Funeral

[Dave Plowman (News]

You got proof of that? It is an old wife's tale that more men die of prostate cancer than from it - likely from when men didn't live as long as now. And it's a pretty unpleasant way to die.

[Cursitor Doom]

I think that's what Australians do anyway, trench or no trench - and fly open fly closed, too; being covered in piss is perfectly normal for them.

[Rod Speed]

That's only true of single engine choppers.

Completely different in fact and not possible to do anything about it. Even killing the only engine isnt viable because it doesn't happen quickly enough.

[Rod Speed]

[zall]

Fraid so.

Not necessarily if you duplicate the tail rotor and that one does.

[zall]

Yes, well known medical statistic.

You mean more die with it than from it.

But that is a separate issue to FAR more ending up with very serious downsides from having an enlarged prostate 'treated' and ending up with incontenance and not being able to f*ck anymore, and being killed by prostate cancer.

likely from when men didn't live as long

So are the downsides with worst outcomes with the 'treatment' of benign prostate enlargement.

[Colin Bignell]

If you are flying a twin and the spare engine is still running, there is no need to use autorotation either. Of course, as several pilots have found, twin engines are no protection for running out of fuel. The lucky ones survive to get prosecuted for endangering an aircraft.

.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

and embarrassment. They called me in for checking based on my PSA values, ultrasound, then MRI, then digital - all clear in the end after lots of worry.

[alan_m]

I watched a TV program on a North Sea helicopter crash a few days ago. They lost the tail rotor but managed to gain control by killing the main engine. They made a relatively soft landing in stormy seas as a result. All passengers and crew were subsequently picked up by one of the North Sea oil rig support ships.

[Rod Speed]

But there are plenty of situations where the last thing you need is to kill the only engine.

[SteveW]

Twin rotor helicopters run both rotors at the same speed - in most cases that is necessary as they are interleaved (or at least overlap and could interleave). Directional control is presumably by moving the swash-plates of each rotor in opposite directions in response to the pedals, so one rotor pulls in the opposite horizontal direction to the other.

[NY]

Of course. Didn't think of that. Where the rotors are interleaved rather than on different planes, speed and phase *must* be kept constant ;-) And I suppose if you "tilt" one rotor to the left and the other to the right, there will be a nett turning moment about the midpoint between the two rotors. By "tilt" I mean dynamically adjusting the pitch of the blades (via swash plate) so there is more lift on one side to the rotor compared with the other.

I reckon Dave Gunson summed up helicopters pretty well in his humorous after-dinner speech "What Goes Up... Might Come Down" when he said "You put on phenomenal amounts of power and move the stick like crazy. And you watch what happens - because if you want it to do that again, *that* is where you put the stick".

I managed to get fairly good at "flying" a small plane in MS Flight Simulator after a lot of practice, but I never managed to control a helicopter. That seems to require a whole new level of "mental feedback loops" in working out how far to move the controls and how to constantly tweak them to maintain stable flight. I remember going on a pleasure flight in a helicopter. I was sitting in the front left seat, so I could watch the pilot. He seemed to be fairly relaxed as we took off and as we were flying around, but just after we'd taken off the ATC must have told us to wait for a plane to land before we could cross the runway. The pilot said over the intercom "Silence - need to concentrate" and he hovered absolutely stationary and at a constant few feet above the ground until we got the clearance to move. And I was watching him constantly tweaking the cyclic and collective by small amounts to keep stationary. When the plane was landing and about to go past us, I saw him make slightly larger movements in anticipation of the wash from the plane as it went past, and then to correct once the pressure wave had gone past. It is that degree of control when hovering (especially if the rotors are a few feet from a cliff edge during an air-sea rescue) that denotes true skill.

But it is just a skill: practice makes perfect. When we were on holiday a few years ago, we went on a tour around La Corunna on Segways. The thought of keeping a two-wheeled hover-board level, so it doesn't tilt forwards or backwards as you adjust your balance slightly - that seems pretty daunting at first. OK, I'm sure there is a lot of control software which makes it easier. To begin with, everyone was very cautious and there were a few low-speed rear-end collisions as one person failed to stop quickly enough behind another. But after we'd been going about half an hour, I was gradually getting the hang of the thing. By the end, the guide took us through the quiet mostly-pedestrianised streets of the town, judging that we were now safe among pedestrians and occasional cars (*). I remember in the market square at the end, I managed to perfect the ability to rotate the Segway about its midpoint, with one wheel going backwards at exactly the same speed as the other went forwards, and then to go round my wife in a large circle. Skill and practice - and less practice than I thought I'd need. Just like riding a bike - it seems impossible until suddenly everything comes together with your brain, muscles and "sensors" (eyes, inner ear etc). Maybe that's why "flying" a helicopter in Flight Simulator was hard: I was lacking the inner-ear sensations to detect changes in balance.

(*) The guide reminded us to ride on the road, not the pavement, in the town centre (unlike on the dedicated cycle lanes on pavements away from the town centre), and to ride on the *right* (it was an English tour group so we were used to driving on the left). Pedestrians were aware of us and treated with a healthy respect as for any vehicle whether car, bike or Segway: they didn't just walk out in front of us, they didn't panic and throw a hissy fit, they *looked* before crossing and were aware if one of us signalled "yes, I'll wait for you - you cross ahead of me". How unlike Britain where in a town centre pedestrians think they have the right to walk wherever they want without checking whether they are about to walk into the path of a car, or a bike or another pedestrian. The guide had briefed us "You're on the road, you have priority over pedestrians, but be courteous and be prepared to give way to anyone who is crossing".

[Andrew]

Every X-ray increases your chance of some sort of cancer and a CT scan considerably so, notably where children are concerned.

THis is all detailed as part of medical training, so they know how to balance the risks associated with the clinical need for an X ray.

[Andrew]

I doubt if men of that age really give a fig about getting a hard on. Your wife can always manage with a dildo

[Tim+]

X-rays are only a small part of the issue. If you do a lot of screening on asymptomatic people your false positive rate with affect more people. Every false positive can lead to a cascade of investigations and interventions that can carry a significant morbidity (and rarely, mortality).

Tim

[zall]

That's not what he is talking about.

The problem is the 'intervention' done after the screening shows something up;

[zall]

More fool you.

Ditto.