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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...

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 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.

I’d love to see age 67 get approved with the caveat that they all have to go be regional FOs for those last two years. If they really think it’s an experience problem, what better way to help to go sling gear for a 29 year old CRJ captain!

That’s the thing, Biff. Having to go through life espousing a platform like men believing they’re women being a totally normal thing is a war zone, haven’t you heard? All those C Model guys have been at war this whole time, we just didn’t hear their story.

Just delete my browser history!

Something just really rubs me the wrong way about the scrubbing of the social media posts. If I was involved in an accident, you can be damn sure that the investigators will scour my personal life leading up to that accident. All text messages, phone calls, etc would be looked at. If I scrubbed them after it happened, that would raise the eyebrows of the investigators…possibly to point of obstructing an investigation, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice. Maybe there was nothing there. Maybe the investigators have full access. But it doesn’t look right to me.

Yes, most folks don't understand that Trump is using these as a leverage for negotiations. I'll argue in that vein (sts) that it is working so far, he has reactions from everybody who's been "tariffed." Otherwise he would be like the previous POTUS, who sat there with hi d*ck in his hand, doing nothing.

Since the speculation ice has been broken, seems like there’s a serious problem having a published heli route that crosses the 3D visual glide path for 33. Normal 3.0° PAPIs will put you at 200’/.66NM which crosses Route 4 at exactly the max alt.

The left weaponized the justice system to go after Trump, now Trump is using the legal system to beat the crap out of Big Tech and some of the big news organizations. During the election it is alleged that CBS 60 minutes edited and altered Kamala Harris' interview to remove her word salad and make her look better. Trump filed a $10 Billion Dollar voter interference lawsuit, CBS refused to turn over the transcripts, called Trump's lawsuit “completely without merit” and promised to vigorously fight it after it was filed. Now they are in settlement talks after being ordered to hand over the transcripts. ABC news recently settled a defamation case with Trump for $15M plus another $1m to Trump's lawyers and they apologized. Shortly thereafter George Stephanopoulos Deleted his X Account. Meta paid $25M to settle Trump's lawsuit against the company over its decision to suspend his social media accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Interesting to see the pendulum swing back, hopefully Big tech can remain neutral and the press can finally act as the 4th estate rather than extension of the DNC.

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.

@Arkbird guessing it'll show in the projected training block?

If you're going to be using supersonic rounds, then it doesn't make a ton of sense to choose 300 blackout over 556. That's not to say 300 blackout isn't going to ruin someone's day, but the ballistics of 556 are more damaging in pretty much every configuration over any 300 black. Especially if you don't care about overpenetration, then then 556 is going to put the most damaging hole in the bad guy. 300 blackout is quiet, scary quiet, and not having to worry about deafening yourself while defending your home is one of the things I like about it. But 556 suppressed is still quiet enough that you probably aren't going to ruin your flying career defending your home, and you get all the benefits of the sheer ferocity of 556. If you absolutely need the shortest SBR, or want a hearing safe home defense gun, then 300 black makes sense. That's what I have. But if you're going to use super sonic ammo I'd probably stick with 556.

Agreed. They are more than welcome to come up with better ways to get it done but the track record for the progressive side isn't quite spectacular. Also, they seem to be doubling down on going farther left of center based off the DNC elections.

His biggest debate when getting his will written was whether to involve the Guinness Book of World Records or Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Are the rumors true about the most extensive collection of Asian midget porn known to man?

Both things are true. Is there fraud in USAID funding, I’m sure there is. It doesn’t excuse having uncleared personnel access US Government networks, that’s totally unacceptable Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

All that stuff is still available. Just because it's not publically available doesn't mean its gone.

They didn't stifle information flow. Withholding identity at that moment in time was in line with existing regulations.

