Leaderboard

Didn't get enough of a response to your other account?

We can’t be too hard on Huggy, he did do UPT in a Stearman and has spent a lot of time at altitudes with very little oxygen.

I dunno…not permitting 100’ of procedural control deconfliction as the norm would have made all of this irrelevant. TCAS, ADS-B, visual separation, etc are moot if you delete the ability to put aircraft this close. When it comes to commercial aviation, we should never rely on decisions made with only seconds to spare…that’s unnecessary risk. Let’s assume everybody on that fateful night did everything right: the allowable error in altimeter equipment may very well have still resulted in a collision. It is shitty airspace deconfliction. It seems like every time I fly I’m getting traffic callouts, and my clearance to continue climbing or descending (while IFR) is always contingent on being well clear on radar. My call to the controller with “traffic in sight” is never trusted and these examples highlight why. While it might give them respite from seeing two targets merging on the scope, it doesn’t absolve them of their shared responsibility.

I'm not sure how to respond to that other than suggest you seek counseling with a mental health professional because that way of thinking just ain't right. 757 with Rolls Royce engines can best be described as a dream date having long legs with big hooters. Good luck with the counseling and get well soon!

How about everyone starts in an A-10? Slow, multi engine and can probably do enough clover leaves and aileron rolls for the new guys to get a quarter chub. The transition to heavies or fighters after flying an A-10 should be a little easier than not flying at all.

general chang provides excellent insight at the flag level. like him or not he is well connected and has the pulse of leadership.

Nostalgia. It was one of the best trolls ever, people here were losing their minds. Those were good times.

I stole this from the interwebs.

Little long but hilarious for anyone that's had to do Cyber or Security training.

you are a FREAK 😄

No amount of base/equip seniority will make me fly the 73. The French have thoroughly destroyed Boeing on this one.

What lack of SA is the CRJ guilty of? The RW was on a different frequency, invisible via cockpit tools and they weren’t alerted to their presence. I’m seeing RW causal and ATC contributing but pretty tough to fault the dudes kept in the dark about conflicts while flying a night circle to short runway.

Nothing, it’s just the leadership of the AF thinks they can min run this enterprise and get away with it We can not have the AF we say want with the resources Congress allocates, missions we are legally required to OT&E for with the way we operate now Something has to give or more money and the freedom to execute that money in the best way possible for the needs of the AF vs the needs of X defense prime or Congressmen or pilot hating shoe clerk Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Im not sure about Army Helos but most USAF helos have VHF. VHF wouldn't have helped in this accident. If they had the 33 traffic in sight, they should have turned or hovered. The lack of SA (from all involved) plus an altitude deviation at a critical moment caused this. It's nearly impossible and dumb (in my opinion) to try and fly under landing traffic to 33. I know from experience. Edit: @tac airlifter makes a good point in a future post regarding this accident. The CRJ shouldn't be faulted for this. The lack of SA (from Pat and tower) plus the altitude error caused this.

This. On one checkride, I observed a Pilot blow through the ILS on base to final. He had no idea how this could have happened. So I intervened, to let him know that he forgot to check that he had the right course dialed in and that this was a direct result of the the Pilot neglecting to check his gig on the downwind. This created an electric phenomenon, causing the aircraft's ILS to malfunction. It was a shame, the dude was a good Pilot, but I had to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately for him, he did this during a checkride so my hands were tied. The only man I ever saw cry during a debrief. The last that I heard, he transitioned to be a woman Pilot flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong.

The problem has never been adhering to the grooming standards. The problem was the standards themselves. Beards can have standards. Mustaches too, without looking like a butthole brush. There are more ways to look professional than a high and tight. Set the rules to a reasonable level, then enforce.

Actually, he doesn’t think we need pilots because everything can be done with autonomous drones and therefore pilot production can be zero by cancelling the program altogether, so you don’t even need the /s there. Boom, money saved.

Finally. I always wanted to know what happens when I don’t pick out the three flags for Francis who talked about living abroad and had financial troubles.

Naw. Raising Arizona or Lord of War!!

I think Rat fits right into the rotted corporate culture there.

Nothing. I made too general of a statement by typing the words "everyone involved". I agree.

I miss the good old days when we obsessed over black socks and grass in the sidewalk cracks.

I didn't realize this. Bad leadership doesn't just retire, they go on to assist screwing up billion dollar industries.

Worst Sq/CC I ever had.

Unbelievably sad. We had the greatest flight school the world has ever seen…. “Let’s fuck it all up!!!”

I’ve been out of the AETC IP game a few years now. Sad to read it’s only gotten worse. But for those who are new around here and don’t know the history…it began when Kwast and Wills forcefully gang-banged the UPT enterprise into a training program that has set us on a course to become a 3rd-rate Air Force for decades to come. Don’t know what Kwast is doing in his retirement, but Wills was just appointed senior VP at HTX Labs, which—you guessed it—oversees VR training/tech for military training applications.

All of this seems so unnecessary. What was wrong with the old T-41/T-37/T-38 way of doing things?

For now they are not in IPT. It’s a pass/fail just like IFS/IFT was. Except they take FAA checkrides with a DPE to get their ratings. Once at the UPT base flying the T-6 it’s similar to how’s it’s always been, except the mass will not only affect your track, but also your MWS/location if not going 38s.

Not vain at all and a valid concern. Dude shows up for his first airline interview and tries using the military hr conversion factor and the airline is like “wait, you went to Embry Riddle just like that civilian guy over there. We only give mil credit to Navy and Army trained guys now.”

Luck and timing. Competition and sorting (beyond a basic set of standards) is a nice to have. If maximizing quality were the dominant consideration, we would want to maximize assessment in our programs. It isn’t. Quantity is the dominant factor, which means production will be designed so that as long as the person meets the minimum standards for a higher-skill-required job they are able to end up in a higher-skill-required job. The cost is you’ll have lower quality overall because the system isn’t optimized to sort. Right now, we have a system designed in a time when capacity (2x the production bases in a massive drawdown) wasn’t an issue, and sorting correctly was paramount (massive drawdown ongoing). It’s built backwards for the needs today. This leads to having to leverage the [actual] non-dominant factor (quality) to address the [actual] dominant factor (quantity).

Not even remotely the same. Ukraine didn't send a bunch of thugs into Russia to rape women, randomly kill people, and literally throw babies into bonfires. If Ukraine had done that to Russia and Russia invaded Ukraine as a response, I don't think you would see anyone here advocating helping Ukraine. Keep in mind that Hamas was elected by the people. They knew the type of people they were putting in power. The Palestinians celebrated Oct 7th as a victory. Women and children beat hostages and cheered as they dragged the bodies naked dead women down the street. What's a reasonable long term solution? Clearly the status quo isn't working and is only going to lead to more death and suffering. Palestine was offered statehood in Gaza and they rejected it. There will be no long-term peace. This is one sad situation where there doesn't seem to be any middle ground and so it looks like it is going to be a winner-take-all solution. If that's the case, I support the side that doesn't celebrate throwing babies into fires. As far as the region, the leaders of other countries in the area only pay lip service to supporting Palestine. They don't like or want the Palestinians and I would bet that if they could get a good excuse to look the other way while Israel takes over Gaza, they would do so happily. Only reason they pretend to support the Palestinians is because it would look bad to their people to favor Israel.

Weren't you on the 86 USAFA hand ball team with uncle Allvin?

Sadly, impossible. Most of the Arab world, and many of its similar-minded neighbors, will always be filled with so much hate and will always be completely incompatible with western values and society. We cannot solve this because whatever re-building, AFPAK hands bullshit, etc. we do, it will never change their ideology that has existed for thousands of years. Best we can do is try to keep them away from us.

It takes that sort of attention to detail to ensure Boeing's commercial sales are humming right along. https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-rhatigan-1814b622

Those recommendations better include repealing the NFA and erasing the ATF.

It doesn’t really matter if the RJ had TCAS or ADS-B In or Foreflight.. the helo should have had that stuff. I have no first hand knowledge of their equipment.. but it sounds like the standard Army 60s don’t have it. These 12th AB/VIP 60s should, especially if they are flying in that airspace. And if they don’t have it, they shouldn’t fly in that airspace til they do have it. And.. even worse, maybe they do have the equipment, but fly with it disabled because of IMHO blown out of proportion OPSEC concerns.. which is what AMC is doing. Drives me nuts that I fly my Herk around busy Class B and C airspace with ADS-B off because.. China. It’s a crock of shit and we will have a mishap one of these days because we aren’t using equipment that could keep us safer in the non-tactical environment.

Holy shit dude! That's probably the coolest way to be exterminated. Nicolas Cage at his best.

If your'e old enough to remember this

There was an executive order issued today to initiate the protection of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/protecting-second-amendment-rights/ By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The Second Amendment is an indispensable safeguard of security and liberty. It has preserved the right of the American people to protect ourselves, our families, and our freedoms since the founding of our great Nation. Because it is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans, the right to keep and bear arms must not be infringed. Sec. 2. Plan of Action. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies (agencies) to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens, and present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.

This is the key aspect.

The best song ever written!

I don’t think CRJ has ADS-B IN, so its a moot point. ADS-B is a great tool, but it’s likely nothing beyond a minor CF in this accident. Honestly this one is not hard to figure out that the major fix is don’t do stupid procedures. None of the discussion about NVGs, chick pilots, ADS-B, etc. even matters if you simply stop putting aircraft at the same lat/long with only 100’ of vert separation and your “backup” decon is pilots promising they’re visual on the correct traffic/some controller being directive end game to avert disaster.

I do not concur with your assessment. While the Mode C provides info to ATC, it would not have provided position information to the airliner. Most don;t have the fancy integrated displays I do but most airlines do fly with IPads and ADS-B would have provided some SA of an altitude AND position conflict. NO transponder = radar on metal no altitude Mode A = transponder increases range of radar and sends an identifier Mode C = Altitude encoded in reply. Mode S = ICAO identifier encoded in reply Mode ES / ADS-B = location information encoded so radar no longer required to locate target.

Emphasis on the “Rudder” of the stick and rudder skills. It does teach you a lot. I got my endorsement after a few hrs, but it took some time to feel comfortable with a cross wind landing. Hell, at this point I’d hope the AF sends these poor kids to hot air balloon school just to get them some more hours in the air.

*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".

Most people here are ridiculous. Airmen weren’t even aware the gig line was no longer a thing. Or hair touching the ears. This is just adjusting the books to the culture that always was, nothing more. Secretary Hegseth is spot-on: unity is the message, and that is crystal clear throughout Air Force formations. Agree or disagree, we are moving forward with the right focus and message.