Yes, folks, the economy is opening up as predicted with increased new cases and deaths of Covid19. The world wide protest while long needed to weed out the bad cops in the active ranks is so long over due. I'm afraid that it is a price we pay for not having acted sooner. I have made post about the shaved-head, gym going, somewhat bully-type cops that can be spotted almost instantly, if only for a few turns of observation. There is a "TYPE" that fits that pattern. Thirty years ago, I met a guy who was former member of one of the military elite like, rangers, seals, etc.,etc. He once made the statement that if there was anyone that I didn't like he could take his squad on a training exercise. That was enough to scare me right there, but it also got me to thinking that I had friends that were in Vietnam that talked of friendly fire of soldiers that were holding them back....whatever that meant. Although, I can pretty much form an accurate detail of what they were talking about. In short, here, what I am saying is that this type of bully hatred among the military and eventually police departments that hired these guy in the first place. Take the example of the cop that held his knee on the neck of George Floyd. He had been on the force for 19 years and had some past history of that same type of thug mentality. And, one must consider that these guys with a near-retirement service were hired long before Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome was even fully understood.
Personally, I think that the government was wrong in supplying police departments with all the armor that tactical units use to bust doors down and S.W.A.T. teams that abound in an America that our forefathers never imagined in such a way. Don't get me wrong. There is a long history of law enforcement that has a vein that runs through our family, beginning with my grandfather who served as a U.S. Marshall in the Depression Era. Yes, that's the Elliot Ness Period, too. Now, don't go getting excited. It was an era in time. Much has been written about it overall. Yet, my mom was also growing up at that time when good cops, baseball players from the major leagues, and others from the wildcat oil men of Oklahoma around the same time period, would stop to go quail hunting with my grandfather after he left the Marshall Service. Mom was a life-long Dodgers fan. Baseball star Preacher Row taught my mom how to clean a fresh kill of quail.
One thing that mom had was accurate radar that worked until her death, she could pick out the bad apples almost without fail. It got her a court appointment for Juvenile Offenders. She was like a silent type of fictional Lt. Columbo but using her radar could zero in on target. She had a way to give you "pearls" when she talked that were life-long gifts of knowledge that others could never figure out how does he do that?
Now, with the age of webcams and other things, it has become nearly perfect forecasting or deductions when observing something specific, like the parking of planes by American Airlines at DFW on the SW quad of the line-up-and-wait area of active flights waiting to take off. During the past 6-8 weeks the number has been fairly steady at 22 planes once the storage began. While the terminal D ramp was near empty of planes except for a plane or two that when to Brazil or Singapore Asia area. Qantas has been absent. Emirates has cut back, Korean has cut back and JAL seems to be the only one that still makes a daily effort.British Airways has all but stopped. Although, British Airways, Korean and Emirates have been parking planes one and two at a time in the area used for tour plane parking and athletic team charters or of their own planes. For a while BA was parking a 777 and a 747. They would alternate days that they few them out with crew only, I suppose.
Suddenly, this week, American announced that they had parked a total of 450 planes and that they still planned to retire about 100 aircraft of that number. Then, the line-up-and-wait parked planes began to disappear one or two at a time. While today, the total was at +/- 16-17 still parked. The west side of the airport or the 18/36L and 18/36 R runways are getting a major work over with new lighting, and other lighting that could be part of the ILS (instrument landing system) approaches.
Many of you are unaware of the DFW ideal and plans to increase capacity at DFW by 30-35% with the adding of a new Peripheral Taxi Ways on both side of the airport that end the crossing of active runways, a major safety move. So major in fact, the FAA not only gave DFW $180million to proceed with the final segment but has "somewhat" swiped the ideal and is now pushing it in new airport designs. Yeah! DFW staff! Way to go guys and gals.
The "future" #8 runway that is being used as parallel taxiway currently, will be hooked into the peripheral taxiways. Well, today, they started pushing dirt to extend the end of that taxiway and tie it into the ones that will connect 18/36 L and 18/36 R to that system. Surprisingly, I still believe that the #8 runway in the plans will one day be that taxiway, giving 3 parallels on the 17/35 R,C,and L and 3 parallels on the 18/36 L and the 18/36 R which would become the center runway and of course the two cross wind 13's one on the east side and one on the west side which are now active 6 and 7 of the master plan. Of course it's all subject to change unless someone goes off the deep end out there and decides to mess up a geometric flow.
Also Terminal "E" is shaping up and American has committed to building Terminal "F". With the peripheral taxiway "invention" that will increase capacity by 30-35% baring another pandemic or something else unseen, I'd say that the next ten years will get shortened quickly with that forecast growth and efficiency. Airlines don't like to waste money on operational matters, remember.
So, the building of the new normal has begun. Disappearing planes isn't all bad.
