Geek Habitat

My service experience at Jordan Ford in San Antonio this morning was absolutely terrific. I couldn’t be more pleased with their service department and staff, and I am so very glad to be able to finish piling the dirt atop the coffin that is the-dealership-that-must-not-be-named (ahem).

In the interest of saving my sore wrists, I’ll simply repost here the message I sent this evening to Jordan Ford’s service department to convey my appreciation for their professional, pain-free approach to customer service:

Last night, shortly after leaving my parents’ house, my trusty steed (2006 Ford Escape Hybrid) beeped at me and a bright orange flat tire icon lit up on my dashboard. I dutifully pulled over at the elementary school nearby, under the bright parking lot lights, and kicked/checked all four tires — no visible issues and not visibly low. I pulled the owner’s manual and read about the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) my vehicle has, and learned that the system triggers around 6 or so PSI below Ford’s recommended inflation for the ’06 Ford Escape Hybrid (35 PSI). Since I run all four tires at 40 PSI, but hadn’t checked them in about a month (at which point they normally only drop 2 PSI), I knew at least one of my tires must have a leak, but I continued on home — carefully, and thanks to cool weather, with the windows down in case I heard anything odd from my tires.

I made a mental note to check my tire pressures in the morning, but I didn’t get that far. When I walked out into the garage this morning to bring our trashcans in, there’s a big fat flat tire staring me in the face. My right rear tire had dropped all the way to 3.5 PSI. Ouch!

After far too much time and drama, I located the cause of the flat — a broad-headed nail lodged in the center of my tread. So much for limping my vehicle through the 14-mile trip to Jordan Ford, where we purchased the vehicle and where I can actually trust the staff (as opposed to the dealership-that-must-not-be-named, who royally screwed us, repeatedly and gleefully.) I’ve never actually changed a tire, and given my seemingly endless bad karma lately when it comes to anything with wheels (that includes my bicycle, which I got 3 flats on in as many weeks just after we bought it!), I’ve enlisted the help of my dad to put on the damnable donut spare.

Let’s take stock, shall we?

• 4 days post-purchase: rock strike results in windshield crack at driver’s eye level {Repaired}
• In the “dumb luck” department, I accidentally break off my own radio antenna while attempting to remove it, causing me to deal with the dealership-that-must-not-be-named (at least not in this post) for a month before I give up because I don’t need louses like that in my life on a weekly basis. {Repaired, but with free body damage from aforementioned louses}
• 200 miles shy of my first scheduled service, for a tire rotation no less, I get a flat thanks to San Antonio’s endless construction.

Ah, hell, at least I’m getting terrific gas mileage and enjoying every moment on the road! That is, aside from the complete morons on the roadway, and the fact that I definitely am investing in a higher decibel horn because the stock one doesn’t even turn heads… not that a person oblivious to all rules and flow of traffic will notice a horn honking at them, of course, but still…)

For posterity’s sake, here are photos of the nail-in-tire experience. The tire’s inflated in the photos but is audibly losing air and dropping 5+ PSI every forty minutes or so, just sitting still.

And what I get to drive on tomorrow:

NASA’s sending Atlantis back to the launchpad in anticipation of a weakened Hurricane Ernesto whose winds will be within NASA limits for the Shuttle.

A new launch date is not yet scheduled.

If you want to talk about “monster machines”, NASA’s Crawler-Transporter is one big ‘un! It has been used to transport everything from Saturn V rockets (aka “moon rockets”) to the Space Shuttle mated to its “launch stack” (External Tank plus two Solid Rocket Boosters).

Here it is crawling the Shuttle and External Tank (at a maximum speed of 1 MPH) back to the Vehicle Assembly Building where she can, hopefully safely, weather the hurricane:

How long does the Crawler-Transporter take to move the Shuttle and its External Tank back to the Vehicle Assembly Building? About five to eight hours to travel the 3.5 to 4 miles from the launchpad to the building.

Don’t even ask what it’s gas mileage is!

The Cirrus SR22 aircraft Justin and I are fans of (ever since a demo flight) comes equipped with a parachute, and yes, it works. On the rare instances where I hear about a pilot getting into a spot where s/he needs to deploy said parachute, however, I wonder — would s/he have been flying at that time, if the knowledge of that “safety net” wasn’t there? Do they take risks that a pilot of, say, a Cessna Skyhawk 172 wouldn’t take because they feel “safer”? I’m not knocking the Cirrus and other safety-equipped aircraft (airbags installed for the pilot and passenger are optional equipment on some small aircraft models, including Cessna’s.) They’re terrific advancements in aviation safety, but pilots and crews still need to exercise good decision-making and superb airmanship skills.

Most aircraft accidents/crashes are the result of pilot and/or Air Traffic Controller error. People, not machines, are where the deficiencies begin. Even maintanenace issues that result in an unsafe, not airworthy aircraft, are the result of people in fact. Rarely, though it does occur, is it a design flaw or catastrophic but as of yet unknown issue with a particular type of airframe/aircraft.

Five people survived this crash, but the NTSB investigation will tell the tale — was this a crash that should have even happened? In my mind, the parachute is there for very rare emergencies, like a catastrophic bird strike or other mechanical issue that precludes the pilot ability to use altitude as his/her friend and glide to a safe landing strip.

Yes, the plane landed in a small pond, but you’ll see the pond is in a residential area. That parachute just happened to bring the aircraft down slowly and safely into the pond, rather than on top of high tension power lines or one of the many homes within a couple hundred yards’ of the shore.

“Safety first,” doesn’t mean counting on one’s parachute… even if the aircraft is absolutely capable of arresting forward momentum and bringing you safely and slowly down to terra firma again (wherever the wind blows you, that is.)

So, the Shuttle (STS-115) is either not launching until tomorrow (Tuesday, 3:41 p.m. EDT) or NASA’s going to opt to slowly roll (crawl) the Shuttle back into the protective Vehicle Assembly Building to weather approaching Hurricane Ernesto.

Sources: CNN & NASA

Addendum (11 AM CST):
NASA scrubs launch to prep Shuttle for safe-keeping prior to Hurricane Ernesto.