What's good (and bad ) about Russia?

[Fliteright]

With those looooooong replies guys you blokes have gotta get out more and reduce the dick swinging !😉😂👍

Edited October 16, 2021 by Fliteright

[facthunter]

OK Back to IQ .It's NOT supposed to be based on knowledge and if a test is , It's invalid as a proper IQ test which is how to take information and process it in a general sense. Not what you know.

  Knowledge is not a burden if it relates to  the task you are considering, You then reach an understanding which is far more a benefit than ROTE learning.( Remember because you have to to pass a exam to tick a box.) 

 I hate nemonics. You not only have to remember THEM but what each letter means. 

      Situational AWARENESS is extremely necessary in flying. It beats being good at rattling off check lists by memory,

I had one checkee do that for the Hydraulics check Pre landing. Word  perfect reply but NO pressure and NO quantity He hadn't even looked. His performance after that would have made a good case study of HOW to NEVER do THIS.when flying an  aeroplane. It just got worse. Basically , in the wrong JOB. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

I am a self-taught software engineer. I am probably of average competence.. I have an employee who worked for me in Australia and I take him wherever I go.. is the best software engineer I have ever met (and I have met a fair few). He has a degree/masters. I have also fired many degree/masters qualified software engineers who had/have zero competence. Similarly, I am self taught in maths and financial engineering - didn't even do maths in HSC (as the Vics called it in my day). I have worked with some amazingly clever people who can solve some very complex problems; physicists and nuclear engineers, computer scientists, financial engineers, and geez, even management and admin staff.. Many would be able to solve the wheel nuts issue, many wouldn't.

 

People think intelligence is universal to everything in life - it can't be. There are people who show great intelligence in certain areas but complete feebleness in other areas.. are they intelligent or are they dumb? Can anyone be intelligent at every facet of life? Apparently, real IQ tests take this into consideration, but apparently, emotional quotient tests/scores seem to reflect better, anyway. As with anything, the science is continually developing.

 

A university (or formally trained) graduate doesn't prove intelligence any more than not having formal education proves unintelligence (or, let's be honest, competence). And being intelligent at one apsect of life but not another, does not mean they are dumb.

 

Oddly, the only formal tertiary qualification I have is in an area I don't practice in - law. I obtained by qualification in my late 30s... For me, it is a fascinating subject, and doing it taught me to think on a different plane to what I had been - it had opened my eyes to being more of a critical thinker than than responsive thinker. Some people graduated with a much better grade than I did, but I wouldn't engage them if my life depended on it.. they were rote learners who worked effin hard.. However, I would employ them on something that required hard work and diligence. There were others that got much higher grades with little work - they are the ones I would engage if I had a legal problem.

 

When I had my old XP Falcon, I had an issue where the exhaust manifold was burning red hot. Two mechanics with many years experience couldn't work it out. A young university grad in economics who lived cars lifter the bonnet. Within a split second, he said "Your vacuum advance is stuffed." Sorted.

 

Generalising peoples intelligence or lack of;  generalising the effect of one form of learning over another is, well, dumb.

 

BTW, over 'ere, they have introduced graduate apprenticeships, which are apprenticeships in the professions that provide an alternate but equal qualification to a degree, as over here, they have realised that university is not suitable for all people. My career took off when I moved here.. In Aus, you need a degree for what I do.

[Yenn]

I don't know if modern musicians play by ear or read it, but I do know that the music I hear on ABC radio around about news time is awful. That is possibly due to ABC having a play list that is crook, or it may be that modern music is really all screech and sqwuark.

As far as intelligence goes I think we have strayed off the subject.

The educated person knows how his aeroplane works, while the intelligent person can work out why it doesn't work. Education equips you for what you have been taught, while intelligence lets you work out what you need to do.

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 minutes ago, Yenn said:

The educated person knows how his aeroplane works, while the intelligent person can work out why it doesn't work. Education equips you for what you have been taught, while intelligence lets you work out what you need to do.

It may be one has been trained in design and one in fault diagnosis.. or maybe trained in both..  No guarantee of intelligence...

 

[accidentally hit the enter button] But I do agree.. there are those that know their craft and can apply it and those that just learn things but can't apply them.

 

BTW, I know how an aeroplane works, but there is no way I would try and work out what was wrong with it (unless it was very obvious). I don't care to, to be honest.. I am all thumbs when it comes to mechanical stuff (despite having taken a very long time to rebuild a Cortina - after which, I don't think I have picked up a spanner).. I would never fly a plane I built.

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Yes the vaccuum advance on them did everything. If the diaphragm was cactus you stayed retarded by about 20 degrees.  The engine is dead and unresponsive. You can pick it by just moving the throttle once. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

It was probably like that when I got it, though to be honest, the car didn't perform below expectations..

3 minutes ago, facthunter said:

If the diaphragm was cactus you stayed retarded by about 20 degrees. 

As I have been ever since 🙂

 

[Fliteright]

Vacuum advance was just for rapid acceleration, centrifugal advance was for low load applications.  Once at speed the vacuum unit can fall off!

Edited October 16, 2021 by Fliteright

[facthunter]

That's NOT intelligence. You just have learned how THAT engine is managed in the ignition timing area. The same thing happens in an aeroplane. You really shouldn't be off your leash till you know what you are doing because you are$@!#dangerous. Nev 

[facthunter]

What YOU just said is BS Flightrite sorry, When you open the throttle with load the manifold pressure drops and the spring retards the timing to prevent pinging. The flyweights if used affect mostly the idle and a small amount as revs increase.. A lot of this is peculiar to a type of engine and the ranges will be set for that particular motor. The earlier Canadian designed Falcons used a large vaccuum range for whatever reason. Some others don't even use it. Vaccuum was used on the last year of the 61 cu in cast iron Harley Sportster allowing it to run faster and cooler. Nev

[Yenn]

The advance and retard is a good problem to pick. A friend of mine at work in the sixties bought a new Ford car and had trouble with it. The educated mechanics at the dealer had it an many times but couldn't find the answer to the problem. I listened to his detailing of what was happening and worked out that it was a timing problem. He brought the car to my place and it was fixed in a couple of minutes. I worked out, either by intelligence or education that the weights were incorrectly installed. Education obviously played a part, but i reckon I had more "nouse' than the mechanics.

