Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Alaska's tallest structure falls in Port Clarence
Anchorage Daily News ^ | April 29, 2010 | thevillage

Posted on 04/30/2010 2:13:16 AM PDT by skeptoid

This 1,350-foot LORAN tower was the tallest structure in Alaska until Coast Guard civil engineers and Controlled Demolition Inc. brought it down at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Port Clarence, the Coast Guard says

(Excerpt) Read more at community.adn.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: alaskacoastguard; loran
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last
To: Thermalseeker

If they can’t find an airfield to refuel their aircraft, they won’t be flying very long. ;^(


21 posted on 04/30/2010 5:38:28 AM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: blackdog
Something tells me they are a bit rusty at it.

I'm near KCHA. When I'm out in my motorglider near KCHA Class C airspace I monitor CHA approach to get an idea of what is inbound that I need to be looking for. I've heard those controllers over there make so many mistakes in the past 3 years it's unbelievable. Little things like clearing a C-130 and a C-172 for landing on the same runway at the same time. This was daytime VFR and KCHA is a pretty sleepy airport for Class C. Two days ago I was out flying and had an RJ inbound to CHA pass me less than 2 miles away and about 800' higher. It was obvious that the RJ's TCAS must have been alarming because he made a fairly abrupt late course correction about the time I saw him. I'm Mode C equipped, was squawking away and was close enough that the controllers at CHA should have been able to see me.

22 posted on 04/30/2010 5:47:59 AM PDT by Thermalseeker (Stop the insanity - Flush Congress!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: R. Scott

I was at a meeting yesterday on some new technology. A question came up about how to design jobs for the operations using the equipment. Far and away the majority of the group assembled went into a panic because there is “no software developed to model the work”. After listening to the hand wringing for a bit I offered that it takes but some consideration of the worst case condition and that the solution can be worked out with a pencil and paper or even a slide rule or calculator in about 2 minutes.

Too many have come to depend on software to do their thinking for them.


23 posted on 04/30/2010 6:24:25 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Half of the population is below average)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Umm, switch to GLONASS?


24 posted on 04/30/2010 6:31:32 AM PDT by Erasmus (The Last of the Bohicans)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Techster
All the eggs are being put in one vulnerable basket.

The stars are still shining :-)
25 posted on 04/30/2010 6:33:49 AM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (NEW TAG ====> **REPEAL OR REBEL!** -- Islam Delenda Est! -- Rumble thee forth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Thermalseeker

The local NBC-TV affiliate station in my college town finally got a spanking-new transmitter and tall tower installation a few miles away some farmland. (Their original transmitter was a peashooter on the roof of a 4-story hotel.)

The tower construction had taken place in the winter and was all but complete. The antenna and feedline were in place. Also in place was the multi-ton “ginpole,” the principal tower erection device, still lashed to the top next to the antenna. The ginpole was scheduled to be taken down in a couple days and the system fired up within about a week.

Then came the ice storm. Many towers in the area perished that weekend, and this new TV tower was among them.

Late in the spring, some friends and I visited the site and talked to the transmitter guy on duty (this was before the automation of large transmitters made on-duty engineers unnecessary).

He told us of the day the tower came down. He was driving in his Beetle down the short dirt drive from the main road to the transmitter building at the base of the tower, when all hell broke loose before his eyes. The tower came down very much like the one in the video on this thread, with guy wires flying everywhere. The tower clipped off a corner of the small brick transmitter building at its base, twisting and displacing the 8-inch-diameter RF feedline in the building.

The antenna and ginpole, lashed together, landed perhaps 250 feet from the base of the tower. They formed a spear that penetrated over 20 feet into the frozen ground. Insurance investigators had excavated a deep swimming-pool-sized hole around them, and left them sticking out of the bottom of the hole. I got some pix of the scene.


26 posted on 04/30/2010 7:48:35 AM PDT by Erasmus (The Last of the Bohicans)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Erasmus

Perhaps, for clarity, I should have said,

“Late in the spring, after a new tower of a different brand had been constructed and the new transmitter had finally been put into service, ...”


27 posted on 04/30/2010 7:50:20 AM PDT by Erasmus (The Last of the Bohicans)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

Computers have taken center stage and they’re a great tool, but people have to remember - or learn - how to do things the old way.


28 posted on 05/01/2010 3:50:53 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson