99.9 Free Country

Wake Up Crew Highlights: February 9, 2023

Wake Up Crew highlights: February 8, 2023

Wake Up Crew Highlights: February 7, 2023

Emma Jay started her radio career interning for an Alternative station in Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, before eventually moving to middays on Country radio in Charleston, SC. From there, Emma relocated to Laurel-Hattiesburg, MS, but loving & wanting to get back to the east coast she made the move to Frederick in 2020, where she’s now both the station’s Production Director (managing the creation/production of the commercials you hear on-air) and, of course, host of “Mick’s Middays” (10am-3pm). Emma, who is married to “Free Country Free Ride” host Andy Webb, resides in Frederick with their Australian Shepherd, Maya.

Layla the Jay Day and The Day Home Team Pet of the Week

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Are Pilots’ Stations Called “Cockpits”?

I’ve always been fascinated by the audio that comes from a plane’s cockpit. But have you ever wondered…“Why is it called a ‘cockpit’ in the first place?”

In aviation terms, the cockpit is the control center from which the pilot directs the functions & flight path of an aircraft. Commercial planes have them, as do military aircraft. Heck, even spaceships have them (Han Solo & Chewbacca spent most of their time in the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit). But the earliest planes didn’t use the term (remember, Orville Wright controlled his aircraft while just laying on top of the wing). So, how did the pilot’s station come to be known as the “cockpit”?

Well, there are a few possible explanations, though none are gospel. What’s known for certain is that the word “cockpit” first appeared in the 16^th century as the term for an arena in which roosters were forced to attack one another in cockfights. Cockfighting areas were dug into the ground, so as to keep the roosters from getting out & away, hence the word “cock pit”. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with airplanes, though (especially considering that the concept of flight wasn’t really on folks’ minds in the 1500s).

One connecting thread, though, might’ve been a London theater called The Cockpit, which had been built on the site of an old rooster-fighting cockpit before the theater got torn down in the 1600s to make way for apartments for government officials. But even with the theater gone, Londoners ultimately continued calling the new apartment building The Cockpit. And, because it was where the brain trust of the country resided, “cockpit” started to become synonymous with “command center”. Pilots may have also taken a cue from another definition of the term. The term cockpit expanded to include any type of war zone, and since fighter planes would regularly engage in combat with other aircraft, they were essentially in an airborne cockfighting ring, or cockpit.

One other theory revolves around the word “cockswain” (nowadays usually spelled as “coxswain”), which was a term for a person in charge of a sailboat. The cockpit came to mean the area from which the boat could be steered, after which the term likely could’ve potentially migrated to the world of aviation.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Fly an email my way: [email protected].

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Berryville Graphics

Wake Up Crew Highlights: February 6, 2023

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Are Those Black Tubes Randomly Across The Road?

Anyone who’s ever been behind the wheel of a vehicle driving down a given thoroughfare has most likely noticed the skinny black tubes that seem to appear across the asphalt seemingly at random. What are those little black tubes? And why are they there?

Those little black baby speed-bumps (actually rubber cords) are officially known as “pneumatic road tubes”, and they’re used by various municipalities & governments. They’re actually a pretty simple technology, too: every time a vehicle’s tires roll over the tube, a burst of air triggers a switch that sends an electrical signal which gets recorded by a counting mechanism. There are some roads that do have permanent pneumatic road tubes, but most are only temporary & are usually in place for only a few days at most.

The setup is simple, but the data it records gives government agencies a whole lot of info about traffic patterns in that area. A single pneumatic tube can track the number of cars driving over a road in any particular span of time. By measuring the time that passes between air bursts, agencies can determine the time of day with the highest amount of traffic & congestion. A double pneumatic tube setup, where they’re installed slightly apart from each other, is able to paint an even broader picture for officials by gauging the class, speed, and direction of each vehicle that passes over them. Then, based on the data collected, the town, county, state, or federal government (whichever level is conducting the research) can determine which speed limit & road signs are or aren’t working before deciding where & how to allot the appropriate amounts of money in their transportation budgets.

So, keep an eye out for those pneumatic road tubes while you’re out & about. And if you’ve got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved, send me an email: [email protected].