There is plenty of talk about the other guy. If he was the instructor/evaluator, he’s responsible. Period. If he wasn’t the instructor/evaluator, he still has some responsibility because he is part of the crew. 67 people were killed. Just because you are heartbroken because your child was killed doesn’t not give you the right to stifle information flow. Withholding the identity just raises more questions. There are lots of valid questions being asked.

et voilà ! Mexico president makes deal with Trump to pause tariffs for a month, put 10K troops on border

First assignment captains with average time. The three that I'm thinking of specifically were all good pilots. It may be rare, but we had a few shiny pennies that didn't suck as pilots. They were good people too. I knew a few execs in my 11H career who were solid pilots as well. The crappiest pilot I knew was a 60 dude who crossed over to the Huey. He happened to be the CC.

No I’m not saying that all. But looking back I realize how I wrote that could be taken that way, so I don’t blame you for the response. A better way to say it is just because they’re an ally doesn’t mean they don’t face repercussions for actions (and lack of actions) leading to negative outcomes for our country. The carrot hasn’t worked, so here’s the stick. They don’t get anymore free passes just because they’re an ally. Furthermore, as an ally they should act like it and do a lot better WRT border-related issues. We’ll see how long this lasts; my guess is not horribly long as they realize they’re economically way outside our league.

"The Best Money We Ever Spent" Always was a scam. I will never be convinced otherwise.

we all know these types. shinny pennies. pushed to exec or staff work. typically weaker flying skills (or don't like flying) but excel as paper pushers. a story as old as time. was this the case here? i don't know. but the low hours is something illuminating. and the high profile WH gig. is it causal to the accident? no idea and won't cast judgement. my point is maybe we should bring back the primary focus of pilots to being a pilot. and reward them as such. instead you're rewarded for being the best exec and no one gives a shit about your flying skills.

Cannot quote for truth enough. The dudes I fly with that want to make it more exciting…should fly something else outside of 121 world. Also have seen every variation of trying to make time like you mentioned, and the company’s inability to staff enough crews/assign gates and crews efficiently or some random taxi slowdown will thwart efforts to shave a few minutes 99.6% of the time.

I would guess those planes have big bottles of O2 on board?

That Lear Jet looked like a missile.

Are you really saying Canada, who we've been aligned with culturally, military, economically for at least 100 years isn't an ally? They were ride or die with us in Afghanistan. Let's planes land in their county on 9/11 and took those people into their homes. Not an ally? What is an ally then?

I think I posted one of their renders in the concept airplane thread but their website has more on their idea of a common core and multiple variants for different training purposes + an unmanned ISTAR / AR platform… https://aeralis.com/ Zero point zero chance of being adopted and as it’s just a digital aircraft att I’d be skeptical of putting resources to it until at least one variant had been produced and flown. However new tech doesn’t happen without some bets being taken…

100ft of discrepancy can get eaten up real quick with instrument error, location of static ports on airframes, and a sneeze. Keep in mind, it isn't just an NVGs limit peripheral vision thing. Airframe parts block lines of sight. In this case the "A pillars" and windscreen framing on both aircraft. The procedures around DC are stupid.

Almost always a faster way to get on the ground. Great points above still want to know if they were wearing NVGs (NTSB mentioned they are working to confirm). While they are a great tool as we all know they also restrict peripheral vision making it easier to falsely ID the called out traffic. Did anyone see the NTSB update last night, the lead investigator was almost in tears. He noted many recommendations from past accidents that are still in limbo (I know there are many reasons they have not been incorporated like money, staffing, and impact on operations). He also talked about altitude discrepancies - From the FDR they know the CRJ was at 325' plus or minus 25'. The tower radar showed the Blackhawk at 200'. Obviously the helo was at the same altitude as the AA flight, what caused the discrepancy? I don't know how the tower radar derives altitude? Raw data, does ADSB feed into it?

In 2025 it’s unacceptable that we rely on a pilot moving at 100-200 kts to visually acquire another 100-200 kt airborne target based on a 3rd-party visobs talk-on at a third location with no common reference point - in Class B, at night - to ensure flight safety. These are multi-million dollar vehicles and buildings that can’t get a common datalink picture on a screen. Lots of root causes for lots of problems with equipment, certification, training, manning, etc. Every child playing iPad games has more computing and display power than a lot of aircraft that are allowed in Class B.

So true. The engineers across industry are mostly great dudes who want to win, just like us. It’s their upper management and c suite that fucks everything up.

