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Another multi fatality accident

Beats that information plaque on the top of the Canadian Rockies (Golden, is it?) explaining railroad life before the double loop incline. .

On our trip to Alaska we saw a spiral train tunnel somewhere in western Canada.

1988 Alaska_0080 - Copy.jpg
 
That is Canadian Pacific Railway's Spiral Tunnel, in Kicking Horse Pass, just east of Field B.C., and built in 1909. It was designed to get through the "Big Hill", the steepest section of terrain under the trans national railroad.
 
That is Canadian Pacific Railway's Spiral Tunnel, in Kicking Horse Pass, just east of Field B.C., and built in 1909. It was designed to get through the "Big Hill", the steepest section of terrain under the trans national railroad.

Thanks, I had my picture in the wrong file. We saw the tunnel on a trip to the Northwest in 1983.
 
Unpopular opinion

So I’m a full time yacht captain and a hobbyist pilot as well. One of the mantras of flying is aviate, navigate, communicate. In that order! When I’m piloting a ship it’s very common to be looking around, at navigation screens, telemetry and communicating on the radio. I have no problem with technology interfacing with operating a car, bike, plane, boat or otherwise. I do have a problem when amateurs attempt it and endanger others. The pilot of your commercial flight is using both hands his feet and communicating the whole time during critical phases of flight and the probability of failure on a commercial flight is near zero. People need to know their limitations and operate within them wether it’s in a car on a bike or any other task they undertake. Hobbyist motorcyclists shouldn’t attempt what Valentino does not should they.
 
So I’m a full time yacht captain and a hobbyist pilot as well. One of the mantras of flying is aviate, navigate, communicate. In that order! When I’m piloting a ship it’s very common to be looking around, at navigation screens, telemetry and communicating on the radio. I have no problem with technology interfacing with operating a car, bike, plane, boat or otherwise. I do have a problem when amateurs attempt it and endanger others. The pilot of your commercial flight is using both hands his feet and communicating the whole time during critical phases of flight and the probability of failure on a commercial flight is near zero. People need to know their limitations and operate within them wether it’s in a car on a bike or any other task they undertake. Hobbyist motorcyclists shouldn’t attempt what Valentino does not should they.

This is a good point and brings up the thought that not one thing they teach you when learning to fly a civilian aircraft is related to close quarters formation flying. The only people trained to ride motorcycles in formation are leo's.

I raced sailboats for decades and had 100's of starts where especially in high winds with 20K pound boats, the rig loads, boat speed and kinetic energy were not trivial. With 20 of these boats jostling for position, the situational awareness, constant scenario analysis, and decisive action abilities are absolutely required to execute a start, let alone win one or start in the top 5. Boats get damaged and people injured when failures in those areas occur. The number of hours I had starting smaller boats in competitive fleets where high before I was able and allowed to be a tactician and direct a start in a big boat, let alone steer it. You would never put a novice on the helm where other boats are nearby in any circumstances.

Its a very poor combination to have a bunch of people with limited experience riding (relative descriptor here) also attempting to safely ride in close quarters.

Regardless of my friend's belief that good riders can safely ride in tandem (he's an ex leo and long time moto support rider for bicycle races and tours), I strongly believe that it cannot be as safe as riding alone or in urban settings, loosely together but ensuring stops and traffic lights are launched together side by side which is the way I ride.
 
But, in a no helmet law (those 18yrs and older) state, what would you expect? Proudly protecting the "Right of Stupidity" is something we choose to do in the early '00s, probably to make the York, PA assembly plant more attractive to HD. You see, with every round of union contract negotiations, HD played the game of shopping for the best incentive deal to play production sites against one another. Eliminating the helmet law allowed PA to say......make the York, PA production site and museum a destination for all the HD crowd.

Yeah, crazy isn't it?

I grew up in Pittsburgh and we always had a helmet law as far back as I can remember but Maryland didn't have a helmet law. Then it completely switched - Maryland said yes to helmets and PA said........"Whatever....".

I lived in Ocean City, MD between college semesters (Soph-Junior) and the ONLY time I rode without a helmet was there. Once. Rode back to my apt. from the high pressure car wash. I got a ticket for wearing the incorrect sunglasses!!

I live in York now; the Harley Plant is a mile or two from my driveway. Needless to say but... I am the minority here.
 
Yeah, crazy isn't it?

I grew up in Pittsburgh and we always had a helmet law as far back as I can remember but Maryland didn't have a helmet law. Then it completely switched - Maryland said yes to helmets and PA said........"Whatever....".

I lived in Ocean City, MD between college semesters (Soph-Junior) and the ONLY time I rode without a helmet was there. Once. Rode back to my apt. from the high pressure car wash. I got a ticket for wearing the incorrect sunglasses!!

I live in York now; the Harley Plant is a mile or two from my driveway. Needless to say but... I am the minority here.

My first job out of school was over on East Berlin Rd. I rented garage space down on Grantley Ave., behind York / Borg-Warner and a few blocks from a few small snack food manufacturers that produced the store-brand and generic stuff.

When I lived there, HD opened the York Museum and Caterpiller closed the assembly plant across the street. it wasn't a pretty time to be in York.
 
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