[willedoo]

A vlogger's interesting take on the non-smiling of Russians:

 

 

[willedoo]

Some aviation interest. Recently, Russia has made some positive steps toward opportunities for more females to become military pilots. These photos are of female pilot cadets training in the L-39 Albatross at Krasnodar Air Force Academy at Kushchevsky Airfield in the Krasnodar Territory. Krasnodar Air Force Academy specializes in assault, fighter, and long-range aviation.

 

A point of interest if you're a helmet nerd is that the cadets are using current model ZSh-7APN helmets. At least I think they would be the  low impedance speaker N version that I remember the L-39 uses. The P designation refers to the forehead sight mount for night vision and target sighting gear. Not normally used in trainers for students. Some other training bases use the old ZSh-3M helmet which dates back to the early 60's. The 3M is the old two piece leather inner helmet with outer duralumin shell helmet. Wouldn't surprise me if they've given the newer helmets to the girls for the purposes of the photo op.

 

You see that a lot with Russian air force PR photo ops. Brand new uniforms with fresh out of the packet storage creases etc.. Makes you wonder sometimes whether they're real pilots or just the life support guys or armourers roped into dressing up and posing.

 

Edit: Do these soon to be pilots look really young or is it just that I'm getting old?

Edited October 24, 2021 by willedoo

[willedoo]

It's been announced this week that serial production of the Baikal multi purpose light aircraft will start. The plant will be built close to the Sukhoi Superjet plant to share transport and infrastructure. It's intended to be a replacement for the An-2 biplane; it's smaller in size but faster with longer range. Then again, what wouldn't be faster than an An-2? I don't know what engine it will have. There was talk of the prototype being fitted with a General Electric H80-200. The slab sided look reminds me of the dreaded Nomad.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Interesting to see a largish new taildragger.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Interesting to see a largish new taildragger.

I wonder why. If it's meant to be a An-2 replacement, it would be looking at regional work with short strips and rough conditions. Does a taildragger have any advantage there?

[facthunter]

I would think so. Squarish fuselages are OK for unpressurised stuff and accommodate more people or pallets too. Nev

[onetrack]

Is Russian. Will be good - Simple and Strong, like Russian tractor.

[willedoo]

I doubt it will replace the An-2 completely, particularly in Siberia. The turbo prop new design An-2 didn't seem to take off. I think something to do with sanctions on the Honeywell engine they used.

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

Is Russian. Will be good - Simple and Strong, like Russian tractor.

The old Russian motto - make it simple, make it strong, but above all, make it work.

[willedoo]

Here's one for the military minded among us. I've only been loosely following the migrant standoff between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, but today I came across this map showing the Suwalki Gap. The Suwalki Gap is a narrow stretch of land linking Poland and Lithuania, flanked on either side by Belarus and the Russian district of Kaliningrad. Looking at the map, you can see how that if conventional war broke out between Russia and NATO, that narrow gap is the only way NATO could reinforce the Baltics by land.

 

As Russia and Belarus are in a union state situation, it would be relatively easy to close off that gap. There's been estimates in the last few years from both sides of the fence that Russia could take the Baltics in about three days. Looking at this map, it makes the Suwalki Gap look like a big factor in that.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

11 hours ago, willedoo said:

…There's been estimates in the last few years from both sides of the fence that Russia could take the Baltics in about three days.

After the Baltic States became independent of the USSR,  we saw news clips of Russian troops leaving.
They displayed ominous signs that, like Arnie, said “We’ll be back!”

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

After the Baltic States became independent of the USSR,  we saw news clips of Russian troops leaving.
They displayed ominous signs that, like Arnie, said “We’ll be back!”

There's still a lot of animosity there on the Baltic side. Latvia is fairly calm and level headed, but the other two are very vocal on the anti-Russia thing, more so Lithuania.

[Old Koreelah]

Baltic states have been subject to the old trick: plenty of ethnic Russians settled there and some have loudly demanded the right to have their kids educated in Russian, not the local language.
Just like Hitler’s expansion into nearby nations, at some future point, Moscow can claim to be coming to their rescue. 

[willedoo]

Similar in Ukraine, around 20% of Ukrainians are ethnic Russian. Language was a big factor in the start of the troubles after the 2014 American backed coup. One of the first acts of parliament passed by the new government was a law banning official use of the Russian language. In the ethnic Russian regions like Crimea and the Donbass, Russian was used in schools and by local government. Street names are in Russian etc.. The Ukrainian nationalists are savage in their intolerance of the Russian language being used in Ukraine, but the silly thing is, there's not a lot of difference between their languages. Probably less difference than between Indonesian and Malay.

 

One difference between Ukraine and the Baltics is that ethnic Russians are relatively new in the Baltics, whereas Russians have been in what is now modern day Ukraine for centuries. Slabs of Ukraine were Russian at various times in history. You could say another difference is that the Baltic languages differ a lot from Russian, whereas Ukrainian, Belorussian and Russian are very close. Belarus differs from Ukraine in that Belorussian is only spoken by 20% of the population compared to 70% Russian. both languages are recognised as official languages.

 

It would concern the Baltic states as Putin has made no secret of the fact that they believe they have the right to stick up for ethnic Russians no matter what citizenship they have. A bit like writing a blank cheque on intervention.