Smokin

Careful with all this backdoor talk or the eagle drivers will take over this thread...

That's scary accurate...

I would not. Assuming that hiring continues along the current trend and you're going to a legacy passenger airline, you won't be forced to sit reserve very long. Commuting to the worst line is usually better than commuting to reserve. Once you get a line, you'll have a decent chance of either commuting in or home, so your nights in domicile on your own dime could realistically be under 6 within a reasonable amount of time and possibly down to zero within a year. I just stayed in a hotel when I commuted to reserve (roughly 5 months back in 2019) and only spent maybe $100-200 more a month than most my buddies that had crashpads. For that price, it's worth it to me to have my own room, a shuttle on demand, and every 4-5 days paid earns enough points for a free night. Also opens up the opportunity to pick up cross town trips for a bit extra pay and just commute straight into the cross town airport.

How so? Military pilots go through a rigorous flight school and experience a wider variety of problems to solve before being ready to be hired by a major than most civilian path pilots. While most require some adjustment to the 121 world, very few former military pilots I know (including single seat fighters) have had any issue in training or on the line. This is the opposite of a DEI hire; hiring an individual that you know to be highly experienced, well trained, disciplined, and more potential than your company needs and with potentially no more training required than any other new hire.

Increasing the diversity of the hiring pool is very different than increasing the diversity of those hired. The pure civilian path to an airline pilot has traditionally been an expensive ordeal. Loans were likely not available to inner city kids that had no credit and no one to co-sign the loans. If we are talking about looking at creative ways to get kids that have the right aptitude and attitude, but not the means, into that training pipeline then that increases the pool of applicants. However, that is only a very small part of the discussion right now. United has stated that they want 50% of their new hires to be women or minorities. I think it would be naive to think that is not being considered at some level during the actual hiring process. That serves to reduce the effective size of the hiring pool, which makes it certain that you're going to end up with a less qualified pilot being hired. Finally, the diversity we should be interested in is diversity of thought, not skin color. I have met many people that look very different than me that think in a similar way I do. Hiring them only makes us look diverse. But if you hire a white dude from Texas and a white South African, I guarantee you're going to have more real diversity than hiring two Air Force fighter pilots that happen to be different races. Obviously that's not important because we all know that only appearances matter these days. This is why our superpower days are over.

The other thing to consider is that you generally buy insurance for something that is unlikely but expensive. It is unlikely that my house burns down, but it would be financially crippling if it did and I was uninsured. I know that my family and I are going to need dental work over the course of our lives and the expense is not generally crippling financially for most middle income people. In my mind, the only reason to have dental insurance is if it is significantly subsidized by my employer.

That letter can also come from the MPF if said commander won't write it. Just have it say the day the leave starts and the day the orders end.

Don't kid yourself. He's a figurehead.

APKWS future balloon buster? Maybe make a few with less explosive to get a slower decent rate to examine all the stuff inside. Or even one with a parachute instead of a warhead that deploys when the rocket burns out. Just to punch a couple 2.75" holes in it over land and let the thing slowly descend. Almost no risk to US citizens and we get the balloon intact.

We just spent 1000x as much money shooting down the balloon as China spent launching it. If I were them, I'd launch 20 next week and just watch us waste missiles, flight hours, etc.

That also assumes the visibility was good enough. Strange that the visibility and weather has not been mentioned in any report I've seen.

I think that you guys are talking past each other. HeloDude is correctly saying that if you currently have a fully assembled AR pistol that was legal a week ago, it is now technically illegal even though the ATF is giving a grace period to register it. Pretty much everyone else is saying more or less that either it is not realistic for the ATF to know that you have one or if you simply remove the upper, you no longer have an illegal pistol, so then you can request to "build" an SBR out of the parts you legally own. The easiest solution is to put a full sized upper on the lower that was born as a pistol and it'll now identify as a rifle and be completely legal. We really have 3 options: 1. ignore the ruling and potentially become owners of illegal firearm(s) if the courts don't fix it 2. remove the upper, then turn in a form 1 to legally own an SBR, reassemble once stamp is received 3. put a rifle upper on it (16" barrel min for a min 26" overall length) and pretend this whole pistol thing never happened Clearly option 3 puts you on the ATF's radar the least, but is also the least fun. Option 1 is somewhat risky, although I guarantee that many gun owners will knowingly or unknowingly go that route. Option 2 lets the ATF legally have a record of you, although I think we all know they already do.

In no way do I think this is a good deal or benefits me. I'd be much happier having my pistol as a pistol that theoretically the government doesn't know about. However, sometimes when the government changes the rules there are ways that people can take advantage of it in an unintended way. For example, I know individuals that make close to $200K a year as small business owners but have figured out how to legally qualify for subsidized medical insurance under Obamacare. This was clearly not the intent of the law or rule change, but changes can create unintended consequences. Perhaps a free SBR stamp and thus the 'freedom' to put full up stocks and whatever I want on it is one of those consequences. However, I do plan on holding out for the majority of the grace period in hopes a judge puts a stop to the nonsense.

When Congress basically told a bunch of blue collar railroad workers to pound sand and get to work, I can't imagine they'll suddenly take up the cause over for some upper-middle class white collar pilots. It is a little funny that labor unions spend millions of dollars getting Dems elected, only to have the Dems completely ignore the union when push came to shove. I flew with a CA one time that was almost yelling at me that "you have to vote with your wallet", which I found odd since he was telling me to vote for a party that is associated with higher taxes and more spending.

I generally don't believe a conspiracy theory that could otherwise be explained by stupidity and incompetence.

Interesting read. Going to do some more research, but I'm considering the registration route (never thought I'd say that!). As others have said, I know the feds illegally know I have guns. The fed's unwillingness to follow their own laws have been extensively documented. Combine that with google and the credit cards tracking everything and cooperating with the government, I don't stand a chance of not getting a knock on the door if it comes to gun confiscation. All that said, I don't think I'm giving much information away that they don't already have for the chance to do basically whatever I want with a weapon that previously identified as a pistol and now identifies as an SBR. And, if I end up going that route, one more thing to research is when the purchase period cutoff is. As in, can I go buy 3 more pistols next week and then register them as SBRs for free...

On the flip side, they have waived the fee for registering a SBR during the implementation. Chance to modify the pistol into a real SBR for free. But is that worth telling them that I know a guy that has one?

Remember that the Bill of Rights was written entirely by people who had won a revolution only six years ago. Anyone that thinks 'well-regulated' equals ANY type of control by the federal government, is are ignorant of history. Such a militia would have been fighting for the British, not for the Patriots in the American Revolution. Zero chance that this is what the framers had in mind.

Maybe SCOTUS will say enough is enough and hold the lawmakers in contempt. There has to be some recourse to punish those that are passing laws they know will get struck down, but are just doing it to make life miserable for law abiding gun owners in the meantime.

And along the getting rid of the wife theme, here's a new tactic: Get her arrested for catching you cheating. Now he's the "victim", brilliant. https://www.foxnews.com/us/woman-arrested-south-carolina-airport-after-attacking-husband-over-indecent-photos-his-phone-police

I can understand how the mess of cancellations can become a mess quick. What I can't understand is how the airline had so little SA continue to accept checked bags and not have a way to return them. Especially if most of the flights are cancelled, there should be extra bag handlers. I'm sure it is more complicated than that, but it can't be THAT complicated...

Rand Paul would be a bigger FU to the establishment than Trump and far more effective. And would be about the only thing that could get our country back on the right track.

Finally the left is actually correct for once in labeling something as a "phobia". I actually am scared of fat people. Scared that they might sit next to me on an airplane and take up half my seat. Or scared that they will get the window exit row seat and we all burn to death while they try to unhook their seatbelt extender, extract themselves from the seat, only to have them get stuck halfway out the door.

"I can't understand it myself," he said. "It's stupidity. I don't understand it. This is not something that I'm familiar with even in my 33-year career." Either a complete liar or not even remotely connected to the fighter community.

One look at our current military leadership, both on the AD and the guard, show that any attempt to "drain the swamp" was either never attempted or was a complete failure.