You’re right, we are incredibly ruthless about it. In some way it’s comforting knowing that these incidents are so rare that they do provoke outrage and a race to find better solutions. Imagine what living through 1960 would have been like in terms of military and civilian aviation incidents. Here’s a toast to the crews and passengers. 🍻 Fly safe out there.

Something to listen to on your commute https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fighter-pilot-podcast/id1330534712?i=1000686308685 Guy (USAF test pilot) seemed like a decent dude and gave a good overview on the -7, didn’t really get into the issues with the jet mentioned here but good points covered, he didn’t get into the programmatic problems but the FPP creator did after he talked with the interviewer about the episode Interestingly the FPP creator did bring up in the review the idea of F-16T, I’d call it a T-16, but whatever, did this ever get brought up as a COA? A new order of all D models in a Trainer configuration? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

UNSAT

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

I did some time in the 1st HS. Both of these situations present themselves quite often. I've had to hover on several occasions to wait for landing traffic. At night, in DC, NVGs were not too effective with all of the cultural lighting. It could be very easy to maintain visual separation with the wrong aircraft. What a bad day for everyone involved.

TCAS is in traffic advisory below 900' agl, And is common to hear- like the collision alert going off at ATC as they see the fireball. PAT was Mode S, good enough. TCAS can't save you. ADSB IN is not provided in many airlines, only OUT, also won't save you. Pat25 likely never saw their target at RWY33. They likely saw AAL3130 on final to RWY1. NVG distance error or blindspots or whatever, RIP. Water is only a few yards deep there, like hitting the ground, then cold/wet.

^this We are challenged at the strategic level with near-peer competitors, technological disruption, our acquisition system is too slow and doesn't give us deep magazines or depth of forces/platforms, and our end strength is likely too small to effectively do what is being asked of us by Congress...these are challenges that the CSAF can lead the charge on. What "CSAF #23" is focused on lately is *so* far below that level, it's literal navel gazing. Worrying about f*cking gig lines when you are the senior ranking officer in the entire service, YGTBFSM. That "problem," if you can even call it that, can be solved effectively at about the E5 level; O10s need not spend a single solitary moment on that one. We will apparently gaze at our own navels while we continue to fall behind where we need to be to fight and win against America's foes. I once heard the canary in the coal mine of impotent leadership is that when they know they can't actually positively affect the big stuff, they start focusing on the small stuff, because at least then they can look and say, "Look here, I did that." We need to get #23 some god damned Viagra. This letter is focused on many of the right things. The latest one and all of it's associated PDFs and videos badly, badly missed the mark.

I’ve known Spaz for years, and she was always on point and good people.

Yup it’s a FUBAR decision but here we are. The T-50 may yet find a US buyer just not the USAF. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/aero/documents/TF-50N Product Card.pdf https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/us-navy-steaming-ahead-new-trainer An interesting point Lemoine made was why not use the Viper? Yes way more expensive per flight hour but versus setting up a new program it might have made sense, at least initially.

Decent discussion on Lemoine’s channel Point brought up at the end that I thought was good, the advanced trainer for pointy nose bound studs needed to teach fast cognitive skills and airmanship by primarily being a high performance trainer versus a high performance trainer and fighter sensor trainer Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have followed this discussion with considerable interest. I was a T-37 IP at Laredo, 1969-72. Then on to fighters and then the airlines. IP in F-4, F-104, A-10, B-727, DC-9, MD-80, and EMB-170. Too bad we can't restart the 37 and 38 production lines and return to a time when things for the most part seemed to get done.

USAF when it's gone through 3+ iterations of pilot training in the last 5 years:

Liason program? Pre-positioning? Sorry, I'm not up to speed on all the COAs. What are these? I can assume I know what light foot prints at remote sites means. That could be interesting just because it opens up lots of options for people. Also, same with tenant units. Think beyond the USAF. Lots of good Coast Guard sites and Navy bases dudes would want to live near. Throw a couple of these out to K-bay, North Island, Tampa, C-Springs...now you're cooking with oil. Honestly, though, it probably makes the most sense to just stand up little tenant units near the super hubs, or within about 2 hours of them...at least the first ones if something like this actually goes down.

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.