Hacker

I just purchased a Nikon D80 and have been very happy with it. It is my first DSLR, and it was quite a bit more expensive than any P&S camera. BUT, the title of this thread is "aviation photography". You're never going to really enter into that sport with a $300 camera.

At every assignment I've had in the fighter community (including one in AETC), there have been phases where singing was okay, and phases when the OG or WG/CC felt like he needed to cut it off. I think it's completely misguided and ignorant to cut off the singing in an attempt to not offend people or be more professional or whatnot. The USAF will spend millions contemplating a new f*cking "heritage uniform", but when it comes to the REAL heritage of fraternity between warrior brothers, the AF only cares if it fits the "warrior monk" image they want.

I'm in the same boat as you are, Rainman. Don't misconstrue my comments to mean that I was somehow against an accusation of pilot error. My point WAS that regardless of who you are or what you have done, shit happens in high performance aviaton. Nobody is immune to that.

That's a great briefing item, but you and I both know that midairs have and continue to happen during formation flying regardless of the skill and experience of the pilots involved. Rules are the rules, true, but without knowing the situation it's impossible to pass such simple judgment. We don't know if the flight controls on the P-51A jammed at just the wrong time...or perhaps there was a wind gust...or any number of other factors outside your implication that it was pure pilot error. Even if it was pure pilot error...what, then? I've seen mid-airs during formation work with highly trained and experienced pilots, too. Howzabout the Thunderbird midair last year or the year before in Chicago where #4's right missile rail came off? Ever seen the movie "Threshold", which shows the 1971 Blue Angels in training at El Centro in F-4s and there's a wingtip bent up because #2 and #3 hit each other? These are just examples that happen to be caught on film... So, you can have all the training rules, training, experience, and detailed briefings you want and things like this can still happen.

One great man lost in the Mustang crash, too. A pretty ugly scene.

Somehow I've been able to suffer through nearly 2,000 hours of military and civilian flying without ever, ever needing to use an E6B in flight. Not even in Tweets.

Anybody got a copy of the article from Stars and Stripes a few days ago that basically said "Metzger is not going on a '18-month leave of absence' -- there is no such thing"

Just looked at the Chapter 3 excerpt....funny...the graphics are EXCATLY like they were in the T-37 and T-38 3-3 back in the day (except with a Yak/CJ instead of a Tweet).

That's great news, actually. I briefly got involved in FAST starting in 2004, and while I liked the overall concept, I did NOT like many aspects of what they taught and how they taught it. I thought their concepts of flight lead and wingman roles, as well as the "flight leadership" of the leads was severely lacking. The worst part was the weird hodge-podge of terms and signals that they used...it was somewhere in the middle of the USAF and USN, and I thought it did nobody any good to execute it that way, ESPECIALLY since there were a lot of ex-Navy and ex-USAF fighter guys that were involved in the FAST program. Sounds like they are moving in the right direction. Maybe when I get back from the UK I'll get back involved again.

I don't recommend LEARNING any kind of formation from the FAST warbird guys. FAST uses the Navy T-34 manual as the basis for their formation terms, references, and visual signals. They are VERY DIFFERENT than what the AF teaches. You'll confuse yourself more than anything if you try and learn that, especially when you show up to UPT talking about "bearing lines" and the like. More importantly, HOW you fly formation in a big piston radial (like the T-28) is VERY different than you will do it in a turbine aircraft. Go do it for fun -- because flying formation in a T-28 is kickass -- but don't do it expecting to get a leg up on your UPT classmates.

Before you guys start going all "SNAPs invented Lieutenants not saluting each other", I'll pass along that my father, who was a USAF pilot during the Korean War, told me about the "Rank among Lieutenants..." bit when I was just a little kid. So, I guess you'll have to consider a Korean-era B-29 pilot a SNAP, because that "tradition" of Lts not saluting each other has apparently been around the USAF since about 1955.

The F-15E that I bought from squadrontoys a while ago totally sucks. I have an Asian Imports T-38 that I like significantly better.

Not much more to say, but "throw a nickel on the grass, save a fighter pilot's ass." THE quintessential USAF fighter pilot, as far as I'm concerned, and a great loss to the fighter community.

If this is the case, then you need to talk with them about more than just the ADSC...

People who mis-use apostrophes are equally as dangerous.

You're not the only one frustrated. All I can do is pay my AOPA membership and hope that all of the varied aviation lobbies squash the user fee idea as it is currently fielded. I feel the pain that airspace is slowly being constricted around GA, however so long as there are not user fees to go through controlled airspace, it's really not that big of a deal to use the US Airspace System.

I don't know where you got the idea that you were being demonized. I certainly don't think that. You were involved in something that was new to you, and were asking for opinions and information, which I think is highly commendable. I was trying to provide a perspective. You're damn right I've made mistakes and done dumb things in airplanes -- never claimed I have not. Forgotten where I came from? Certainly not. I am an active GA pilot (or I was, at least, before I PCSd to the UK recently) so I know that there are two sides to the story. I am actually irritated that there often is a military-vs-GA debate, because we're all pilots and we are all striving for essentially the same goal.

I never suggested any of those things. I was providing some perspective from someone who has also worked my way through college and paid for flying lessons and ratings AND uses MOAs for military training. No, you probably didn't sh*t away their whole day of training. When I flew T-38s, a GA aircraft flying through the MOA could cause a loss of about 30% of the day's training, which is significant.

Actually, it's probably quite the opposite. They probably did NOT see you coming, and had to turn their attention away from whatever work they were doing to avoid you. Yes, it's legal to fly through a hot MOA...it's just not smart. It's also pretty rude to the guys trying to conduct training (on the extremely limited flying hours they have) in that MOA. What about it rude to you, as someone who is just trying to exercise his priveleges as a GA pilot? Yup, it is a little rude. And it may cost you a little from your pocketbook to avoid the MOA.

Fuseplug, have you ever actually been in a military aircraft conducting training in a MOA? I was a GA pilot for many years before I started flying for the AF. I'm completely aware of what "right" a GA aircraft has to fly through an active MOA. I'd NEVER do it (an extra $50 in fuel? Gimme a f*cking break, waah, cry me a river) because I know how having an un-briefed aircraft in a MOA sh*ts on the training you can get. Wanna talk about a waste? When your jet burns $10K of fuel per hour and you can't use it to get any worthwhile training because some GA pilot doesn't want to take the long way around or under a MOA.

Trust me, Rainman, if they'd let us throw rockets on the two "unused" wing pylons on the F-15E (1 and 9 for the technically inclined), I'd be ALL for it.

With the F-15E's upcanted gun and the limited effective range of the 20mm, strafe is one of the riskier attacks that the airplane can do. It is exactly the opposite of the A-10, where it is the easiest weapon to use in any situation. It's not something that I would use in a threat environment just to MARK a target. To kill something...sure, gladly, any day. But, if I'm not sure where the target is before the pass, I'm sure as f*ck not going to stick my nose downhill and try and ID it through the pipper while I'm screaming at the dirt at 480 KCAS.

You actually completely missed the sarcasm of my post -- JTACs sometimes make some really retarded weaponeering requests. Marking the target with the gun is a really stupid idea (I know it's not a big deal in the Hog, but a strafe is a relatively high-performance maneuver for an F-15E) as is hitting a mover with a GPS-guided weapon.

Superb post, Rainman. I'm at Bagram right now sitting CAS Alert, and your words could not ring more true. Thanks...

Weaponeering doesn't really make a difference when the JTAC knows exactly what kind of weapon he wants and when he wants it. Like when he'd like me to "mark the target with 20mm" or hit a moving truck with a GBU-39.