Get-there-itis

[Jay Honeck]

The man was no spring chicken, and he knew his business. He was, after
all, an airport manager, and a fellow who lived with his plane out on
the farm. His aircraft was a beauty, too -- a fine, straight-tailed
Cessna 182, with a handsome new interior -- and he flew it to work
every day.

In short, he was living the dream, and he had come to get reacquainted
with his wife.

They knew the weather might go south on them while they were with us,
but they were in no hurry -- and our hot tub suites looked mighty fine.
The Stearman Suite seemed to fit their tastes, with its 1930s decor
and that old biplane allure, but mostly it was the fact that the first
floor was better suited to their needs, as the wife suffered with mild
arthritis. Fewer stairs were better.

The first night we recommended a couple of fine restaurants -- one that
overlooked the rapids on the nearby Iowa River seemed best -- and they
had a marvelous time. We got the impression that they, like so many of
our guests, didn't often get a chance to spend much quality time
together, and you could almost see them learning to talk and interact
again as a couple. They were cute, and we enjoyed their company
immensely.

The second morning the clouds moved in, with low scud and 1/2 mile
visibilities. It was far worse than predicted, but they were in no
hurry, so they simply extended a day, and settled in for a longer stay.
No problems...until the phone rang.

It seemed that her mother was in the hospital. No, it wasn't
life-threatening, yet, but with the elderly any hospitalization can be
deadly. And she was alone, with her only daughter far away in Iowa
City, Iowa.

The wife's concern was palpable as she explained their new situation.
Directing them to our pilots lounge weather computer, you could see the
muscles knot in the husband's neck as he furtively checked the TAFs and
prog charts. The news wasn't good. The low crud wasn't predicted to
lift for at least 24 hours, and even then it wasn't going to be pretty.
Iowa City had sunk below even IFR minimums, but that was no matter --
the husband was VFR-only.

The waiting began.

The next day was more of the same. I couldn't even see the trees
across the runway from the inn, meaning that visibility was less than a
mile. The ceiling was an indiscriminate gray smear against the sky.
Gazing upwards gave no sense of distance or depth. We were inside a
cloud, and it wasn't moving any time soon...

Her mother's condition neither worsened nor improved. They extended
another day.

Conditions the next morning were better, but still bad. Visibility
beneath the layer was up to four miles, but the ceiling hovered around
800 feet, with no indication of improvement as the morning wore on.
The weather just wasn't in any hurry to cooperate, and there was
nothing more to be done -- but wait.

At checkout time another couple -- flying an absolutely drop-dead
gorgeous Commander 114 -- needed a ride to their plane. To my surprise,
the other couple started loading their luggage in the van, too, stating
that they were going to go to the airport and "have a look" at the
weather.

Looking up at the sky, and back down at our guests, I didn't know what
to say. It was their choice, of course, but I still felt the need to
mention that things didn't look very good for flying, to which they
grunted in the affirmative. We made small talk during the short drive
to the airport.

After helping them load their 182 -- and offering them a great deal on
a suite if they needed to spend another night -- I had my Commander
pilots alone in the van. Having spent several days with them, too, we
had become fast friends (this husband and wife team -- both pilots --
had stayed in three different theme suites in three days, just for
fun), and I felt comfortable explaining the situation to them.

I knew the other couple was headed south, planning to cross Northern
Missouri -- an area with almost no weather reporting stations. I had
made many flights over that desolate area, and had spent hours sweating
out the unknown weather ahead. With no reporting stations you simply
didn't know what was coming, and the situation could go from bad to
worse very quickly.

Current METARs showed ceilings of 700 to 1100 feet on either side of
that Dead Zone -- but no one knew what was in the "hole". And they
were planning to scud-run right through it, VFR.

I asked the Commander folks if they might perhaps drop a word or two to
our other guests about the dicey weather situation. They promised to
keep any eye on them for me, and I bid them a fond farewell.

