A Scary and True Bedtime Story With A Happy Ending

A Scary and True Bedtime Story With A Happy Ending

In a quiet neighborhood in Cape Girardeau, Missouri there lives a nice woman in her nice house.  She has friends who live nearby and is liked by everyone.  She is 57 years old and likes to live quietly.  One night in October of this year (10/25/2008) a bad man named Ronny Preyer was looking for someone to hurt.  With eleven felony arrests and five convictions to his credit he was used to hurting people and knew how.

He picked out the woman’s house and snuck up to it.  He found a basement window that was loose and crawled into the basement.  He snuck upstairs and came through the door into the kitchen.  Quickly he was able to find the nice lady and he beat her badly (Rape).  He left her bleeding and bruised.  She called the police as soon as she was able to move again.  

The police were helpful but did not know where the bad man went or who he was.  The nice lady had friends and neighbors help her to fix the basement window.  One nice neighbor lent her a 12 gauge shotgun and taught her how to shoot it.  The police promised to pass by her house more often.  Everyone hoped that the bad man wouldn't come back.

However, five days later, on Halloween, the bad man did come back (10/31/2008).  This time he cut off the electricity to her house at a very early morning hour. (2:15)  He broke the same basement window and got in again!  This time though, the door to the kitchen was locked.  He had to bang on it really hard to open it.  The door broke open on the second hard bang.

The lady was in the kitchen facing the door with her shotgun in her hands.  As soon as the door opened and Ronny Preyer was standing there framed by the doorway, she shot him in the chest with a night shattering BOOM!  The bad man fell down the stairs and the nice lady ran out of the front door carrying the shotgun.  She ran to her neighbor’s house and they called the police.  The police found the bad man stumbling through the lady’s backyard.  He died seven hours later.

The government of Cape Girardeau said that the nice lady did the right thing and that they were proud of her.  The bad man has not hurt anyone else ever after.

The Ground Detector

Let me start by giving full credit for this information to Mr. Archie Trammell.  This remarkable man is the master of Weather Radar.  These techniques, I discuss, I learned from one, solitary, magazine article he wrote.  Thank you sir, for I have used these methods on every flight for over twenty years.

William (Billy Howe  

The Under Utilized Weather Radar

Every pilot in our group instinctively turns on the weather radar during the spring through fall days when thunderstorms are likely to be present.  Otherwise we mostly leave them off through the winter and on fair days.  Consider this question.  What other hazard to aviation could we detect with the use of the radar that is present on every single flight?

CFIT

Many of us have sat through a training film on Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) several times.  We all know of the sad and tragic ends to the Beechcraft King Air that hit a ridgeline, at night in VFR conditions in Canada; the Gulfstream Jet that hit the fog shrouded hilltop in Kuala Lumpur; and the Beechcraft Jet that hit another cloud covered hilltop near Rome, Georgia.  I would submit other tragic accidents for consideration.  In December, 1974 a TWA Boeing 727 hit that ridgeline northwest of the Washington Dulles airport during a non-precision approach to runway 12.  In March, 1991 a Hawker Jet carrying eight members of country western singer Reba McEntire’s band hit a ridge, at night, near San Diego, CA. On December 20, 1995 an American Airlines Boeing 757 struck a ridge near Cali Columbia, at night.  Every one of these aircraft had the means of knowing that they were in close proximity to the rising terrain – the weather radar.

To Be Forewarned

I am very glad of the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System.  It is a lifesaver.  However, which is better, to see a hazard from a safe distance and maneuver to safely avoid conflict, or to blindly trust the warning system and react to a sudden and startling and last second “LOOK OUT!”, or in our case, “PULL UP! PULL UP!”  I cannot cite accurately this last example since I only heard about it through the aviator’s grapevine, but I heard a story of an Express Jet EMB-145 on a recent approach to a destination in Mexico.  This flight crew was so startled by the EGPWS sudden command to “PULL UP!” that they basically did nothing and wrote-up the system after landing as malfunctioning.  Imagine their shock to learn that investigators determined that they came within a few hundred feet of oblivion.  So it is, we have the on-board radar to paint a picture, but we do not use it and often have no clue where the rocks are.

