Another old pilot joke...

Three old, old pilots are walking together on the flightline.  


"Sure is windy today" says the first.


"Naw, its Thursday" says the second.  


"Me too, let's go get a beer" says the third.  

The Bell 525 Debuts...

In a overblown theatrical production much like... a lot of other Bell helicopter product intros, Bell recently rolled out the mock up of their new "super-medium" class helicopter, the Bell 525 Relentless.  


Looking something like a cross between an AW139, 214ST, and a stretch S-76, the most shocking thing is that Bell appears to have gone with a clean sheet design, no small step for a company that seemingly begins designing new helicopters with old blueprints and erasers.  


16 seats!  18K Max Gross!  140 knots!  Five blades!  Fly-by-wire controls!  Garmin G5000 Avionics!  A big baggage compartment!  First flight still a couple years off... I hope many of these features survive to production.  


I am excited to see Bell moving forward with a new design, and I hope that they can move this project forward soon and build into it the hell-and-back reliability and unmatched product support that made Bell great in the first place.  


Still I remember the Bell 417, rapid and frequent Bell CEO changes, and other projects that just didn't make it, but I am still hopeful.  Maybe they learned a lot from their involvement in the AW139 (once the Agusta-BELL 139) and don't want to lose that segment of the market.  


Good luck to you, Bell.  Stay on schedule, and for heavens sake lose that ugly paint job on the prototype!  

Your Obamacare Minute, Part 2

I know you are asking by now... what does Obamacare do for the Indians, anyway?  Well, there's a section for that...


Page 1698, under 


Division D - Indian Health Care Improvement
Title 1 - Amendments to Indian Laws
Title 1 - Indian Health, Human Resources, and Development
Sec. 115 Quentin N. Burdick American Indians Into Nursing Program


Which states, in part...

 (a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED. — For the purpose of increasing the number of nurses, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners who deliver health care services to Indians, the Secretary, acting through the Service, shall provide grants to the following:

  (1) Public or private schools of nursing.

  (2) Tribal colleges or universities.

  (3) Nurse midwife programs and advanced practice nurse programs that are provided by any tribal college or university accredited nursing program, or in the absence of such, any other public or private institutions.

John Conyers was right, its way too hard to read this bill.