Driving back to the hotel, I pondered what I would do in the same
situation. When my Mom was dying, I made two-dozen flights to
Wisconsin, in all sorts of weather -- some of it less than optimal VFR.
When duty calls, you push the envelope a bit. But that route had an
unbroken string of AWOS reporting stations, and it was always possible
to listen ahead to the developing weather situation. These folks would
literally be flying blind into very marginal conditions, and I didn't
know what else to do.

So I did nothing.

Depressed and worried, we listened to the Unicom radio throughout the
day. We heard the Commander folks depart IFR to the west -- next stop,
Rapid City, SD, and then on to Devil's Tower. In vain I waited for our
182 pilot to take off, but hour after hour went by with nothing to
hear. It had begun to rain, and my spirits rose. Surely they wouldn't
depart into *this*, and I'd be soon fetching them back to the hotel...

Around 4 PM, I heard him take Runway 25, and launch into a leaden gray
sky. Conditions were 1000 OVC, visibility 5 miles, and mist. He
departed the area to the south.

Mary and I quickly brought up ADDs Weather, which depicted all weather
reporting stations on a map of the US. Running my mouse over the
little circles, I saw no improvement. 1000 OVC, 900 OVC, a couple of
1500 OVC, with visibility ranging from 3 to 7 miles.

And then there was that big hole in Northern Missouri.

I'm not a religious man, but I said more than one silent prayer for
that poor man, as he struggled to address the conflicting needs of an
ill mother-in-law while trying to keep her daughter alive.
For days after they departed, I watched the FAA's accident website,
expecting the worst. Thankfully, nothing ever appeared, and I suspect
they survived, literally on a wing and a prayer.

In my mind's eye, I flew that flight with him, knowing what straining
to see out the wind screen is like, struggling to make out landmarks
below, all the while hoping that the horizon ahead continues to recede
apace. It's an awful situation, and not one that we normally face by
choice.

I guess he was just lucky that day.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jose[_1_]]

> Driving back to the hotel, I pondered what I would do in the same
> situation. When my Mom was dying, I made two-dozen flights to
> Wisconsin, in all sorts of weather -- some of it less than optimal VFR.
> When duty calls, you push the envelope a bit. [...]

> Around 4 PM, I heard him take Runway 25, and launch into a leaden gray
> sky. Conditions were 1000 OVC, visibility 5 miles, and mist. He
> departed the area to the south. [...]

> ... as he struggled to address the conflicting needs of an
> ill mother-in-law while trying to keep her daughter alive.
> For days after they departed, I watched the FAA's accident website,
> expecting the worst. Thankfully, nothing ever appeared, and I suspect
> they survived, literally on a wing and a prayer.

It's a tough situation to be in, on either end of it. Some things are not worth the risk, and some things are. "Pilot in command" is a big responsibility. You can't make the call for another, unless they really appear to not be able to make a reasoned call in the first place. At least the area is relatively flat, and visibility was relatively good under the scud. Stakes were high all around (though as always it could be argued that a commercial flight, or a rental car, would have been safer and gotten them there more quickly than waiting for the weather)

Jose
--
There are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

[Matt Whiting]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> The man was no spring chicken, and he knew his business. He was, after
> all, an airport manager, and a fellow who lived with his plane out on
> the farm. His aircraft was a beauty, too -- a fine, straight-tailed
> Cessna 182, with a handsome new interior -- and he flew it to work
> every day.
>
> In short, he was living the dream, and he had come to get reacquainted
> with his wife.
>
> They knew the weather might go south on them while they were with us,
> but they were in no hurry -- and our hot tub suites looked mighty fine.
> The Stearman Suite seemed to fit their tastes, with its 1930s decor
> and that old biplane allure, but mostly it was the fact that the first
> floor was better suited to their needs, as the wife suffered with mild
> arthritis. Fewer stairs were better.

Jay,

I'm glad to hear that all ended well. This has to be about the best
description I've seen recently as to why pilots who travel away from
home should consider an instrument rating. Conditions like this are
trivial for an instrument rated pilot, but potentially life-threatening
for a VFR pilot.


Matt

[BTIZ]

Your concern kept is Guardian Angle awake..

You have his reservation information.. send him a "glad you visited with us
card" and hopes that all is well with his wife's mother. You look forward to
another of their visits.

BT

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> The man was no spring chicken, and he knew his business. He was, after
> all, an airport manager, and a fellow who lived with his plane out on
> the farm. His aircraft was a beauty, too -- a fine, straight-tailed
> Cessna 182, with a handsome new interior -- and he flew it to work
> every day.
>
> In short, he was living the dream, and he had come to get reacquainted
> with his wife.
>
> They knew the weather might go south on them while they were with us,
> but they were in no hurry -- and our hot tub suites looked mighty fine.
> The Stearman Suite seemed to fit their tastes, with its 1930s decor
> and that old biplane allure, but mostly it was the fact that the first
> floor was better suited to their needs, as the wife suffered with mild
> arthritis. Fewer stairs were better.
>
> The first night we recommended a couple of fine restaurants -- one that
> overlooked the rapids on the nearby Iowa River seemed best -- and they
> had a marvelous time. We got the impression that they, like so many of
> our guests, didn't often get a chance to spend much quality time
> together, and you could almost see them learning to talk and interact
> again as a couple. They were cute, and we enjoyed their company
> immensely.
>
> The second morning the clouds moved in, with low scud and 1/2 mile
> visibilities. It was far worse than predicted, but they were in no
> hurry, so they simply extended a day, and settled in for a longer stay.
> No problems...until the phone rang.
>
> It seemed that her mother was in the hospital. No, it wasn't
> life-threatening, yet, but with the elderly any hospitalization can be
> deadly. And she was alone, with her only daughter far away in Iowa
> City, Iowa.
>
> The wife's concern was palpable as she explained their new situation.
> Directing them to our pilots lounge weather computer, you could see the
> muscles knot in the husband's neck as he furtively checked the TAFs and
> prog charts. The news wasn't good. The low crud wasn't predicted to
> lift for at least 24 hours, and even then it wasn't going to be pretty.
> Iowa City had sunk below even IFR minimums, but that was no matter --
> the husband was VFR-only.
>
> The waiting began.
>
> The next day was more of the same. I couldn't even see the trees
> across the runway from the inn, meaning that visibility was less than a
> mile. The ceiling was an indiscriminate gray smear against the sky.
> Gazing upwards gave no sense of distance or depth. We were inside a
> cloud, and it wasn't moving any time soon...
>
> Her mother's condition neither worsened nor improved. They extended
> another day.
>
> Conditions the next morning were better, but still bad. Visibility
> beneath the layer was up to four miles, but the ceiling hovered around
> 800 feet, with no indication of improvement as the morning wore on.
> The weather just wasn't in any hurry to cooperate, and there was
> nothing more to be done -- but wait.
>
> At checkout time another couple -- flying an absolutely drop-dead
> gorgeous Commander 114 -- needed a ride to their plane. To my surprise,
> the other couple started loading their luggage in the van, too, stating
> that they were going to go to the airport and "have a look" at the
> weather.
>
> Looking up at the sky, and back down at our guests, I didn't know what
> to say. It was their choice, of course, but I still felt the need to
> mention that things didn't look very good for flying, to which they
> grunted in the affirmative. We made small talk during the short drive
> to the airport.
>
> After helping them load their 182 -- and offering them a great deal on
> a suite if they needed to spend another night -- I had my Commander
> pilots alone in the van. Having spent several days with them, too, we
> had become fast friends (this husband and wife team -- both pilots --
> had stayed in three different theme suites in three days, just for
> fun), and I felt comfortable explaining the situation to them.
>
> I knew the other couple was headed south, planning to cross Northern
> Missouri -- an area with almost no weather reporting stations. I had
> made many flights over that desolate area, and had spent hours sweating
> out the unknown weather ahead. With no reporting stations you simply
> didn't know what was coming, and the situation could go from bad to
> worse very quickly.
>
> Current METARs showed ceilings of 700 to 1100 feet on either side of
> that Dead Zone -- but no one knew what was in the "hole". And they
> were planning to scud-run right through it, VFR.
>
> I asked the Commander folks if they might perhaps drop a word or two to
> our other guests about the dicey weather situation. They promised to
> keep any eye on them for me, and I bid them a fond farewell.
>
> Driving back to the hotel, I pondered what I would do in the same
> situation. When my Mom was dying, I made two-dozen flights to
> Wisconsin, in all sorts of weather -- some of it less than optimal VFR.
> When duty calls, you push the envelope a bit. But that route had an
> unbroken string of AWOS reporting stations, and it was always possible
> to listen ahead to the developing weather situation. These folks would
> literally be flying blind into very marginal conditions, and I didn't
> know what else to do.
>
> So I did nothing.
>
> Depressed and worried, we listened to the Unicom radio throughout the
> day. We heard the Commander folks depart IFR to the west -- next stop,
> Rapid City, SD, and then on to Devil's Tower. In vain I waited for our
> 182 pilot to take off, but hour after hour went by with nothing to
> hear. It had begun to rain, and my spirits rose. Surely they wouldn't
> depart into *this*, and I'd be soon fetching them back to the hotel...
>
> Around 4 PM, I heard him take Runway 25, and launch into a leaden gray
> sky. Conditions were 1000 OVC, visibility 5 miles, and mist. He
> departed the area to the south.
>
> Mary and I quickly brought up ADDs Weather, which depicted all weather
> reporting stations on a map of the US. Running my mouse over the
> little circles, I saw no improvement. 1000 OVC, 900 OVC, a couple of
> 1500 OVC, with visibility ranging from 3 to 7 miles.
>
> And then there was that big hole in Northern Missouri.
>
> I'm not a religious man, but I said more than one silent prayer for
> that poor man, as he struggled to address the conflicting needs of an
> ill mother-in-law while trying to keep her daughter alive.
> For days after they departed, I watched the FAA's accident website,
> expecting the worst. Thankfully, nothing ever appeared, and I suspect
> they survived, literally on a wing and a prayer.
>
> In my mind's eye, I flew that flight with him, knowing what straining
> to see out the wind screen is like, struggling to make out landmarks
> below, all the while hoping that the horizon ahead continues to recede
> apace. It's an awful situation, and not one that we normally face by
> choice.
>
> I guess he was just lucky that day.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>

