Comment

Comment by Davy on June 10, 2012 at 5:19am

The Russian speakers tend to sound as though they are having blue, so you have to look at their faces. When I first was here that is what I thought that's what they were doing, bluing. But most times it is because they are excited or annoyed but not angry, When they are angry completely different vocalisation.

Comment by Michel on June 9, 2012 at 9:56pm

Or the bird saw the sail and the guy but not the wires.
I love it when he thanks the guy in the shop who folded his reserve chute =)

The weirdest flying I've ever done was filming a shot from a static and slightly tilted sideways helicopter at 2,000 ft. The cameraman was half outside the door shooting straight down and I was holding him by his jacket. You are not supposed to be still in the air for any amount of time, yet we spent 20 minutes in roughly one spot, it was very strange.

Comment by Adriana on June 9, 2012 at 7:39pm

I'm not even sure he was angry. The Russian people in my neighborhood speak like that normally :-) LOLZ

Comment by Adriana on June 9, 2012 at 6:44pm

Wow, why did the bird make such a mistake? I feel very bad for the poor bird.

At list the colorful-language Russian dude was kind and liberated the bird.

Comment by Davy on June 9, 2012 at 2:28pm

I am with you on parachuting Neal and like you don't believe in jumping out of a completely airworthy aircraft and trust my fate on a few square metres of silk and cords. Yes! I had the chance to do it a few times while I was in the RAusAF when they held the Parachuting comps at RAusAF Wagga. There was RAusAF parachuting team lead by a Warrant Officer Discipline who I knew. 

But hang gliding is another thing altogether because it is another form of gliding which I have had the opportunity to do under instruction. Nothing like it! No noisy engine just the air sighing over the gliders fuselage, the bump when you pick up an up draught.

So go for it Adriana only difference is you will feel the wind on your face  and flowing over your body as you fly. You won't regret the experience.

Comment by Neal on June 9, 2012 at 1:46pm

I have never attempted the feat. I thought about parachuting, but as I've said before it didn't seem right jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for no apparent reason.

I've watched them hang gliding off the dunes by Lake Michigan, looks like a blast.

Comment by Davy on June 9, 2012 at 1:44pm

Many moons ago I read an article on the changes required in the human body to have wings.and the one that stuck with is -- Besides having six limbs we would have to develop a keel bone like chickens to anchor and support the muscles that move the wings for us to fly. 

I laugh to myself when I see pictures of angels with a normal human breast.

Comment by Adriana on June 9, 2012 at 11:49am

Yes, we are pretty obsessed with flying. And it makes sense, since as you say it is the only mode of transportation that we cannot naturally use with just our own bodies. Who hasn't imagined or dreamed that we were flying, unaided, at some point or other. Geek that I am, when I was a kid I used to imagine I could have leathery wings, like a bat or a pterodactyl, I even imagined how we would have to adapt our clothes to fit these wings. Leathery wings make more sense because we feathers are so evolutionary distant from us. The big problem is that we want to have hands, too, because they are really useful. People imagined feathery wings, in addition to our arms, but that would mean we would stop being tetrapods, and that would be kind of impossible without a major re-do of our body plan.  We would have to have 6 limbs, like insects, yuck!

I would one day like to try hand-gliding, it looks a bit scary, but one day I'll do it!

Has anyone here ever done it?