November 21, 2007

"Fat Albert" Is the Max

Tom Callahan of Pensacola, Florida knows his color wheel — and knows when to feature at a too-often-underappreciated subject, too.  "We love the Blue Angels," writes Tom, "but Fat Albert holds a special place in our hearts.  Like the character in the Bill Cosby cartoons, Fat Albert always save the day by doing the heavy lifting."

You said it, Tom.  And we'll say thanks by sending you one of those coveted AVweb hats you read about here from time to time.

Saving Landing Fees

From the "No ... Really?" file, Felix Gadow of Eichenau, Bavaria (Germany) told us this tale:

In Germany, there are always landing fees to be paid. Why not land on top of your truck ... [while it's being] driven down the 9,000-feet long runway?  This could save you money — at least as long as they don’t charge a fortune for the truck to use the runway as an "Autobahn." ...  It took us 23 attempts to find out how to deal with the turbulence created by the truck. Now, it works pretty well. Although, we’ll never try again to do this little stunt with a 15 knots crosswind.

Yikes!  Just in case any of you were thinking of taking this "advice" seriously — DON'T.  This is one of those "trained professionals; do not attempt" deals, O.K.?

We were going to say something very kind about this photo from Chris Bazeley of Blockley, Gloucestershire (U.K.) — but then we started talking about fuel prices and tank sizes, and — well, it's not your fault, Chris.  (We still like the photo!)

The internet has changed quite a bit since we first started sharing reader-submitted photos here on AVweb — and long-time readers know that we've loosened up a bit when it comes to allowing digitally-manipulated images into our contest.  Still, we do like to distinguish between images submitted "as they were shot" and those that feature obvious manipulations — and we encourage our readers to tell us as much about their photos as they can when they're submitted.

That said, we've got a handful of digitally-altered photos we've been dying to share for a while, and the Thanksgiving holiday seems like a great time to show you a couple.

Terese Barta of Stevens Point, Wisconsin tentatively wondered, "Do I need Gleim's permission?" — but we think the flattery and parody will be appreciated over there.  After all, if there really were a Private Pirate's license, would you risk the FAA Knowledge Test without a Gleim book?!

Arr!

Paul Sisul of Chicago, Illinois flies us out with a composite built from two photos he snapped at the Chicago Air & Water Show in 1995.  The funny thing here is that all Paul did was superimpose the geese — maybe they were imitating the Fabulous Thunderbirds?

Or wait — maybe we're imitating them, what with all this "flying" we've starting doing ... !