[kontiki]

All that time they were waiting around for the weather to improve
he could have been studying for an instrument rating. :^o

[[email protected]]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>
> ...and I suspect they survived, literally on a wing and a prayer.


Great narration Jay. I'd however have used 'hope' than 'suspect' :)

Ramapriya

[Jay Honeck]

> It's a tough situation to be in, on either end of it. Some things are not worth the risk, and some things are. "Pilot in command" is a big responsibility. You can't make the call for another, unless they really appear to not be able to make a reasoned call in the first place. At least the area is relatively flat, and visibility was relatively good under the scud. Stakes were high all around (though as always it could be argued that a commercial flight, or a rental car, would have been safer and gotten them there more quickly than waiting for the weather)

These folks discussed all options, and decided to wait it out. There
are no commercial flights to where they were headed, and rental cars
were priced out of sight.

The fellow had a tough nut to crack, and he apparently chose well.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Javier[_1_]]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> The man was no spring chicken, and he knew his business.

(...)

> I guess he was just lucky that day.

Another excellent narration by Jay.

When is the book coming out?

-jav

[Jose[_1_]]

> The fellow had a tough nut to crack, and he apparently chose well.

That's what it's about. "Pilot in command".

Jose
--
There are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

[Gene Seibel]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> The man was no spring chicken, and he knew his business. He was, after
> all, an airport manager, and a fellow who lived with his plane out on
> the farm. His aircraft was a beauty, too -- a fine, straight-tailed
> Cessna 182, with a handsome new interior -- and he flew it to work
> every day.

Seems to me that the person you describe is probably is quite familiar
with flying in marginal conditions. There are others I'd worry a lot
more about.
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Aeroplanes - http://pad39a.com/gene/planes.html
Because we fly, we envy no one.

