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They may have the greatest drop video ending ever...

It’s irrelevant as to whether the Russian/Chinese FLANKERS are on an American military unit emblem because of a mistake or because or regulation. What matters is that it makes you look stooopid. Surely it’s someone’s job in the Air Force to give a shit about that, even if it does mean having to know your arse from your elbow?

I can't wait for all the WSO's to cry about the ANG flying with empty back seats and crushing it.

Yeee buddyyyy

Phone interview invites went out for Jacksonville today

What is amazing is that, in an Air Force that is massively overly concerned with "how things look", on this one they're mostly concerned with trying desperately to gaslight the people who have identified that there is a problem into thinking that *they* are the problem. The AF can't even get their own dysfunctional leadership processes and priorities executed well.

You can't fix stupid. AZ has the same problem with people from CA. They can't afford to live there and the state is a mess but they vote for the policies that created the environment that caused their flight. Idiots.

I think we are all aware of that but the accomplishment itself is a huge step forward. This is a lot farther than teaching a computer to beat a chess champion. A computer learning to navigate a 3 dimensional space is a pretty significant step forward.

Something is not right with that logo.

They’ve been saying this about the next generation since the beginning of time. “Children; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room, they contradict their parents and tyrannize their teachers. Children are now tyrants.“ - Socrates

I'll play devils advocate, but does anyone think the quality of student is actually degrading as well? I've seen it in every single facet of my career/life so far. The inability of younger folks to think critically. I've seen it outside the military in the business world, in grad school, in civ flight training, and I've seen it in the military world of course. The ability for younger folks to figure stuff out on their own seems to be attriting so rapidly. I'm not sure what causes it, whether it is being coddled by technology or what, but I'm a firm believer that our world/education system seems to be spitting out weaker individuals. Sure the kids these days are super bright and are geniuses that can work through a million lines of complex computer code in 5 minutes but somehow can't figure out simple tasks. No matter how much technology we throw at it, basic solid decision making skills just seem harder to come by. (and more time in the real thing seems to be the only way to learn those) I feel like I'm turning into that old guy talking bout "kids with their darn technology" but I swear it is having a negative effect. Anyone else seeing the same thing or I am just turning into that guy...

I should clarify that I am NOT currently in this situation, but want to be prepared in the event I am that lucky...lol

The drive times are a little longer now, but in the ballpark. I don't wish deathway 90 on anyone, I did lose squadronmates to that road during my tenure. I went the other way, and got an airplane (owned two of them during my tenure, since had to trade up when the kid came along and 160hp wasn't gonna cut it anymore). My family wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the spam cans. Places like DLF are perfect for that kind of mission. Some of the more memorable trips of that chapter of our lives were in the ol' spam cans. It truly became a pressure relief valve, and travel to my wife's family back in the KTIK area was a breeze vice driving. My avatar pic is of the second plane right there at the ramp at Pico circa 2013, which I still own. Regarding airline service, it went in cycles, due to the non-profitable nature of the city pair. Colgan had the contract with UA during the first half of my tenure there. Then the city lost service. As the pay and travel guy at my sq, I dealt with that fallout a lot. They regained service back a year or so before I finally got my parole from the place. AA feeder carrier. And now lost again as noted above. Doesn't surprise me in this environment. The one thing we legitimately miss? No traffic. But that's more of a pre-retirement lifestyle complaint. One of the appeals of airline de facto part time work, is the flexibility to live where you want. I think we're gonna try for smaller towns within driving distance to healthcare and urban conveniences when I get done with uncle sugar, since the wife is younger than me by a good clip and expects to remain in the workforce well after my second retirement. GA flying in retirement is a must (I didn't undergo all this indentured service to end up playing canasta in my off time), and since the finances don't quite justify airpark living, proximity to an airport with hangars will continue to be a driver. Good bad or indifferent, exurban living is more compatible with airplane ownership than metro core living, due to storage shortages and price pressures making it relatively unaffordable. We're not quite willing to retire to a place like DLF over it, but I'm, sure we'll find a middle ground location when we get to that bridge.

No but tell them I'll take your place and that should smooth things over. 😉

Just imagine if the drone was rocket-powered instead of air breathing! Like Mach 4 speed. And I bet we could make it pull 30g. And of course, there’s no human in there so we could give it a one-way mission. So we’d better make them cheap - like less than $1m each - and light so one fighter could control 8 or even as many as 20 of them. They can even have little radars or IR sensors in their noses, but they wouldn’t need them until close in because the controlling fighter (the mothership!) is guiding them most of the way to their target.

It used to be funny but now it’s not. Those same idiots running away bring their politics with them. Hence why there is a growing liberal enclave in Austin TX and Houston.

KSPS 20-07 F-35 Luke x2 F-16 x5 F-15E SJ x3 F-15C Kingsley A-10 DM F-22 Hickman T-38C KSPS x2 T-6 KSPS C-146 x2 U-28 Hurlburt x2 B-52 Barksdale CF-18 Canada Eurofighter RAF F-35 Netherlands x2 Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

It was a computer program running a computer program vs a pilot running a computer program. The results are so predictable a 5 year old could have told you who would win. Simulators are not real airplanes. The AI would not have the data in an airplane it had in the sim; perfect performance modeling of both jets, perfect data on adv airspeed, alt, g, distance, heading, AA, etc. Probably even knew exactly what flight control inputs the pilot was making before they would have been apparent visually. A laser and a camera doesn't get you that data. The entire thing was done with the stated purpose to give confidence in a drone wingman for future fighter pilots. A cagematch in a sim does not do that, so the stated objective was not possible to meet. The entire thing smacked of purely a publicity stunt.

According to democrats, protests are perfectly peaceful and encouraged...just not where the elites live. https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-chicago-police-lightfoot-home-protests-20200820-s563zjj4uzc2rcbprrruzalwaq-story.html

Well done. I remembered that episode watched, probably repeatedly as a kid growing up on afternoon reruns. And while it is an analogy, I wasn't necessarily going for the WMD type of unmanned weapons. I inarticulately tried to bring up the "if it's all 'droid warfare - air/land/sea/space - would political leaders really hesitate as much as they might, in Western societies anyway, regarding meat-servo casualties? Dunno. Does the escalation ramp become "He destroyed so many of my droids that I have to go nuclear" instead of "Xi just killed a carrier and now I've got no choice?" Either way, Lt Data will not be refilling the popcorn machine, I'm betting... edited to add: The summer drink of choice in the brick household this season is lime rum/coconut rum/fresh squeezed lime/some sparkling lime flavored water. Repeat as necessary until it doesn't matter. Like about now...

The poop on the streets?

Don't feel bad at all. I spent 4 years at DLF with no airline service. Back then, we drove these things called "cars" to where we wanted to go. Everyone crying about no airline service needs to give it a try. Get a fast "car" and go. With your buds. You can be at SAT airport in about 2 hours. No different than flying out of DLF. And a lot more convenient. BTW... front gate of DLF to front gate of Randolph in 2+12. On a Friday. Going through the city at rush hour. (According to a friend... not that I approve of such behavior from 22 year old student pilots.) That was when the Auger Inn was "a thing". Oh... and when you see a Border Patrol airplane at 50' AGL flying east-bound, down the shoulder of Hwy 90, and they pass you... and then YOU decide to pass THEM... it's pretty fun. I had a blast in DLF. There's no reason you can't. Even if you're from "up north" and used to having 1,000,000 people in a square mile of city. Give it the college try.

Crashing too many jets will also render the AF ineffective

The airfield manager (Flugplatzmeister) made me park a uke in front of IL-76 once to prevent them from leaving and sleep it off, they were 3 sheets to the wind when they landed and making slurred transmissions to ATC and would not follow the marshallers. Their jets always smelt like sweat,vodka and feet.

Can’t wait for all the C model dudes having to fly with a WSO. After a few sorties they’ll realize they can’t do it all and it’ll be fine. But the briefs will be comical the first few months.

Yes. Sincerely, An Embraer pilot

Trump also does a great job of trolling the media, liberals, and leftists...but I repeat myself. Trump throws out comments he knows are going to set those people off and they fall for it every. Single. Time. They will spin themselves into a frenzy much like a cat after the little red dot of a laser pointer. Can't say I approve of the technique but it can be entertaining to watch.

Or you can post memes while drunk.

But it *is* a specific aircraft silhouette -- a Flanker -- and even if it weren't the front-line fighter of our peer-state enemies, it would be in violation of the "rule" in that it *does* depict a specific airframe. It should have never made it past the initial design review for that to begin with. Of course it wasn't intentional, but the fact that the mistake made it through multiple levels of review is what is disturbing. Even worse, the apathy shown toward fixing the error (and, bizarrely, the doubling down on the mistake and digging in of heels to *not* fix it) is a *real* cultural problem, yes. In a culture that is steeped in symbolism -- as in, nearly everything the military does has symbolic meaning -- having an organizational emblem with Flankers overflying the graves of dead American soldiers and a folded American flag is a Russian or Chinese propaganda victory if there ever was one. We should *all* find that disturbing and offensive and massively disrespectful to those who've given the ultimate sacrifice, the very people that organization purports to treat with dignity, honor, and respect. Would you be okay if, say, the "mistake" was putting a folded Chinese flag on there instead of an American flag? Or if a casket came back with a Liberian flag over it by accident? Ludicrous. I guess "excellence in all we do" is just as empty a saying as "Dignity, Honor, Respect".

Uh, Prosuper, I uh, talked to the pilot. He was smoking, he was coughing, he didn’t smell very good and he was wearing a tight blue flight suit. He didn’t speak much English but I think he said they would be leaving on time.

I disagree on any emphasis on race or gender or any discriminator. It's divisive. The individual is the ultimate minority.

Of course he’s not your boy, now. Doesn’t fit your narrative. Go back to your echo chamber. Uh, the Feds don’t come to your door with one agent and ask you to come out nicely.