Pilots are, indeed, rare...

Gatt wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...

Actually, I believe man was capable of flying much sooner than the
Wrights. I once heard that Iron Eaglebutt Henriques, a shamonyu medicine
man of the world famous Gravitigotcha tribe in South America once obtained
an unassisted sustained flight of 3,212 feet between the top of Angel
Falls and the forest floor in the year 1688, marking both the need for
more efficient airfoils and for tennis shoes to be worn at the top of the
falls.

Might want to check your facts. Tennis shoes were not yet introduced in
South America by 1688...


;P


I believe Iron Eaglebutt's adventure simply SHOWED THE NEED for better
airfoils and as well, the NEED for tennis shoes. Naturally, if the
Indians had tennis shoes in 1688, when the conquerers came to kill them
take over their land, at least they could have outrun them.
:-)

--
Dudley Henriques

wrote:
On Nov 27, 4:29 pm, Dan wrote:
On Nov 27, 2:58 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:

Interesting stat Jay. I think you would have to qualify that as people
"piloting an aircraft" versus people "flying." Anyone with $70 that does not
have a paralyzing fear of flying can "fly."
Good point, although that would be akin to counting bus riders as
"drivers".
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
Skydivers say, "If riding in a plane is flying, then riding in a boat
is swimming". Skydiving is probably more akin to "falling" though....

BTW, lighter than air flight was achieved in the 18th century I
believe...

--Dan

The Montgolfier brothers, in 1783. But I wouldn't call that
flying. Birds don't use that sort of lift.

Dan


Damn! And all this time I thought they had discovered golf!!
:-)


--
Dudley Henriques

"Darkwing" theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote:
Where here is an AMAZING statistic for you then!

http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif

If one is going to do silly correlations, one should at least get the
facts right. There were definitely more than 17 pirates around in 2000.
Consider these stories:

"Security in the High Seas: Piracy"
"The total number of piracy incidents that has been officially
reported to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) from July
2004 to October 2006; is 3,993."

From: http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=1195

"French navy escorts Somali aid to deter pirates"
"Pirates have mounted at least 26 attacks on ships off Somalia,
including 13 hijackings, this year alone."

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...111900410.html

"US Navy Frees Ship From Pirates"
"The U.S. Navy on Monday helped free the fifth ship in a week
hijacked by Somalia pirates, attempting to bring security to crucial
shipping routes between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean."

From: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...MrqFwD8SNLJ9G0

"Somalia: U.S. Navy Still Battles Pirates On the High Seas"
"On October 30, a U.S. Navy destroyer answered a call for help --
relayed through the International Maritime Bureau -- from the North
Korean crew on a vessel that had been overtaken by pirates in
international waters October 29."

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200711020222.html

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
...
..
Humans tried to fly for over 50,000 years, only figuring it out 104
years ago. In other words, for 99.8% of our history, we tried -- and
failed -- to fly. Yet, amazingly, that knowledge is now available to
anyone on the planet for the cost of a used Chevy Lumina.



Well, to pick a nit or two, humans have been flying longer than 104 years.
The Wright brothers get credit for the "first controlled, powered and
sustained heavier-than-air human flight" - that's a lot of qualifiers...

"To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is
everything." -Otto Lilienthal

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.
"

Jay Honeck wrote:
The Montgolfier brothers, in 1783. But I wouldn't call that
flying. Birds don't use that sort of lift.

Although it's cool, floating ain't flying.

Um, why not? There is definitely skill and learning involved.

Anthony Smith and Mark Wagner, writing in the book "Ballooning" (1998)
noted that:

"Balloons, as everyone knows, can only travel with the wind. The wind, as
everyone knows, blows as it chooses, with no one able to modify its
direction. Therefore the notion of competitive ballooning seems strangled
at birth, with every participant being subject to the same overwhelming
forces of the encircling atmosphere. The fact that competitions _are_ held,
and that balloonists _do_ compete, is due partly to the human urge for
confronting others (and hoping to win) but also because the winds are
inconsistent.

....

As the golfer said, "The more I practise, the luckier I get". So too with
ballooning. There is skill in bending chance towards a desirable end, in
giving Dame Fortune a push in the right direction, in blending human
cunning with opportunity.

Besides, unlike a lottery's random choice of winners, the same ballooning
names do tend to be proclaimed at prize-giving time. Pilots doing better
than the rest on one occasion are more likely to do well next time."

Jay Honeck wrote:
Humans tried to fly for over 50,000 years, only figuring it out 104
years ago.

Manned gliders may have been used as long at 2500 years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...

Might want to check your facts. Tennis shoes were not yet introduced in
South America by 1688...

I believe Iron Eaglebutt's adventure simply SHOWED THE NEED for better
airfoils and as well, the NEED for tennis shoes. Naturally, if the Indians
had tennis shoes in 1688, when the conquerers came to kill them take over
their land, at least they could have outrun them.

True. If there had been much left of his shoes they might have copied the
pattern by then.

Actually I was sort of waiting to hear somebody say that this I. E.
Henriques guy was an anti-American urban legend, and that the first
unassisted sustained flight was of course off a very tall sand dune near
Kitty Hawk in 1689. I saw the back of an Ohio quarter, though, and it
clearly states that the birthplace of aviation pioneers was there. (A
two-bit claim there ever was one!)

-c

Gatt wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...

Might want to check your facts. Tennis shoes were not yet introduced in
South America by 1688...

I believe Iron Eaglebutt's adventure simply SHOWED THE NEED for better
airfoils and as well, the NEED for tennis shoes. Naturally, if the Indians
had tennis shoes in 1688, when the conquerers came to kill them take over
their land, at least they could have outrun them.

True. If there had been much left of his shoes they might have copied the
pattern by then.

Actually I was sort of waiting to hear somebody say that this I. E.
Henriques guy was an anti-American urban legend, and that the first
unassisted sustained flight was of course off a very tall sand dune near
Kitty Hawk in 1689. I saw the back of an Ohio quarter, though, and it
clearly states that the birthplace of aviation pioneers was there. (A
two-bit claim there ever was one!)

-c


:-))

--
Dudley Henriques

Humans tried to fly for over 50,000 years....

Is there any evidence of that?

vince norris

Jay Honeck wrote:
The Montgolfier brothers, in 1783. But I wouldn't call that
flying. Birds don't use that sort of lift.

Although it's cool, floating ain't flying.

What is the definition of flying, then?

Matt