RV-7A

My flying buddy and I bought an engine for the RV-7A we are building and it arrived yesterday. Here are some pictures:

 And here are the almost completed wings:

 

Common Core and Other Fantasies

I used to believe that curriculum was an objective thing. I assumed that smart people got together and concretely put together a list of things that one should learn to be educated.

I could not have been more wrong. For example, Gary North enlightened me as to the genesis of a four year college education:

In the twelfth century, the University of Paris developed a four-year undergraduate curriculum, and nothing since then has shaken that decision. There is no particular technical reason today for a four-year curriculum, but it has always been the worldwide standard for undergraduate education. Similarly, the basic structure of the university's pedagogy has not changed. Professors still lecture to students, still grade examinations, and still exercise almost total autonomy within the classroom.

Common Core, now fashionable in the US because of the federales in DC, is also purely an invention. The educrats in those 10 square miles on the Potomac do not and cannot know what your child should learn. Most likely, Common Core will teach kids the proclivities of the educrats themselves, or other damaging baloney.

My beef with public schools is not a beef with education, but with who controls education. Schooling can never be neutral. What is taught is engineered to the desires of those paying the bills. He who pays the piper picks the tune.

As the US and world slip into another recession (or an extension of the 2008 recession), we desperately need more entrepreneurs and creative people, two things most definitely not taught in public schools and more likely stamped out by public schools.

Each child's parents are in a far better place to develop a curriculum individualized for that child than any educrat.

Maybe the mother of a modern Moses or another Newton will read my blog and become convinced that she will direct the learning of her child and not defer to a system that doesn't have the best interests of that kid in mind. She doesn't need to be a genius or even formally educated. She just needs to be tenacious, like most mothers are.

What is the alternative to public schools? There are a billion alternatives, each one tailored to the individual needs of a child by the parents. Homeschooling, online schooling, apprenticeships, self directed learning, infinite combinations of each and so many more that haven't even been thought of yet.

Catch the vision.

 

More on The Donald

It is always instructive see who the "independent" candidates for POTUS "select" for their advisers.

The Donald announced last week that he would name Richard Haas as his foreign policy adviser.

Haass is the epitome of the establishment as president of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2003.

Watch carefully, my fellow Americans. This the famous bait and switch right before your eyes.

Mitt Romney and The Donald

Mitt Romney has been hating on The Donald. Some of you may not have had the chance to read his comments, so I will summarize for your convenience

Mitt would rather Hillary become POTUS than have The Donald.

Maybe he is hoping to throw the Republican convention and get the nomination himself? Anything as long as The Donald is not the GOP's choice. His machinations will likely mean Hillary will become the next president.

That will be fine by me, since she will hopefully get 4 full years of grinding recession blamed on her and the Democrats. Then, maybe the great default will be here and the feddle gummint will have shrunk mightily.

One can daydream.

US National Politics in One Picture

Envision The New Box Elder County

Government types are always making grandiose plans for the future. I guess that is why they succeed sometimes. They plan and make goals and work to achieve them.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are just able to get by day to day. That needs to change, so here is my proposal for the New Box Elder County.

The current  Box Elder County runs from east of Mantua all the way to Nevada! It is a huge county that is filled with a lot of worthless, salt encrusted, sage brush and rocks.  It is too big. While all of the population is concentrated from Tremonton to Willard.

My purpose in proposing this is to decentralize the county and make government move closer to those it is supposed to represent. 

When (not if) the checks from Washington no longer come with regularity, or at all, (Remember the $19 trillion federal debt?) that will be a good chance to recoup our liberties that have been vacuumed up by DC.

In that spirit, I propose the following realignment of the county lines:

This way, people in Park Valley will not be paying taxes for the court house in Brigham City, the sheriff, county fairgrounds, etc. And folks in Brigham won't have to see their taxes support deputies patrolling the lonely wasteland between Snowville and Lucin and getting into mischief.

Folks in Park Valley can build a 10,000 square foot marble courthouse if they wish, or they can convene in a tough shed. More and smaller counties mean more representative government, less likely to run amok because they are being observed 24/7 by the neighbors.

Oh, and did I mention my plans for Box Elder School District? Dissolution. The concomitant loss of faith in the promises of Washington when the checks no longer come, will open parents' eyes to the biggest cheerleaders of Washington's follies - public schools.

What will take it's place? - ten thousand private and home schools, individually meeting the education needs of children, as directed by their parents, as it should be.

That's my vision.

Alternatives to Alternative Aircraft Engines

My buddy and I are building a RV-7A that I hope one day will look like this:

The typical engine for this amateur built aircraft is the Lycoming O-320, a certificated aircraft engine that dates back many decades.

It is a good, reliable, proven aircraft engine that powers many fine RVs.  Did I mention that it costs $30,000 new?

I have spent a good portion of my life trying to find an alternative to this engine in order to lessen the sticker shock.

This is what I have found after looking hard for many, many years:

Get a buddy to split the cost with you and all of the sudden the price is $15,000 - half! Find another buddy and whamo, the cost is $10,000. Three buddies and the cost is $7,500.

Are you starting to get the point?  The cost goes down dramatically but the reliability, durability, and suitability don't change at all.

This should have been obvious to me many, many years ago, but I guess I was blinded by my fascination with engines of all types and thought automotive engines could be a cheap source of airplane power. Turns out they aren't once to do all that is physically necessary to make an automotive engine work in an aircraft.

Learn from my experience and don't spend time trying to re-engineer an O-320. Find a flying buddy instead!