Clark Griswold

Article on seaplanes being discussed and potentially considered, not sure if this is the new light attack platform being "considered" but enjoy: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40694/amphibious-mc-130j-transport-is-on-special-operations-commands-wishlist Ok, would this really be useful or just damn cool or both? Expeditionary logistics to remote islands or ships at sea, long range maritime CSAR, ISR, Patrol & Attack, probe and drogue AR (helos), etc...

https://avherald.com/h?article=4e74b6e5 That’ll buff out Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the subject of dollar devaluation.... thinking some on this and I don't think we (the USA) can devalue our currency as we are currently doing via money printing and I've come to the conclusion it erodes moral credit, moral standing, our own morality. I thought about it this way, if a friend borrows your car and returns it in the same condition it left, with a full tank of gas and basically clean, you have a good friend who is trust / credit worthy. If you loan your car to that friend and he returns it dirty, low on gas and with a few new scratches and dings, you don't have a trust worthy / credit worthy friend, you are associated with a user who took advantage of you. I realize that international flows of trillions of dollars, yen, pounds, etc... are complex but fundamentally when we borrow money from others and we pay them back in less worthy dollars via consciously devaluing it, it is an immoral act. Morality at its most basic level being the control of one's personal appetites and extendable to countries / nations. Other countries devalue their currencies and stave off the wolf until the next crisis but we are supposed to be different, why we are the leaders (for now of the some what free world). Just my thoughts, worth what you paid for them but to stir the pot. This position would involve some discipline / sacrifice but worth it in my estimation.

Then.... As @texancrier said 2.5 still has plenty of flying in it so that's good. Real flight time is invaluable, you just have to have a certain amount to be trusted at the controls or have authority in certain fields. As you said, sim time can be as expensive as flight time and then you're still in the same boat. For me it, if the AF wasn't so reactionary and was more strategic at an enterprise level it would pose to the mid and senior level members of the heavy rated community an opportunity for feedback and shaping of the process if there was/is to be a major revision to Heavy / Crew Track Phase 3. What is it you (AMC, AFSOC, ACC, etc...) want in your Aircrew (not just but mainly pilots) graduating from the last, advanced phase of their training before earning their Aeronautical Rating? If I were asked that and naively believed my feedback had a prayer of making past the spam filter on the email address I sent it to, I would answer thusly: 1. Initial ME experience. 2. A moderate amount of cross-country, strange field experience in multi-day trips managing and planning missions, logistics, details, etc... initial training and experience to lay the foundation to build a competent and trainable co-pilot in their initial assignment developing soon into a competent, experienced, common sense driven aircraft commander 3. Initial experience and training in the mission sets of Air Mobility and ISR/C2 platforms. The latter would require new resources and training events in SUPT but just my suggestion.. 4. Experience in a training system(s) that has multiple levels of automation; adequate communications, navigation and mission management systems to train a student in prioritization of tasks, general and procedural knowledge and use of systems with other crew members in coordinated and regular ways to safely and effectively accomplish the mission. 4a. Experience in challenging maneuvers, approaches and landings in ME aircraft to both train and evaluate aviation skill and aptitude. 5. A syllabus that is challenging and robust, requiring an individual with above average intelligence, skill and character to successfully complete. No swipe at those who did not or will not graduate but there must be a high enough bar to clear that this portion of the LAF is composed of strong swimmers only. I think we have that now and that is what I think I went thru back in the 00's but I fear the AF is looking at the civilian world and rationalizing itself into a training idea that will likely not save that much money and deliver a product it may not be happy with, requiring an even more expensive after the fact fix. I know but it won't even pay for the next set of software patches and spare parts required for an FY for either of those...

Yeah, I should have suggested those two smaller models Those would be fine and better sized Shooting the moon I would want a PC-24 The main thing is to not phone it in with Phase 3 no matter the track Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But why do the heavy / crew tracked studs have to get a cheap (in airplane terms) if the Tone is getting near the end of its service life (via divestment or need for an unacceptable refurbishment)? Kinda of a rhetorical question as I know what the Bobs are thinking but to hell with that, heavy GOs just rolling over and letting this part of the rated community get screwed over (assuming an eventual T-1 divestment with no replacement or with one that is less than the T-1) is infuriating bullshit If you want quality then you have to select for it and train for it. Anyway. Contact out initial ME training to get the bounces in someone else’s iron, next train in a STOL fixed gear ME platform for short and unprepared fields then move to a jet for the meat & potatoes. Refurbished and modernized T-1 or a new jet, if a new jet then I would suggest a Cessna CJ4. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Road Warrior Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup An equities market with fake / free / devaluated money = a ponzi scheme.

