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.

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.

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.

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.