ATLANTA – Prices at the gas pump just keep going up for Georgia drivers.
According to AAA, Georgia motorists will now pay an average price of $3.37 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.
Gas prices in Georgia: Russia-Ukraine border crisis uncertainty increases price per gallon
That’s up 4 cents from a week ago, 25 cents since last month, and 89 cents more from this time in 2021.
In total, it now costs motorists an average of $50.55 to fill up a 15-gallon tank of gasoline.
Experts say high oil prices in part due to tension between Russia and Ukraine contributed to the pain at the pump.
“Elevated oil prices continue to contribute to the rise in gas prices across the country,” AAA spokeswoman Montrae Waiters said. “One way Georgians can maximize fuel efficiency is to keep their vehicle well-maintained as pump prices climb.”
Democrats propose temporary suspension of federal gas tax to offset soaring prices
As painful as Georgia gas prices are, the Peach State still remains less than the national average – which increased by 5 cents to $3.53.
The most expensive places to buy gas are in the Hinesville-Fort Stewart ($3.49), Brunswick ($3.48), and Savannah ($3.47) areas.
The least expensive places in Georgia to fuel up are the Catoosa-Dade-Walker ($3.31), Dalton ($3.32), and Warner Robins ($3.33) areas.
Man jumps out of taxiing Southwest Airlines plane at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport: airline
PHOENIX – A man jumped out of a Southwest Airlines airplane that was taxiing around Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 4, the airline said.
At around 8 a.m., flight 4236 coming into Phoenix from Colorado Springs experienced a 30-year-old man jumping out of a door from the back of the plane and locking himself in the fire department nearby, said Capt. Todd Keller with the Phoenix Fire Department said.
The airplane’s captain stopped the plane and contacted air traffic control, said Dan Landson with Southwest Airlines. Authorities arrived on the scene and the rest of the flight’s passengers were able to get to their gate.
“After a few minutes firefighters were able to get the adult male to unlock the door where he was then evaluated, treated and transported to a local hospital for a lower extremity injury,” Keller said.
It’s not known why the man jumped out of the plane or what the extent of his injury is.
Hours later, Phoenix Police identified the man as Daniel Ramirez. He’s being booked into jail on suspicion of two counts of felony trespassing.
Phoenix Police said of the incident, “We are aware of this incident, and at this time the investigation is ongoing.”
Keller with Phoenix Fire says the incident, although unexpected, was handled well by those involved.
“They were in constant communication as soon as this person was on the runway. Sky Harbor control tower had eyes on him the entire time and that’s how they notified us. It just shows you how much of a well-oiled machine they are out there,” Keller said.
Travelers respond to the ordeal
April and Sean Kelly flew in from Oregon and they’re wondering why would somebody do this – saying, “why and how, I mean, how would you jump off a plane?”
Billy Richardson from Denver remarked, “I would actually look to the stewardess and the people on the flight to help. I would expect that they would have been trained to know their job.”
Gary Keys who is also from Denver, says, “I would basically just disarm them and put them down in about less than 30 seconds. You have to take action …”
Dealing with unruly passengers is a growing issue. As of late fall, Sky Harbor staff and police have responded to nearly 3,000 calls of disruptive customers and assaults.
Nationally, the Federal Aviation Administration reported more than 5,400 unruly passenger reports so far this year.
Friday, July 9th 2021, 5:56 pm – The Mars helicopter broke records as it flew at high speed over ‘unfriendly terrain’ this week.
Although it was only intended as a simple technology demonstration, after nine successful flights, NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter continues to prove to be a valuable member of the mission science team.
Around midday on July 5, on Mars, that is, the Mars helicopter lifted off on its 9th successful flight over Jezero Crater. It was a ‘nail-biter’ according to the mission team. The drone flew farther, faster, and spent more time in the air than it ever had on any of its flights before.
Ingenuity’s shadow is clearly visible in this mid-flight Navcam image taken during Flight 9, on July 5, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Flight 9 was not like the flights that came before it,” the team wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “It broke our records for flight duration and cruise speed, and it nearly quadrupled the distance flown between two airfields. But what really set the flight apart was the terrain that Ingenuity had to negotiate during its 2 minutes and 46 seconds in the air — an area called ‘Séítah’ that would be difficult to traverse with a ground vehicle like the Perseverance rover. This flight was also explicitly designed to have science value by providing the first close view of major science targets that the rover will not reach for quite some time.”
Séítah (which means “amidst the sand” in Navajo) is one of Perseverance’s first major science targets in Jezero Crater. It is a low-lying area, littered with rocks and striped with numerous rippled sand dunes. Unfortunately, the terrain of Séítah might be too treacherous to risk driving Perseverance into the middle of it. On the other hand, Ingenuity was able to fly over the most interesting targets, snapping colour images to send back to the team.
This raw image was snapped by Ingenuity’s Color Camera, at 12:35 p.m. local time on Mars, on July 5, 2021. While the black and white Navcam photos show the view directly below the drone, the Color Camera is pointed off to the side, at approximately 22 degrees below the horizon. The small silver ball at the top left (and the tiny fraction of one visible top right) are the helicopter’s landing feet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
One of the reasons this flight was a ‘nail-biter’ is that, so far, Ingenuity has flown over mostly level ground. Séítah represented a patch of ‘unfriendly terrain’ as the team called it in a blog post leading up to the flight. The ground sloped down into the feature, and Ingenuity flew over numerous sand dunes before the terrain rose again and levelled out at the helicopter’s next flat airfield. The problem with flying over this kind of terrain is that Ingenuity’s navigation software wasn’t designed to interpret changes in the distance between it and the ground.
“When we as human beings look at moving images of the ground, such as those taken by Ingenuity’s navigation camera, we instantly have a pretty good understanding of what we’re looking at,” the team wrote. “We see rocks and ripples, shadows and texture, and the ups and downs of the terrain are relatively obvious. Ingenuity, however, doesn’t have human perception and understanding of what it’s looking at. It sees the world in terms of individual, anonymous features — essentially dots that move around with time — and it tries to interpret the movement of those dots.”
Their solution to this was relatively simple.
“We told it that those features are all located on flat ground.”
This map shows the approximate flight path of Ingenuity during its July 5th flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
There is a risk to this solution, though. If Ingenuity’s navigational computer makes a wrong interpretation of something it sees in the images during flight, it can cause the helicopter to veer off course. Careful planning and anticipating potential problems based on other imagery the obtain of the flight path ahead of time can help reduce the risk.
Now, with Ingenuity resting at its new airfield, southwest of Séítah, the team is waiting for all the high-resolution colour imagery to arrive here on Earth. Of particular interest is a feature known as “Pilot Pinnacle,” which could be leftover from the deepest water environments in the lake that once filled Jezero Crater.
