can Mike Hughes actually do this and not die? Hey… Evel Knievel lived to be nearly 70 and wound up dying of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Stranger things have happened and I sort of miss the age of the original daredevils. Give ’em hell, Mike. And if you do find an edge to the world, try to be careful. That first step is a doozy.

Shooting a WW2 Ball Turret with Twin .50 Cals (Sunday Gun-Day)

Published by Papa Giorgio

From the video description:

One of the highlights at this fall’s Big Sandy Shoot was a vintage WW2 ball turret with twin .50 cals that spectators could shoot.

Although it’s not uncommon to see unique and rare guns and military vehicles at the event, the fully functioning ball turret garnered a lot of attention.

Taigh Ramey, president of Vintage Aircraft, towed the Sperry A2 ball turret all the way from Stockton, California to the shoot, which takes place every April and October just outside of the town of Wikieup, Arizona.

Sperry A2 ball turrets were commonly mounted underneath either a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. They were used to defend the bomber against aircraft attacking from below.

Ramey found the turret in a surplus shop many years ago. It took him 15 years to convince the owner to sell it, and he’s sure glad he did. Ramey fixes up and maintains vintage aircraft for the Stockton Field Aviation Museum. The ball turret has proven to be very popular with visitors.

The turret was new ‘old stock’ from the 1940’s, so it never saw service. Despite having sat on a storage skid for half a century, Ramey says he brought it back to his shop, put hydraulic fluid, fired it up, and the turret ran like a charm.

Rumored to have inspired the inside of the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars films, the Sperry turret was operated by the gunner inside using two hand controls that operated two Vickers hydraulic units. It could rotate 360 degrees and tilt up up and down. Atop two control handles were fire buttons that engaged two .50 caliber light-barrel Browning AN/M2 machine guns. The guns fired 850 rounds per minute, and each gun was fed by a 500 round box of ammunition. The guns could not be reloaded in flight, so gunners had to be careful.

Contrary to popular myth, ball turrets were not always manned by tiny people. People up to six foot could fit inside comfortably. Gunners sat in a fetal-type position, and aimed the guns using a Reflector sight in front of a small circular window between their legs.

Statistically, the ball turret was one of the safest crew positions during WWII as ball turret gunners had the lowest loss rate.

Ramey was at the Big Sandy Shoot not only to live fire the turret, something he’d never done before, but also to promote Bomber Camp. It is a two-day event held on May 29 and 30 of every year at the Stockton Metropolitan Airport in California. Participants get a chance to step back in time to train for a bombing mission, and then to fly it for real.

Participants learn how to use original bomber sights and compensate for height, distance and wind. Gunnery classes familiarize them with the ball turret and other aircrafts mounted guns, all of which can be fired in flight using airsoft propane ‘blanks’.

The grande finale is a flying mission in which dummy cement bombs are dropped from high altitudes on targets from a B-24 or B17 aircraft. Bomber Camp offers a once in a lifetime experience to gain a greater appreciation for the men and women of the “greatest generation”. Enrollment is tax deductible.

Too Funny! A Russian Turns a Wrench ~ Hilarity Ensues

Published by Papa Giorgio

Took me two years, but I found the video again!

...Context

Some of the comments below included LADA references. LADA was a car manufactured during the Soviet days and was a miserable failure but a prime example of socialism versus free market ideals.

  • I didn’t know they had unions over there.
  • Should’ve used a hammer
  • Borat’s retarded cousin Bylo finally found a job. Great success!
  • Hey they need him on the F 35 project.
  • Must be cold there, his nuts have shrunk.
  • This is called teasing the bolt. Standard practice if the bolt is playing hard to get.
  • Come on, we all do that sometimes. pretend to do work at work
  • With wodka, you never have to worry about selecting the right size tool.
  • He’s going nuts with that bolt.
  • Must be a mechanic from F&R Auto Sales
  • Its like a Greek Tragedy. The train that was never finished and to this day the worker toils away.
  • “220…..221…whatever it takes.” ~ “I like his can-do attitude, lets hire him full-time.”
  • Poor Russia, can’t afford to buy right size wrench, so sad.
  • That bolt will take about two weeks to get tightened.
  • Pfft! anyone can see he needs a 7/16 whitworth spanner.
  • The whole thing is made of paper mache and tape.
  • I’ve got an entire set of wrenches with the same problem… I was vainly hoping this video would help me figure out what the hell’s wrong with ’em.
  • When I was in engineering I was taught that on the first day….walk around with a spanner and look busy
  • They will promote that one to management.
  • It’s a new iterative technique. You start with the largest wrench and if after 10 minutes it doesn’t meet resistance then you drop down a size and repeat.
  • They pretend to pay him so he pretends to work
  • Tomorrow he will find the right spanner for the wrong bolt.
  • He’s just warming the bolt up before tightening it.
  • He was the head A&P mechanic on Flight MH370.
  • 5 minutes ago he was sweeping the floor …good job Comrade!
  • I knew Sputnik was Fake!!!
  • Its a dying trade — the bluffer; not many of us left.
  • A master craftsman – it literally takes a lifetime to get to that skill level.
  • Laid off from the Lada factory, now he works there.
  • He was just using the wrong side.
  • Russian Spanner, French [Bolt].
  • new type or round bolts invented by Wladimir Wladimirowicz Putin
  • What a scam! During the close up, you can clearly see he flips the wrench the WRONG WAY!!
  • “Ill see you next week Yuri! Im off for a cuppa.”
  • Almost had it there buddy… try again.
  • Like a glove!
  • Is that the Lada factory?

Ex-Girlfriend Tattoo Transformation to Samuri

Published by Papa Giorgio

By Federico Cornetto A talented tattooist transform his client’s tattoo of his girlfriend into the helmet of a fearsome samurai. Trung Tadashi, 41, from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, covered up the unwanted ink that showed a young lady’s face. He captured the process on film as he meticulously worked to hide the piece.