jcj

(I am a surgeon at a university medical center in the mid south) It was a Tuesday - we have our major teaching conferences (M & M, grand rounds) on Tuesday mornings. I had a light day planned and was going to do some tough & go's in my airplane that afternoon after work. One of my partners walked in to conference & announced the first crash. After the second crash, we went into disaster preparation mode (cancelled elective surgery, discharged any patients we could, opened up additional emergency beds & broke out disaster reserve supplies). And we watched the TV alot.

Official version from the Navy, as well as mainstream media, is inconsistent with this version on many points. Looks to me like Obama approved the ROE that were needed & then stayed out of the way. If the snipers had accidentally killed the hostage Captain, he would have caught hell for it. "2" on the SEAL's - glad they're on our side.

What a thread! Almost into a 4th page!

Not the flight line, but... So a few years ago one of the original Tuskegee Airmen is at Little Rock for the initiation of the Tuskegee Airmen chapter named after him. Great guy, in his late 70's but still sharp as hell and an absolute hoot (he went to law school after his WW2 service & is a retired judge). The night before I'm at dinner in town with him, his companion (a very nice retired CMSGT) and several other folks. As an official visitor, he's staying in the DV quarters on base. Dinner runs late, and a retired 0-6 fellow WW2 vet in the group and his wife bring him & his companion back out to the base. Well, it's after dark when they arrive and they're doing 100% ID checks. The driver has his retired 0-6 ID The driver's wife has her dependent retired ID The companion has her retired CMSGT ID. Guess who gets jacked up by the sky cops for not having a DOD ID? Apparently it got sorted out pretty quick (before things got stupid) when someone more senior and some sense showed up. He did mention to the Wing King the next day how efficient his sky cops were.

One late night, a DC-3 (I think CAF but might have been some other similar group) was transitioning through LIT airspace going to Texas coming back from an airshow. They were at 8000 so they had been handed off to LIT approach. It was late at night & the airspace wasn't busy so they were chatting with the controller about the aircraft hsitory, etc. DC-3 (older voice) "this particular aircraft has 80,000 hours on the airframe" LIT Approach controller "wow!" A younger voice, apparently also from the DC-3 "yeah, and the guy flying now put half of them on himself"

It's called symptomatic biliary dyskinesia. I've had several women patients with this. They have classic GB symptoms, see a doc and get an ultrasound. The ultrasound is normal, and then their doc starts down the "how's your marriage honey, here's some prozac" pathway. By the time they get to see someone who makes the correct diagnosis, they are pretty pi$$ed. Take the GB out and they're fine.

Normal GB Ejection fraction is > 45%, and usually it's in 70% range. As pointed out, you can have a nonfunctioning gall bladdder with or without stones. Either way, if it causes symptoms it needs to come out. You have a couple of absolute indications for cholecystectomy, and I suspect your symptoms will be gone completely as soon as you're over your surgery. I would not expect GB wall thickening. That indicates acute colecystitis, which you do not have.

I guess I was expecting to see the date of this message to be April 1st

ABMWannabe - I am not a flight surgeon or AME. I am a pilot and a general surgeon (I do gall bladder surgery regularly). Although GERD (reflux) symptoms and gallbladder symptoms overlap as noted by F16PilotMD, what you have posted sounds to me to very likely to be from your gallbladder - the medical term is biliary colic or chronic cholecystitis - and based on what you've written I agree completely with the recomendation for cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal). The fact that you still had symptoms after endoscopy showed healing of the gastritis points strongly to gall bladder disease as the cause of the symptoms. The test results you mentioned also suggest gallbladder trouble rather than reflux. Most surgeons can get the gall blader out with the laparoscope >90% of the time. If you are one of the few that has to have an open operation (usually because the gall bladder is too inflamed to safely remove with a laparoscope) you will have a bigger scar and a slightly longer recovery, but you'll still get over it fine (assuming surgery goes well and no complications - the complication rate with the surgery is very low but not zero). I can't speak about the military side, but in the civilian world you're good to go after complete recovery from successful surgery, laparoscopic or open. I don't know any reason why the military would be different. Gallbladder "polyps" do exist, but usually things that are thought to be gallbladder polyps on ultrasound are actually gallstones. Gallbladder cancer also does occur, but is very rare (I've seen two cases in 11 years of practice as a general surgeon). The gallbladder and it's contents will be completely removed during your surgery. After the surgery, your gallbladder will be carefully checked by a pathologist - including looking at it under a microscope - to be sure there's no cancer. Gallbladder cancer is a big deal but it's so uncommon that I tell my patients not to worry about it - but we check every time to be sure. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is usually an outpatient operation (or overnight stay) and about 2 weeks until you are pretty much back to full speed. If you have to have an open cholecystectomy, expect to be in the hospital 3-4 days and about a month before you are close to completely recovered. These are expected times to get back to "normal" activity. I don't know how long you might be DNIF. good luck

Heritage Hall, a USAF Museum dedicated to USAF (and AAC) enlisted men & women, has a nice section describing kills made by air - air gunners - with credit to the gunner. It's at Gunter and is a great place to visit if you're there and have some free time.

