Anyone who has been in an emergency, like a crash or break with a lover, knows how the sense of time changes. Things happen very fast, and very slowly. Watching it happen and being unable to change it is a very uncomfortable feeling. This strip, which is when all is said and done just a toon, is making me experience those disquieting sensations.
October 4, 2015 at 10:52 pm
Jon
Drone overhead? A rescue afoot?
October 5, 2015 at 12:13 am
H_B
I’m thinking civilian border-watch organization.
And I say again: “pneumothorax”.
October 4, 2015 at 11:03 pm
WayneM
Internal injuries, possible sucking chest wound… not good…
I’m not familiar with that particular profile of drone. Perhaps the government’s ongoing interest in Red & Zed will pay dividends in the form of emergency services being summoned?
October 5, 2015 at 1:26 pm
fiun dagner
considering their track record more likely emergency services being called and told not to respond to the area
October 4, 2015 at 11:09 pm
Jeff Talbut
it’s Batman!
October 4, 2015 at 11:13 pm
Kafiroon
With the roll cage you need rac
With a roll cage. you should have installed 5 point safety harnesses.
Tell me that blood is Not from the back of his head.
October 4, 2015 at 11:14 pm
Kafiroon
I have to get a better desk light.
October 4, 2015 at 11:14 pm
Chris Muir
2-point racing belts only.
October 5, 2015 at 10:04 am
Spin Drift
Ok, with the two point belts, Sam and Zed should have abdomen marks from the belt riding off thier illiac arch and into their soft stomachs from submarining. Makes for interesting looking bruising and internal injuries. Also if they were in the original interior the seat backs would have collapsed from unrestrained upper body impacts allowing possible semi ejection from the interior with corresponding upper torso involvement.
Remember people, when using belts low and tight and split the nipples.
Spin Drift
20+ year SAE member
War Damn Eagle
Hold Fast
Molon Labe
October 4, 2015 at 11:19 pm
Kafiroon
Thanks Chris. Looking at the flying roll-over and now noting better where her hands were… his side of the car seems not bad.
A 2-point could have broken ribs or abdomen damage.
And more trouble strides towards them on legs of lightning…
I’m sure I musta stole that evocative alliteration, can’t remember or find from where but it’s apt; as others noted you don’t wanna be huddling in an explosive lightning rod…hoping black ops can get them evac’ed in time.
October 5, 2015 at 1:07 am
H_B
I’d be more afraid of flash flooding. Look at the way Red’s hair is blowing. No way gasoline vapor is building up to an “explosive” density. And even grounded, I’d expect the car to conduct lightning around the driver’s compartment in Faraday Cage style. Electricity follows path of least resistance; better to go through the body of the car and directly into the ground than “jump” from metal to some salt water (the two passengers) and then “back” to metal.
See, all that sciency stuff would’ve effed up my little pome. 😉
Too, living in central fla will give you a mighty respect of those mighty bolts.
Lotta really smart guys have been zapped too; I don’t think the lightnin’ gives a shit about how it’s supposed to act.
Actually, electric current flows thru all the paths available to it. The most current follows the path of least resistance. That’s why and how parallel circuits operate, function.
October 4, 2015 at 11:52 pm
Pamela
Lord make sure the White Hats find them first…
October 5, 2015 at 12:12 am
allen
anyone got an ID on that drone? border patrol or FBI maybe? perhaps being shadowed by the FBI will be a good thing for once.
October 5, 2015 at 12:36 am
Teodoro
Looks like a Black Knight. Surveillance drone manufactured in Caldwell, Texas.
October 5, 2015 at 1:00 am
H_B
Black Knight has a pointed nose. I think it’s a Zephyr 2 from Marcus UAV.
October 5, 2015 at 1:03 am
Maletrope
I believe you are exactly correct.
October 5, 2015 at 1:14 am
Chris Muir
Zephyr 3.
October 5, 2015 at 1:15 am
Maletrope
Close enough! 😉
October 5, 2015 at 1:40 am
H_B
Ah. After looking around their website, there is indeed a Zephyr 3 (at least in ‘coming soon’ brochure form from 2014). Same profile but fatter in the center than Zephyr 2. Three hour flight time (versus one), and the same Thirty Mile Control Range for live video as the 2.