[Jim Logajan]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote:
> The news wasn't good. The low crud wasn't predicted to
> lift for at least 24 hours, and even then it wasn't going to be pretty.
> Iowa City had sunk below even IFR minimums, but that was no matter --
> the husband was VFR-only.
>
> The waiting began.

If they needed to get there then what was stopping them from buying an
airline ticket?

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN[_2_]]

Jim Logajan wrote:
>> The waiting began.
>
> If they needed to get there then what was stopping them from buying an
> airline ticket?



Obviously you've never been in their boat. If they buy tickets (unplanned
expense), then they still need to come back (another unplanned expense) to pick
up the plane.

I'm not saying this is smart. I'm just saying this is what they were probably
thinking. I have thought it myself back in my VFR-only days. Getting pinched
by the weather was what propelled (pardon the pun) me to earn the instrument
rating 9 months after getting my private license.

I have bought exactly one airline ticket in almost 3000 hours of flying. I will
play in a lot of crap, but me and icing don't get along.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

[Montblack[_1_]]

("Jim Logajan" wrote)
> If they needed to get there then what was stopping them from buying an
> airline ticket?


A local airline serving their needs.


Montblack

[Jay Honeck]

> > If they needed to get there then what was stopping them from buying an
> > airline ticket?
>
> A local airline serving their needs.

Amen, brother.

Isn't it pathetic that our parents and grand-parents were able to avail
themselves of this kind of service, but we, with all of our vaunted
"technology", can't figure out how to do it?

Imagine -- at one time you could catch a flight out of Iowa City
to...anywhere. That all came to a halt in 1972, after 43 continuous
years of airline service.

Pathetic ain't the word....
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jose[_1_]]

> Isn't it pathetic that our parents and grand-parents were able to avail
> themselves of this kind of service, but we, with all of our vaunted
> "technology", can't figure out how to do it?

Well, that's your next business. Your own scheduled airline, taking people to and from your own hotel, on your own airport. Can't think of better!

Jose
--
There are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

[Javier[_1_]]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>>> If they needed to get there then what was stopping them from buying an
>>> airline ticket?
>> A local airline serving their needs.
>
> Amen, brother.
>
> Isn't it pathetic that our parents and grand-parents were able to avail
> themselves of this kind of service, but we, with all of our vaunted
> "technology", can't figure out how to do it?
>
> Imagine -- at one time you could catch a flight out of Iowa City
> to...anywhere. That all came to a halt in 1972, after 43 continuous
> years of airline service.
>
> Pathetic ain't the word....

Time to get that part 121 operation going, buddy!

Alexis Park Airways.. come on, it's got a nice ring to it...

-jav

[Jay Honeck]

> Time to get that part 121 operation going, buddy!
>
> Alexis Park Airways.. come on, it's got a nice ring to it...

Oooooo....I like that!

Good grief, Jav, you're not gonna like the bandwidth it's gonna take to
do our on-line ticketing...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Montblack[_1_]]

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
> Good grief, Jav, you're not gonna like the bandwidth it's gonna take to do
> our on-line ticketing...


Jet 'Azure'

"What's more, the captain deliberately struck me across the face!"

"Unless you shut up, the second officer's going to do exactly the same
thing."

Airport (1970)
Filmed at (MSP) Minneapolis / St. Paul


Montblack - Ground Crew Supervisor
"The instruction book said that was impossible!"

"That's one nice thing about the 707. She can do everything but read."

[randall g]

On 18 Sep 2006 12:05:52 -0700, "Jay Honeck" > wrote:

>> > If they needed to get there then what was stopping them from buying an
>> > airline ticket?
>>
>> A local airline serving their needs.
>
>Amen, brother.
>
>Isn't it pathetic that our parents and grand-parents were able to avail
>themselves of this kind of service, but we, with all of our vaunted
>"technology", can't figure out how to do it?
>
>Imagine -- at one time you could catch a flight out of Iowa City
>to...anywhere. That all came to a halt in 1972, after 43 continuous
>years of airline service.
>
>Pathetic ain't the word....



