Hank Ellis

There's one on every crew.I'm now in charge of a crew of 17 with the official title of Lead Mechanic. Stuck in an office I don't get out like I want to see how the projects are going. I depend on two guys (2nd leads) with the authority and the stroke to keep the crew going in the right direction. They do the evaluations since they work with them and I don't. My philosophy is macro management. I won't mire you down with BS details. A line I use frequently, "On this crew you're given a bucket of rope. Whether you pull the wagon or hang yourself with it is your decision." A couple have gotten the noose made but we got them to untie it before it went too far. The Lead who groomed me for the job years ago put the position in simple terms. "The guys on the line know helicopters. My job is to know the people." Knowing their interests, their hobbies, what the crisis' of the moment that's going on with their lives. It has served me well. My supervisor put his position in this way. "You've seen those beer bottle production lines. You know, where those bottles are going down the line single file at fast rate." Yeah? "Remember the guy standing by that line with a stick and every so often taking the stick and nudging the one bottle that's out of line back in line." Yeah?? "That's my job. Overseeing the line and nudging a bottle back in line once in while. Only if the bottle is broken does it get removed from the line." That's part of the reason why I've been at the company 29 years. Everyone from the top of the management chain to the aircraft washing crew is part of the team and works to give the best product we can to our customers and pilots. Everyone has the authority, the stroke, and the bucket of rope to make it happen. Being a supervisor without authority is what I call a scapegoat position. You're charged to make it happen but don't have the authority to fix the problem. Things go wrong, you're the scapegoat. You've got a corporate culture issue that needs to be fixed.

Why if it is black and has lots of Velcro it immediately becomes 'tactical'? Seriously though, think about the gear required for a SHTF scenerio. When my house got flattened in Gustave I was reasonably prepared but there were some things I just didn't think of. -Water storage and preparation. The plastic gallon jugs work OK but I'm looking for something a bit better. Those plastic caps kept popping off and the durability of the container itself wasn't the best in the world. Probably lost 20% of my water due to container breakage. A look at water purification methods, systems, and equipment wouldn't be out of line. -Water heating. One of the most beautiful gifts was a hot shower after 5 days of mucking out the house. The cold shower just got the grunge off. A hot shower lifted my spirits to get back to the job at hand. Expand that a bit and go with the whole hygene thing. -Very short term housing. Electricity is out. Structure is compromised. Air is at 99.9% humity inside and outside. Sleep really didn't occur. The house became uninhabitable in 5 days when the mold settled in. No hotels around. Where to go? If I could come up with a tent with AC run by generator I'd make a mint. Any other options out there? -MREs, knives and multi-tools are obvious choices and you have that already covered. I had the MRE's covered. Knives and multi-tools I was weak on and still need to ramp up. -Gear specific to stucture collapse. Don't know what is out there but I got beat up just working around busted 2 by whatevers, chainsawing, siding, and roofing material. Protective clothing?

I'm leaving tomorrow for the procedure. Flying to Austin on Wednesday. Surgery on Thursday. One day followup on Friday. Be a tourist on Saturday. Return on Sunday. Five day followup on Tuesday. Leaving the laptop behind and will be out of contact till Monday. Will post my experience when I get back.

In my competition skydiving days our team won Intermediate 8-way at the Nationals one year. Back then there were two divisions Open and Intermediate. Open was for the guys who jumped for a living and Intermediate was for the weekend Joe. Although the dives were pulled from the same pool the Intermediate teams did 3 or 4 points (formations) per dive and the Open teams did 4 or 5. This twist in the rules made it difficult to compare scores between the two divisions. So when we won, we really were champions for that division since the two divisions didn't do the same skydives. But the National Champion was Arizona Airspeed, the winner in Open. In USPSA since everybody shoots the same stages on equal terms with the same equipment, class championships don't mean much. The only thing that matters is HOA of the division. Winning class is cool but if you do, quit sandbagging and move up. National Champion of C class. Give me a break. At the only Area match I've ever attended I took 3rd C in L-10. There were no D class shooters. Problem was is that there were only 3 C class shooters. Nobody shot worse than me. Figure it out yet? I placed dead last in the division and still took home a 3rd C L-10 plaque. Means absolutely nothing to me. I don't play the Special Olympics 'get a trophy because you showed up' thing. Been turned off from trying another Area match since. After a match I tell those outside of the sport "I placed x out of XX shooters. xth in class."

You got it.There will be minor variances from drop to drop. Depends on make/model of powder, type of powder measure, phase of the moon, etc. To even out these drops and get a more accurate reading of what the powder measure setting is, you drop 10 charges, weigh that and divide by 10. For example you want a 3.2gr charge. Drop one, pour it in the pan. Drop another, pour it in the pan. Continue till you have 10 charges and weigh that. Say the scale reads 32.8gr. Divide by 10 and it's 3.28gr. A bit heavy for the 3.2 target. Tweak the powder measure a bit and try again. Second time around is 32.2gr. Good to go in my book. +- 0.2gr is my personal tolerance. Whenever I make a powder measure change I drop 3 charges and dump that back in the hopper. I find that the first couple of drops can be off a bit after a measure adjustment.

If you go to Atlanta Skydiving Center say Hi to Fast Eddie Grantland from Chris and Hank. Fast Eddie is an AFF and Tandem instructor of the first order. He was the tandemmaster on all of my wifes skydives.On another subject. Saw Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival last weekend. They played a Duke Ellington composition commissioned by George Wein, one of the founders of Jazz Fest 40 years ago. If you have a love for jazz, you didn't have a dry eye. Gotta to to Lincoln Center and see them again before I kick the bucket.

Dropped this one for a while. Picked it back up and dropped it again. Didn't care for the content and the direction it was going.Picked up The Urban Shooter. Ken Blanchard's monologues will get you thinking.

I see that photo and all I can think of is sauce piquant. FYI: Bounce a rock off a gators head and it makes a hollow sound.

And where can I buy the t-shirt?

There is one single stack mag brush out there that I've tried. Didn't like it. Went back to my old standby. Mechanics red shop rag, one each. 12" ty-rap, one each. Cut small slit in corner of shop rag. Thread ty-rap through slit. Insert ty-rap though bottom of mag, pull out through the top. One pass and it's as clean as it needs to be.

Not to stir the pot but here is what the recent rulings have affected me. My XD-40 Production gun is now illegal. I ran a XD-40 and had the slide lightened to 9mm slide weight so that it would run 40minor loads. In my interpetation the slide milling was for reliability which was legal at the time. The rulings clearly state that such internal slide milling is now illegal. So I called my gunsmith and had a new XD-9 that is legal shipped. Am I upset and/or PO'd that these rulings made my old gun illegal? Not in the least. I knew when the XD-40 was built that I was taking the rules as far they could be interpeted. There was a risk that something somewhere down the line would make it illegal. I knew it, I accepted it. The upside is that I now have a kickbutt L-10 gun ready for service. Just got to work up some 40major loads and stick a stiffer recoil spring in. The new legal XD-9 is in the safe ready to be broken in and hopefully a couple days later to go to a match. Personally I'm glad these rulings came out even though it cost me a bit of money. It cleared up some of the gray areas. Thanks for the hard work.

Being a non-profit community supported radio station, wwoz has a annual fund raiser. Be kind and send them a few bucks. It's tax deductable also. Search Wikipedia for the stations history and comeback after Katrina.

+1The other is http://www.710keel.com/. It's an AM talk radio station that I use for only one thing. To listen to Tom Greshams Gun Talk on Sundays if nothing else is going on. 90% of the time I miss it and have to listen to it later via Podcast.

Our old mower was a Troy-Bilt Pony from either Home Depot or Lowes. Four seasons on a half acre lot and the blade drive system was starting to give problems. Deck adjustment was not user friendly. There were other issues I wasn't happy with on the maintenance side. Since the wife unit does the mowing she wasn't happy with how it handled. Like Nik I swung a deal with the wife on yard work. It got totaled in hurricane Gustave. Wife test drove some of the neighbors mowers and fell in love with a John Deere L105. Passed that info to the contents adjuster and found out something interesting. The John Deere line at Lowes isn't made by John Deere. They are made by MTD. JD licenses the name to them. This was verified at the JD dealership when I picked up the mower. MTD also manufactures mowers under the brand names Cub Cadet, Troy-Bilt, Yard-Man, and Bolens.

None of the above. The technology that you're being offered is outdated.With todays Refractive Lens Exchange you can get both close and distant vision. I've got three guys at work who've had this procedure due to cataracts. None of them wear glasses at all. Not for reading. Not for distance. Nothing. All three of them say would do it again tomorrow with money out of their own pocket. All of them 20/20 or better distance and close. Go to http://www.dellvision.com/dlc-procedures.htm and scroll down to the bottom and read up on Refractive Lens Exchange. Doc Dell is my choice for Custom-ASA that I'm having done next month. For more information on my vision correction see http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...c=79290&hl=.

