Leaderboard

If Top Gun 2 generated buzz, then, of course, another in the genre will too... 12 O'clock Nigh Scene 1: Delta FO Harry Stovall, having parked his 787 at Heathrow, kills part of his 20 hour layover with a stroll down some shop streets near The City in London. Suddenly, he spots a model of an F-15C in the window in a junk shop...cue harp music and wavy focus camera... Scene 2: Then Captain Harry "Burner" Stovall is the reluctant wing exec and is slaving away at his desk awaiting the arrival of the new wing king after the previous one had been fired for boning SSgt Yummy Britches in the staff car. The door bangs open and in walks Col Frank Savage, fresh off his Air Staff tour (prior to that he'd flown the Eagle for one tour at Eglin, then had a career of exec/school/exec/school/command, to the Air Staff and now here at RAF Archbury). Stovall stands up to acknowledge the O-6. Who immediately berates Stovall for having the fun meter morale patch, his flight cap visible in his leg pocket, and his zipper slightly below his name tag. "Captain, I want to see the personnel folders of every pilot in this wing immediately." Scene 3: That evening in the Club bar, Stovall is at the bar trying to not badmouth the new commander as the bros gather 'round looking for gouge. When in bursts Savage himself, proclaiming "This bar is closed. All pilots will muster in the wing auditorium at 0700 tomorrow morning." The crowd files out grumbling unintelligibly... Scene 4: The next morning, at 0700, the auditorium is called to attention and in strides Savage, his Chief, and Stovall. Savage ascends the stage, dramatically pulls the cord to the curtain covering the big board, to reveal...The Plan "Gentlemen, effective immediately, every single one of you will reset your clock on all the ancillary CBTs the Air Force and DoD have mandated. You will complete this no later than a week from today. I will not tolerate sloppy uniforms or sloppy green dots." Raising his hand the OG asks, "Sir, that will take nearly 70 hours even if we group take all the on-line tests and the like. We are supposed to deploy for the Baltic Ops mission next week and had some LFEs scheduled with the Brits over the Wash." "Col Cobb, if I want your opinion, I will give it to you. That's all, gentlemen. Dismissed." Scene 5: A week later: "Stovall, why am I seeing all these 7-day opts?" "Dunno, sir. Here's mine..."

Moose, the weapon in question is DA/SA and the defense argued that it was stolen while in SA mode and the light trigger pull of 4.4 lbs contributed to the gun “accidentally discharging.” Anytime the trigger is squeezed, it is no longer an accident and becomes negligence in my opinion, but many folks still consider it an accident if they squeeze the trigger and something they don’t like happens. NS— firearms definitely do not regularly discharge accidentally. Mechanical failures causing a discharge are extremely rare, but you might be of the camp who considers it an accident if you squeeze the trigger and recive an unintended outcome. My general take on this trial is that we don’t know what evidence the jury heard to reach their outcome. However, that so many liberals I know are pleased this guy escaped a murder conviction has forever turned me off to their opinions on gun control. Here we have a multiple time felon, illegal immigrant, with a stolen police weapon who kills an innocent person with the stolen weapon. If one cannot support a criminal conviction in this instance, we have a philosophical disagreement that can never be bridged and nothing left to talk about regarding gun control.

Flying an F-4 felt like driving a dualie that had been in a wreck. I cannot imagine taking that thing downtown; those guys had huge brass balls. One of the best 1.0s of my life.

Negligent discharge is the more accurate term and yes, those do happen regularly. YMMV on that source, but it's the first thing I could find on the googles. I find it pretty likely that Zarate pulled the trigger and that the firearm worked as God intended it, but none of us know that for sure. Still a negligent discharge, not a premeditated homicide. Re: your last paragraph...I 100% agree he should have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his negligent discharge of a firearm. It seems from the reporting I've read about the case that the prosecution pushed heavily for a first degree murder charge, and I think stretches credulity to say this guy, in a pre-meditated way, killed Ms. Steinle with malicious intent. The idea that the prosecution and/or judge did not make the case for and the sentencing instructions to the jury airtight in such that we got a more just outcome, I'm not lawyer enough to speak to intelligently. We agree he shouldn't have been in the country (especially after multiple prior deportations and crimes), we agree that he should not have ever been let out of local or federal custody prior to the shooting, and we agree that he should have been found guilty of a crime beyond possession of a firearm. I'm not pleased that this guy wasn't convicted of additional crimes although I am happy he did at least get felony possession of a firearm and will be deported (again, hopefully permanently) after serving time for that. So I can only speak for myself, but IDK if your big line in the sand against "liberals" is really justified based on this. Let me tell you that if anyone on team blue is cheering for this guy and wants to see him walking free in the USA, fuck them.

I’m not an Academy grad but what “if” the academy became a place that groomed pilots. I’m talking 69%+ get an aviation sciences major, full up flight education like an Embry riddle flight program for the military. Why are we giving free education to history majors who want to be finance officers?

Trick question: the fuel from the fuel truck was too warm, F-35 doesn’t get airborne, Eurofighter bombs F-35. Sorry for the derail. I digress.

Word on the street is that the Aircrew Task Force colluded with the Russians to hack Baseops.net.

Which squadron is hiring?

Perhaps Liquid had it deleted. I’m sure the workload from giving all those no-notice ground evals for folks talking about the airlines at work was just too much. The APC forums are a far better resource anyway.

No shit cept vice versa. After 10yrs AD (see previous post) was single my entire airline career. Extreme target rich environment. Don't be an ass, don't be aggressive, treat them nice with respect. Be patient, word gets out and they come to you. Match your schedules and travel the world.

Who destroyed the squadron at Holloman............. Don't F with Christmas.........

If we're really trying to find a way to somehow skip phase II or III, why not just have qualified zoomies fly the T-6 during their Senior year at the academy, track select at graduation, and press?

154th in Hawaii is having a joint board in the spring. Packages due December 22. Age waivers are being considered. Call a recruiting office and tell them you're interested in submitting a package to the pilot board and they'll get you setup. If for some reason you're unable to get your afoqt and/or tbas complete by the due date, submit anyways and get them done asap and update your application once complete.

Since when did we have a problem with the pool of candidates? We don’t have a production problem. It’s a retention problem. Enlisted would be less retainable than officers. Its not as if we are having problems stocking the UPT pipeline.

Great point!

i would expect it will go back to the levels of two years ago. It has actually gotten better the last 12 months or so, granted lots of young new guys but you gotta take what you can get, currently in the calm before the storm. I think the expansion of the 18x pipeline and expulsion of the 11s is the best thing for the community. For to long RPAs were a dumping ground for bad apples on the 11 side, or a place good 11s were forced to and became jaded. RPAs are a unique/developing enterprise, pulling manned guys initially made sense, but the AF needs to take the time/money to keep the 18s around to lead the force and develop the community. Hang in there, learn what you can from your casual job, make friends with the dudes in the current classes and get gouge. I waited 8 months after I commissioned to go on AD, and another 7 months casual at UPT waiting for my class dates. Sucked at the time, but as a exec assistant I learned a shit ton about the inner workings of how a flying squadron functions, and how to make the queep magic happen, helped a million times over when I showed up at my first ops unit.

Staff: “The reason guys are leaving is the huge pay gap between the Airlines and what we can pay!” General: “I have a great idea. Let’s widen the gap even more by making enlisted pilots!” *All others in room stand and applaud in unison* Just a scene from a play I am working on.

You'd think that admitting to trying to shoot a seal would've gotten him the death penalty in granola land...

Don’t give away the business plan we discussed today!

"Noted" -Every salty terminal Major ever

"Hey there Major. I don't care about your morale patch, I mean I'm cool I have even drank a beer before, I'm a bro. But I know the Wing commander does that silly stiff, so may wanna just take it off for a bit. I know I know..." LTC Everyoneever

Wasn't sure to put this here or the WTF thread... https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/11/30/jury-reaches-verdict-in-steinle-murder-trial/ Unfortunately I wasn't too schocked...it just further shows the decline of our culture/values, especially in places like San Fran and Cali. I've seen more outrage from the left for killing a gorilla in a zoo or lion in Africa...

So I've been here about three months on my farewell tour (read: you seven day opted, so here's your non-flying 6 month gig right at the end of your ADSC). This place has changed a LOT. No required PT gear, no required disco belts, and mustaches reign supreme, although there seems to be a bit too much strict compliance to the Hitler rule. I've been rocking a Robin Olds throwback mustache ever since I got here and never got chiefed once. I finally got the "tone it down" from my boss who got the standard passive aggressive words from someone else to pass along to me. What BLOWS MY MIND is the people who still willingly wear PT gear with reflective belts. They're uncommon, but not rare. My buddies didn't get chiefed face down in the mud for these nerds to keep wearing that shit! Facilities continue to be in a state of decay. The remaining CC trailers are same as always, with thick black mold and rot. The BPC buildings are not much better. Their poor construction is beginning to show in the form of all the tiles being loose, large cracks in the concrete, and leaking during the rain. AC is also spotty in several of those buildings. The high water mark of insanity (October 09) appears to have receded to today's baseline of 6/10 on the dumb scale.

There is a certain Baptist church in these here parts where the preacher has a gun under his bible during the sermon. Open carry is welcome and has been for several years.

B-1 at Oshkosh

I mean, firearms accidentally discharge regularly. Not saying that’s necssarrily what happened here, but no one but Zarate really knows. The fact that the single bullet richoched off the ground before it struck Steinle to me makes a much stronger case for involuntary manslaughter than first degree murder. Then again I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express law school so take that for what it’s worth. I agree with you generally that the way the state and city handled his detention (or lack there of) immediately before the shooting was poor. I’m a fan of sane, just national policies in a lot of cases and immigration fits that bill to me. We’re one nation, we need one smart policy that applied everywhere. That being said, there’s an inherent tension in both parties where they don’t want the feds dictating policy on some things (immigration enforcement and marijuana on the left for instance, school prayer and abortion and many other issues on the right), yet they want the feds to impose their preferred policies on those who they disagree with. Just as long as we’re all honest about that duality these are policies that should be widely discussed and debated.