we had a horse that got struck by lightening and died. ironically his name was blaze
NTL......is one's home insurance cheaper/discounted if they have a lightning arrestor/protection system? I recall only installing one as an apprentice when we lived in Bossier City, La.
Flying over Afghanistan at night in the late summer months there would be a storm system parked over Mount Sikaram near J-bad close to the Pak border. It's a weird localized phenomenon. On the flight back from Texas the other night I recalled the memories of loitering near Mount Sikram. It's interesting enough, the constant stream of electricity that some of these storms would unleash, and all in one spot for hours on end, but what really made it interesting was watching it with the NVGs. It was like watching the apocalyse, can't describe it any better. The NVGs would pick up everything, it was like watching a scene from a movie where the heavens and earth are about to annihilate each other. Hell of a memory.
During survival training north of Woodland Park, CO, in the summer of 94 we often got hit by the late afternoon front range thunderstorms. One storm in particular came on us so suddenly it made us fear for our safety. There was no cover, and we were at a fairly high and flat elevation. Trees around. It was suddenly like some giant with a lake-sized bucket just tipped it on us, instant cloud-made waterfall. Then the bolts started down, it had to be how people feel when an A-10 knows your position and starts laying down fire closer and closer, shit you not, it was like the storm had our position. There were several strikes in the span of about 10 minutes, all nearby, but the closest one I'll never forget. It was 30 feet away, something like that, so bright it registered more subconsciously than anything, and you could hear the click of strike before you could hear the thunder. That's a real thing, something related to the photoelectric effect in physics. The huge mass of photons make a sound if you are close enough, it travels faster than sound (at speed of light lol).
Then there was another time flying back into Denver on a commercial flight as a passenger, the story of that journey itself a story--it was a 36 hour son of a bitch back from Beirut into a wild white-out that shut down the airport, we were the final flight to be permitted to land after circling for 45 minutes. The first landing attempt was aborted due to winds and visibility on the runway. You couldn't see any lightning because we were flying in the middle of zero-vis snowstorm crap. I've never been alarmed about weather as a pilot while flying myself, but as a passenger this one had my pucker factor up. I know in theory that commercial airplanes are designed for this stuff, but man it was just wicked. And you knew the situation was abnormal because the pilot had already mentioned a strong possibility of diverting if the next approach didn't work out. So anyway on the 2d attempt we are coming in to land, and the whole cabin just explodes with light, it's like the air became glowy, and it was accompanied by munitions-explosion like boomy-pop sound. A minute later another one, but not quite as severe. My wife is looking at me to tell her it's all good, and I'm like, yeah, of course, but I'm thinking 'jesus I hope it is.' We were all pretty happy land, and as I deplaned I asked the pilot about it, but he brushed it off like nothing unusual had happened. I ended up with the copilot on the train back to the terminal and got to talking with him about it, and he admitted it was pretty intense.
Originally Posted by Sting
You know what else I liked watching through nvgs?
People without nvgs...
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