October 5, 2015 at 5:41 am
Bill
Oh c”mon. You guys are sh****ng us on the drone stuff.
October 5, 2015 at 5:51 am
Bill
And in this part of Texas there’s no gubbmint ambulance to come save your a**. There are some private air ambulance services that people subscribe to but they gotta know you need help. Hopefully if that’s a drone and not a buzzard there’s someone on the other end more capable and compashonate o call in support than Hillary and Obama in Bengazi……….
October 5, 2015 at 1:11 am
allen
doesn’t look like a black knight. the cutout at the rear center doesn’t match, and it doesn’t have a nose/fuselage.
October 5, 2015 at 1:33 am
Tea Party Grandma
I love the level of intelligence and experience this strip attracts. I don’t understand half or more of the comments as to engineering and military hardware, but it is good to know there are folks who Do know it!
Meanwhile- Live Zed! Live!!!
Well, it may be a drone in the sky, but who’s exactly does it belong to?
The DD? US CBP? Mexican Gov or even Smugglers/Narcos?
Don’t dispute the last…a lot of money in the wrong hands can buy just about anything.
OTOH, I wouldn’t put it past Chris to have this as a head-fake, and it’s really SAM that’s hurt and she’s hallucinating that it’s Zed.
I put nothing past you, Chris…you’re a wiley storyteller…:)
October 5, 2015 at 6:15 am
RegT
It seemed kind of suspicious to me that Zed could be sleepy while facing the glory of Sam’s cleavage as she tries to keep him awake and focused. I’d be _really_ focused. But, with Zed’s door missing, I’m sure he’s injured. Many fatalities occur when an occupant is either fully or partially ejected from the vehicle. I had one that was a slow-speed roll-over onto a sandy beach. He ended up with the car on top of him in the soft sand. No chest injuries at all, but the weight of the roof pressing on him kept him from being able to breathe. A seat belt would have saved his life.
October 5, 2015 at 6:25 am
RegT
“I’m sure he’s injured” should have included the blood on Sam’s hand as she was getting him to support a possibly broken arm. Does the blood come from an open fracture of that arm, or from a pneumo-thorax/potentially sucking-chest wound? Zed would be straining for air to reply with an established sucking chest wound, but he’s only spoken a few words, so hard to tell yet.
October 5, 2015 at 5:13 am
finebammer
dude, the comments are the bomb.
October 5, 2015 at 5:54 am
Bill G
Someone flying drones around may well have more tac support.
October 5, 2015 at 6:57 am
Diego
If Sam isn’t hallucinating, my money is on the Minutemen.
October 5, 2015 at 8:26 am
Curley Gumbo
Zed’s dead?
October 5, 2015 at 11:11 am
MKF
Isn’t that line “Zed’s dead, Baby.”? From ‘Pulp Fiction’ 🙂
Just a thought…drone is Sheriff dept. After making a call to the ranch, our friendly LEO is bringing the ground forces, ‘Toly and Naomi are inbound in the chopper. (I hope.)
October 5, 2015 at 8:35 am
Unca Walt
The wind is so wild, it is blowing Sam’s hair into the first frame…
BRILLIANT “action” art!!
October 5, 2015 at 8:37 am
Indiana Mike
Some Rancher’s drone keeping track of the illegals trespassing on his land and in our Country. Good thing too. The damn Feds would sit back and enjoy Zed’s slow death. A Citizen would help.
October 5, 2015 at 8:59 am
Teodoro
No Bill, aircraft ID is a serious business.
October 5, 2015 at 9:05 am
Teodoro
even though it is the web cartoon
October 5, 2015 at 10:01 am
Jeff Rutter
Don’t you dare kill off Zed!
October 5, 2015 at 10:43 am
Jrod C
Cause its Family, and that is why we care. and there are a lot of smart folks on here… Drone ID? Seriously?
October 5, 2015 at 11:02 am
Anonymitty
There are field emergency measures for sucking chest wound. Get a valve over it. Flaps open to allow air to exit; sucks closed to prevent air from entering. A bit of cellophane and some good tape are the materials needed.
October 5, 2015 at 5:44 pm
John Greer
They cover battlefield treatment of the sucking chest wound in basic training, and it’s something you don’t forget.
If Zed can remain conscious long enough he can talk our intrepid redhead right through it.
October 5, 2015 at 12:45 pm
Right Guy on Left Coast
Will there be a follow-up cartoon where the illegals sue them for the trauma of almost being hit by the car as they illegally ran across the road. It has happened here on the left coast …
October 5, 2015 at 3:01 pm
B Woodman
Shoot ’em all. Make sure yours is the only story told.
History is written by the (live) victors.
JohninMd: I say again, God DAMN you, Chris Muir, for making me react like my own flesh and blood are in that car…..
Testimony to the full fleshing-out of characters in this strip. (No pun about the flesh shown intended.) This whole sequence is “oh, $#!+.” But no surprise that we care about fictional characters – Just in the SF genre, there’s the inspiration of (the old) Superman’s ideals (so wonderfully shown in Iron Giant); our care about Frodo succumbing to the ring; hell, even Dobby’s death, contrived as it seemed, much less the human characters.
Yeah, her bloody hand – when I first glanced at the strip, I was thinking maybe it was oil from the car or something. Then, reading the strip, the gut-wrench.
October 5, 2015 at 1:00 pm
LowKey
Might just be that the drone belongs to the DD ranch. I’m sure either ‘Toly or Naomi have the skills to pilot it, and you have to admit it would be more cost efficient for them to have it up and patrolling and save the use of the chopper for instances where they need to physically be on the spot.
Not to mention the Don may have decided it would be a worthwhile upgrade for the ranch given it’s status as a consulate.
As to Zed’s injuries, he’s a tough SOB and I’m pretty sure he’ll pull through as long as he gets to decent medical facilities in the next few hours. Now, if I had my ‘druthers, the explanation for the blood would be a good old fashioned scalp wound, with just enough of a concussion to justify being a bit dazed and confused….I suspect that’s where this is heading. He’s sure as hell had ’em before, and you’ll note he’s being particularly insistent about letting Sam know he’s still awake. You want to keep a concussion victim awake, and they tend to want to sleep…..been there, done that.
October 5, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Jim
Sorry, I still can’t figure out what that is in the last pane.
October 5, 2015 at 1:09 pm
H_B
Zephyr 3 commercially available surveillance drone.
October 5, 2015 at 3:14 pm
Little-Acorn
Umm… folks, they aren’t “drones”. They’re model airplanes, with cameras.
Drones are military.
I’ve been flying model planes and copters for 50 years, some with cameras. And I’ve also helped design the Predator drone. I know the difference, ‘K?
The media has gone full illiterati, trying to pretend model planes have some dark military or government function, so they can scare people with them.
Don’t fall for it. Most of them are just model planes.
Proper name is UAV for all of ’em I guess, mil-spec and hobby alike, but since “drone” is a pretty elastic word covering lots of other stuff, and since this dude went all Al Gore and essentially says he invented the non-mil genre and *he* calls ’em drones:
and since you said “I know the difference, ‘K?”, pray enlighten the unwashed and tell us, what *is* the difference?
October 5, 2015 at 10:00 pm
eon
Size and power. Commercially available “drones” are small radio-control aircraft (mainly helicopter types) with electric motors. They are a lot like RC cars, 4x4s, etc., usually under 2 feet across and operating on the same radio frequencies the FCC assigns to other RC toys.
Real drones are full-sized aircraft that just don’t happen to have a cockpit for a pilot. They are big, heavy mothers with big engines that burn jet fuel.
They weigh up to a few tons apiece, are controlled by satellite link and navigate by GPS because they have ranges of up to 1000 miles on one load of fuel, and can carry anything from recon camera packages similar to those on a U-2, to ELINT and/or EW suites, to offensive weapons. The latter can include anything from Hellfire or Maverick missiles to Paveway PGMs to JSOWS. They’ve even been known to hang AIM-9s in case of somebody getting too curious about them, although they more commonly have self-destruct packages.
In essence, a genuine UAV, or more properly UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle) is a fighter-bomber that just happens to be flown by a jock sitting in a control center in CONUS, rather than sitting in a panic rack in a cockpit perched just aft of its nose.
The best part is that if he needs to take a leak, he can have somebody else take over while he goes to the men’s room. Beats a piddle pack all hollow.
Thanks, good and interesting info as usual from you.
But the question was more one of semantics and terminology. In reading a bit more on the subject, it seems that “drone” is an operable if catchall term for both of what seem to be the two types of acronyms; RPA for remotely piloted aircraft which can be hobby or military use, actively operated by remote control or remote base station, and UAV for unmanned aerial vehicle which operate based on preprogrammed instructions for specific tasks and a specific route.
Certainly payload determines size and power, as with the weapons platforms you mention, but this technology is on a flight path, if you will, toward the same miniaturization and utilization arc as that which now has my iPhone packed with more computing power than a room-size mainframe of the 1990’s, and with similar implications of impact on all manner of activities.
Right now I’d be happy to know the type and purpose of the “drone” that is surveilling our heroes, and whether Chris’ typically apocryphal title means something related to it and its operators and not just Zed’s hand and Sam’s tube-top.
And while on that subject, damn him all to hell and back for creating such gripping and metaphorical story arcs as to alter my go-to-bed time waiting for tomorrow’s installment. 😉
Initialisms not acronyms, and cryptic not apocryphal.
I knew that, but I’m old and it’s late and I’m writing off the cuff, and I can’t find my socks, so…
October 5, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Swansonic
I love reading the comments just as much as the ‘toon. And I have come to care very much for both the characters and the commenters here.
;tho my gut wrenches a lot while reading through these sequences I am not too worried about Zed and Sam’s potential demises’ – They are beacons to teach us, light the way and guide us. All of us observers and commentaters help fill in the details.
Chris, again I say thank you for the experience of ‘Day By Day’ given in daily doses….
October 5, 2015 at 10:35 pm
epador
Newspaper says Monsoon Season over 2 days ago and we had drenching storm looks like Chris’s – but it’s gone now. This ex-Predator FS ready for GO if Anatoly will just stop by. I got all the cool stuff you can read about at JSOM [https://www.jsomonline.org] in my takeaway.
October 5, 2015 at 11:59 pm
capn
Blood on the hand ….
OK Sam, two deep breaths and then find the “leak”. Plug or patch it. Maintain patient wakefulness. Recline patient and treat for shock. Maintain wakefulness of patient. Convert one of the now useless tires into an “I am here send help” beacon. Maintain patient wakefulness. Search wreckage for useful items such as blankets, unbroken water bottles, hand gun and attendent ammo. Did I mention Maintain patient wakefulness?
NOW! Go Girl. keep moving and …. Do. Not. Think. Act.
Chris Muir I am amazed at the level of attachment that has been evidenced by these comments. Congratulations sir You are indeed a master story teller/artist.
Now would you kindly have ‘toly and Naomi land on the shoulder next to the wreck uhm … er Charger with a medpack and splits? ahem Uhm … Now would be real handy ….
October 6, 2015 at 12:01 am
capn
splints not splits … silly fingers
October 6, 2015 at 12:05 am
SheepDog
I thought you were trying to type “Spirits” as in the bottled type…..
71 Comments
Yikes!
Anyone who has been in an emergency, like a crash or break with a lover, knows how the sense of time changes. Things happen very fast, and very slowly. Watching it happen and being unable to change it is a very uncomfortable feeling. This strip, which is when all is said and done just a toon, is making me experience those disquieting sensations.
Drone overhead? A rescue afoot?
I’m thinking civilian border-watch organization.
And I say again: “pneumothorax”.
Internal injuries, possible sucking chest wound… not good…
I’m not familiar with that particular profile of drone. Perhaps the government’s ongoing interest in Red & Zed will pay dividends in the form of emergency services being summoned?
considering their track record more likely emergency services being called and told not to respond to the area
it’s Batman!
With the roll cage you need rac
With a roll cage. you should have installed 5 point safety harnesses.
Tell me that blood is Not from the back of his head.
I have to get a better desk light.
2-point racing belts only.
Ok, with the two point belts, Sam and Zed should have abdomen marks from the belt riding off thier illiac arch and into their soft stomachs from submarining. Makes for interesting looking bruising and internal injuries. Also if they were in the original interior the seat backs would have collapsed from unrestrained upper body impacts allowing possible semi ejection from the interior with corresponding upper torso involvement.