Looking at Google Earth, the Cedar Rapids airport doesn't seem to be TOO
far away. Also they now have Iowa City in high resolution so we can
actually see your hotel!



randall g =%^)> PPASEL+Night 1974 Cardinal RG
http://www.telemark.net/randallg
Lots of aerial photographs of British Columbia at:
http://www.telemark.net/randallg/photos.htm
Vancouver's famous Kat Kam: http://www.katkam.ca

[Javier[_1_]]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>> Time to get that part 121 operation going, buddy!
>>
>> Alexis Park Airways.. come on, it's got a nice ring to it...
>
> Oooooo....I like that!
>
> Good grief, Jav, you're not gonna like the bandwidth it's gonna take to
> do our on-line ticketing...

As long as I get first class seats for coach fares, bandwidth won't be
an issue. Get the paperwork going.

-jav

[Gig 601XL Builder]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>> Time to get that part 121 operation going, buddy!
>>
>> Alexis Park Airways.. come on, it's got a nice ring to it...
>
> Oooooo....I like that!
>
> Good grief, Jav, you're not gonna like the bandwidth it's gonna take to
> do our on-line ticketing...
>
> ;-)


I'm sure the bandwidth will be less than that used by the videos section.
Hell, American Airlines probably doesn't use the bandwidth that video page
does.

[Andrew Gideon]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:29:21 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

> he apparently chose well

A successful outcome is not proof of a wise choice.

- Andrew

[Andrew Gideon]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:22:32 +0000, Jose wrote:

> Your own scheduled airline

Why not an air-taxi service? Isn't that why God created the VLJs?

- Andrew

[Jay Honeck]

> I'm sure the bandwidth will be less than that used by the videos section.
> Hell, American Airlines probably doesn't use the bandwidth that video page
> does.

300 videos...and counting!

;-)

See 'em all here:

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/aviation_videos.htm
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> Looking at Google Earth, the Cedar Rapids airport doesn't seem to be TOO
> far away.

True, they could get out of there -- but no scheduled airline lands
near where they live, either.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Javier[_1_]]

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>>> Time to get that part 121 operation going, buddy!
>>>
>>> Alexis Park Airways.. come on, it's got a nice ring to it...
>> Oooooo....I like that!
>>
>> Good grief, Jav, you're not gonna like the bandwidth it's gonna take to
>> do our on-line ticketing...
>>
>> ;-)
>
>
> I'm sure the bandwidth will be less than that used by the videos section.
> Hell, American Airlines probably doesn't use the bandwidth that video page
> does.

The sustained average of the video page is about 12-15 megabits/sec,
with peaks in the mid to high 30's in the middle of the day and an
occasional trip into the mid 40's.

And this just for airplane stuff. I guess this Internet thing is
catching on.

-jav

[Jay Honeck]

> I'm sure the bandwidth will be less than that used by the videos
section.
> > Hell, American Airlines probably doesn't use the bandwidth that video page
> > does.
>
> The sustained average of the video page is about 12-15 megabits/sec,
> with peaks in the mid to high 30's in the middle of the day and an
> occasional trip into the mid 40's.

For those of us who have no idea what that means, can you translate,
please?

Is that:

A) A lot
B) Sort of a lot?
C) An unbelievable amount?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Eduardo K.[_1_]]

In article . com>,
Jay Honeck > wrote:
>>
>> The sustained average of the video page is about 12-15 megabits/sec,
>> with peaks in the mid to high 30's in the middle of the day and an
>> occasional trip into the mid 40's.
>
>For those of us who have no idea what that means, can you translate,
>please?
>
>Is that:
>
>A) A lot
>B) Sort of a lot?
>C) An unbelievable amount?