Went to Dell Laser Consultants March 30th for my screening and pre-op exams. The screening took just a few minutes. Big part was a laser scan of the cornea to find the shape you've got. From there it decides what treatment path to take. Then the pre-op exam with dilation drops. The health of my eyes are good. Just a beginning touch of cataracts which is normal for someone age 51. Otherwise nothing else. However my cornea shape is something else. I've got multiple issues. I'm nearsighted (myopic) which means the focal point is in front of the retina. Second is the astigmatism which is a misshapen cornea. I'm beyond the low order aberrations which means I have extra humps and bumps besides being misshapen. It's beyond what Phread at Lasik-R-Us can do. The procedure slated is Custom-ASA. ASA stands for Advanced Surface Ablation. This is the bladeless and flapless procedure. As explained to me, the first few cell layers of the cornea are removed with a chemical. Then the laser does its thing. Over that is a contact lens that stays in 5 to 7 days while the cornea regenerates new cells. The Custom part is in addition to the basic procedure. It maps out those extra humps and bumps and the laser takes those out. Advantages to ASA is that the risk of complication from the flap in negated. Disadvantages are that you need to basically take a week off. Night vision for that first week using the docs technical term 'sucks'. There will be discomfort for the first 48 hours. The results are not immediate till the new cells regrow. As the doc stated, "You won't get the WOW till about a week." End result with either ASA or Lasik will be the same. No shooting, skydiving, or scuba diving for two weeks. It's the same for all the procedures. Distance will be corrected from fingertips to infinity. So handgun sights and the target should be clear. Rifle shouldn't be a problem as the crosshairs are focused to infinity. Shotgun really won't be a problem as the beads are far enough out there. The doc stated that after the procedure I should see the birds and all other moving targets better as reported by other shooters who've had it done. Warn fuzzy stuff. Dr. Dell himself does all the procedures. He doesn't farm it out like some bulk clinics. On out of town clients he won't do any procedure on you unless someone he trusts can do the follow-ups. There was a lot of questions as to my activities and the procedure selected is based somewhat on that. ASA is approved for HALO jumpers, fighter pilots, and Special Forces. My surgery is scheduled for mid-May.

More rimfire firearms have been damaged by over cleaning than under cleaning. Ding the crown and it's over with. My barrel cleaning procedure is from the rimfire benchrest crowd. Get a piece of weedeater line. Cut one end at a sharp angle. Take a lighter and melt the other to a ball. Thread a soaked patch from the sharp end to the ball. Insert the sharp end in the breech and feed till it comes out of the muzzle. Pull the patch through. Follow with 2 runs of dry patches. Take any old rag and wipe out the breechface and boltface. Done. Play around with the ball size till you get a snug fit with a dry patch. Standard velocity ammo running about 1080 fps tends to give better accuracy than higher velocity ammo. The reason is that some high velocity ammo leaves the muzzle supersonic but slows down to subsonic prior to reaching the target. Going through that trans-sonic range can do wierd things to bullet trajectory. Stick with standard velocity and you take that variable out of the picture. Ammo running around 1000 fps can give problems in some semi-autos. There just isn't enough poop to push the bolt back all for way for it to cycle. In the 10/22 this can be fixed by sending your bolt to Randy at CPC. http://www.ct-precision.com/ He'll radius the rear edge of the bolt so nearly anything will cycle in your gun. In addition he headspaces the boltface, pin the firing pin, and prizm jeweled for $55 shipped. In between centerfire chrono runs I've been doing rimfire chrono runs. Go to http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99009. In the second post is what I have so far in the 10/22. Every rimfire is a law onto itself. The only way to find out what your gun likes is to buy a few boxes of everything you can get your hands on and try it at the bench. Go to www.rimfirecentral.com and you'll find guys (and gals) who swear by and swear at every make and model of ammo out there. Myself included. For a rimfire scope you can't go wrong with a Mueller APV. http://www.muelleroptics.com/products/MAPV451440.html $130 list. $115 shipped from www.mizzoumuleguns.com.

+1I keep a 5 gallon bucket near the bench for all the scrap brass. Cracked and mangled cases. Spent primers. .22LR brass. Off the wall stuff I don't reload and won't ever have enough to ever sell. When it gets full it's off to the scrap metal place for sale.

Ran into that last year. There's a meet I went to last year that had you empty out the safe. One stage each of rimfire handgun, rimfire rifle, centerfire handgun, centerfire rifle, sporting shotgun, combat shotgun, machine gun, and parachute accuracy. One of my buds showed up. No guns. No ammo. Doesn't own a gun. Has maybe shot 300 rounds in his life. Borrowing my stuff he started smoking the competition. When it came to the centerfire rifle stage he borrowed my AR. He had never picked up an AR much less shot one. Took him off to the side, showed him the controls, drew pictures of where to put the sights for 100, 200, and 300 yards, and turned him loose. Took 4th overall on that stage beating some seasoned NRA High Power shooters and trained military shooters. On the combat shotgun stage he smoked me like a cheap cigar. I ended up 4th overall at the end of the competition and he was a very close 5th. Dude could go somewhere with his talent if he wanted to. But he doesn't. I was on a business road trip a while back and brought my rig to squeeze in a bit of practice. Found an indoor range, geared up, and started a drill of draw, two shots, reload, two shots. Doing my thing, minding my business. Turned around to get another box of ammo and there were 3 people just standing there. Watching. They'd never seen anybody shoot and reload that fast. Had a hard time convincing them I'm just a crappy middle C shooter. Nothing special. Overall anyone that competes in any game whether it's USPSA, IDPA, ATA, SASS, or any other other shooting sport is a cut above those that don't compete.

