Night flying in the mountians in a cessna 150,

"Michael" wrote in message
ups.com...
mindenpilot wrote:
From the time I hit Tahoe, until I get to Placerville, there is
literally
NOWHERE to safely put it down.
In fact, I don't think I could even walk away from the plane if I had
to put
it down.

With that in mind, what difference would it make if it was light or
dark
outside the plane?
I'd be dead either way, right?

Sounds about right. There are certain situations where VMC/IMC and
day/night make no difference (provided the pilot is prepared to control
the plane by reference to instruments) - and those situations are where
the terrain is uniformly bad (overwater) or uniformly good (nothing but
fields). Maybe the Sierras really are uniformly bad.

Thing is, while I've never flown the Sierras, I've made three crossings
over the Rockies doing the Houston-San Francisco run. Two of them were
day-VMC, and one included night and IMC flying.



Pet peeve...its Sierra not Sierras, the word is already plural.

Mike
MU-2

("Mike Rapoport" wrote)
Pet peeve...its Sierra not Sierras, the word is already plural.


What's the singular? Siera?

Rocky Mountain
Rocky Mountains
Rockies

?????? Mountain
?????? Mountains
Sierras


Montblack

Montblack wrote:

("Mike Rapoport" wrote)

Pet peeve...its Sierra not Sierras, the word is already plural.



What's the singular? Siera?

Rocky Mountain
Rocky Mountains
Rockies

?????? Mountain
?????? Mountains
Sierras


Montblack



Sierra is Spanish for "Mountain Range."

The word Sierra is not plural, but it does refer to all the mountains in
the range. You would use Sierras to refer to multiple mountain ranges,
not multiple mountains.

HTH

xyzzy wrote:
Montblack wrote:

("Mike Rapoport" wrote)

Pet peeve...its Sierra not Sierras, the word is already plural.




What's the singular? Siera?

Rocky Mountain
Rocky Mountains
Rockies

?????? Mountain
?????? Mountains
Sierras


Montblack


Sierra is Spanish for "Mountain Range."

The word Sierra is not plural, but it does refer to all the mountains in
the range. You would use Sierras to refer to multiple mountain ranges,
not multiple mountains.

HTH


So is Sierra Mountains also wrong because it would mean mountain range
mountains?

I would go with Sierras because we are not speaking spanish. It is the
name of mountains within a country that speaks primarily English. It
does not mean anything else.

One of my pet peeves is spanish versions of government forms. I thought
part of becoming a U.S. citizen was having a working understanding of
English.

Mike,
American Heritage Dictionary defines a sierra is "a rugged range of
mountains having an irregular or jagged profile".
I did a quick web search and found sierras being used quite often.
Here are some old sources:

Book: In the Heart of the Sierras by James M. Hutchings (1888)
Movies: Springtime in the Sierras (1947); King of the Sierras (1938)

So if there are more than one mountan ranges, it appears that the
plural term sierras is used such as Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las
Villas in Spain

http://www.andalucia.com/environment...ct/cazorla.htm

OK but when referring to the Sierra Nevada mountans the correct word is
Sierra.

Mike
MU-2


wrote in message
ups.com...
Mike,
American Heritage Dictionary defines a sierra is "a rugged range of
mountains having an irregular or jagged profile".
I did a quick web search and found sierras being used quite often.
Here are some old sources:

Book: In the Heart of the Sierras by James M. Hutchings (1888)
Movies: Springtime in the Sierras (1947); King of the Sierras (1938)

So if there are more than one mountan ranges, it appears that the
plural term sierras is used such as Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las
Villas in Spain

http://www.andalucia.com/environment...ct/cazorla.htm

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message news:wWqTd.5072

Pet peeve...its Sierra not Sierras, the word is already plural.


But we are talking about a proper noun. If my last name meant "many good
looking people" in Italian and you invited my family and I to your house you
wouldn't say "Damn we are lucky enough to have the Giacona coming over
tonight." You would say, "Damn we are lucky enough to have the Giaconas
coming over tonight. We better get more wine."

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:

But we are talking about a proper noun. If my last name meant "many good
looking people" in Italian and you invited my family and I to your house you
wouldn't say "Damn we are lucky enough to have the Giacona coming over
tonight." You would say, "Damn we are lucky enough to have the Giaconas
coming over tonight. We better get more wine."

But you would never say "the Appalachian ranges." For the same reason, you
should never say "the Sierras" when you're talking about the Sierra Nevada.

George Patterson
I prefer Heaven for climate but Hell for company.

"George Patterson" wrote in message
...
But you would never say "the Appalachian ranges." For the same reason, you
should never say "the Sierras" when you're talking about the Sierra
Nevada.

If we were speaking Spanish, and we were speaking only of some generic
"sierra", that would be correct. However, you cannot apply the original
rules to words borrowed from other languages and expect them to still make
sense in English (in this case...this isn't particular to English),
especially when the borrowed word becomes a proper noun. A borrowed word,
in the language that borrowed it, inherets brand new rules, completely
independent of the original language from whence it came.

I have about as many language pet peeves as anyone, but IMHO this is one
that the owner's of said pet peeve just need to get over already.

Pete