Block 70 F-106 concept and fan fiction backstory https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal16/15101-16200/gal15112-F-106-S/01.jpg https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal16/15101-16200/gal15112-F-106-S/00.shtm Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Will do, good point (taxes on interest) As to RE and equities, you may be right but as I just sold my investment property (probably moving so I wanted to start to roll up my footprint) and now have the equity in cash to think about protecting/growing Equities, nervous about a correction, everything seems overvalued I’m not pessimistic, but it seems like the late 70s again with potentially stagflation Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Inflation fighting.... I’m considering shifting some cash to TIPS to hedge my bets and preserve cash principal Any other recommendations? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's why it won't work it. But seriously to your point if they are smart / use the money strategically then it might be beneficial but I would argue only in the short term. Essentially we are nationalizing the personal debt and obligations of those who use the money to meet their immediate needs. It would be better to tax the upper echelons of our society versus indebting all to fund increased welfare state benefits. I make no argument for that just that if we have decided thru the election of politicians who support that and will enact those policies, we pay for it rather than borrow for it. The 6.4 trillion dollar question then who is the upper echelons? No perfect answer but if you make north of 7 figures and particularly if you make it via passive income (capital growth, interests, dividends, etc...) you are the right person to tax. We have it backwards in this country, we should tax passive income at a higher but not oppressively high rate versus active income. You're right, we may be at that tipping point: Schultz was concerned and commented on this just before his death https://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-excessive-government-spending-must-stop-11614099270 And an excellent conversation between VDH and Jon Anderson (former Aussie Dep PM) that touches on this subject, national financial irresponsibility https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Fvbgm5KVA Around the 8:30 mark they discuss this and specifically how this has been a telltale sign throughout history that a society or civilization was in peril thru money printing / currency devaluation. Desperately trying to maintain an inherited lifestyle but unwilling to work, fight, sacrifice, prioritize, share, etc... to actually afford it.

No doubt at 81k lbs of thrust per motor if the pylons could take that. With that it would have another 25k lbs of thrust to deliver freedom with no telling how much lower fuel burn. Avgeek page on re-engine stuff on ye old BUFF: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/usaf-materiel-command-history-office-releases-graphics-of-historical-efforts-to-re-engine-the-b-52-strategic-bomber/

BUFF with 787 engines

Just adding this to the thread for more context with the difference of opinions aired on the Tornado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Hs0Jm1ACY Good listen if you've got an hour.

More build up of Russian forces, more fighting with separatists in the Donbass region. https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/04/07/russia-continues-massing-military-hardware-ukrainian-border/

Goodbye US led world order then, hello whatever comes next. I dislike free riding allies who talk us down and are ungrateful (at least publicly) but I doubt the world order that comes in the wake of Pax Americana is one we would be ok with. Unless we are willing to ditch globalization to the max extent possible re-industrializing our economy, eschewing owing debt to unfriendly countries, severely limiting migration/engagement (foreign residents, students, etc...) for some period of time (likely 20 years) for economic and security reasons and only carefully choosing any further foreign entanglements or military engagements... the future where we let vulnerable nations at the periphery of our sphere of influence meet whatever fate they meet is not one I would want. I'm ok with doing all of the above and becoming far more removed from the fray, I just think the consensus required to actually do that and create a far more independent and resilient Fortress America is not there, too many elites in America are invested in Global America vs. Fortress America so it's just not realistic IMHO. What to do if the winds of war with Russia blow over Ukraine? * Lethal aid, cyber, financial and SOF / PMC as COA 1. * Lethal aid, cyber, financial and Conventional Military Deployment to Western Ukraine (west of the Dnieper) at the public request of the sovereign, independent government of Ukraine as COA 2. - Deployed forces would be US + partners willing to immediately go (thinking UK, Australia, Poland, Baltics, Romania, etc...) - Size TBD but go big or don't go, 8 BCTs plus deployment of 3 CAF wings from the states. - Plan on this mission becoming a new Korea, long term / permanent deterrence presence. * Lethal aid, cyber, financial and Conventional Military Deployment to Western Ukraine (west of the Dnieper) at the public request of the sovereign, independent government of Ukraine as COA 3 but under NATO with the immediate incorporation of Ukraine as a NATO partner, status of the Crimea accepted as is now with no action nor recognition as Russian Federation territory. All other caveats remain for this COA but drawing on the Europeans for about 75% of the deployed forces. Info on Ukraine and population / language / cultural / political composition: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/could-partition-solve-ukraines-problems/ https://www.polgeonow.com/2014/03/ukraine-divisions-election-language.html Haven't read these but this what the Googler came back with: https://fivebooks.com/best-books/ukraine-marci-shore/