I've been traveling alot lately an have seen lots of army guys in every airport in ACU's traveling. Never any other branch. I've also seen them in ACU's at civilian medical meetings where guys from other branches are at least in short sleeve blues or Khaki's for Navy, if not Class "A"'s and civilians are in coat and tie. Dunno what that's about.

WTFO? Linky

EJECTION HANDLE - PULL(BOTH) Controlled ejection is 2000' AGL. If you can't find a suitable landing surface (i.e. - runway), eject.

172P will have carb heat. Get carb heat on without delay because if there is carb ice, you may still have some hot air to try to clear it. The hot air will go away quickly if the engine is stopped. I was taught to immediately pull carb heat on as you are going to best glide and looking for a landing field. The rest of the checklist can wait until airspeed is established and landing field identified. I like the "L" check above, except I would add more throttle than just past idle. If no restart, you will probably walk away from it if you just maintain aircraft control and land it on the best terrain available. If you can remember, try to open the cabin doors before a forced landing. Won't affect the aerodynamics at all, but will keep the doors from being jammed shut (trapping you inside) if the fuselage is warped in the crash. If at night, turn on landing light just before landing. If you don't like what you see, turn light back off. [ 13. November 2006, 22:43: Message edited by: jcj ]

"This officer has struck rock bottom and he is still digging"

pararescue is an enlisted career field and is exceptionally competetive. CRO is also exceptionally competetive and may (if not most) are prior enlisted PJ's who come back as officers.

Widely interpreted by the troops as "Head Up A$$" - hence the change to the HOOAH! The USMC version is "Oorah" and dates back to at least Korea

Letter of apology by Tom MacRae published in today's Arizona Republic Apology Letter

Flight crew with wing commander as A/C loads up. As he is strapping in, the nav notes that the A/C has his sidearm sitting on the dash. The nav asks "sir, why do you have your weapon out?" A/C says 'I use that to shoot navs who get me lost" nav pulls out his sidearm and sets it on his table. A/C sees this and asks him why he has his weapon out nav: "Sir, with all due respect, I'll know we're lost before you will"

recently retired airline pilot gets checked out in the mighty 172, and is filing a flight plan for a cross country. He gives all the relevant info to the FSS briefer. FSS briefer asks if he can do anything else to help, pilot says: "Yes, I'd like to declare an emergency" Puzzled FSS briefer says: "OK sir, what is the nature of your emergency?" Pilot: "I'm down to one engine, one radio and 40 gallons of fuel"

Usually, no I know mostly about the 180 hp versions. The 1980's models (172P) with the Air Plains 180 hp mod brings the max gross weight up to 2550 lbs. Assuming standard fuel tanks (40 gal usable) and providing there isn't alot of extra "stuff" installed, this means a "full fuel" payload of about 700 lbs. Of course these are approximates, the actual number depends on the actual airframe weight of the individual aircraft, etc. The new ones (172S) have the same 2550 Max Gross Weight but the airframe itself is heavier (supposedly becasue it is sturdier) and it holds more gas (55 gal tanks are standard) so the "full fuel" payload is substantially less. It is easily possible to be overweight with one pilot, two pax and full fuel. The 160 HP versions (both old and new) generally have a 2400 Max Gross Weight, and the new 160 HP 172R has the same weight issues as the new 172S and can easily be overweight with only 2 SOB if the tanks are full. In general although the 172 has 4 seats, it's really a "1 pilot 2 pax" aircraft unless you carry a less-than-full fuel load or the pilot & pax are tiny. Becasue the fuel tanks are in the wings and threfore at approximately the CG, CG change with fuel burn usually isn't a problem in the 172. Although you should always check if you are at the extremes of the loading envelope, in general if you are within CG at takeoff you will still be in CG at landing in the 172 As always, use the specific numbers from the POH from the specific aircraft you are going to fly, as there is some difference in airfarme weights, MGW, etc for different models and different individual airframes. [ 10. December 2004, 20:27: Message edited by: jcj ]

The guy who posted at the top of this forum is indeed a CAP cadet and his post is legit. The troll he is apologizing about has in fact been around several of their boards harassing them. Many of the CAP cadets are pretty sharp kids, especially the ones that make it through the program. Maybe give him a break?