Dogsbody
The dreaded fluffball has been back in temporary residence at the
Baulkham Hill HQ (i.e. Linda (a.k.a. the owner) has been O/S).
Strange how the dogs in
this household (even loaners) develop great faith in the powers of psychokinetics
– particularly the ability to ‘will’ food to appear at the appropriate time:
·
Their concept of the appropriate time is
interesting. Dog-feeding time here is
17:30hrs (colloquially known as cattle dog feeding time: even though there is
no longer a cattle dog in the house) – I know that all the manuals say that the
dogs get fed AFTER the humans, but it never seems to have been a problem here:
even for the guard dogs (and these were dogs that I would send into premises to
check in response to an alarm).
Back to the appropriate time bit…
…despite have any number of clocks in the house (Herself
is a closet ‘clock fancier’) our dogs have a different internal clock (and NO:
it’s not desperate hunger as there is always a bowl of kibbles available). This internal canine body-clock seems to have
a 23 to 23½ hour cycle. Their body clock
for feeding time is ALWAYS running
fast.
·
About psychokinetics – all the dogs who
reside here have this belief that if they concentrate hard enough (i.e. stare
at the appropriate adult) food will be presented.
It don’t
work…
…sort
of…
…rumour has it that when I
am away Herself will weaken…
Use
of sight inserts and coloured ‘open’ sights
A recent enquiry about
sight inserts (Q&A>>)
started me reminiscing about this topic: over the years numerous shooters have tried
various combinations, but strangely the old standby (i.e. matt black) comes to
the fore.
The use of coloured sights
can be divided into two circumstances:
·
Those events conducted from covered firing
points (ISSF, BP, MS, and those Service ranges where the shooter remains at a
firing point and the targets are moved to the various distances)
For these events, while many shooters have tried coloured sights, it is fairly
obvious at any serious competition that matt black is used by the top shooters.
·
Those events conducted in the ‘open’ can be a
very different set of circumstances.
A coloured front sight can be an advantage for some shooters under some
conditions.
Back in the bad old days when I was A grade in Service
Pistol (OK; a l-o-n-g time ago) on a bright day black was best, but on heavily
overcast days I found that a reddish/orange front sight worked well for me.
The range of colours used
by shooters quickly made it obvious that it was a very personal matter as to
the colour used (or not, as the case may be).
Without being ‘colour blind’, colour discrimination for individual shooters
can vary enormously and with it the ‘best’ colour for the conditions.
I wonder how many of our top shooters are using colour for these events?
The use of sight inserts
(luminous and/or optical fibre inserts) would seem to have little application
to any of the PA events. These can have
a real advantage under very low light conditions, but we do not shoot the PA
events under those conditions! I ‘fess
up that I have tried them, but sight black cured the tendency to allow the eye
to focus on the rear sight.
On this topic, blackening
sights with a smoky flame* can have some interesting effects:
·
At least one European manufacturer used (for
a short period of time) a
plastic front sight blade – with camphor wax soot they would melt and with an
acetylene sight flame a few caught fire…
·
At least one US manufacturer used (for a short period of time) a plastic insert
in front sight blade – ditto.
·
Once (only once) I have seen a shooter put an
acetylene burner back in his gun box before it was properly extinguished
*For Black Powder, when using a smoky flame the
safety rules MUST be observed, i.e. not within 10 m of any black powder!
Information
required
Suggestions as to the best
methods to knobble a mate are requested – that !@# Les Spurrier beat me (by one
lousy point) in the Standard Pistol event at the recent MAC– this is a bloke
whose eyesight was so bad that he was not allowed to drive a car until
recently!
For some 40 years I have
shot a better 10 seconds than 20 seconds, and a better 20 seconds than the 150
seconds – at the end of the 20 seconds I was so far ahead that he had no
chance: and then!
I REALLY must work on my
10 seconds…
Airports
Watching the Comedy
Channel recently, as part of his patter a comedian claimed that all airports
are the same – i.e. busy: which started
me thinking…
For Australians (and
Kiwis?), we find ourselves in an odd situation – for the rest of the world,
almost everywhere else is a matter of less than six hours away and most transit
stops are in business hours – then there’s Oceania…
On leaving AUS (i.e. out
of bed at 03:30 and at the airport by 05:00) the airport is busy – but on the
way back…
There are a number of
airports with which I have a deep and meaningful relationship:
·
Auckland – typically I am flying back on
Sunday evenings – along with 200+ used car salesmen (and their families) per Jumbo
who have to be at work in Sydney on Monday morning and they all turn up to book
in at the same time, and all apparently have special need that is to be sorted
out at check-in – and that’s busy!
Auckland airport is the only place I have had my pocket picked!
·
Bangkok – typically, I am in transit through
Bangkok after midnight and it is not all that busy. If you have time, the hotel (with magnificent
coffee and bar snacks) across the overhead walkway is worth the departure tax
you will have to pay to get back in to the airport.