Sounds like Federal Champion 745. Fed has only one 36gr bullet in their rimfire lineup so this must be it. Advertised Velocity: 1260 fps Chrono Velocity: 1233 (10/22 with A&B 16" barrel) ES: 38.0 SD: 11.4 Accuracy from a technical point of view, sucked, but they were better performers than XPert 22. Average 5 shot groups at 50' with the 10/22 was 0.292". Did go bang every time however. For what you're using them for they will do the job. Buy a case.

FWIW: Talked to Gamiel Shooting Supply Thursday. Besides USPSA, my first love, I shoot ATA Trap. I had ordered 875 pounds of lead shot, plus the incendiaries to feed the shotgun. While I was at it added on small pistol, small and large rifle primers and powder to fill out my centerfire needs. Make an order like this and Gamiel will pick up the shipping and HazMat. Only negatives are that the order will take a few weeks till the 18-wheeler comes by that direction again and they really prefer to drop at a business. Finished up the shipping details and asked one question, "How are we standing on primers? " For now, shotshell is OK but they are moving out the door in a hurry. Could be an issue a few months down the road. Centerfire rifle and pistol isn't looking good. The gentleman stated that he calls his suppliers daily and asks the status of his orders. His suppliers are giving him a non-answer. In other words they don't have a clue as to when they will get it so Gamiel doesn't know when they will get it. The gentleman at Gamiel thinks it will be mid-summer till things settle out. Some powders are going to be back ordered. One I remember was Varget. There was another but I don't remember what it was. Placed the order a month ago. I figured in that time at least some centerfire primers will show up. Nope. Not a one. In addition some of the powder is back ordered.

Here's another supplier I forgot about. Shooters Catalog They are a subset of Champion Shooters selling more mainstream ammo. They are showing Blazer at $164 a case and American Eagle at $158 a case. They also have XPerts at $22.99 / 500. Another option at Champion Shooters is Eley Sport in the purple box with a star at the right side. It's Eley primed made by Aguila. Basically Aguila ammo with a Eley headstamp. It's been discontinued. $2.50 a box. They may give you a case break to move it out of inventory. Rimfire has gone up 50% over the last two or three years. What I used to pay $1.10 a box is now $1.75 a box. Mid range Eley used to be $4 a box and is now $6 a box. The run on ammo is affecting the rimfire side also. On one rimfire forum I frequent there are posts after posts of people looking for bulk boxes. I'm also seeing more posts of people boasting that they saw 10 bricks of Belchfire .22 on the shelf at Wally World and they bought it all.

You sir need to buy .22LR by the case. And Wally World isn't the best game in town. Not the greatest prices and spotty availability. My rimfire suppliers. Champion Shooters Supply. THE place to go if you are looking for top shelf target rimfire. Graf&Sons.Carries a pretty decent selection of mainstream rimfire. They are showing CCI Blazer at $1.99 a box of 50 and in stock. Be worth a phone call for case price. If you can find .22LR at less than $2 a box. Buy it. Rimfire went up drastically Jan 01. Oh, and do yourself and favor stay away from Remington rimfire. The quality control isn't there. Another brand worth looking at is Aguila. Made in Mexico. Inexpensive and works pretty darn good. Oh, and the CMP is definitely an option. The case lots they sell there ... Aguila.

Another observation of mine. Those that have been shooters for a while, but used only factory ammo, are now buying reloading equipment. The number of posts in the reloading sections of a couple other forums I frequent has exploded. 80% of those are newbie basic questions. Including some scary ones like "Can I use small pistol primers in .223? I can't find small rifle primers."Cost containment is an issue that each shooter has to figure out for themselves. There is no one answer. The new gun owner is still figuring out the basics and reloading isn't on the map yet. When (not if) he gets hooked on the sport he will see as most of do that reloading is a necessary part of the sport. USPSA being the ammo intensive sport it is lends itself to the reloading hobby. Shooting is still an inexpensive sport compared to many others. For $1000 you can get a Tupperware 9mm, holster, mag pouches, a couple extra mags, 3 boxes of Blazer and be ready to compete in Production. Next month to compete it's another 3 boxes of Blazer plus $20 entry fees. Under $75. Step it up and practice once in between matches and another 3 boxes of Blazer is under $50. Dirt cheap compare to other pursuits.

Links to procedures for shipping small arms ammunition. BrianEnos.com The post or the whole thread. RimfireCentral.com The post. XDTalk.com The post or the whole thread. This really ought to be a sticky somewhere. Again.