Height Evaluation Technique

Using the tilt control to determine the aircraft height above the ground is easy.  The magic formula is:

Height ∆ = Tilt ∆ X Miles X 100

This reads: Height change equals tilt change times miles times 100.  If we start with the tilt set at the park position, that is, at a tilt setting wherein the bottom of the beam is parallel to our flight path then we know that anything reflecting on the screen is at our altitude or higher.  I like this position as I approach the ground because as I descend into the valleys I can “see” the surrounding terrain as it rises above me.  For us EMB-145 guys this park position is almost always 7°.  From this starting position we can lower the tilt, typically, by four degrees to a position of 3°.  As you descend from the cruising altitudes, this “down four degrees” position will show ground returns up to the 25 mile arc as you get within 10,000 feet of the ground.

10,000 ∆ = 4°∆ X 25 miles X 100

As you get closer to the ground and bring in the range, you will see the ground 5,000 feet and below you at the 12.5 mile arc and most telling, 2,000 feet and below at the 5 mile arc.  While maneuvering for an approach, if any ground return penetrates that 5 mile arc I am immediately concerned.  As I cross the FAF and descend for touchdown I will go back to 7° so as to look for terrain above me beyond the airport.  An additional bonus to the “down four degrees” position is detecting wind shear probability.  If there was a strong down burst on final, near the airport, that column would likely attenuate your radar returns and show you a shadow.  Rather than a smooth, uniform ground paint, there is a V shaped hole.  We all know not to even go there.  This brings in another interesting question.  What is the Ground Mapping setting about?  The manuals are very vague on that one.  I believe I have found the functional benefit of the GM feature.  As we approach the ground while rain is in the area it becomes difficult to discern the ground returns from the rain returns.  Selecting the GM setting will automatically reduce the gain to a level where the rain disappears while still returning ground images.  Thus, I find myself going back and forth between WX and GM so as to get the total picture.

Park Position Test

How do we know that the park position is 7° in these EMB-145 aircraft?  Well, you don’t until you test it out on the specific aircraft you are flying and this test works for any radar in any aircraft type.  Recently I flew with a radar set which indicated 9° as the park position.  That unit was also having stabilization issues so I wrote it up.  As you are cruising in level flight lower the tilt so as to paint the ground up to the 25 mile arc.  Now divide your height above the ground by the (25 miles X 100).  This will give you the number of degrees to raise the tilt from this present position so as to bring the bottom of the beam to your level.  A typical example is while cruising at FL360 we roll the tilt down to paint ground right up to the 25 mile arc.  The terrain is about 800 feet MSL so we will just consider ourselves as being 35,000 feet above the terrain.  (35,000 feet/ 25 miles / 100 = 14)  (Hint: You can shortcut all those zeros and just divide 35 by 25.  The answer will be 1.4, but we know that is really 14) Now we note that the present position of the tilt is -7°.  When we add 14°to the -7° we get 7° as the park position.  Most of the time you will get a non-whole angle change value such as 13.4°∆; just round to the nearest whole number.

Be Safe!

As professional pilots we must utilize every suitable means necessary to remain situationally aware.  Using these radar techniques are simple and so valuable especially while operating near the ground on “dark and rainy nights”.

Captain William (Billy) Howe

June 7, 2013

130608

What We Wish We Could Hear From Washington

Our Young People Are Getting Smarter

Carey Wedler is a young woman with a lot of good sense.  I have watched several of her videos and I truly understand her frustration with our current system of government.  Her assessment is correct in that we are now prisoners in our own country.

This video tells her story as she realizes that the current two party system is a scam and that voting for Obama was an exercise in futility, for anyone seeking liberty and justice.  Her disillusionment over rejecting the party of Bush in favor of the party of Obama is justified.  I have a very similar story.  In my story the villain was president Clinton.  In my day of excitement, in 2000, we scored the perfect trifecta, we gave the republicans the presidency, the house and the senate.  We completely rejected the Clinton philosophy.  Then I sat back and waited for good results.  I expected those republicans to put their actions where their mouths were.  I waited in vain for pro-life legislation, reduction of taxes, reduction of federal spending, the reduction of economy killing bureaucratic regulations, the increase in liberty and citizen dignity, the reduction of restrictions on the personal right to keep and BEAR arms.  In short, I waited in vain for the manifestation of lies.

Rather, we got the Patriot Act, the initial funding of the NSA spy apparatus, interminable wars, more debt, more spending, more regulations, more entitlements.  We got more of the same.

Like Ms. Wedler, I am fed up.  I ponder the rightness of stopping my payment of taxes.  I wonder how much longer the world will lend us the money to live like the spoiled brat in the international community.  I wonder what will happen when these psychopaths in all levels of our government drive us into destitution.

I am hearing a lot of enthusiastic speculation on the possibilities of republican majorities in both houses of congress following this upcoming November election.  I hate to throw cold water on the party, but we have tried that before. 

Incoherence II

On Friday, October 11, 2013 I wrote a post describing one case wherein a judge put more credit into a law than into the truth.  It was a case of a man being declared legally dead when in fact he is very much alive and well.  Judge Allan Davis decided that the man must remain "dead" simply because the law said so.

Now I offer another case to illustrate how we descend into idiocy once the common law standards, as taught by the Christian code, are disregarded.  In 2010 Michael Roberson was arrested while riding on the Boston, MA public transit system.  He was arrested because he was aiming his smart phone up the skirts of women in an attempt to photograph and take video of their crotches.  He was charged under a Boston statute which prohibits the taking of photographs and video of "nude or partially nude" people without their knowledge or consent when such a person has an expectation of privacy.  Justice Margot Botsford dismissed the charge on the basis that the violated women who were riding on public transportation were not "nude or partially nude", as required by statute.  In this linked article you will read of supposedly smart people claiming that the laws haven't kept pace with technology and we will need to have new laws, many new laws, written to cover every conceivable action which can be dreamed up in the twisted minds of men.

Have you ever wondered how mankind got by without the printing presses and computers which are able to produce the millions and millions of words required to document the millions of laws required to regulate every action imaginable?  It was called the Common Law and it wasn't written down, at least not in a codified manner.  It could be summed up in one question to wit: "What would a reasonable man do under similar situations?"  In a world where there is nothing new under the sun, one would expect almost any action to have a precedent, either exactly the same or very close.  The common law would look for such a precedent, test the decision for reasonableness, and judgement was made.  In the case of the Boston "Up-skirter", it would have been a no-brainer.  No reasonable man would do such a thing, nor would he tolerate anyone else doing it.

The reason Justice Margot Botsford's hands were tied is our courts have thrown out any test of right and wrong when they threw out the notion that there was such a thing as right and wrong.  To our judges today there is only the coded law; it is their bible.  We can expect such remarkable and ridiculous decisions to continue to come from the mouths of these godless imbeciles.

 Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart. [2] For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him. [3] For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise: [4] For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins. [5] For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in. Wisdom Ch. 1; 1-5 Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible (Emphasis mine)

Authority

The Vatican has circulated a survey around the world wherein they asked questions of the lay people.  This was done to gauge where the Catholic world is on some of the hot button issues such as sexual morality, the role of women in the church and the state of marriage.  Judging from this article from The Telegraph the state of Catholic obedience to long standing teachings is nearly extinct.

There are many reasons for this and it is a huge problem for our world and our people.  However, the single biggest cause of this universal disregard for these moral truths lies in the common belief the only authority one must obey is one's own conscience.  This is rooted in the "faith alone" doctrine which, naturally, has mutated over the last five centuries to an attitude that a person can do pretty much whatever he likes as long as he 'believes" that Jesus Christ is his savior.  Today, "faith alone" has even trumped "scripture only", for now one can believe that almost any depraved act is licit, even when expressly condemned by scripture, as long as it is done for "love".  So much for the two pillars of Protestantism, for it is down to one leg to stand on.

Here comes the hammer.  Even if the entire lay world, every person, believed these sins, acts which go against longtime Catholic teaching, were licit, they would still be sins and to do them would be a one way trip to hell.  Even if 99% of the Catholic priests and nuns were to teach these errors, the results would be the same, hell.  Even if the Pope were to offer his opinion that divorce, re-marrying, same-sex unions, fornication, co-habitation, contraception, reception of Communion by people engaged in such behaviors was morally neutral, it would still be the wide, paved highway to hell.

For anyone who has been prejudiced against the Catholic Church, who cannot believe that She is the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church, that is the One Religion with authority over the entire human race, I offer this test.  Watch the times.  As things spin out of control, as almost anything goes, notice how the Catholic Church will not change Her time honored, truthful teachings, no matter how many voices within Her clamor.  Notice how She will be the last one standing on these Truths.  Watch how the "gates of hell' will not prevail over Her.  But don't stand outside watching too long, for it is a dangerous world and to follow the world is to die.

Diabolical Confusion

These times are marked with Diabolical Confusion.  This linked article tells of a young Catholic priest, ordained last year, who is already in trouble for being true to his vocation.  He is under great pressure from the media for...wait for it...wait...waaaaittt...discriminating against a lesbian couple by denying them Communion.  This story is recent and we do not see what his superior's position will be.  Either they will support him completely for upholding church teaching for the good of the lesbian couple, or they will throw him under the bus for the good of their own popular image.

Charity demands that Father Kneib do what is best for the lesbian couple.  He can either go along to get along or he can rock the boat.  By going along, his world would be nicer and peaceful, but he would be acting as a traffic manager, guiding his flock and those women straight to hell. He himself would be held to count for the lost souls and he too would be joining them.  Otherwise, he could and did, rock the boat and act as a traffic manager should, that is, he barred the road to hell and pointed towards the safe direction.  If those women ignore his loving courage, which it appears at first look that they have, then Father Kneib at least has done his duty and should he persevere in this way for the rest of his life, he will hear the most soothing words anyone will ever hear, "Well done good and faithful servant...".  It does not matter how much he is chastised by the popular media and possibly his superiors, he is being true to Christ.  In fact, the more they harm him, the more Christ will uplift him.

The article tells of Father Marcel Guarnizo of Maryland.  In 2012 he denied Communion to a lesbian couple under very similar circumstances. His Archdiocese threw him under the bus by removing him from parish duties and apologizing to the poor lost sexual deviants.  That is the mark of diabolical confusion.  That is precisely why God gave us the Holy Roman Catholic Church.  Mankind has flaws, among which are self-conceit.  Each generation believes itself to be smarter and superior to the preceding generations.  With the promise of God that the gates of hell will not prevail over the Holy Roman Catholic Church, ever, we have the road map through the times and the future by learning from the past, the Catholic Tradition.  We know through that tradition that homo-sexuality is wrong, was wrong and will ever be wrong, no matter what our confused church leaders of today tell us.  With that tradition we will not be lead by the blind into the pit; for the blind cannot lead one who sees.

I am praying for Fathers Kneib and Guarnizo for their courage and integrity.  I thank God for such men.  I am praying for the leaders of the Maryland Archdiocese and the leaders of Father Kneib's diocese.  May they find courage to serve their Lord well.  I am praying for those confused lesbian women involved in both cases and all souls involved in homo-sexual activities; indeed, for all souls who are outside of the sexual bounds set by the church.  If they do not cease and repent of their grave sins, they are forever lost.  With Christ's unlimited, unfathomable mercy they have a chance as long as they live, but given their obstinacy, which would never waver were it not for good men like Fathers Kneib and Guarnizo, it is a long shot.  They must change their own minds before Christ will change their hearts.

Finally, I pray for whomever the pastor of the Saint Columban Catholic Church of Chillicothe, MO. was before Father Kneib arrived.  For nearly twenty years those women were members of that church and had no problems before?!  Where in the hell were their shepherds?!

May God bless us all, who love Him.