I work in aerospace. This occasions visits to hangars. Herewith a few items from there and elsewhere from the past few months.
Someone says that his CRT monitor has developed a greenish tinge in one corner. Umm… could it just possibly be to do with the magnetometer in the wing about 12" above the monitor?
And in the next hangar over, we have how many aircraft? This is not a large hangar. Those who work with aircraft know that they take up a lot of space. Wings and that, you know. But mix different types and the wings can overlap because they’re at different heights or can nestle behind each other. Or, of course, the aircraft can be in bits. A Keplerian piece of packing. But then, I’m not in charge of shuffling multi-million pound aircraft.
And then there are the planespotters. Granted they’re not quite as sad as trainspotters because they tend to want to go to more exotic places, but a private car park is private. It doesn’t matter that it’s the weekend. And if we’re having a security alert, you will be arrested. But while they’re nice to look at, once you’ve seen one of one type, you’ve seen all of those of that type. On the ground, they’re big tubes with wings. And the civvie ones have boring paint jobs too. In the air is a different matter… So what’s the fun in going and looking round just to note down the numbers in your little book? Especially if you’re going to be obnoxious about it. Yes, I know that some of them have IDs that make real names. Just like car numberplates. Whee! Jeez, get a life, guys.