Leaderboard

Russia is and has been a threat to US interests since 1945 (maybe 1918?). China is a bigger threat right now, but if you're fighting two guys at once and one falls to a knee, it isn't time to ignore them, it is time to stomp their face so they are out of the fight for a long time allowing you to focus on the other guy. Is it expensive to fund Ukraine? Yes. Are we getting a way better return on that money compared to much of the other junk we burn our national treasure on? Absolutely. This is another Russia in Afghanistan scenario except the "good guys" aren't Islamic terrorists. We'd be foolish to walk away from this opportunity to spend some money and help an enemy bleed themselves out. Way better to defeat an enemy via a proxy war than face them directly in a war yourself. And that doesn't even address the good of helping a free people defend themselves.

UNSAT

*yawn* more sophistry. I'm already on record, I only timestamp these rants on the interboobs so the forensics can go back in 10 years and go "yep, we knew". We've been through this all the way back to 2018 fam; it is a dilution of quality, definitionally. Tell your bosses to put down the hopium pipe and grow a back bone, and tell their SES overlords at the Puzzle palace to tell SecAf no buck no buck rogers. Kids need new MILITARY trainers and hours with their brain behind their ass at .7M+ and no automation, herbie drivers too. I was a CFII before I touched a single military airplane, let alone instructed in one; I can speak 61/141/135/121/one-WGAF. I was also in academia before the military; I know ballwash pseudointellectual fodder for paper degree issuance when I read it. Hell, I used to teach it! 😄 To the degree which civ-only folks don't understand the historical rigor behind undegraduate USN/USAF military aviator accessions and initial traning, it is also true that many mil-only folks really don't understand the quality control morass that is 141 (forget 61). I won't rehash the dissertation on here, the BLUF is that abrogating our military pilot accessions to 141 is to admit defeat. Considering the US record as a combat operational loss leader for the past 50 years, I guess losing at pilot training is par for the course too. Empire in decay, happens to the best of 'em I guess. Honestly, I'd be more on board if they just cut the shit and 1) admitted they can't effectively lobby Congress for more cowbell for the UPT enterprise, and 2) admitted they have to send it to the civilian prop schools just to pad the logbook with negative transfer hours of little import. Heck, by that cockeyed COA's order of merit alone, again just cut the shit and go full up MPL (Euro standard, sim only) for your copilots (3/4 of pilot accessions for the USAF) and put their money where their mouth is. Padding the 141 with excess federal pork is the only thing this will accomplish anyways. Excess crew deaths down the line in grey jet initial/continuation training are on them though, not on us dinosaurs "getting in the way".

If it was my daughter I'd do the exact same thing. Imagine losing your daughter/son and stepping into the social media world to see every possible evil conspiratorial thing being said about your child. Whatever can be done to lessen the pain and stress would be done if I were them. Regardless of how many hours she could have had, it's not going to stop the fucktards from dragging him/her down. I rarely flew on a sortie that had a crew full of 1,000+ hour folks. There is always going to be a low hour guy on board getting training. Why is there no talk about the instructor/evaluator on board?

I was flying my plane home from a trip today, at 1203 Guard came alive "We have been unburdened by what has been"...then EVERYONE jumped in...not a single negative comment.

This could be any of us at any moment. Live accordingly

One of the most pertinacious and wrong ideas which senior Air Force leadership has embraced is this: every standard is equally valuable therefore if your zeal for all standards isn't equal you are unprofessional. They believe a lack of rigidity about seemingly 'small' rules, like Friday patches, will result in negligent fratricide or crashing aircraft, etc. They see (based on faith) a direct link to extreme outcomes for overlooking small infractions. The idea you might ignore trivialities to prioritize important things like victory or safety is anathema and their minds are unable to process this situation. Those of us outside their bubble intuitively understand prioritization is a natural human phenomenon and should be embraced rather than shunned. We want young Captain ACs making decisions keeping missions on task & timeline rather than stopping a joint ROC drill because someone's sleeves are rolled up. But these cultists are like celebrate monks looking at sex, convinced it's the source of all ills and endlessly devising rules to guardrail us from it... not understanding it's literally necessary for the species. In combat prioritization is essential to success; even a cursory examination of military history would prove as much. Look no further than the Taliban and NVA for recent examples proving uniform compliance isn't tied to battlefield objectives; examples are numerous proving the absurdity of their core idea but they can't have the discussion. I've tried. Ask them for proof that selective standard enforcement will result in mission failure and they might have anecdotes but zero data. There is zero data supporting their belief. Ask them if standard compliance is so important, what is our process to test new standards before instituting and what is the process to repeal if data proves it isn't required? No answers. You'll go to SDE and study works from historic military minds, who all sported beards, then be told beards are incompatible with military success. Then you'll go on an exercise with Allied nations who have beards, call them our indispensable partners, then with a straight face tell ourselves beards are unserious for military professionals. This example is just beards but uniforms are the same. Go find paintings of the continental army defeating forces of the tyrant King George and tell me which military has the most standardized uniforms, lol. The answer to your question is the moment you embrace ideas asserted without proof, cannot rationally convince those who ask for proof, trust only those who share your idea and ignore your own obvious intellectual hypocrisy... that's the moment you've gone full retard in pursuit of rank. At that point even losing multiple wars is insufficient to free your mind, you've been captured and are unfit to lead despite what rank or position you hold. This is the unfortunate state of our Air Force.

So hypothetically, you get involved in a Class A but are not killed, but it sure looks like you might be at fault. You plan on just handing over your phone, laptop, passcode, gmail password, BO.net username and password, etc. to the investigating officials? The FAA? The NTSB? The news media? You're gonna just leave your public facebook or linkedin profiles out there so random internet people can blow up your notifications? You're gonna just leave your semi-anon accounts like BO, reddit, Twitter, etc. up even if those accounts are doxed? God forbid you were killed, you would like your wife/parents/next of kin to do the same? And regardless, it's unlikely that's even what's happened in the DCA crash. I'm guessing the deceased pilot's family deleted her social media so random dickhead internet sleuths didn't go poking into her personal life after it tragically ended. If there's any evidence of actual obstruction of the real, no-shit NTSB investigation, withholding relevant, possibly causal details, for sure let's quash that and get the truth data out there so we can prevent accidents in the future. But protecting the privacy of your deceased family members is not evidence of some conspiracy or funny business. I look forward to reading the safety brief on this once all the conclusions are reached rather than putting any stock in random talking heads or youtube aviation bros' speculation. I have opinions on what I think happened based on what we've all seen, but I don't actually know shit and therefore that opinion isn't particularly valuable. I'll go on record saying if I die, regardless of the circumstances, I'd love for my wife to go ahead and delete everything not required for her to continue our household operations and then throw my phone and laptop in the ocean. TBH we'd all be better off probably sending our devices down to Davy Jones ASAP rather than continuing to do what we're doing right here and now...

Maybe because she’s a female pilot and with the appalling DEI finger pointing from El Presidente the family doesn’t want their daughter’s name drug through the mud by a bunch of fucking stupid neck beards

Tell us you’re old ….. (I got the reference, fuck I’m old too)

It’s official: Biden is the worst POTUS in our nations history.

January 6th was a block party that got out of control. If you want to see an *actual* insurrection, you can look at the summer of 2020 when numerous democratic governments all but sanctioned mob violence in the name of social justice.

It’s not bordering vulgar, it is vulgar. These poor souls haven’t even been dead 24 hours yet and this is the topic he wants to bring up in a presser discussing the accident?

I never prefer the visual, give me vectors to ILS final every time. The visual is a just ATC's way of being lazy or trying to shove 10 pounds into 5 pound sock. Never understood the desire to "get on the ground quicker." At best you get to the gate a minute or two prior. This job should be boring. I once had an FO who was super geeked about wanting to do a side-step. He's senior to me and has been on this plane for 12 years (9 years longer than me), so he knows what he's doing, so I said ok, lets do it. Everything goes fine, we show up to the gate about 3 minutes earlier than if we hadn't sidestepped...then we waited 10 minutes for a park crew lol.

Here's a solution that I've thought on for awhile... leave the GOs in place until they solve the problem. Make tours task-oriented rather than time-dependent. Nothing gets solved because nothing HAS to get solved-- it just depends what you can "say" you've done to your boss and on your OPB. And the bloated staffs with career civilians know that they just have to mind the clock until the latest guy goes away. That's why we've been talking about the pilot retention crisis for TWENTY YEARS. Capt Zero remembers the first visit from The Bobs asking why we CGOs thought our peers were getting out-- back in 2004. And it wasn't a new problem then. Starting at DO, you should be given a task to complete. For most DOs and CCs, that will be a full deployment cycle-- 2 years. Take a squadron from reset through ready. Do a good job? Move up and on. Don't do a good job? Thank you for your service. Same for every O-6 and up. Here's your tour-- here's what I need you to do. You have four months to tell me how long it's going to take. Do a good job? Move up and on. Fail? Thank you for your service-- it's time to retire / fire. Make it about what you actually get done, not what you say you've done. Will never happen-- because most GOs have risen on their ability to say what they've done-- the system worked just fine for them, so why would there be an impetus to change?? There are some out there who can walk the walk and have the stories to prove it. Too many are just paper tigers, with their accomplishments being as thin as the OPBs they're printed on.

Trump dropped 1500 Pardons last night...basically covered all the Jan 6 folks. Edit to add, he vaporized the security clearances of the 51 who helped cover up the laptop...LONG OVERDUE ACCOUNTABILITY!

These blanket pardons should turn the stomach of every citizen. Absolutely disgusting.

It’s no different than being in direct combat - after a bit you don’t trust any of “them”, you’re senses are numbed to atrocious things, and you use dark humor as a means to cope. Doesn’t mean you’re a sociopath, I think it’s a fairly normal human response, and to expect cops to be different is just like the jackasses who expect “warrior monks” in the military.

@Negatory I’m fairly positive Lawman is not trying to argue there’s tons of great billionaires on “his side” (whatever that means), and is simply highlighting the stupidity of this whole charade/medal, regardless of political affiliation (he just said Trump giving it to Elon would help cement the whole thing as a sham). Why is it you read something, engage turbo douche mode, and go on an unhinged rant that wildly misrepresents the person you’re replying to. For your own mental health, recommend some introspection and find a way to turn the blind, illogical, and generally unprovoked rage down a few notches. You’ll feel better and your communication skills probably would improve.

The idea that the AF is trying to erase the history of or not teach about the Tuskegee Airmen is one of the most ridiculous stories I’ve ever read. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the number of people I know that have bought into this garbage. The amount of laziness it takes to fall for something like this is astounding. The AF literally has at least two current units that I know of that have a direct lineage to the Tuskegee Airmen. The Alabama Air Guard F-35 unit has a tail painted red. Those units represent and honor the service and sacrifice of the Tuskegee Airmen every day. And we all should honor them. Their story is one of the most powerful and inspiring stories in the history of our USAF. There is a huge difference in getting rid of DEI curriculum that discussed the Tuskegee Airmen and trying to erase their history. It’s not hard to understand with just a minimal amount of effort.

ATF first.....

LOL that didn’t last long.

The left and the power structure associated with it knows that the truth will come out. And it’ll be sooner than later. Pardons don’t prevent investigations or info from being released they just prevent charging someone for their crimes. Let the truth come out. All of it. We just witnessed the most destructive 4 years in our nations history, politically speaking. Today it all changes. Let’s get to work rebuilding this nation.

Point of order, in recent times the first clown to recycle the open ranks inspection, nitpicking of uniforms and banning of items that made life easier for folks on the flightline was the ACC Commander Wilsbach, an Eagle Pilot to the core. Again, point of order, the first clown to start the airlinepilot looking uniform changes, V-neck t-shirts and gigline gazing was McNutgobbler when he was CSAF. Again another scrotum hugging, Eagle driving, fighter guy.

Hey Big Blue:

Four nights ago, Beale did the Monday Night Football flyover at Levi Stadium. Challenging airspace, to say the least, and led by a young ex T-6 FAIP who is a brand new flight lead. This is how it is done. Perfection IMG_1720.mov Edit: forgot to mention... 58 and 60 year old A-models, with an iPad and a stopwatch

Moderators, we have a Name, Image and Likeness violation here. Nobody asked if they could use my image.

@nsplayr I made it through five minutes...like you I never care for either one of them and Myron worked for me at one point. He was anointed by Slife as a Captain and while he might have been a good dude, he began to proselytize Slife's cult garbage. And I get your point of firing him for DEI...compared to what those two toxic pricks have done it is the last thing they should be canned for...HOWEVER, as slippery as these two are I'll allow it. A kill is a kill at this point.

Congratulations! You outed a Nazi! Somehow, Musk had given hundreds of speeches, been subject to thousands of hours of video recording, been followed by countless reporters recording his numerous meandering thoughts, been the subject of multiple documentaries, and, yet, cleverly concealed his Nazi leanings but your detailed analysis of a couple seconds of video finally broke the code and you figured it all out. Genius!

UPT select! 99 Pilot, 94 PCSM, #1 at the wing. No PPL This was my third time trying. First year was shot down at the GP. Non select last year and picked up this year. if you were an alternate or non select, don’t give up! Focus on leadership opportunities and awards. They help make the package very competitive.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills with how incredibly dumb some people are to be falling for this shit.

Good lord. Please stop with this dumb ass nazi talk.

BFM, not normal at all. The optics for Biden's legacy is terrible. It's almost as though he's trying to drive has approval ratings to zero. Maybe he's doing it to punish the DNC for dumping him. Or, maybe he had no idea what he was signing...his family members probably offered him an ice cream cone if he'd just sign on the dotted line.

milley is a disgrace to the uniform. and a fat fuck.

Disgusting.

A FAIP as SECAF. Dear God…

Dibs

Chang said you can easily perform you RPA duties in blues.

Hegseth quote from today " If you're a rifleman and lose your rifle you have hell to pay, if you're a General and lose a war you get promoted"

Obviously. If the planes weren't flying, they wouldn't have got got

Worked 7 fires last year doing mainly mitigation with Hot Shot and Hand crews as a contractor. We fight fires backwards, instead of spending money doing year-round mitigation and controlled burns we do them after the fact after a massive fire. My last go was in the Big Horns near Sheridan Wyoming, what stopped it was 10 inches of snow. Lost 40 pounds last summer and was in the best shape of my life. Staying in shape to pass my pack test, 45-pound pack, 3-mile walk, under 45 minutes. Thought about this year going back to aircraft mx on the fire bombers but love being on the fire line with the boys. Tried being retired but my neighbor talked me into this, money is good and its better than working at some box store.

That’ll look good in your favorite gay bar

Fat Amy enters the chat.