Remember people, when using belts low and tight and split the nipples.
Spin Drift
20+ year SAE member
War Damn Eagle
Hold Fast
Molon Labe
Thanks Chris. Looking at the flying roll-over and now noting better where her hands were… his side of the car seems not bad.
A 2-point could have broken ribs or abdomen damage.
his side of the car’s missing the door!
OPPS! Not Good.
And more trouble strides towards them on legs of lightning…
I’m sure I musta stole that evocative alliteration, can’t remember or find from where but it’s apt; as others noted you don’t wanna be huddling in an explosive lightning rod…hoping black ops can get them evac’ed in time.
I’d be more afraid of flash flooding. Look at the way Red’s hair is blowing. No way gasoline vapor is building up to an “explosive” density. And even grounded, I’d expect the car to conduct lightning around the driver’s compartment in Faraday Cage style. Electricity follows path of least resistance; better to go through the body of the car and directly into the ground than “jump” from metal to some salt water (the two passengers) and then “back” to metal.
See, all that sciency stuff would’ve effed up my little pome. 😉
Too, living in central fla will give you a mighty respect of those mighty bolts.
Lotta really smart guys have been zapped too; I don’t think the lightnin’ gives a shit about how it’s supposed to act.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2006-06-11/news/SWNEWCOMER11_1_lightning-strikes-lightning-safety-national-lightning
Actually, electric current flows thru all the paths available to it. The most current follows the path of least resistance. That’s why and how parallel circuits operate, function.
Lord make sure the White Hats find them first…
anyone got an ID on that drone? border patrol or FBI maybe? perhaps being shadowed by the FBI will be a good thing for once.
Looks like a Black Knight. Surveillance drone manufactured in Caldwell, Texas.
Black Knight has a pointed nose. I think it’s a Zephyr 2 from Marcus UAV.
I believe you are exactly correct.
Zephyr 3.
Close enough! 😉
Ah. After looking around their website, there is indeed a Zephyr 3 (at least in ‘coming soon’ brochure form from 2014). Same profile but fatter in the center than Zephyr 2. Three hour flight time (versus one), and the same Thirty Mile Control Range for live video as the 2.
Oh c”mon. You guys are sh****ng us on the drone stuff.
And in this part of Texas there’s no gubbmint ambulance to come save your a**. There are some private air ambulance services that people subscribe to but they gotta know you need help. Hopefully if that’s a drone and not a buzzard there’s someone on the other end more capable and compashonate o call in support than Hillary and Obama in Bengazi……….
doesn’t look like a black knight. the cutout at the rear center doesn’t match, and it doesn’t have a nose/fuselage.
I love the level of intelligence and experience this strip attracts. I don’t understand half or more of the comments as to engineering and military hardware, but it is good to know there are folks who Do know it!
Meanwhile- Live Zed! Live!!!
Please let this lead to a new line of Zed positive influence. He will survive this, and it will lead to another whole level of his involvement.
This has got to lead to a whole new level of illegal hunting. Please!
I say again, God DAMN you, Chris Muir, for making me react like my own flesh and blood are in that car….. Can’t believe I got this upset, over a TOON?
Ditto. Pulse and breathing up. Waiting for tomorrow.
Self censoring. . . .
Then again,…….they are.
Ideas live.
Well, it may be a drone in the sky, but who’s exactly does it belong to?
The DD? US CBP? Mexican Gov or even Smugglers/Narcos?
Don’t dispute the last…a lot of money in the wrong hands can buy just about anything.
OTOH, I wouldn’t put it past Chris to have this as a head-fake, and it’s really SAM that’s hurt and she’s hallucinating that it’s Zed.
I put nothing past you, Chris…you’re a wiley storyteller…:)
It seemed kind of suspicious to me that Zed could be sleepy while facing the glory of Sam’s cleavage as she tries to keep him awake and focused. I’d be _really_ focused. But, with Zed’s door missing, I’m sure he’s injured. Many fatalities occur when an occupant is either fully or partially ejected from the vehicle. I had one that was a slow-speed roll-over onto a sandy beach. He ended up with the car on top of him in the soft sand. No chest injuries at all, but the weight of the roof pressing on him kept him from being able to breathe. A seat belt would have saved his life.
“I’m sure he’s injured” should have included the blood on Sam’s hand as she was getting him to support a possibly broken arm. Does the blood come from an open fracture of that arm, or from a pneumo-thorax/potentially sucking-chest wound? Zed would be straining for air to reply with an established sucking chest wound, but he’s only spoken a few words, so hard to tell yet.
dude, the comments are the bomb.
Someone flying drones around may well have more tac support.
If Sam isn’t hallucinating, my money is on the Minutemen.
Zed’s dead?
Isn’t that line “Zed’s dead, Baby.”? From ‘Pulp Fiction’ 🙂
Just a thought…drone is Sheriff dept. After making a call to the ranch, our friendly LEO is bringing the ground forces, ‘Toly and Naomi are inbound in the chopper. (I hope.)
The wind is so wild, it is blowing Sam’s hair into the first frame…
BRILLIANT “action” art!!
Some Rancher’s drone keeping track of the illegals trespassing on his land and in our Country. Good thing too. The damn Feds would sit back and enjoy Zed’s slow death. A Citizen would help.
No Bill, aircraft ID is a serious business.
even though it is the web cartoon
Don’t you dare kill off Zed!
Cause its Family, and that is why we care. and there are a lot of smart folks on here… Drone ID? Seriously?
There are field emergency measures for sucking chest wound. Get a valve over it. Flaps open to allow air to exit; sucks closed to prevent air from entering. A bit of cellophane and some good tape are the materials needed.
They cover battlefield treatment of the sucking chest wound in basic training, and it’s something you don’t forget.
If Zed can remain conscious long enough he can talk our intrepid redhead right through it.
Will there be a follow-up cartoon where the illegals sue them for the trauma of almost being hit by the car as they illegally ran across the road. It has happened here on the left coast …
Shoot ’em all. Make sure yours is the only story told.
History is written by the (live) victors.
JohninMd: I say again, God DAMN you, Chris Muir, for making me react like my own flesh and blood are in that car…..
Testimony to the full fleshing-out of characters in this strip. (No pun about the flesh shown intended.) This whole sequence is “oh, $#!+.” But no surprise that we care about fictional characters – Just in the SF genre, there’s the inspiration of (the old) Superman’s ideals (so wonderfully shown in Iron Giant); our care about Frodo succumbing to the ring; hell, even Dobby’s death, contrived as it seemed, much less the human characters.
Yeah, her bloody hand – when I first glanced at the strip, I was thinking maybe it was oil from the car or something. Then, reading the strip, the gut-wrench.
Might just be that the drone belongs to the DD ranch. I’m sure either ‘Toly or Naomi have the skills to pilot it, and you have to admit it would be more cost efficient for them to have it up and patrolling and save the use of the chopper for instances where they need to physically be on the spot.
Not to mention the Don may have decided it would be a worthwhile upgrade for the ranch given it’s status as a consulate.
As to Zed’s injuries, he’s a tough SOB and I’m pretty sure he’ll pull through as long as he gets to decent medical facilities in the next few hours. Now, if I had my ‘druthers, the explanation for the blood would be a good old fashioned scalp wound, with just enough of a concussion to justify being a bit dazed and confused….I suspect that’s where this is heading. He’s sure as hell had ’em before, and you’ll note he’s being particularly insistent about letting Sam know he’s still awake. You want to keep a concussion victim awake, and they tend to want to sleep…..been there, done that.
Sorry, I still can’t figure out what that is in the last pane.
Zephyr 3 commercially available surveillance drone.
Umm… folks, they aren’t “drones”. They’re model airplanes, with cameras.
Drones are military.
I’ve been flying model planes and copters for 50 years, some with cameras. And I’ve also helped design the Predator drone. I know the difference, ‘K?
The media has gone full illiterati, trying to pretend model planes have some dark military or government function, so they can scare people with them.
Don’t fall for it. Most of them are just model planes.
Proper name is UAV for all of ’em I guess, mil-spec and hobby alike, but since “drone” is a pretty elastic word covering lots of other stuff, and since this dude went all Al Gore and essentially says he invented the non-mil genre and *he* calls ’em drones:
http://www.wired.com/2012/06/ff_drones/
and since you said “I know the difference, ‘K?”, pray enlighten the unwashed and tell us, what *is* the difference?
Size and power. Commercially available “drones” are small radio-control aircraft (mainly helicopter types) with electric motors. They are a lot like RC cars, 4x4s, etc., usually under 2 feet across and operating on the same radio frequencies the FCC assigns to other RC toys.
Real drones are full-sized aircraft that just don’t happen to have a cockpit for a pilot. They are big, heavy mothers with big engines that burn jet fuel.
They weigh up to a few tons apiece, are controlled by satellite link and navigate by GPS because they have ranges of up to 1000 miles on one load of fuel, and can carry anything from recon camera packages similar to those on a U-2, to ELINT and/or EW suites, to offensive weapons. The latter can include anything from Hellfire or Maverick missiles to Paveway PGMs to JSOWS. They’ve even been known to hang AIM-9s in case of somebody getting too curious about them, although they more commonly have self-destruct packages.
In essence, a genuine UAV, or more properly UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle) is a fighter-bomber that just happens to be flown by a jock sitting in a control center in CONUS, rather than sitting in a panic rack in a cockpit perched just aft of its nose.
The best part is that if he needs to take a leak, he can have somebody else take over while he goes to the men’s room. Beats a piddle pack all hollow.
clear ether
eon
Thanks, good and interesting info as usual from you.
But the question was more one of semantics and terminology. In reading a bit more on the subject, it seems that “drone” is an operable if catchall term for both of what seem to be the two types of acronyms; RPA for remotely piloted aircraft which can be hobby or military use, actively operated by remote control or remote base station, and UAV for unmanned aerial vehicle which operate based on preprogrammed instructions for specific tasks and a specific route.
Certainly payload determines size and power, as with the weapons platforms you mention, but this technology is on a flight path, if you will, toward the same miniaturization and utilization arc as that which now has my iPhone packed with more computing power than a room-size mainframe of the 1990’s, and with similar implications of impact on all manner of activities.
Right now I’d be happy to know the type and purpose of the “drone” that is surveilling our heroes, and whether Chris’ typically apocryphal title means something related to it and its operators and not just Zed’s hand and Sam’s tube-top.
And while on that subject, damn him all to hell and back for creating such gripping and metaphorical story arcs as to alter my go-to-bed time waiting for tomorrow’s installment. 😉
Initialisms not acronyms, and cryptic not apocryphal.
I knew that, but I’m old and it’s late and I’m writing off the cuff, and I can’t find my socks, so…
I love reading the comments just as much as the ‘toon. And I have come to care very much for both the characters and the commenters here.
;tho my gut wrenches a lot while reading through these sequences I am not too worried about Zed and Sam’s potential demises’ – They are beacons to teach us, light the way and guide us. All of us observers and commentaters help fill in the details.
Chris, again I say thank you for the experience of ‘Day By Day’ given in daily doses….
Newspaper says Monsoon Season over 2 days ago and we had drenching storm looks like Chris’s – but it’s gone now. This ex-Predator FS ready for GO if Anatoly will just stop by. I got all the cool stuff you can read about at JSOM [https://www.jsomonline.org] in my takeaway.
Blood on the hand ….
OK Sam, two deep breaths and then find the “leak”. Plug or patch it. Maintain patient wakefulness. Recline patient and treat for shock. Maintain wakefulness of patient. Convert one of the now useless tires into an “I am here send help” beacon. Maintain patient wakefulness. Search wreckage for useful items such as blankets, unbroken water bottles, hand gun and attendent ammo. Did I mention Maintain patient wakefulness?
NOW! Go Girl. keep moving and …. Do. Not. Think. Act.
Chris Muir I am amazed at the level of attachment that has been evidenced by these comments. Congratulations sir You are indeed a master story teller/artist.
Now would you kindly have ‘toly and Naomi land on the shoulder next to the
wreckuhm … er Charger with a medpack and splits?ahem Uhm … Now would be real handy ….
splints not splits … silly fingers
I thought you were trying to type “Spirits” as in the bottled type…..
That would not Maintain Patient Wakefulness…