Tonka

Quoting for posterity.

I know this was 2 years ago… but I thought they (FAA) since removed the need for, at least some of, the re-evaluations (psych, neuro, ??) have any experience with that? And they’ve added Wellbutrin to the list. Still requires a 6 month trial I believe.

Quasi-retort from AOPA https://pilot-protection-services.aopa.org/news/2023/march/01/va-benefit-update TL/DR They also link to their own article on how/when/why to preemptively self report/amend (& don’t just wait until your next AME visit). I do agree with the assessment that this is somewhat discriminatorily focused against veterans, because they are an “easy” cross reference check… a fair solution would be to also cross reference non-veteran medical records… but an eventuality might mean no more self reporting and PCM records reviewed during AME visit… which could actually exacerbate the problem - instead of being treated and hiding the fact of that treatment, pilots wont even seek professionals help.

Glad he got out of there! 0/0 test point good... LM says or "understands" he is ok:https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2022/12/15/pilot-ejects-from-f-35-military-jet-makes-crash-landing-in-fort-worth/ “We are aware of the F-35B crash on the shared runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth and understand that the pilot ejected successfully,” Lockheed Martin said

How about a SE ATP? if we already have the Multi ATP/commercial/MEI/CFII? just trying to figure out the best way to get the SE CFI... thanks!

https://www.irahelp.com/slottreport/pro-rata-rule-explained-–-you-are-not-getting-double-taxed#:~:text=The pro-rata rule dictates,tax-free and taxable funds. One of the Gotchas - pro rata rule, basically you pay tax on a % of that conversion that is commensurate with your current IRA pre-tax to after-tx ratio (don't think of this as ROTH to traditional ratio, but all within ALL of your deductible IRAs). This includes traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE... most likely all the $ you have in those are pre-tax $ and the $ you are converting from the traditional to the ROTH is after-tax. So if you have a lot in those accounts, you are going to pay tax on almost all of that conversion... crazy.

Good video... I'll just give a bottom line for the younger guys (because this is something I had no awareness of - and one day you might be surprised)... there is an Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) limit to investing in the ROTH IRA, if you are over that limit and still invest in a ROTH IRA you are penalized (6%?) yearly until you do something "legal" with those contributions... if you realize you invested too much, you have until the tax filing dead line to "recharacterize" the ROTH contributions into a traditional (or something else? not sure) ... and currently (2022) it is now legal to the convert the traditional to a ROTH (crazy I know!) The recharacterization is though it happened in the original year (2021) and the conversion happens in the current year (2022)... There are a lot of caveats and gotchas (so do the research) and most likely this loop hole is going to be fixed this year.

Nice, at least in that article they specifically say “traditional” and not mention sep or simple iras… so I’m thinking I’ll be in the clear. Also wonder if I should just go ahead and start contributing to the Roth again this year and do the same thing next year.

So to pull this onion back some... I need some help. Bad on me, but I didn't realize I would be over the ROTH contribution AGI limit this year, so 1) I believe my only option is to recharacterize those contributions to a newly opened traditional IRA, correct? 2) am I then able to reduce my tax burden on those contributions, since they are now traditional? I do not have another traditional IRA, but I a SEP IRA through my employer, TSP, and my wife has a simple IRA... do I have to worry about the pro-rata bs? 3) can I then at some point in the future, convert the traditional back to a roth ala the backdoor method above? Yes, I probably need an accountant, but I want to learn something before I do...

I concur... only slightly burdensome with the FAA (find a good AME and they'll handle the yearly paperwork for you)... For those of you on AD, it WAS an automatic MEB (~3/4 years ago?), but it was transparent to me (no one even told me I was meeting a MEB) as it was also pretty much an automatic waiver. Got out before I found out about yearly requirements with the AD folks... The full size cpap machine splits in half (you lose the water reservoir) and it makes it slightly less cumbersome for overnights, but also a bit more noisy... so don't have to purchase an additional one.

Anyone with new updates? Id like to finally step into the 21st century and get a digital logbook that makes it easy for cfi/cfiis to sign off flights. Is there one where they just sign/swipe their finger on the ipad after the flight and/or click on an emailed link somehow? Seems a lot of people are using myflightbook... anyone use it/have insight? & before someone suggests it im not using foreflight (i know, gasp!) -fltplango instead. I guess most importantly when these logbooks go obsolete, is there a easy way to move them to a new program/database?

more to the story: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2021/10/13/pilot-lost-control-of-wobbling-f-22-that-spiraled-to-the-ground-in-secretive-crash-last-year/?fbclid=IwAR3ryavGKSgGPKJBG45rPLskGm-lUxnR-7BsSDAfuVUQycEf6683Y-3k7IM After more than a year of silence on the mishap, the Air Force said in August the jet crashed because of a “maintenance error made after the aircraft was washed” that “impacted control inputs transmitted to the aircraft.” The service did not elaborate on that error; the investigation documents do not include interviews with maintainers or other clear evidence of a cause.

Afrl led study, shows increased rates for fighter aviators.. more to come https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/10/cancers-strike-us-fighter-pilots-crews-higher-rates-air-force-finds/186324/ Compared to their non-fighter peers, the study found, fighter pilots and their crew were 29 percent more likely to be diagnosed with testicular cancer; 24 percent more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma; and 23 percent more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. When compared to the general U.S. population, fighter aviators were 13 percent more likely to be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 25 percent more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma, and 19 percent more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The study also found that the fighter aviators had similar rates of other types of cancer, such as brain cancer, compared to non-flying Air Force officers. And compared to the general U.S. population, they had lower rates in several categories, including renal, thyroid, and urinary cancer.

Flying through 2 tunnels…

Learning to fly their “new” C-130

Depends on the severity of it, it’s effects on mobility, and harm if re-injured down the road… also depends on aviation personnel numbers at the time (do we have too many or not enough). For initial physicals, less likely to be approved as they haven’t spent any $ on you yet. But, always apply if it is what you want to do! There is risk everywhere, your dreams/goals are the priorities. You should first ask yourself if you could live with a further debilitating condition if you do injure it - is it worth it to you?

Depends on the airframe to some extent, and wether you’ll be able to egress it without issue and then if you can do your primary job… if it is an initial FC it will be more extensively evaluated, if you are 15 years in -less so, as bodies breaking down is to be expected and you are already a sunk cost.

I would talk with a local VSO, they are free to chat with and usually have a lot of good advice - YMMV. Also, you’ll need to walk a thin line here, if you go in with the attitude, “LOL, none of this is true” they may go after you for fraud… and want you to pay back your disability payments. Even if you didn’t lie anywhere/time, you saw there were errors and didn’t say something earlier. I would instead go in with the attitude that “I’ve really improved”, which is more plausible and even expected, which is the reason the VA does periodic re-evals…

Haven’t seen or heard of it… thankfully most of our jobs require extensive training/currency that we spoil pretty quickly, so I’d imagine the fit would have to hit the shan for those games to start… possible, sure, probable guess not.

I think you missed the title of this thread… 8-)

Yeah, i might be in an older social media group as i havent seen that side, at least not to those extremes... probably just some very different views- someone striving so hard for so long only to have to give up when the goal is in sight versus someone that never gives more than the minimum and expects the same glories and successes... 2 very different things. There definitely needs to be a motivation for success otherwise we become socialistic...

No need to celebrate it… but should that guy be ostracized and labelled a quitter? I bet you have 6-9 peers, friends, associates that have quit something like a marathon, triathlon, etc. do you hold them to the same standard and call them out? The difference being the level of competition and the perceived entertainment value they provide… you’re gonna be done with this conversation in a week, they have to live with it the rest of their lives. there is reason to believe, that the fallout of failure/quitting and it’s media (including social) representation of it are leading to not a cult/cultural of “losers” but to a culture of “never gonna try it” because everyone has to live with that response if/when they get to the point of quitting… which is probably worse for our society in the long run.

Peel that onion a bit and think about possible effects of it, and then look at the statistics of nfl retirees (admittedly probably the worst sport for athletes) https://www.alligator.org/article/2020/04/football-may-be-gone-but-the-pain-remains-for-nfl-retirees?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest “The UF study interviewed 90 former NFL athletes….A third of the participants were found to have moderate to severe signs of depression…more than 90 percent of retired NFL players report pain due to muscle overuse, muscular-skeletal injuries and head trauma that have accumulated over years of playing football” plus, well all the concussions. It at least points to some correlation between, “never quit” and a pretty rough life for those guys after… they’re not quite gladiators in a colosseum, but I think there is plenty of psychological and maybe physiological influence into driving these folks into terrible lives almost completely for our entertainment/their glory… you are entertained for a few hours periodically over the years, they live with the aftermath. I love me some football, and I love watching it to see great moments and even to see sacrifices… but man, if Pat Mahomes wants to quit, so be it. We all quit, we all played a sport and eventually realized: I’m not having fun, I suck, or I’m really going to hurt myself… does it matter where that decision occurs? So what, some other person got screwed and couldn’t compete, shit happens, how hard should we drive them? We have a million+ post thread about how the af sucks and doesn’t take care of people and why everyone is/wants to quit and go to the airlines… how many shiny pennies got the DP then quit… most of us are not facing near the mental and physical abuse these athletes are, but yet we quit… different, yes, but in many ways the same. when the military periodically requires us to “never quit” we are given medals/parades for it because lives are saved and bad guys die. Meh, for an athlete out their for either their own accomplishments or my entertainment… their body, their choice. If they know the risks and they still want some shiny thing to look at to prove they were great, a ticker tape parade on a Cadillac -awesome… if not, I’ll do something else and find entertainment. You see it as coddling, I see it as a natural process that everyone eventually reaches a limit and has to quit. Mental health is a fvking problem, and one cause is because people don’t have a path to quit whatever it is they are doing… if Mahomes quits and the media roasts him for it, there is 100 guys that will push themselves well beyond their capacity, because they don’t want to be labeled a quitter.

Just bought one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071HMQY19/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and used it for a long cross country through the recent thunderstorm swath across the NE, paired it with the Ipad mini (a 5 I believe) and Fight plan go (free from garmin). Worked very well, can build it cheaper than they sell it, but I needed it and wasn't sure of the learning curve... came with a battery and it turns on by plugging the battery into the unit which I don't necessarily love, but don't have a good alternative to yet. I then plug the battery into ships 5v usb supply, seems to work fine. If only the damn Ipad didn't overheat in the sun... AHRS looks accurate, have to calibrate it for the installation location on the aircraft, but might come in handy one day. ADS-B + Weather is simply awesome, amazing how far we've come!

Branson is an astronaut https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/virgin-galactic-space-launch-richard-branson-spaceport-america-new-mexico