2017 KOA ARFF Triennial Exercise

Every three years the FAA requires Part 139 certificated airports to conduct an Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) simulation of an airfield mass casualty incident. In so doing the airport will typically invite as many potential local responders and interested players to participate as well. This often includes local fire, police, ambulance, hospital(s), Red Cross, military (if nearby), and a community emergency response team (CERT). In addition, live bodies and an aircraft mock-up or vehicle is included. This year Kona did not have an aircraft available, so they used a couple of school buses. "Casualties" (including their moulage, or simulated injury make-up) were played by a group of very enthusiastic local high school kids.

Things never go entirely as planned with these exercises, but that's why we practice. It's also why we try and do even more in the intervening 3 yrs. Enjoy!

AU 2013 Live Streaming Videos

It's Autodesk University 2013 time in Las Vegas, USA once again!... that time of year for almost 10,000 users, vendors, and others to descend on a city that never sleeps to talk all things Autodesk and high tech. If you can't be part of the crowd be sure to visit the 2013 AU Live Streaming Video page and take part from your desktop. You will find a great lineup of things there that you can see live during each day of the conference, including the Keynote, Closing sessions, and much more.

All events this year are once again being held at the palatial Venetian & Palazzo hotel convention and exhibition center. So check the schedule page above and look in during the week if you can! It will be well worth the time and bandwidth!

How to Play Chess... Properly

How to play chess... just watch a video and learn. What could be easier?

Autodesk Project Chronicle

I became aware of another Autodesk Labs cloud-based service tonite called "Project Chronicle", so it was worth some time experimenting with it. Hopefully this will be something they will either keep for a while or make fully available to subscription users much like Autodesk 360. Project Chronicle is a great way to create short videos like the one above.

You'll have to pardon my narration... but this was all done much like the creation of the block itself... completely on the fly!

To be able to view this full screen on the Project Chronicles website, place your cursor over the image above and click on the link in the upper left corner.

AutoCAD C3D 2014 Installed

C3D Splash Screen

Installing a program as complex as any of the Autodesk series is always filled with at least a little bit of anxiety.  It's not uncommon for something to go a little haywire... maybe a driver is missing or incompatible, maybe there was an error in the download, maybe something else went south.  Think space launch.  There are millions of lines of code just like parts in a rocket engine, and every single one has to work perfectly or there's an explosion on the launch pad.  I've had these scenarios in the past and they're no fun.

Think AutoCAD 2013.  For whatever reason it never did install and work correctly on my computer and in the end I just ignored that release for a year until 2014 came out a few months ago.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014

Yes, it's true.  My long wait for my very own copy of AutoCAD Civil 3D is finally over.  This afternoon I was granted a full license of the latest version to install and work with on my own computer(s).  The downloading is in progress as this is going to press and the hunt for good reference and learning materials will begin later in earnest.

For 3 years I asked, begged, pleaded, cajoled, made the case, provided the justification(s), you name it, to get a home use license so I could learn this program.  But it was all to no avail; the answer was always "no' or no answer at all.  In the end (today) those obfuscations and delays were no factor - I managed to get a legal copy without outside "help" at all.  Whoever said hard work isn't rewarded was all wet.  It is!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!

And worth every precious second too!

The new journey begins!

Adaptive Lens Corrections

Russell Brown is the Sr. Creative Director at Adobe Systems and a great innovator in the use of Photoshop. Until I discovered his new video above I wasn't even aware that Photoshop CS6 had the capability of adaptively correcting lens distortion. I frequently shoot various wide angle lenses and have long been a devotee of panoramas, but this will take future creations to an entirely new level.

Have a look at what Dr. Brown has done here, and if you have CS6 be sure and give the new Adaptive Wide Angle filter a try. This video is sure to help you learn how to process images with this amazing filter correctly!

Enjoy!

Spot Removal and LR4 Adjustments

A friend of mine asked me a couple of questions the other day about using the new version of Lightroom 4 (LR4), and since we're thousands of miles and many time zones apart I decided to help via the blog and YouTube. Hopefully some of this may help others too, so here goes!

There are two videos here... the first one talks about Spot Removal. The second talks about using the Adjustment Brush. Both use a couple of photos in the Lightroom library. The idea will be to clean up the spots first on a reference image and then use that to Sync a target. Then we'll continue on the target with brush adjustments.

Both videos are best viewed full screen at 720p HD.

KOA Triennial Exercise 2011

On Wednesday, Dec 14, 2011, Hawaii's Air National Guard 204th Airlift Squadron assisted Kona International Airport and the Hawaii County Fire Department in the Federal Administration's Triennial Disaster Exercise by providing a large frame aircraft for the simulation of a crash site and mass casualty event. The Kona Airport Rescue & Fire Fighting (ARFF) unit were first responders, while the Hawaii County Fire Department filled in as additional manpower and triage support. Students from NELHA's West Hawaii Exploration Academy and Kealakehe HS, made up to simulate injuries from minor abrasions to life threatening, provided bodies for the exercise.

Also participating in the exercise were representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, US Army Hawaii Fire Rescue unit, Hawaii County Police Department, Hawaii State Chapter of the American Red Cross, Civil Defense, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Kona Airport Police, and various air carrier representatives.

Thanks go to Tech. Sgt. Andrew Jackson of the 154th Wing Public Affairs section for providing the link to this video work, and to the 204th Airlift Squadron for providing a Hickam AFB Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for the exercise. The interview in the video is with Mr. Merv Kahumoku, Kona ARFF Chief.

My photos of the day will provide more detail of the event and will show up here in the form of a video in the near future. Stay tuned! :)

USAF Pacific Lifeline 2008

Here's another post for the "catch up" folder I guess.  This one was made several years ago & long before the thought of a personal blog ever crossed my mind.

The subject matter is self-explanatory.  My role was one of local support for the military civil engineering team that came in advance of the exercise and set up the camp.  This was a real world training exercise to prepare team members for the day they will be called upon to provide humanitarian support and relief following some crisis, either natural or man made.

Sorry it's so late, but Enjoy!  (Best quality at 720p if your connection can handle it.)

As a post script I'll say also that I haven't quite figured out the YouTube video thing yet or specifically how to get a good cover thumbnail for a vid.  So if anyone reading this has a heads up tip for me on that I'm all ears.