Plane Failing

Or, An Embarrassment Of Poorness

Yes, I'm afraid this Intro is about the Ruffians again.  Sorry, but they make such excellent targets and there's never a lack of news about them.  You see, the Puffy-Phaced Petrol Pimp is in a desperate dilemma; he's trying to frantically hold onto the conquered territory in Ukraine, hoping/praying/sacrificing to the Dark Gods <delete where applicable> that something - anything! - turns up.  Whilst he does so, the Ruffian economy gets ever-worse.  Art!

     Remember this?  As of September 2023, and the flight crew did very well in managing a landing in an open field.  Rumours were present shortly after this that it would be the crew who got blamed for the aircraft's landing gear problems, because this is Ruffia and the authorities cannot admit failure or being wrong.  Art!

     Don't mock the Ruffians with enough taste and discernment to follow BOOJUM! because reading this stuff will probably earn you a visit from the FSB, or it would if they could 1) Read English and 2) Make sense of the blog.  There was an old joke about the KGB and why they went around in threes: one could read, one could write and the third was there to keep eyes on two such dangerous characters.  Art!

     I think this is a glitch in the algorithm.   Surely we can't be that popular in Suomi?  Hmmmm perhaps it's all the exiled Ruffians who are now free to r

     ANYWAY Art!

     Yes, it's the same plane.  It's not been possible to retrieve or salvage it, so the practical locals have put up a fence, established a shed for a guard - and a portaloo too, which is distinctly hi-tec for the Siberian taiga - and there it sits, two and a half months later.  Quite how you'd recover an aircraft like this is open to question and must constitute another Intro for another day.

     Forsooth, let us continue with the parlous state of Ruffian aviation.  It has recently been let slip by their Minister For Aviation that, upon commencement of the Special Idiotic Operation, 76 Ruffian aircraft were caught on the ground in the West (and Japan and Australia and New Zealand) and promptly seized.  Art!

     That's matey right there.  Stay away from windows and avoid drinking tea, is my advice.  He also sounded hurt when describing how the Ruffian aircraft were seized, probably needing to dab his eyes with a hanky.  This, after the Ruffians 'seized' over 800 Western aircraft.

     It gets worse.  

     'Newsweek' compiled a report in August that indicated over 20% of Ruffian aircraft and helicopter losses in Ukraine had been 'friendly fire' incidents, to which can be added another two Su-35s shot down by the Ruffians in September and November.  Art!

     This is the Ka-52 'Alligator', now an endangered species after over half the fleet has been shot down or destroyed on the tarmac.  Moscow is now grovelling to other nations that purchased these, asking for any spare engines they may happen to have lying around, please?  Yeah, don't expect them to sell you anything for rubles, pal.

     It continues to get worse.  Art!

Budanov is amused

     There is a bi-annual air exhibition held in Dubai, known as the - you may be ahead of me here - "Dubai Air Show".  It does what it says on the tin.  All sorts of companies are present, exhibiting their aircraft, engines, missiles, radars, stealth capabilities, the whole gamut.  Amongst the Ruffian companies were Rostec, United Aircraft Corporation and Almaz-Anty (they make the S-300 and S-400 that can't intercept HIMARS).  Art!

     One Ruffian official who only spoke when guaranteed anonymity, because windows are dangerous, claimed that they'd been sited well outside the main pavilion.  Boo hoo, Crimea river.  That supposed drone above it also a living lie - if the Ruffians could make their own drones, why have they bought thousands of Iranian ones?

     For all the Ruffian bloviating and boasting, they left without a single order being placed.  To rub salt and lemon and hydrazine gel into the gaping wound, Boeing left with 295 orders.

     This is actually more serious than it seems, because Ruffia needs - not wants, needs - foreign investment to be able to fund serial production of new hot ticket items; the T-14 Armata and Su-57 have only been made in prototype production numbers because nobody else wants to buy them.  Art!

Budanov is even more amused

     Big K (or Konstantin) who runs the vlog "Inside Russia" seriously advised Ruffians NOT to travel by air.  It's just not safe.  He and Conrad both dolefully predict a major Ruffian air disaster in the near future.

You WHAT?

Conrad read a headline on the Bing feed and his eyebrows rocketed upwards at Mach 25.  I'll copy over the image and title.  Or Art will, if he can stop mooning over Angie.  ART!

     "The Irish News" caught my eye.  That sounds like a republican paper based in Eire - wait, what?  Thousands of PRO-MONARCHY protesters rioting about getting the British royal family back into their republic?  What what what?

     Pausing only to neck a quick couple of gins, I followed the article and read on -

     Ah.  This is an item about Nepal, not Dublin.  I did wonder, as it's about a century ago that the 26 counties got independence from Great Britain, and a protracted and bloody process it was, too.  Which is verging upon Politics.

Dog Buns!

Every so often a tune gets stuck in my head, only moving on when another one takes it's place or I go to town on my I-Pod and play 17 hours of prog rock (yes yes yes, that's about two-and-a-half songs from Yes).  Art!

     For no explicable reason, I now have the theme tune from the original series of "The Avengers" stuck in my head.  You know, the black and white ones with Honor Blackman as Kathy Gale - about as far as you could get from a simpering sidekick what with karate and guns.  You want your prototype Strong Independent Female?  Here she is! and a good fifty years ago.

      Which reminds me, I have a book about TA, purchased from a charity shop months ago and not yet perused.  That's this evening's reading sorted.

"City In The Sky"

Our favourite Gallifreyan has been morbidly poking around the ruins of Forrest, a small outback community destroyed in a 'bush fire' - allegedly.

     Finally, feeling that he’d spent enough time wool-gathering, he returned to the patient mare, finding a sugar cube deep in a jacket pocket and allowing her to mumble it out of his palm.  A faint sound, sounding suspciously like hoofbeats, came to him on the wind.

     ‘Time to be gone, I think,’ he whispered to the horse, mounting and trotting off quickly and quietly to the east, well away from the route he’d followed to Forrest.

     This new route guaranteed that anyone trying to follow him would have difficulty – the hard-baked ground left no hoofprints and shadows were lengthening and growing as dusk fell – but also meant it took him until late that night to reach New Eucla.  Any stalker would have given up and returned before he did.

     Mike and Alex were sitting at an outside table in front of what was both hostel and inn (where he and Billy had sat and chatted), the focus of attention for a small group.  “The Sanctuary”, proclaimed it’s sign.

     ‘There you are!’ said Mike, greatly relieved that the horse was back in good condition.  ‘Here, I’ll take her back to the couriers.’

     ‘Doctor, these people come from Bedford and Willingham and Barralonga,’ began Alex.  ‘Further up the coast towards Adelaide.’

   I concede that these places probably exist in the here and now - this author tends to get the background right.

Kitchen Kitsch

This one is less extreme than the Pancake Printer, I grant you.  Still pointless.  Art!

     Bah!  All one need do is dip your scoop in a cup of hot or boiling water, and Bob is your mother's or father's brother.  Plus, if it's homemade ice cream <drifts off into brief fantasy about ice cream> I SAID if it's homemade ice cream you use a couple of tablespoons of vodka in the mix and that stops it setting like concrete.  Trust me - I'm an enunciator.

     Which is where we came in.

Finally -

I've purchased the ingredients, now I need to test the old ice cream maker to see if the paddles still paddle and if the base will freeze overnight as it used to.  Wish me luck!