Yup, if yours truly were king for a day and still had to live in the realm of finite resources I would fix the Heavy Track Phase 3 problem thusly: Outsource to All ATPs or another contractor a ME program to get 25 hours of ME training. Get the bounces in the contractor's aircrafts and some more experience for Stanley. Return to your home base for T-1 training in a refurbished Nextant 400Ti. As you did your ME training and have your Instruments done in already in T-6s, you would have a short Instrument / Qual phase (no phase check) and fly this updated T-1 with avionics to get experience in datalink, BLOS voice, autopilot/autothrottles, FMS, mobility mission planning & execution, etc... Would not beat to shit this trainer in pointless and repetitive ground checks, bounce after bounce after bounce, but as what it should be, an introduction to flying crew aircraft with mission and flight management systems that must be set, monitored and used correctly to get a mobility/recon msn done Now back to reality...

This. Not saying that having a different trainer for studs tracking to the heavy / crew track is better but having a real advanced trainer for them is a must. Never flew the T-6 but if back in the day if they had just given the deplorables an extended T-37 course vs another more complex trainer it would not have been the same. Having to quickly learn another aircraft, more complex systems and get more cross country, simulated mobility missions and planning was good. Not perfect but worthwhile training, my opinion only. Everything is worth what you paid for it, min run training / go cheap and don't be surprised with what happens.

Notice the operative verb used over and over was feel, I felt this I felt that. He had no specific instances of racial discrimination, intimidation or reprisal to cite. He referenced his feedback received at different moments in his career and his interpretation of them as more evidence than the AF and the people in it in his community were aligned mostly against him based on his race, but he moved up. If the institution / some of the people in it are so bad/racist/unfair, how the hell did he get where he is in the AF? When you look around you think everyone or most are X derogatory thing, maybe you are the problem and not the institution / people in it... IDK, more context is necessary here but at first blanch he seems like a high performing type A who made it into a community of other high performing type A's and like every operational community, it has only so many upper level slots / prestigious vertical upward paths, not all will make it thru their filters. Like him, I have zero evidence to reference beyond my hunch but 40 something years of life and 20 years in the AF lend me to this suspicion.

As to a return to the OPs original question on going back to UPT vs SUPT, UPT would be IMO better for the AF overall and would make a less bifurcated and cohesive Rated cadre If SUPT were not already atrophied and going to get worse I would at least keep it versus SUPT 2 point whatever where everyone not tracking fighters gets fornicated with a rusty pipe An idea, why not contract out Phase 3 completely like IFT with AF evaluating the final product? Pay for it thru O&M and only rent not buy. Figure $100k per stud to a contractor for 75 flight hours and 15 simulator hours, classroom instruction 75 million plus costs for TDY but just WAGing it at a per FY thru put of 750 studs, it would probably be around 95 million or so for every thing. Less than fixing these T-1s and dudes get real flying and the money could be found eliminating that which is not actually necessary https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39945/the-air-force-spent-134m-to-repair-39-hail-damaged-t-1-jet-trainers-its-about-to-retire Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s weekend Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just high on life at the moment Gimme the Shat anytime to make it swanky One more to nerd out on: Remember drunkenness is required to really appreciate these fine selections Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk