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The only logical conclusion that one can come to is the agents were looking for a fight. If you think a dude is a gun runner, do you attack him in the place that he would have the most guns? A six year old could see the obvious absurdity. Or do you go get him in a place where at the absolute most he has a pistol hidden? I am not against qualified immunity, but maybe it does need some reform when a police state can violate every shred of common sense and seemingly intentionally escalate a situation to the point that any reasonable person would consider their lives in danger and take self defense actions. If I hear someone trying to kick my door in late at night and yelling 'Police', I'm not going to believe them and I'm going to defend my home. If I hear someone nicely knocking on my door, look outside, see multiple cop cars with their lights on and police in uniform, I will know that I'm not being attacked by a violent gang and I'll put my gun away before I open the door. These ATF agents and the leadership that approved the raid need to be held accountable. They killed a US citizen in his home when he almost certainly thought he was under attack by a band of lawless criminals, which isn't actually that far from the truth.

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Good. The only airline flying I do is sitting in the back. But I work with enough of the 65+ crowd on a daily basis to know that I don't want them flying me or my family around. Age-related cognitive decline is real. And those who deny it the most are typically the ones most affected by it. Which is not to say you can't be 65+ and still be capable. But for every 10 guys who think they're "running circles around all those young whipper-snappers," 9 of them are full of shit.

This is what happens when parents didn’t discipline their iPad kids, now they’re college students. Speaking of one retard.

Except those aren't the choices. The old guys I fly with are clearly very experienced and have a wealth of knowledge. But most don't recognize how unsafe they can be, and arrogance is a hazard they are blind to. I'll take the young CA who taxis slow and asks for input over the 65 YO who has done this so many times he doesn't need to double check that last radio call.

What a name! Kinda like Bigus Dickus.

I think at this point it's safe to say that all sides are paranoid beyond reason. Speaker Johnson made a really interesting comment in an interview, saying that most of the loudest voices against the Ukraine bill had not yet been in the scif to receive a single classified briefing. Yeah yeah, I know, we can't trust the surveillance State. But anybody who says that is just being reflexively stupid. You can't trust anything outright, but if you really believe that us intelligence is corrupted so thoroughly that it produces no viable information, then you were just as guilty of living in an alternate reality as those who claim the absolute righteousness of funding the Ukraine fight. I am very open to the counter arguments for supporting Ukraine at this point. But I am not at all interested in hearing it from someone who has gone out of their way to avoid briefings that would give them a full picture. As to your point about the funding going to defense contractors, that was under the impression that the incredible corruption in Ukraine, which I do believe exists, was such that we could not risk sending them money outright to trust they would use it appropriately. Sending the munitions directly will obviously not completely eliminate corruption, but it's a hell of a lot harder to launder 155 mm shells than it is a pallet of cash.

Forget the extra two years being shot down. Didn’t anyone see the “25 hour cockpit voice recorder” requirement within the bill statement. No one will ever get close to the current 65 year max. Good luck to ya’ll.

FIFY

Simple, arrest them all as they are breaking laws. But, that’s not happening because academia at large is comprised of the most retarded, weak, and worthless people our society has to offer.

A 777 crossing a runway they weren’t cleared for, causing another aircraft to reject, and then still continuing to Europe YOLO leaving no voice recording despite knowing they made the mistake. Edit: saw your follow on recognizing this. But it honestly probably was the single event driver.

Sorry, that was directed at Lookie's very sanctimonious retort.

The local, adversarial to the feds, vso guy is worth their weight!

Isn't @Biff_T harvesting Cheetos in NorCal?

Dibs Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

Solid it depends here. Top 5 or 6 in my class were all commercial rated before UPT. The #1 guy had 269 hours of formation aerobatic jet time. I’ve also seen the 2000 hour regional pilot that is bottom of the class.

Funny story time... As I was getting close to retirement I was going through the evaluation process for a couple of claims. Even though I live 25 minutes from a large VA hospital with all kinds of specialists, the VA in their infinite wisdom decided to send me three hours away to Biloxi to a contracted ENT doctor. I was having some serious back issues which required injections under partial sedation and wouldn't you know the C&P exam was scheduled the same day as my back procedure. Knowing you never want to skip a C&P exam I came up with a plan to do both. The day arrived and luckily my back procedure was first thing in the morning...my wife took me to the hospital, they got me all doped up then crammed a few needles and meds into my discs and spine. My wife was flying to DC that afternoon to help her parents and was going to cancel but when my two best friends heard Biloxi and they volunteered to "help" by taking me to the exam...in reality they had a plan to turn it into a gambling trip. One of them has a large SUV so they put a bunch of pillows and blankets in the back, tossed me in and took of for Biloxi. I woke up a few hours later still out of it and asked how much longer.?..they were slow to reply..."we are not sure, we think we have the wrong address!" I slowly sat up expecting to see a medical center and instead I was shocked to see we were driving through an industrial complex. They was a towing company, a welding shop, a junkyard...all metal buildings. We arrive at the address and it was a metal building with a dirt parking lot. The Dr's name was on the door so I went inside and checked in. They took my name and told me to have a seat. I was still VERY groggy and when I looked around the waiting room it didn't make sense...right above me was Tweety Bird and Sylvester!!!! I actually thought I was seeing things from the anesthesia. I pulled out my phone and took the attached pictures to prove I wasn't crazy. The waiting room furniture was best described as medieval with swords everywhere. My buddies were waiting outside in the ruck so I texted them these pictures as proof, half expecting a trap door to open and drop me into a dungeon. Eventually they called my name and I go back to the exam room which was even more weird. The walls were completely covered in movie posters and there was a top shelf with all kinds of collectable toys...see video! A short time later the Dr comes in and starts asking questions. I had already done an audiology exam with a different provider and he was going through the results...finally he asks me "when you shoot your gun are you right or left handed?" I was kind of taken aback so he said "you know, your rifle you carry in the service." I replied - "Dr I am not an infantryman, I am a pilot." He seemed confused then he said...."well what kind of airplane?" I replied "AC-130 Gunships"...he looked at me for a second then he said "well what side of the airplane are the guns on?" I replied the "left"...he looked at the paperwork and said...."well, that makes sense...exam complete." He then spent the next 20 minutes telling me how he used to work in the VA hospital but was fired for speaking up...her game me a rundown of his manifesto, which he later emailed to me and send me on my way with validated hearing loss in my left ear and Tinnitus. My buddies laughed all the way to the casino, then they dumped a bunch of booze on top of my anesthesia and we played craps and blackjack half the night. IMG_6631.MOV

Didn't really add much to the pool of active pilots, but it gave a lot of pilots two more years on the long-term disability payroll.

9 and 7/8ths of them are full of shit

Wasn't really sure where to put this but on 21 April 2024 LtCol (ret) Sam Galloway flew West. Sam was the Navigator on the lead aircraft of the Operation Eagle Claw (Desert One) mission. Post AF he trained almost every MC-130H front ender that went through the FTU at Kirtland until he fully retired in 2011. Sam was a phenomenal instructor and also a genuinely fantastic human being, he'll be missed. Galloway, Sam | Gathering of Eagles Foundation (goefoundation.org)

A few years ago just as COVID was kicking off my buddy ordered 100K rounds of .223. A truck delivered it to his house on two pallets. I've been waiting for the ATF to pay him a visit ever since.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/major-columbia-protest-organizers-have-ties-to-left-wing-donors/ar-AA1nuWZW Here’s a very surface level snapshot. Do some digging/reading and you’ll see this is all funded/organized by similar actors as BLM in 2020. Same big pic goals with a different label. First learn who CUAD is and what groups are under its “umbrella,” then learn where those various groups get their funding from.

26 hours at 120 decibels. That sounds absolutely horrible. The things dudes do to build time for the airlines.

I was discussing this the other day, after seeing what the USN pulled off almost overnight. AF buy a slew of the same darn Beechcraft and get on it NOW. All those turboprops can be delivered in 3-4 years. Guys need real flying and learning in the real world and all the things one learns by doing that. T-6 onward to King Air onward to "Heavy Whatever" is WORLDS better than T-6 to F it, we do it live. Kudos to the USN boys. AF...take notes and execute on a T-1 replacement.

This would be a good idea. I thought my TC-12 training was a good feeder for the Herk. It would give the student a more complex airplane with more than one engine to worry about. At this point anything is better than the ridiculous idea of T-6s straight to whatever heavy the student tracks. Would probably be fairly cheap operating cost wise too. All those are reasons why the AF would most likely never go for it.

The real question… does the T-54 have a “god box”?

Yes it’s the Russians that are gonna tell you the real truth. You know you are literally a vignette characature we have to do annual training on for insider threat? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Smaggy I too am a 2015 Late to Rate guy who got passed over (no negative files either). I got picked up for CSO in Oct 2019 as a fresh Capt and took 3 years to compete UCT and IQT/MQT for my mds. I showed up to my first ops squadron in March 23 just a few months before the PRF was due. Honestly, it was a gut punch but sort of a blessing in disguise because now my family has an opportunity to choose our path forward. Im looking at Guard/Reserve units for CSOs and possibly trying to get picked up for UPT. Unfortunately, airlines don’t need CSOs 😂