JeremiahWeed

Yup - she was OTR.

On most of these forums, a "troll" is someone posting to create controversy or stir the pot. Not my intent. I profess a non-mainstream point of view and throw in a little sarcasm for fun and the easy route is to throw a label at me. You want differing opinions and frank discussion here or do we need to tow the line? My delivery could have used some improvement, I'll admit. I was having a pretty shitty day. Enough excuses. I apologize for my "trollness".

Yes, Austrian....... as in from Austria. East of Switzerland, South of Germany, got some big mountains, Sound of Music, anything ringing a bell here...Mate?

I didn't have much to say about Chuck back then, since my father was only 6 when Chuck hit Mach 1. I'm pretty sure even I would have been able to recognize the amazing feats he accomplished. Great - and we all know nothing "unpussifies" America like an Austrian base jumper risking it all while being sponsored by an Austrian energy drink company. All joking aside, I'll take a look at the link you posted. Maybe I'll change my mind.

Yeah, I know - pretty heartless. I've got zero sympathy for these thrill seeking idiots who produce nothing other than some self promotion. Joseph Kittinger was a true pioneer 52+ years ago. Since his jumps astronauts have been to the moon, space walked multiple times and pretty much done anything else you might need to do in a full pressure suit. It's all been done and the state of the art equipment Felix is using has been proven over a half-century. This guy deserves about as much recognition as the airline pilots who flew the same route as Lindbergh yesterday from NY to France. Just having a little fun, lighten up. I'm just using the information Felix and his bunch posted on his website. By all means, enlighten us with your "inferences".

Yawn........ If they finally do it, I hope the video is better than the ones from their test jumps. As I peruse the website, I laughed when I noticed they say he will "attempt to break the sound barrier" in free fall. It's not like he's got much influence on that. What's he going to do, kick his legs really hard just to be sure? I'd be more impressed if he could avoid going super, actually. They're claiming that this is helping to develop the next generation of space suits. I'm a little fuzzy on why you need to parachute from 120 grand to do that. Just another guy with too much time on his hands. If his chute doesn't open, maybe he'll land somewhere close to where Steve Fossett crashed.

Back on the new book subject for a sec........ Just wondering if anyone who has read the book could tell me if the author remembered to mention his inadvertant AIM-9 launch that went through the middle of a 4-ship of Torrejon F-16s. The post mission interaction between those involved was "spirited" to say the least.

Thanks for the perspective Rainman. I can’t say that I disagree with anything you posted. I was holding off on jumping on the “dog-pile” (sts) but I can’t any longer. I will not buy the book but I did skim the stuff available on line. I flew an F-15C on the same 19 Jan Desert Storm mission out of Incirlik AB that 2-dogs describes as he opens his “Elephant” chapter. There was only one daylight strike that day and I remember seeing him in the brief. I may try to find the book in a bookstore someday just to see if his description jives with mine. I was just another 1Lt wingman and we had no interaction that day or on the multiple missions that followed. I doubt if he would even know me. The reason I remembered him that day is because I went to field training at Eglin with him and his act there was difficult to forget. I remember him as the A&M guy who wore his hat weird. It was down so far on his brow I thought he might walk into a tree if he wasn’t careful. It also had the back in a fighter pilot “crunch” but just a little. It wasn’t enough to warrant correction but looking back it was obvious what was going on. Not a pilot candidate at the time, I had no clue that it was intentional or what if meant. The most notable event was during some kind of classroom meeting with a current F-15 1Lt wingman. I’m sure it was designed to get a recently commissioned, new guy perspective on life in the AF as a pilot. 2-dogs asked the guy, “What’s the best thing about being an F-15 pilot”. The Lt gave a pretty lengthy answer about the jet, its mission/capabilities and throws in a goofy line about getting all the girls in the bar. 2-dogs responds with a simple “Good”, as in “Good, that's what I thought and I’ll be joining you soon – I just need to get through the formalities like ROTC, UPT and RTU.” The Lt just shook his head as a few of us rolled our eyes in disbelief. I guess he got his second choice out of UPT. I’m sure we all have moments during our college years and even early in our AF career that show a lack of maturity or perspective. I was going to put these events into that category but it certainly sounds like he hasn’t changed much. It’s too bad, really. Like you said, Rainman, there’s probably a good story here but the overall delivery is truly lacking. Those of us who’ve “been there” during the last 21 years and seen the same war zones aren’t as easily dazzled as the general public. I guess I’ve always subscribed to the quiet confidence theory. The more you try to tell everyone how great you are, the more you sound like you’re trying to convince yourself, IMO. Being a fighter pilot isn’t a blank check to act like an arrogant prick (although there are plenty who choose that option). Let your actions and results speak for you. It sounds like 2-dogs has some of both, too bad he chose this method to put them out there.

I have no dog in this fight. I'm truly curious about your opinion, Rainman. Is it the man, the conflicts/wars (i.e. clubbing baby seals, etc), the book, or all/some of the above? Plenty of Vietnam era pilots who aren't on par with Robin Olds wrote what I consider very good books as their careers wound down. Thud Ridge, Pak Six, My Secret War to name just a few. Was writing those books "douchemanlike" too or do you see this situation differently? Thanks.

What the ____ is anyone doing at a midnight showing of a Batman movie (PG-13) with a 4-year old and an infant. This guy is an idiot on several levels.

This is best related in person so you can try to do it with an Australian accent. The Aussies call the -380 the "Flying V@gina" (pronounced "Floying Vagoyna" in Australian).......... Not much to look at but quite nice once you're inside.

Standard fighter pilot answer – it depends…. Fedex has regular direct flights between ANC and MEM, IND, EWR, OAK and SEA. So, if you can get yourself to one of those airports fairly easily, it’s pretty painless getting there/back. The best scenario would be if you could drive to one of these airports. The next option would be taking a Fedex flight from your home airport to one of these locations and connecting. These flights normally depart around 0300L and arrive around 0700-0800L in ANC. Having some regular pax carriers as occasional backups can help too. Alaska Airlines flies year round to ANC non-stop from ORD, DEN, LAX, PDT and SEA. They also have a number of connections from points further east through these cities. We get a good discount on them through our corporate travel department, so if you have to buy an occasional ticket it’s usually $400 or less for one-way, first class. If you have extra $$ in your travel bank, you can get Fedex to cover the ticket. Most of the other pax carriers provide seasonal summer service from around Jun-Sep. Some may go year round but I’m not sure. Generally speaking, unless you’re coming out of someplace close like SEA, you’re not going to want to make the commute more than twice a month. Once you get some seniority (or you’re just lucky w/ trip trading), you can get trips that start or end (or both) with deadheads to another city. I usually only go up once a month and fly one big trip (or series of trips) unless I have trips with deadheads. I’m at about the 60% point for seniority in ANC and things are very manageable for me. I was able to make it work even when I was at 90% and stuck on reserve. Even as a junior guy there, the options to massage your schedule are pretty good. If you’re on reserve, there are many reserve schedules with one big block of work days and more with two blocks. Typical trips from ANC are to Asia with a small number to the lower 48 and back or occasionally on to Europe. The best commuting scenario (other than deadheads) would be a late afternoon/evening departure. You could arrive on the jumpseat that morning, go to the hotel for 6-8 hours and show for your trip that same day. Worst case is a morning departure. You’ll be arriving in ANC the day before and have about 24 hours until your show time (not a bad thing in the summer if you like to fish or hike). Most trips return to ANC around noon local time. The flights to the lower 48 you’ll want to jumpseat on leave around 1500L. So, you hang for a few hours and then start making your way home. The nice thing about jumpseating to ANC is that the bunks on 777 and MD-11s are unused on those flights. You can jump in the rack and get some decent sleep going in either direction. Worst case, the MD-11 has no bunk and you’re sleeping on a floor mat. That’s still way better than any first class seat on a pax carrier and the food is better. Eventually, when you can hold a decent schedule, you don’t even need a crash pad. Hotels have cheap crew rates and 2-3 nights per month (I usually buy one night unless it’s a training month) are still cheaper than most crash pads. The hotels provide transpo to the airport so you don’t have to manage a car up there. You can imagine that hassle that comes with leaving a car parked in ANC for a week or two unused while you’re on days off. Overall, my commuting expenses are far less in ANC than they were when I commuted to MEM. Being a new hire commuting to ANC won’t be pain free. Unless things totally stagnate, I think the pain would be manageable and reasonably short. Going to MEM as a new-hire with ANC as a follow-on after you’ve been here a few years is another option. If your family situation isn’t conducive to you being gone for 1-2 weeks each time you leave, then commuting to ANC probably isn’t for you. Maybe more info than you were looking for but hopefully it helps. JW

Copy. Thanks. Maybe the info will be useful to someone else.

Scoobs, There is a lot of this type of flying at Fedex. I was concerned about how I would deal with it when I got hired. I always thought nights were an EP in the Eagle and I had flown red-eyes from the west coast to points east while employed with UAL and thought they blew. I was surprised to find that when I was based in MEM (and couldn't hold international flying), I actually preferred nights over the types of day flying available domestically. I can give you more details if you'd like but the bottom line is, I found it reasonably easy to sleep during the day (in a hotel). The duty days ("nights") are generally shorter and easier than typical days with a pax carrier. I'm now based in ANC flying almost 100% international, so things are different but generally easier than the night flying I did domestically (so it can get better quickly if you can get to a place like ANC-we have new hires going there now). I commute there from the midwest US and my pay hours are higher with more days off than when I was based in MEM. As far as the ANC guy who never "hub turns", I think he may be forgetting that many of our trips here have 2 legs (day or night) through stations in Asia. Most guys would call that hub-turning (even if the station you fly through is not an official hub like MEM). i.e. Take off from HKG at 2000L, fly to TPE, gas/load/go, fly to KIX (arriving around 0500L) and go to the hotel. If he's never done anything like that, it's probably because he's just been lucky - not because that type of thing is rare in ANC ('cuz it ain't). Bottom line - Don't let the night stuff keep you from applying (if you're interested). The back side flying isn't really as bad as I had heard (IMO). If you find it is, there are ways to avoid it until you get senior. Overall, I'd take a Fedex schedule over any pax schedule I had. Cheers, JW

How about a LOX retrofit on a few jets. Go back to something proven - see if things improve. Whatever it would cost seems like it couldn't be more than losing another bro and jet.