700 times the bandwith that was avaliable to this entire Country
in 1992 :)



--
Eduardo K. | Some say it's forgive and forget.
http://www.carfun.cl | I say forget about forgiving just accept.
http://e.nn.cl | And get the hell out of town.
| Minnie Driver, Grosse Point Blank

[Javier[_1_]]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> > I'm sure the bandwidth will be less than that used by the videos
> section.
>>> Hell, American Airlines probably doesn't use the bandwidth that video page
>>> does.
>> The sustained average of the video page is about 12-15 megabits/sec,
>> with peaks in the mid to high 30's in the middle of the day and an
>> occasional trip into the mid 40's.
>
> For those of us who have no idea what that means, can you translate,
> please?
>
> Is that:
>
> A) A lot
> B) Sort of a lot?
> C) An unbelievable amount?

(A)

If you included porn videos, it'd be (C)

-jav

[Peter Duniho]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>> The sustained average of the video page is about 12-15 megabits/sec,
>> with peaks in the mid to high 30's in the middle of the day and an
>> occasional trip into the mid 40's.
>
> For those of us who have no idea what that means, can you translate,
> please?

It's "fair to middlin'". In the US, broadband service is generally running
between 1Mb/s and 10Mb/s, with most service in the 3-6Mb/s range (in our
region, we are just now starting to see 15Mb/s service, but that's still
rare). Worldwide, my understanding is that the US is on the slow side
compared to other countries where broadband is common.

So, at a sustained average of 15Mb/s, you're looking at effectively always
having a few users downloading at any given moment. Three to five,
depending on where you put the national average for broadband service speed.

Compared to any major Internet web site, that's pretty low. For example,
places like Google Video and YouTube are hosting thousands of users at any
given moment in time, if not tens of thousands or more. But on the
Internet, once you get past that first tier of service, user load drops off
pretty quickly. Outside that first tier of service, your "average of a few
users at any given moment" is relatively high. Many lowest-tier web sites
can go long periods (minutes, maybe even hours off-peak) without any traffic
at all.

Just as a rough guess, I wouldn't put your web site in the second tier of
online service, but you could be in the third, and almost certainly the
fourth, depending on where exactly one makes the cut-off (obviously this
sort of ranking is somewhat arbitrary).

In other words, you're definitely not an MSNBC, NYTimes, YouTube, Flickr, or
Google (first-tier). You're probably not a Boing Boing, a Slashdot, or a
Digg (second-tier). But you may have the about the most traffic of any
non-porn web site that most people have never heard of. :)

Pete

[[email protected]]

Peter Duniho > wrote:
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>>> The sustained average of the video page is about 12-15 megabits/sec,
>>> with peaks in the mid to high 30's in the middle of the day and an
>>> occasional trip into the mid 40's.
>>
>> For those of us who have no idea what that means, can you translate,
>> please?
>
> It's "fair to middlin'".

In addition to Peter's excellent explanation, here is another way to
look at it. A few years back, the standard way to get a "big" chunk of
bandwidth was to have a T1 connection, which is just a little over 1.5
megabits/sec. A T1 is equal to 24 voice phone calls at once, at standard
land-line quality. So, if you average 12-15 megabits/sec, that's about
the same as having 192 to 240 people on the phone with you at once. If
you're doing 36 megabits/sec, that's 576 people on the phone, and 48
megabits/sec would be 768 people on the phone.

To be clear, this doesn't mean that you have 192 to 768 people downloading
videos from your Web site at once. If everybody still had 56k modems,
that would be true, but quite a number of people have faster connections
now, as Peter pointed out.

Yet another way to look at it is that uncompressed CD-quality stereo
audio is about 1.4 megabits/sec. FM radio isn't quite that quality, but
it's fairly close. So, your average of 12-15 megabits/sec is roughly
equal to operating 8 to 10 FM radio stations at once. 36 megabits/sec
would be about 25 radio stations at once, and 48 megabits/sec would be
about 34 radio stations at once.

Matt Roberds

[Jay Honeck]

> But you may have the about the most traffic of any
> non-porn web site that most people have never heard of. :)

Now THAT is damned with faint praise! ;-)

Considering the volume of emails I (and Tony, my aviation technical
advisor) receive about the videos, it sure seems like a LOT of people
have heard of it.

Now if only all of them would come visit us in Iowa, we'd really have
something here...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"