I visited Guatemala in '69, and it was wide open. We were only told to avoid anything that looked like a demonstration. Main thing I liked were luxury hotel rooms for $3 a night (I stayed at the Ritz). Their coffee is great too; much milder. I even went to a wedding party at the Guat Club. Went to Antigua and thru an Army checkpoint enroute, but no problems.

(Written on 07/21/2023)(Permalink)

And also the king of the Netherlands, Willem, regularly flies as copilot on local KLM flights. In my estimation he is a neat royal for doing this, as compared to others. Further it gives the Dutch Royal Family a handle on the current state of aviation and equipment safety for their personal transport, and he can take an overview of air safety in Holland, and he has the authority to change things. Let's not do King Willem out of a job! Yes, I do have a bias; I have Dutch ancestry, too.

(Written on 06/30/2023)(Permalink)

Back in the 70s, working as a programmer at FAA Hq in Washington, I met a lot of ex-controllers, many with military experience. One man had flown all the aircraft the Air Force has, all had experienced Indianapolis Center on the holidays. Reading reports like this, I get the impression reinforced that I always had that only special people are fit for this job. I can remember the days when it was only rated as a GS-5. In any case, I had no problems as programmer/analyst since I could take my own time to solve problems whereas the pilot and controller do not have this latitude.

(Written on 06/10/2023)(Permalink)

Back in the 70s, working as a programmer at FAA Hq in Washington, I met a lot of ex-controllers, many with military experience. One man had flown all the aircraft the Air Force has, all had experienced Indianapolis Center on the holidays. Reading reports like this, I get the impression reinforced that I always had that only special people are fit for this job. I can remember the days when it was only rated as a GS-5. In any case, I had no problems as programmer/analyst since I could take my own time to solve problems whereas the pilot and controller do not have this latitude.

(Written on 06/09/2023)(Permalink)

Sorry more details were not presented on how it worked. Thought this stuff was audited periodically. Good reason to have a family member of owners acting as CFO.

(Written on 04/21/2023)(Permalink)

Formerly with FAA in Washington, I could have used a co-pilot when low blood sugar caused me to wipe out a pine tree and telephone pole with my Chevy 2 years ago, which totaled the auto. I had no physical warning for this event; just woke up in hospital with firemen leaving. Been driving 69 years with no previous events, even when not driving. I always thought one would get some sensation of a problem, but I had no warning at all. Now, if I can ever get my license back in the State of Maine, I would be so happy! I am a driving person as pilots are "flying people"; I drove in all states and overseas in all conditions. I have Dutch ancestry, and am proud to see the King of Holland flies daily as a working copilot. What a great guy!

(Written on 04/01/2023)(Permalink)

When I worked FAA Federal never leased computers, but purchased them. COBOL was created by government scientists and Grace Hopper for universal use. They did not want computer-specific coding which might result in a vendor closing down, leaving them with code unusable on other machines. Hence government required any computer they purchased to support COBOL so existing programming could be run on any other company's computers. This is all smart to me, and it worked!

(Written on 02/10/2023)(Permalink)

I used to work at FAA Hq in Washington, and when I was there we had the best IBM service. When a newer 360-40 went down, next morning VPs and engineers were down there from Armonk N.Y.(IBM Hq) to fix. They could not diagnose; heard them say "Let's send it out to Santa Monica and X-ray it." IBM immediately gave us a substitute 360-40. At that time NOTAMS were sent from this machine.

(Written on 02/10/2023)(Permalink)

Years ago I fell in love with a beautiful Dutch girl from Iowa while attending university in Washington. One of the things that made her attractive to me was the fact that her older brother was put thru Harvard Business School by his employer, Standard Oil Corp. How does one achieve that?

(Written on 02/03/2023)(Permalink)

When I dwelled Washington two jobs offered great pay and wealth, lobbyist and manufacturer's representative. The lattter specializes in fronting for a specific group of product (like nuts or bolts), and is a super salesman ferreting out any possible consumer of his baby from the vast number of government agencies' headquarters. If he is a military school grad., he can run "all over" the Pentagon, e.g., with prior clearances. IBM for example, hired many Annapolis grads for this reason, people like Ross Perot. While these people can make purchasing for government more efficient, politicians who are intellectually deficient in purchasing should not be encouraged to run for office. Voters take notice; do not vote party lines!

(Written on 01/21/2023)(Permalink)