Les Spurrier and I got caught with the departure tax here some years ago – I HAD been used to the transit system at
Bangkok and was accustomed to just walking out (and back in) with no more than
metal screening (and that in comparatively recent times): then they introduced
a departure tax! At that time (1998) it
seemed that anybody could get into transit at Bangkok, provided you had a
departure tax docket (which explains a number of street vendors who had set up
in transit)
·
Djakarta – another excellent SE Asia transit
(with an outdoor area as part of transit) that usually is an after-midnight
experience with an almost deserted transit.
·
Frankfurt – either feast or famine for me. Frankfurt is one of those airports where I am
either running (and I MEAN running) to make a connection (ALWAYS in another
Terminal), or I have 4 – 6 hours layover
For the 4-6 hour layovers, this is invariably
in the early hours of the morning when everything in transit is CLOSED
Frankfurt was also my
first encounter with ‘sniffer’ machines – I ended up with a goodly quantity of
on-board luggage spread over most of the transit lounge when EVERYTHING in the bag tested positive
to nitrates (hint: do NOT use as
your carry-on bag the bag you throw your spent cases into for Service!)
Frankfurt is also the only
time I have had THREE scan/x-ray/sniffer checks to transfer between two
terminals; and this was for one of those ‘run to make the flight’ transfers
·
Guangzhou – not since 1990:
o
They were upgrading the transit lounge – ALL
the toilets had been removed!
o
1L of Glenfiddich cost US$10 duty free
·
Heathrow – I have spent more than my fair
share of hours in Heathrow (and I can personally guarantee that at 03:00hrs it
is not busy)
·
KL – another
excellent SE Asia transit (either during the busy times, or on those
after-midnight transits)
·
LAX – the earth moves! (LA will fall into the
Pacific Ocean, eventually)
Back in ’96 the Atlanta Olympics organisers gave us cards that worked in any
coke machine anywhere in the USA – on the way back an unnamed Australian distributed
the contents of two coke machines to the delight of everybody in the transit
lounge… (it was no good to me once I left USA)
LAX transit always seems
to be either a mad rush to get to the next airline terminal, or not quite
enough time to take a rubber-neck tour of LA.
·
Nouméa –
I would love to have found out. A flight
back from LAX could not land in Australia until the fog cleared (the east coast
was socked in) and we spent about 6 hours in the aircraft sitting at Nouméa airport while the French would not let anyone on the
aircraft into the transit lounge!
·
Santiago – the best I can suggest is look
helpless and go to the airline information desk (if you go to the airport info
desk… they will send you to the airline info desk)
At 03:00 everything except
the bar is closed.
·
Seoul – Macquarie Airports (i.e. Sydney KS), eat your heart out.
·
Singapore – another excellent SE Asia transit
·
Sydney KS – with
the artificial operating hours, Sydney international departures usually seems
busy, but I have been in the book-in area when the place is eerily
un-busy. Dropping off Don Stringer for
his trip back to NZ after a Nationals we went in to find the hall almost empty – all the early
morning planes had left and there was a bit of a lull before the mid-morning
rush: even the Air New Zealand counters were empty (this was in the days when
Air new Zealand operated alternate days and Dons’ plane had left the day before!)
Arriving at Sydney on a
05:00 flight (yes I know there is a 06:00 curfew) can be eerie: only the duty-free
shop is open and unless you go upstairs to the departure level the place seems
un-busy
·
Rio – interesting, like being back in the
1960s
·
Taipei (domestic) – that’s Herself’s story…
·
Vienna – this is an airport that has ashtrays
under the No Smoking signs (and anyway, I have ALWAYS received helpful,
friendly and totally cooperative help from anybody at Vienna transit).
My relationship with Vienna airport is generally pretty good: the only iffy
transit in Vienna was arriving from Heathrow without knowing if I had a seat to
Asia (or a following connection from Asia to Sydney)
Wanted
– access to an x-ray machine – still…
In the Sydney region – for
things shooting – does not have to be all that whiz-bang, but to produce
radiographs for free!
Boys
and their toys
About the new video camera
(one of last month’s items);
·
Love that anti-shake feature – Tom Meigan and
I both want this feature implanted in our respective shooting arms!
·
A 4gig card ONLY gives me 1000 photos in photograph mode
·
Them thar’ little 8cm
DVDs are double-sided (amazing what you find out when you read the instructions
booklet)
Rod Johnson has a new
digital SLR camera –and it works something fantastic!
Younger daughter gave me a
new mobile phone for Xmas. After
charging the battery I swapped the SIM card to the new phone – no connection:
·
Put the SIM card back in the old mobile – it
worked
·
Tried it in the new phone again – no success
·
Tried it in Herself’s
mobile – it worked
·
Tried Herself’s
SIM card in the new phone – IT
worked…
·
When the shops reopened after Christmas, got
a replacement SIM card – success!
The GSP .32 feels funny (i.e.
odd, not ha! ha!) with a >1000g
trigger. I have a mind-set that expects a
heavier trigger with CF – I wonder how long this effect will persist?
Regards
to all,
Spencer
010109